With Andrew Hardy Director of Brighton based Rivendell Software

Q: I want to send a file to someone using e-mail. I have heard I should 'Zip it up' first. What does this mean?

A: WinZip is a programme which compresses files on your computer so that they take up less space. This is of particular interest when you e-mail files to someone as it takes a lot less time to both send and receive the file. How small the file shrinks after zipping it depends on the type of file you are compressing. Generally, image files (other than JPEGs and some TIFF files) will be dramatically reduced in size, often by as much as 70 per cent. For other file types you can expect the file size to reduce by around 40 per cent. The other advantage of creating a ZIP file is you can bundle together many different files into one. You can download an evaluation version of WinZip at www.winzip.com Q: I have an external Zip drive connected to my PC with a parallel cable but I cannot get it to work properly when I have the printer driver installed. Can you tell me why?

A: Iomega, the people who make Zip drives, have long recognised this as a problem. The difficulty arises from the fact that some printers 'capture' the parallel port for its exclusive use. Iomega recommends downloading the latest drivers from its site which go some way towards fixing the problem. But the issue still remains a problem for printers from a large number of manufacturers. Iomega has a support document which discusses the problem at www.iomega.com/ support/documents/10392.html Q: Can you tell me what a software modem is and what uses it has?

A: Software modems were a great way for computer manufacturers to save a few pounds on the machines they sold. Essentially, instead of having a dedicated piece of hardware which does all the work of communicating with another modem, someone worked out the computer itself could be used to do this work, thereby saving money on hardware costs (a marginal saving at best). The problem is the computer has to dedicate a proportion of its processing power to handle these extra responsibilities. In most instances, this is not a problem but anyone trying to play online games using a software modem is likely to run into difficulties.

Q: I am currently using Internet Explorer to browse the internet. Can I install Netscape Navigator to run along side it?

A: You should have no problems with installing Netscape and running it alongside Internet Explorer. However, you can only have one default browser so you will have to choose which browser you would like the system to use by default (when opening a link in an e-mail, for example). My experience is that IE is by far the better browser but in the end it comes down to personal preference.