Q&A
Some phones may interfere with Wi-Fi

By Kim Komando
Gannett News Service

Q. At home, whenever someone answers the cordless phone, our 802.11b Wi-Fi network shuts down. What's wrong?

A. Cordless phones that use the 2.4-gigahertz radio frequency can interfere with a 802.11b wireless network. Move the phone's base station as far as you can from any network gear, including your computer. Lower the phone's antenna, too. If that doesn't work, try using an external Wi-Fi antenna so that the network signal is not so close to the phone's base station. Finally, change the channel on the network access point to 1, 6 or 11. You should experience the least interference if you use channel 11.

Q. I am tired of Windows asking me, "Are you sure you want to send (name of file) to the Recycle Bin?" Can I make this message stop?

A. To stop this warning message, right-click the Recycle Bin icon and click Properties. On the Global tab, click to remove the check in "Display delete confirmation dialog."

Speaking of the Recycle Bin, you can bypass it when you delete files. Hold down the Shift key and press Del to quickly delete individual files. If you always want to bypass the Recycle Bin when deleting files, right-click Recycle Bin and click Properties. On the Global tab, select "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin."