Important Find! FREE program to automatically convert all your bookmarks to numeric internet addresses.

Otherwise your browser has to request a conversion from the Domain Name servers (12 slaves and 1 master located in a So. Calif. public university; I don't remember which one. If those servers are down or too busy you can only reach websites by having their numeric address on your own computer [in a file called hosts] - so get and run this program now!)

I just converted (automatically) ALL of my Netscape bookmarks (well over 1,000) into verified numeric addresses (and stored in the file that browsers use by default) in about 10 minutes!

1) go to http://www.radsoft.net/ 2) select "Product Gallery" and then "CIP" for a description of the program 3) go to "Downloads" (on home page) and in the Beverly Hills, Simtel, and Winsite subsections you will see links for CIP 5.00 (I don't remember which one I used, and I notice the file size is different for each supplier - ??). 4) Unzip it and run exe file to install.

5) Find Windows file named hosts.sam (sample hosts file); mine was in the Windows directory itself; and rename it hosts 6) Run exe file in new directory created by install (default is Program Files\radsoft\rix2k called cip.exe Right-click on the tray icon. Import your bookmarks via the File menu. Select "Remove Duplicates" on the Edit menu. "Select All" via the Edit menu. Get online. Select "Go" on the Edit menu. You will see the verification column fill up as it goes. My 1,000+ bookmarks took abou 10 minutes or so!

7) Save this file as hosts (the one you renamed wherever it is stored). 8) Use your browser in the normal way - it will check the host file INSTEAD OF requesting a Domain Name from the servers.

-- Ron (ff@myrealbox.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

Bless you Ron.

-- Mello1 (mello1@ix.netcom.com), December 31, 1999.

Then watch as all your bookmarks disappear one at a time over the next few weeks as their web addresses get re-assigned and your computer has been "inoculated" against DNS updates. Wonderful isn't it? The small savings in access time certainly isn't worth it.

-- fubar (foo@bar.com), December 31, 1999.