Real World Computing

Set colMonitoredEvents = GetObject("winmgmts:").ExecNotificationQuery("Select * from Win32_PowerManagementEvent")

Do

Set objLatestEvent = colMonitoredEvents.NextEvent

Select Case objLatestEvent.EventType

Case 7

oShell.Run "c:\path\fred.exe",1,true

End Select

Loop

where fred.exe is the name of the file you invoke to redial your VPN. If you're using the built-in Windows VPN client, you can use the rasdial command:

rasdial [connection] [username] [password] /DOMAIN:[domain]

What the above script does is set up a loop that gets triggered every time there's a power management event. Whenever it sees event type 7 (wake up from standby), it runs the external command. Once you've got it working, simply add it to your Windows startup directory, or add a new entry to this Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\

with a value of something like:

wscript.exe "C:\myScripts\resume.vbs"

Framed again!

Already, 80 per cent average growth over this time last year is being reported by many online retailers - a much rosier picture than the bricks-and-mortar high street is predicting. It remains a source of amazement how some of the major high-street retailers still don't get it when it comes to building an online shopping outlet.

A perfect case in point is the attractive website of the clothes store Dorothy Perkins. This site uses frames in its design - nothing wrong with that, you may think, but let's just imagine a real-life scenario. A woman visits the website and finds an item she'd like for Christmas. What better than to send a link about this item to a friend who can then order it as her present (knowing it will be the right style, size and colour, all those things we blokes have problems with). So this woman simply sends the URL link to the prospective giver, imagining that all will now go smoothly.

However, as this site uses frames, the URL displayed in her browser is that of the frameset, not the page of the item being browsed. If this woman is web savvy, she might find the URL of the actual page by right-clicking and cutting and pasting the URL property into the email to her friend. But even this would be no use, as the link only gives the item page, and the rest of the site's functionality is now broken - and, anyway, we thought the idea of online purchasing was to make things easier.

Other sites offer a link called something like 'send this item to a friend' or 'add it to my wish list', which you can then send to a friend. No such luck with the Dorothy Perkins site. Even if you add it to your 'shopping bag', as they charmingly call it, you can't send this to someone else. The only option is to ring that person and talk them through which item you want, which is hardly encouraging for the user. This is an otherwise perfectly well-designed website, but its usability is messed up by the use of frames. Perhaps a rethink in terms of function over appearance is in order? And are you sure your site isn't guilty of something similar?

Credit Card Changes

While you're checking things out, does your website handle credit cards? If, like most people, you use an Internet Payment Provider like SecPay or DataCash, make sure your site asks the user for the CV2 code from the back of their credit card when they input their card details, because this is going to become a compulsory requirement soon.

If you handle the complete credit card transaction or store customers' card details on your site, there are many additional requirements coming down the pipeline, which could require your web server to be subjected to a security audit. This is known as the Account Information Standards (AIS), and already there are moves to insist that all merchants must become Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security compliant. If you're hosting your own payment pages or storing any form of credit or debit card information, you'll need to undertake an assessment and audit. If you think this concerns you, your company or clients, take a look at the details on the Visa website at www.visaeu.com

Continued....