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Her dial-up's just not up to streaming video

By STEVE ALEXANDER, Star Tribune

Last update: September 16, 2008 - 7:51 PM

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Q&A STEVE ALEXANDER

Q When I try to run a video from YouTube or other websites on my Windows XP computer, the video starts for about two seconds, then stalls for five or more seconds, then starts again for two seconds. This continues through the entire video. I have a 56K modem on a dial-up Internet connection that usually runs at 49,000 or 50,000 bits per second. Is there any way to correct this problem?

MARGE DONOFRIO, BURNSVILLE

A The solution is to get a broadband Internet connection from the telephone or cable TV companies, because your dial-up Internet connection is too slow to view the type of video you're trying to watch.

YouTube, and most sources of free video on the Web, use what's called "streaming video." This video is never downloaded to your computer, and is available to you only as a continuous signal that plays on your PC as you receive it. (With a download, the entire video file is transferred to your PC before it's played.)

With a dial-up connection, your PC's video software plays the streaming video faster than your Internet connection can receive it. This causes the video to stop until more of the signal is received. Then the video resumes until it again uses up the available streaming data. As a result, you get the video starts and stops you describe.

Q I receive e-mail that has been forwarded from a friend. He addressed it to 15 or more people as well as to me. If I want to forward this on to another friend, how do I get rid of all of the extra e-mail addresses used by the person who sent the e-mail to me?

DON HARKCOM, NEW BRIGHTON

A The solution varies with the type of e-mail you're using.

In Google's free Gmail, you can simply delete the 15 or more addresses you don't want from the forwarded e-mail (they show up in the message above the text you're forwarding.) You then forward the newly cleansed e-mail to your friend.

But in some e-mail systems, you need to take a different approach because e-mail you forward travels as an attachment to a new e-mail (which means you can't delete the 15-plus addresses from the original e-mail). To get around that, define the text in the e-mail you want to forward and copy it. Then create a new e-mail to your friend and paste the message into it.

Since you've created a new e-mail, the old list of addresses is gone. However, this method has a drawback: If the e-mail you want to forward has attachments, you'll need to first download the attachments to your computer, then reattach them to the new e-mail.

E-mail your technology questions to tech@ startribune.com or write Tech Q&A, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488-0002. Please include full name, city and telephone number.

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