Dear George: "I will be taking my state real estate license exam in two weeks. I am also looking for a laptop.

In your experience, what features do I need in a laptop as a real estate agent? What features do you recommend that may not be 'needed' but would be helpful? I want to go top of the line. I plan on using the laptop as a major marketing tool in my business. So, any and all suggestions are important. The only thing I've learned regarding shopping for a laptop is that computer salespeople are usually no help at all!-- Cautious

Dear Cautious: My first recommendation is the same that I would provide any new employee working for any firm (real estate or not) anywhere: "Put on the shoes, but don't walk." That is, learn what is expected of you from both the customer and your employers. See what equipment and software successful people in your office use and consider their recommendations.

Suppose you discover that you're especially qualified to communicate with potential clients who could care less about computers. Do you then need the fanciest system in the office? I recommend that you always gauge the importance of any tool you use by how effectively it assists you in delivering a consistent, reliable, professional result to your firm's real estate clients.

Dear George: "Thank you for always solving the problems of others. Now I have one too. I am a Realtor with my own Web page. I receive many e-mails each day. Some of them, including e-mails from two other Realtors known to me, have viruses. These other Realtors were also victims that did not know they were passing along infected e-mails. The virus attacks resulted in my having to reformat my hard drive. I am now using Norton Anti-Virus. I am glad to have this product. I used two others before. Norton has detected viruses at least six more times than the other two products.

But the infected e-mail that caused my hard drive problem occurred after I started using Norton. I use Outlook Express. To delete an e-mail I must open it first then right click to delete it. How can I delete an e-mail that some other Realtor has already reported has a virus, without opening it?-- Dallas

Dear Dallas: Make sure you have Norton Antivirus "Auto Protect" enabled. It should be scanning all your e-mail (and attachments) as received. It is a relatively rare occurrence when an e-mail message itself contains a virus.

Usually viruses are located in "attached" files. That means, you can "open" an e-mail without also opening any attached files accompanying the e-mail message. If "Auto Protect" is enabled and you should accidentally open an attached virus-infected file, if the virus is one of the known 50,000+ viruses, a virus detection window will open.

The new window contains a virus warning as well as instructions. Of course, you can always select "Message Rules" under the "Tools" menu in Outlook Express, then "Mail." Following the step-by-step procedure, you can select the "Conditions" as well as the "Actions" you wish for each incoming e-mail message. Or, you can simply block all messages from specific senders.

Dear George: "I have upgraded my laptop operating system from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional. In 98 when I had difficulty establishing an Internet connection through my cable modem at home, I would run 'winipcfg.' I would then 'release' the DHCP lease. After releasing, I would unplug the network cable. After about 30 seconds, I would reconnect the network cable. Then I would run 'winipcfg' again. This time I clicked on 'renew.' However, I cannot locate anything in Windows 2000 Pro that even remotely resembles 'winipcfg.' Can you help me?-- Sometimes Connected

Dear Sometimes: In the words of one of the computer experts who help me out when I'm over my head, "For some reason Microsoft chose not to include a version of winipcfg with Windows 2000; however, you can perform the release/renew function using a command-line tool."

To perform a DHCP release/renew on a Windows 2000 machine start a CMD window (click on "Start," then "Run," then enter "CMD"). The black "cmd.exe" window will open. After it opens, type "ipconfig [space]/release [space]*" (the "[space]" means that you should press the space bar). Close the cmd.exe window. Disconnect from your cable modem network connection for approximately 30 seconds (60 seconds preferably). Then reconnect your cable modem network connection. Following the same protocol as above, start a CMD window. Enter "ipconfig [space]/renew [space]*."

Dear George: "I am running Windows 98 on my computer at home. I have RoadRunner cable service from Time-Warner Cable. It seems to me that after I have taken my laptop to a client's home, or even sometimes connecting to the network in our office, I experience difficulty connecting to RoadRunner at home. Is just something I must 'put up with' or is there something I can fix?-- FixerUpper

Dear FixerUpper: I like your attitude! Click on "Start," then "Run," then enter "winipcfg" (without the quotes). At the next window select the dropdown arrow, then select your network connection (probably a 10/100 IP connection as opposed to a "PPP" adapter). Click on the "Release" button. Then, disconnect your cable modem network connection to your computer. Close the "winipcfg" window. After about 30 seconds, repeat the "Start|Run|winipcfg" utility. Reconnect your cable network connection. Close the "winipcfg" window. Provided the cable light is "on" on your cable modem, you should be reconnected.

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George Stephens welcomes tech questions for possible use in this column. Send your questions to George via e-mail. Because of the volume of mail received, questions cannot be answered individually.

Published: September 7, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

George C. Stephens, CRB is the Broker of deRaat Stephens, Inc. dba ERA Stephens Properties and the Director of Compliance for eRealty, Inc. Stephens served as 1998 Chairman of the 13,000+ member Houston Association of REALTORS® and is the Vice Chairman of HAR’s wholly owned subsidiary, e-Har, Inc. He is the 2001 Secretary/Treasurer of the 50,000+ member Texas Association of REALTORS® and TAR’s 2002 Chairman-Elect. Stephens holds a Texas Real Estate Broker license as well as a Texas Mortgage Broker License.