The PC Doctor's Fix-it-Yourself Guide- P41: A technical director for a UK-based computer company who teaches such courses as Caring for Your PC has developed prescriptions for treating sick PCs. Arguing the benefits of fixing it yourself rather than relying on experts, his mission is to empower users with trouble- shooting and safe repair skills. | CHAPTER 19 Making More of the Internet 399 Drivers and Firmware As with all hardware we eventually come back to looking at the software that drives it the drivers. These types of modems will have two sets of software control the driver and the firmware. The driver is just like any other driver and allows the device and the operating system to interact. If you are having problems with the equipment check for an updated driver. It might make the difference. Firmware is different from a driver in that it is software loaded onto the device instead of your PC. On a modem of this kind the firmware takes responsibility for controlling the connection and also providing an interface for you to enter details username passwords etc. relating to your Internet connection. You ll generally find that new firmware is made available on a regular basis as bugs are fixed security is improved and improvements are made. Take care to follow the instructions relating to firmware installation to the letter. Never take shortcuts as mistakes can mean your modem will not work and you may even have to send it back to the maker to be repaired. Print out a copy of the instructions and follow them carefully Email Email has become almost as popular as surfing the Web. The ability to send someone messages and files without leaving your computer and have the messages waiting for the recipient to download is compelling. It is also much faster and a lot cheaper than using snail mail the postal service or fax and not everyone has a fax machine . Here are a few tips for making the most of email. Decide on Who You Actually Are The days of having just one email address and everything going into one box are long gone. The explosion in free and cheap email accounts means that you can now control which email address you give out to others. So for example you could have one account for personal correspondents one for work and one that you give out to online merchants and websites that ask for it. This gives
