Good Afternoon:

Here is a new piece of information regarding IE 5.0.  Could be a problem
with downloading and installing the new patch.

Chris McMillan
VA CT Healthcare System
Computer Training Specialist

Telephone:      800 645 6373 extension 3027
Fax:            203 937 3459
Pager:          800 201 5625 pager number 0378 and then dial your number.

May 17, 1999
A new build of Internet Explorer 5 offered by Microsoft will help fix
tunneling and more
Microsoft has quietly released a version of Internet Explorer 5 that cures
its problems with "tunneling." (See "Installing Internet Explorer 5 wipes
out tunneling -- unless you know the secret," April 26.) This new build also
appears to solve incompatibilities with Office 2000 and problems reported by
Palm handheld users when synchronizing with IE 5's Outlook Express 5.0
e-mail client.
The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, or PPTP, secures communications
between two computers across the nonsecure Internet. Tunneling was
introduced with Dial-Up Networking (DUN) 1.2 for Windows 95 and is a
standard feature of Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 and later. To learn how to
set it up, see support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q221/1/19.asp.
My April 26 column reported that upgrading from IE 4.0 to IE 5 made it
impossible for users of tunneling to connect. The work-around is detailed at
support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q222/9/36.asp.
A Microsoft source, who asked not to be identified, said, "The issue isn't
with IE, it is with [DUN in] Win95/98."
The source said a patch for DUN will be included in the Windows 98 Service
Pack, which will be available for download from Microsoft in a few weeks.
The fix will also be in the Win98 Second Edition that will be in stores
soon. Additionally, "Anyone buying Office 2000 will get this [new] build of
IE automatically and so they don't need to download this build," the
Microsoft source said.
If you can't wait, however, "We wanted to make the tunneling fix available,
so it is included in this build of IE and posted to the Web for
downloading," the source said.
Unfortunately, Microsoft's download site for IE 5 doesn't indicate that the
version has changed. Also, those who have tried to install the new build
have found that you must uninstall the old IE 5 before the setup of the new
build will work. So I don't recommend downloading the new build unless you
are affected by one of these problems.
The Microsoft download site is at
www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/default.asp. The original build of IE
5 appeared on March 18. The new build can be identified in IE 5's Help About
box with the version number 5.00.2314. If you see a build number lower than
2314, you're not running the latest IE 5.
Steve King, a Redlands, Calif., reader, was the first to alert me that a new
version of IE 5 had been slipstreamed into Microsoft's Web site.
"The work-around you mentioned (using the IP address) worked fine but was
not a total solution for us," King wrote. "Our servers can have different IP
addresses depending on how we connect."
The new build cures this. King will receive a free copy of Windows 98
Secrets.
The problem with Palm synchronization kept users of the original IE 5 from
HotSyncing their Outlook Express 5.0 data with Palm handhelds. To fix this,
download the latest update to Pocket Mirror (assuming this is your sync
software), then download build 2314 of IE 5, which includes Outlook Express
5.0. This fix has been described at length in two newsgroups:
alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot and comp.sys.palmtops.pilot.
The new IE 5, however, does not resolve all incompatibilities. Several
readers have told me that IE 5 has trouble displaying secure Web sites, such
as financial services that allow members access to their stock accounts.
James Griffin, a spokesman for Fidelity Investments, in Boston, confirmed
that IE 5 does not work with the company's trading software, FOX Plus (also
known as Fidelity Online Express Plus), although IE 4.0 works fine. Fidelity
recommends that users of FOX Plus wait before installing IE 5.
"We would encourage them not to upgrade to [IE 5] and to continue using
[Version] 4-point-whatever or use another browser that's out there," such as
Netscape Navigator, Griffin said in an interview.
For those investors who used FOX Plus and have already installed IE 5,
Griffin said that a work-around is to make trades through www.fidelity.com,
Fidelity's public Web site.
I hope to have more Microsoft responses to this and other issues with IE 5
next week.

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Brian Livingston's latest book is Windows 98 Secrets (IDG Books). Send tips
to [log in to unmask] He regrets that he cannot answer
individual questions.


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