Possibility 1: It was stated that the Links in mudcat open, but the links "somebody emailed me" won't open. It is entirely possible that the links are not good, or they are to sites that operate intermittently. Another possibility is that the email program does not have "links enabled." Try typing them into the IE header, or copy (CTL-C) and paste (CTL-V) them there and see if they work.

A known fault in IE, particularly with Win95/Win98, is that occasionally if you work offline, when you reconnect - or "unclick" the work offline setting, the registry entry does not update. Suggest look under "File" at the top of the IE window and make sure that there is not a check mark in front of it. If there is, there is a Mickey$oft fix, but I'd have to look it up.

When you navigate around the net, lots of sites put an obscene amount of stuff on your machine. The default setting for Win95/Win98 is use something like 60K max disk space for temp files. If you run out of space to flop trash in, the web stops working right. ALL of these files should be on the C:\ drive, in the Windows directory, Temporary Internet Files. Delete everything not obviously connected with a frequently used site. Files there should be *.cfm, and *.gif or *.jpg.

You can go to START - PROGRAM FILES - ACCESSORIES - SYSTEM TOOLS - DISK CLEANUP, to use the Win automated "get rid of crap" utility, although it does a fairly incomplete job.

In Internet Explorer, TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS, on the General tab, you can clear "Temporary Internet Files" and clear "History." This can often get rid of a lot of junk.

*.cab files (cabinet files) are the Mickey$oft special compressed files that contain installation information. Usually, but not always, Windows installation copies some of these to your C: drive. This makes them available to the Control Panel Add/Remove Software utility if you need file repair or minor changes to the Windows installation. (Note: Windows usually can't find them if you need them, but that's what they're there for.) There is generally no need to mess with them, but keep your installation CD handy.

It is my understanding that the downloadable DIGITRAD is a DOS program. Working offline in DOS or in a DOS window, you do not have access to the Windows sound sytem setup - unless you have configured DOS to make it available. When you're online, you are usually working in Windows, so different resources are available.

Guest, Ed - I don't find a need for Notepad to open links, although it's remotely possible that Windows uses it. It's a good program, and you should leave it alone. I think the mention was due to reading the original query as pertaining to opening the source code window perhaps?

Pause for reflection. Comments?

John