windows upgrades

[lenor]

Hi, I'm having trouble staying connected to the internet when I try to get my e-mail. I have windows 95 and using outlook express.5 . I was told to upgrade windows 95 which I believe has never been done. I'm not sure which upgrade to use. Any suggestions. I was also told to run my virus protection. When I'm not in outlook express I stay connected to the internet just fine. Thanks. lenor

[jabarnutcase]

Hi lenor-
A virus scan is always a good idea regardless of your OS.

However, depending on your computer specs, it sure wouldn't hurt to update your operating system...(Also upgrading IE and outlook express in the process) In other words, changing to a newer OS, not "updating" WIN95.

Think you owe it to yourself to move on to something new...You might enjoy it!

Win98se, Win 2000, or WinXP would be my choices. (Again, "minimum system requirements" would be an issue).

If you browse around M$ (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/previous/default.mspx) site, and related pages, you can learn some more.

Good luck! :)

PS: Post back if for some reason you prefer to stay with 95, or your computer would not meet the minimum requirements, and we can come up with something.

[lenor]

Thanks for the reply,
The computer I'm working on is my mothers. You see, I went back to school and I'm in the computer networking program and I am taking my relatives computer problems and learning from them. So my mom's computer is one of my first subjects to work on.
Anyway she wants to keep the computer she has beings she only uses it for email & internet and maybe some letter writing. So I'm going to upgrade the IE and outlook express and see if that does the trick. Hopfully within a couple of days. I've deleted alot of things, did a system scan and a defrag also Thanks again. lenor

[sleddog]

Lots of Windows 95 updating homework here:

http://www.graphic-locomotion.com/win95upd.html

Overall my advice (FWIW) would be:

1. Take your time and work through the above page, updating the operating system where it seems reasonable.

2. Next, upgrade Internet Explorer & Outlook Express to version 5.5 (not 6.0). I think 5.5 is better suited to a lower-end machine.

3. If the computer has less than 64mb RAM, invest a few dollars into bring the memory up to that level (64mb).

[Paul Komski]

Just one simple thing. Have you checked in OE<>Tools<>Options<>Connection that the box for "Hang up after sending and receiving" has NOT been checked.