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Sorry, I’m still confused. I have two credit/debit cards (with different numbers) that look very similar on both front and back. The only difference (besides the card number) seems to be that one card says “DEBIT” in smallish letters on the front while the other card says nothing at all in that same location on the card. The card that says nothing is the credit card that I have used for years. The card that says “DEBIT” sometimes requires a PIN and others times it doesn’t. I had assumed that if I used the “DEBIT” card without the PIN, then it acts like a credit card with the accompanying credit card protections. Is that incorrect? The only reason we use a debit card is because we get 3% interest on the checking account balance. But if there is an important risk with DEBIT cards or no real protection from fraud/theft, we could just go back to exclusive use of credit cards. I have never actually understood any real advantage for DEBIT cards. So is it correct, as NATGILD seems to suggest in the previous note, that DEBIT cards have no real protection from unauthorized withdrawals?

Thanks for Susan’s excellent article about online banking. Here are two questions that occur to me:

1. Susan said, “So use your debit card for authentication, but keep the credit card for actual purchasing.” When I use my debit card, I usually choose the option to skip entering my PIN. Is this transaction processed as a debit, or a credit (with the additional security features of a credit card transaction) ?

2. Susan also said, “for credit-card payments, you can designate automatic payment of just the minimum to assure that you won’t get late fees.” But we usually pay off the credit card balance each month to avoid interest charges. Is it correct that Susan’s procedure of paying the minimum would avoid late charges but would obviously still allow for interest charges?

Thanks in advance for any response.

 

Many thanks, RetiredGeek, for the webpage that you mentioned.  I used it for both me and my wife and everything worked just fine.  When I went back and used the webpage that I have used in the past ( https://secure.ssa.gov/mySSA/start ) the login failed again in the same way.  Do you have any idea why my login page (which I have used for years) does not reliably work any more?

 

 

I posted this question elsewhere but now think I should have posted it here.

I’m wondering if WeatherMate can be made to disappear when other programs are running. That is, WeatherMate should NOT be always on top of my desktop, but rather should be always on the bottom. Is there a way to make that happen?  The “AutoHide” setting seems to make WeatherMate disappear but it’s not clear how to bring it back, and that’s not what I want it to do anyway.  Thanks for any advice.

Thanks for your responses.  I installed .NET and everything seems still seems to work.   Now I’m wondering if WeatherMate can be made to disappear when other programs are running.  That is, WeatherMate should NOT be always on top, but rather should be always on the bottom.  Is there a way to make that happen, and is this the right place to ask this question?  Thanks for any further instructions about WeatherMate.

Brief update of my situation:

I changed the DSL filter, but that didn’t seem to make any difference.

I purchased an internet uptime monitor which pinged three websites every three seconds and recorded failed responses.  This response failure happened several times/day.  However, this didn’t help identify the problem since internet access would still sometimes disappear while the monitor could still ping.  Othertimes, the monitor detected a delayed response, said the internet was down, but I could still access websites.  Since I didn’t know what to do, I just watched the situation for several weeks.  Finally, and more recently, the internet access problem has disappeared without me doing anything.  No problems now.  My conclusion is that it really was an ISP problem that they finally fixed.  No notification or other information from the ISP however.  In any event, no further problems as of now.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble ! My setup has been working well since I first set it up. However, I do think it is important that POP is setup correctly, as PKCano’s link says. My setup is as follows:
Incoming mail server (POP3): pop.gmail.com
Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com

Outgoing Server tab:
My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication (is checked)
Use same settings as my incoming mail server

Connection tab:
Connect using my local area network (LAN)

Advanced tab:
Incoming server (POP3): 995
This server requires an encrypted connection (is checked)
Outgoing server (SMTP): 25
This server requires an encrypted connection (is checked)
Server Timeout: 1 minute

(All other options are NOT checked.)

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks to everyone who responded. Additional Information:
1. System Info page says I’m using MS Windows 10 Pro, Version 10.019044 Build 19044
Windows Specifications page says OS Build 19044.1889 I’m using WiFi.
Also, when internet access disappears, then the small WiFi icon at the bottom of the screen sometimes changes to a globe like icon that says “No Internet Access” This doesn’t always happen however.

However, I don’t think this is a Windows problem because I have a Samsung tablet uses the same router and seems to go offline at the same time. I suppose it could be a router problem but I doubt that.

2. This problem is NOT a speed problem. When internet access is available, speed is fine, so I don’t think the various online speed tests would give helpful information. The problem is that internet access simply stops, and then returns after a few minutes.

3. I’m using DSL over a standard hardwired telephone line, not a cable system.

4. The Domain Name Server field in the router says: 192.168.254.254 207.91.5.20
There doesn’t seem to be any way to change it. The numbers don’t look like either 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 so I don’t know what that means.

I originally requested information on some kind of ISP access monitor so that when I call the phone company I will be able to specify when and how often the problem occurs.

Thanks for any other thoughts or suggestions.

 

This situation seems to beg for more analysis. Here are questions that occur to me:

1. At least some of the MS Office licenses that are sold appear to be authentic MS licenses, and that this is a quite common practice. If these licenses are unused or “misappropriated” licenses from the original purchasers, then is it illegal to resell them? If it IS illegal, then how can this practice continue and why aren’t there lots of lawsuits about it?

2. But if it’s NOT illegal to resell these licenses, then why does MS apparently sometimes terminate their activation?

3. Or is the reselling perhaps legal but a violation of the original MS license agreement?

4. Finally, if an original purchaser of MS Office licenses (maybe an OEM?) legitimately sells MS Office to their own customers, how is that different from selling extra unused licenses to somebody else?

 

Thanks to everyone who responded with appreciation to my original post.  I thought that these instructions might be useful for those still using Outlook 2003.  Everything continues to work OK for me too.

Roger

 

Maybe this question should be another topic; my question is:
Are older versions of Office still available for (legal) purchase? If so, how/where can I buy them? My wife and I are still using Office Professional 2003 (on both our PC’s) and it’s adequate for our needs but does have some problems. I have often thought about upgrading but it always seemed like such a hassle for little benefit. We use Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and occasionally Powerpoint and Picture Manager. (We’re not interested in subscription services because of the continuing cost.) So what’s the easiest and cheapest way to upgrade our Office version? Thanks for any advice and suggestions.

 

Great !!  Thanks so much – pressing on the text box in fact caused a “Paste” option to appear.

 

 

Well, search started working.  I’m not sure why although I did go to Search settings and removed C:\ from excluded folders, so that maybe that did it.  Anyway, it seems to be working now.  Thanks for the comments.

Sorry, PKCano, I forgot to mark “Notify me…” so I didn’t get your message until just now.

Update History:

2 “Quality Updates” successfully installed on 2/10/2021

Most recent driver update on 1/31/2021

MS Defender Updates on 2/15 (2), 2/12, 2/10, 2/9, 2/8, etc

“Other Updates:”  Software Removal  Tool on 2/10/2021

Nothing looks suspicious to me…..

The only entry in the Add In Manager is a line that says “Exchange Extensions Property Page” with a checked box in front of it. I have no idea what it is.