I suppose I should be able to figure this out directly on the AOL site, but I can't, so perhaps you can tell me: how do you take time limitations off of a screename on America Online (AOL)?

I've been getting into Netflix, but am finding that having my wife also log in occasionally and both rate her favorite movies and add new films to our shared queue is really messing up the recommendation system. But the recommendations are one reason we signed up in the first place. Is there some solution?

I've signed up for LinkedIn and had some success getting my colleagues to sign up too, but I'm a bit confused: for most of my links I can see their connections too, but there are a couple of people who obviously have connections but I can't see or browse them. What's that all about and how could I do that if I wanted to keep my connections private?

I signed up for MySpace and Facebook because, well, everyone does here at UT, but I'm not really sure I understand how it all works. Now I just got an email message that "Jerry would like to be added as one of your friends" from MySpace and I still don't really know what it means and what I am supposed to do at this point. What if I don't like Jerry and don't want to connect to him, for example?

This is just deeply troubling: I finally succumbed to the never-ending harassment of my pals and have signed up for a MySpace account, but as soon as I signed in, the system tells me that I have a friend already linked to me named "Tom"? Who the heck is Tom and why is he listed as my friend?

Hey Dave! I have a Sony PSP and was wondering if I buy a wireless base station how do you set it up and are there any programs that i have to install?

Dave, I use Incredimail and was wondering if there's any way I can use both Google Gmail and Incredimail together with two different email addresses?

Hey Mr. Dave. In Burma Yahoo mail cannot be used and the ISP is banning access from their centers. So how can I use my yahoo mail accounts? Plz help......

A friend told me that Amazon.com is going to start offering disk space to customers, just like Xdrive and other companies, but I don't believe her. Can it be true? If so, how does that tie into the Amazon vision of "world's biggest bookstore"?

I'm a big fan of MySpace and all my friends are too, but we really want to be able to talk real-time rather than just send email messages back and forth and post endless bulletins. I know Google has its IM service, Microsoft has one, heck, even Yahoo has an IM service, but what about MySpace? Is there a MySpace Messenger?

I've become increasingly paranoid in the last few years and have long since lost any sense of innocence or even optimism regarding email. I trust noone and am leery of using any Web-based email service, but I have been exploring Google's Gmail service. My question to you: if someone emails me a virus will Gmail even recognize it, or do I just see it as a regular attachment? Also, how does Gmail filter spam out, if at all?

I'm not using Aol, i'm using Aim. How do I delete my AIM screenname from the AIM program and system?

How can I create a "Rule" in Gmail that will forwards any E-mail received to another E-mail account. I went to the filter section However I did not know what to do next. Would appreciate your help

In Gmail what does the following mean in the Inbox:

Dave,me(2)

Where can I change the setting?

I've been using AOL's Instant Messenger for a while, but I really want to create a new AIM screenname. How the $#@$# do I do that??

Partially thanks to your tutorial on getting started with linkedin I've become somewhat of a convert. What bugs me, though, is that people who aren't part of my extended network can't see my profile. Surely there's some slick way to do this?

One thing I find really irritating about Gmail is that once you have used an email address (as recipient for your message), this address is stored forever, in some place where you cannot access it. I.e., it does not show up in your contacs. But whenever I start typing an email address as recipient, this list with addresses I once used keeps being showed. I want rid of these old addresses! Do you know how to do that?

Two questions, from different people:

1. plz send me my friends yahoo messenger password?

2. Hi Dave, i really hope u can help me here.. i had an account in Hotmail and some one hacked my email ID.It was really bad cause the bloody hacker had apparently forwarded all my private emails to my other contacts... its been so shattering and beyond explanations..to add to the misery my secret question has also been changes.. ive lost contact with so many of my friends as i have lost their ID's :(.. Plzzzzzz can you help me and tell me if anything can be done at all in this case ?? I would be looking forward to your email desperately.

I'm trying to figure out if an email I got from my cellular provider, Verizon Wireless, is some sort of cunning phishing attempt or a real message from the company. It references an account number, but I don't think it's mine?

I know that Google has quite a bit of reach in the Internet world, but I'm a bit surprised and anxious to see that "Chats" is now a new category in my regular old Gmail account. What's up with that?

My son and I are in an argument about cable modems .I say you have to have a subscription to something, like AOL or Charter, for cable modems to work. My son says you can get them to work by just plugging the cable in to the modem when you have digital cable service. Could you tell us which one of us is right, or tell us we're both wrong and help us with this problem.

I had a friend visit and while he was here he changed my America Online (AOL) settings so that it now automatically logs in to his account every time I turn the system on. This is bad! How do I turn this feature off?

I'm really interested in the Asterisk open source PBX system, but am not sure whether it'll work with the two VOIP systems I've been working with, Vbuzzer and Net2Phone. Can you help me out?

I'm planning on traveling through Mexico and Central America for a few weeks in the spring and am wondering about the availability of wireless Internet connections in the major cities. Do you have any tips for me?

Dave, you wrote earlier about getting spam through the Plaxo system [see Can I get Plaxo Spam?], but I'm wondering if other systems could also be used to generate spam, and if so, how?

A bunch of buddies and I want to set up a wireless network for our apartment building, but the wifi systems we've experimented with seem not to have sufficient range. We'd like to have it cover a few blocks, rather than just a few rooms in the building. I've heard about WiMAX but know nothing about it. Can you enlighten me?

A bunch of buddies and I want to set up a wireless network for our apartment building, but the wifi systems we've experimented with seem not to have sufficient range. We'd like to have it cover a few blocks, rather than just a few rooms in the building. I've heard about WiMAX but know nothing about it. Can you enlighten me?

I have a Sony PSP and have been trying to connect to the Internet with my wireless base station, but it keeps asking for a "WEP" and I don't have a clue what that is or how I get it. Help!

Dave, I have a great idea for a company that I'm calling "Hot Times Hawaii" and my uncle just suggested to me that I need to check and ensure that the name isn't already a trademark of some other company or organization. I know that there's a database of trademarks, but I keep hearing that I have to pay a lawyer to do the search? What's the real scoop?

A colleague and I are working on a proposal together and I'm wondering if there's a smarter way to pull it together than incessantly emailing Microsoft Word documents back and forth?

I want to change my account password on America Online (AOL) but am pretty clueless about how to do that. Can you show me? Thanks, Dave.

Hi Dave, I just got a brand new Samsung D500 and I want to put music onto it via USB cable, but it won't work. How do I do it?

I have a few questions about Yahoo! messenger (YIM), since they don't supply customer support. When I add someone to my 'buddies' list, I have one of two scenarios to play out afterwards.

1) The other person logs online and decides to either “accept and allow me” to add them, or to “not accept and not allow me” to add them in which case they disappear from my buddies list, or

2) The other person logs online, but appears to never make the choice about allowing me to add them or not, and they just remain in my buddies list forever.

So my first question is how can #2 happen? Doesn't everyone who has YIM get forced on the screen to make the choice between allowing or not allowing someone to be on the buddies list?

My second question that flows from this, is let's say that I have allowed someone to put me on their buddies list - what if I want to stop that at some point? there is the command that says 'delete friend', but that seems to apply to someone I made a friend from my end, no someone who made *me* a friend from their end....there is also the 'ignore friend' option, but doesn't that just block their message from reaching me (and hence I don't know they are sending it), rather than actually preventing them from knowing when I am on line (as a buddy).

So in other words, once you allow someone to add you as a buddy, how can you ever *disallow that*?

I realize that I'm working with one of the less popular email clients, but I really like Mozilla's Thunderbird application, not the least of which is because it's free! My question, though: how do I set it up so I can access more than one email account in the program? Thanks.

I'm a big fan of Google's Gmail service, but I really wish there was a way for me to organize groups of people together into a mailing list or group, so I could type, say, "family" and have it go to my Mom, sister, brother, and so on. Is that doable and I just don't know about it, or is this still a capability beyond Gmail?

Some of my colleagues have signed up for the Plaxo shared business card / contact management service, and I'm wondering if it's possible to get spam because I'm a member of the Plaxo service?

I am wondering what your thoughts are on how PC's stack up against Mac's for early education. I know that Mac's are in many schools but I do not know what the "big" differentiators are for Mac's that make them well or better suited for early education.

I've been working with hotmail for a long time and all my pals have my Hotmail address, so I am not interested in leaving for another web-based email service. I am, however, interested in learning how to organize my huge mailbox a bit better, and was hoping you could explain how to create and use a folder?

Dave, I just logged in to my Google Gmail account and am rather confused by this new Customize Clips feature that's atop my mailbox now. What's the story with that, what does it do, and how do I use it effectively?

Dave, I'm interested in selling lots of very small information products from my Web site, but I haven't found a really good solution for transaction that are less than five dollars. I heard that Paypal is introducing micropayments, though, and am wondering if you know anything about it?

Dave, on my gmail account on my page there are no words which say export contacts and i have seen a picture on google of where abouts it is supposed to be on the page but it simply isnt there. i no u can also export doing excel and stuff but that is so much easier and its quite fustrating. thanks

Dave, I have been a gmail member for almost a year now and in the last month I have been unable to access my gmail account it run through both loading screens and then stops with a blank white page. No error message just a white page. I recently found a bloodhound flash virus on my computer and promptly removed it. My software is unchanged I use Windows XP Home - my PC is a custom built Athalon 1Ghz processor 512 Mb ram 30 plus gig hd with half still free space the only thing new is my DVD/CDRW combo and I have even gone so far as to disconnect it and uninstall the software and it made no difference. I'm not very good with code but hardware and computers in general I am fairly literate. Help please.

I have a friend staying over at my house for a few days and she'd like to check her AOL email. But I don't want to lose my own AOL settings. How do I let her log in as guest without messing things up?

I have a "friend" that has an embarrassing problem... his network is too large and he's running out of IP addresses. He has a 192.168.1.x network, and I understand that he could put some machines on a 192.168.2.x network but he would need a router between the two... however, I also believe that through subnet masking he can make all the machines (on both networks) communicate as if on the same network, so that they can still use network printers, and one password authentication server, etc. How do you make subnet masks work?

Dave, I signed up recently for Google's Gmail service, got an invitation from someone I otherwise didn't know, and now all of a sudden the people in my address book are complaining that I'm spamming them and I can't log in to my account any more. What's going on?

What is the difference between analog telephony and digital telephony, also known as VOIP also as IP telephony? Do you have a VOIP system, and if so, what one and what's it like?

Not to ask a terribly obvious question, but what the heck is "bluetooth"? I keep hearing about it in relationship to computers, laptops, cellphones and even cars, but I don't really understand what it is and whether it's just some special version of Wifi or something?

Based on your earlier article on web-based conferencing systems (What's the Best Web-based Conferencing System?) I've just tried running an informal half-dozen person conference using Hotconference and I'm impressed. It's inexpensive and works pretty smoothly. My only question is: what are all the different "moderator" modes available?

I was listening to your teleseminar on blogging and was intriguied by something you said: you mentioned that you use Google News to keep track of specific industry news with custom searches. How do you do that?

Hello, I've read your comments on recovering passwords or accounts like on Yahoo. I started investigating this when I suddenly found my own password was not working and the secret question had been changed by whoever hijacked the account. Do you have any advice for me aside from creating a new ID? I hate to say it but I'm considering trying to hijack it back.

Dave, I need to run a monthly online conference with some of my investors, something where I can talk them through some PowerPoint slides and show off a Web-based demo or two, all computer-based. The options I've seen are pretty darn expensive, however: what's your recommendation?

I want to know in a nutshell how I can get to install and use Ruby on Rails. I have been to rubyonrails.org but the download procedure is not clear cut. I'm basically a C++ and .NET developer. I am interested to use RubyOnRails for my web apps. Please give a straightforward and clear cut way to install start developing with RubyOnRails. Thanks a lot.

Dear Dave, I wrote to Yahoo previously asking about my mail I believe had been hacked because my password is suddenly rejected. I am so disappointed no help has been given. What can I do to ask for a new password and retrieve my mail when I can't remember the zip code I entered previously?

It is such a disgrace if Yahoo! does not provide alternatives to handle such cases.
In my country, unlike the US, zip code aint popular at all. We don't use such data often. I was about to register full service by credit card, for Yahoo! with no ads, but now I am so disturbed and highly disappointed!

Pleeeeeeeeeeease HELP?

Is it possible for someone to know when I get on my Yahoo account? I don't have messenger.. I do have some Yahoo groups.. is there a way they can see that I'm on? It seems this person sends some junk to me the minute I sign off.. how can i block anyone from knowing I'm on Yahoo?

I'm about to start thinking about buying printer and computer supplies for my family, my standard geeky Christmas presents (what can I say?) and I'm wondering if some of the new 'non-compete' hardware shrink wrap agreements, where I promise not to buy a competitors product, yadda yadda, really is legally binding, or if it's all some sort of intimidation tactic? It all seems weird to me, frankly.

I have been hearing some buzz about a new service called Tagyu and am wondering what it's all about, how it works, and whether you think I should be paying attention to it?

How do I change my child's AOL (America Online) screen name password when I'm signed onto my own screen name?

Dave, I've created several web sites and I'm worried about other sites stealing my content. How can I copyright my sites and will doing that actually help me?

Dave, this is a weird question, but I was talking to my Mom about LinkedIn, Orkut and Ryze when she got a funny look on her face and said "I bet criminals use these sites to buy and sell illegal stuff"? I laughed at the time, but now I'm wondering...

Problem: Setting up my Gmail to download to my computer (using either of Incredimail, Outlook, Outlook Express). I have followed Google's directions very explicitly (+/- 10 attempts) and still cannot successfully download my mail. I keep getting the message that the Gmail server is not responding. I cannot find a way to communicate with Google for assistance. Any assistance you can render will be sincerely appreciated.

I've become addicted to Gmail thanks to your writeups and based on my intense dissatisfaction with Hotmail. Now, however, I find that I'd like to export my address book from Gmail so I can import it into a different email program as a backup. Is that doable?

I'm building a site that has pages with confidential information, and because of that, I use SSL to encrypt the information. But when the user enters the SSL environment (https), an annoying window appears with a security alert saying: "The certificate was issued by an organization, which you haven't selected as trustworthy" How do I get rid of this message?

I'm an artist who is trying to translate my skill with a canvas onto the computer, and I'm a bit baffled by all the options on the market. If I can, I'd like to stick with Linux as my brother is a Linux expert, but I've also heard lots of good things about Mac systems too. What do you recommend, Dave?

Dave, I'm very tempted to move from Yahoo Mail to Google's Gmail, but I'm still unsure whether Gmail does a good job of filtering spam or not. I get lots of spam - darn it - and would love to hear that Gmail does a great job of filtering out all of this junk from my mailbox. What's your opinion?

Dave, I'm very excited! Finally, Google's unveiled its blog search system, called, ingeniously enough Google Blog Search, and I want to learn all about how to use it. You ready to take on that challenge?

Dave, I've read through your previous Q&A about how to create an AOL screen name, but it doesn't apply to the new AOL 9.0 Security Edition. Can you help me figure out how to add a screen name with this latest Windows application?

I'm on a LinkedIn-related mailing list and everyone on the list - but me - has a cool signature block that includes their name, title, contact information and a link to their LinkedIn Profile. I don't want to come across as a n00b and ask on the list, so I though I'd ask you: How do I create one of these for myself?

I've just heard from some friends that MSN Search now lets me look through RSS feeds to find information, in addition to its regular search capabilities? Very cool, but how do I do it?