I downloaded Internet Explorer 8, but, unlike the old version, it isn’t presenting my bank’s Web page properly. Should I uninstall it and go back to the old version?

Not necessarily. There’s a compatibility button in IE8 you can click that may help render the bank’s page properly. It appears in the top toolbar, just to the right of the address field, when the browser detects that you are on a page that requires it. The button looks like a torn piece of paper.

This button is needed because older editions of Internet Explorer used some nonstandard, proprietary techniques for rendering Web pages. Some Web sites were designed with these techniques in mind, and only worked properly in IE, as opposed to other browsers. Ironically, with the new IE8, Microsoft is moving away from these proprietary technologies. So the compatibility button makes the new version of IE work like the older ones when it encounters a page that expects this.

Do I need a regular wired home phone line to get high-speed Internet service?

No. You can buy high-speed, or broadband, service from a cable company, which supplies the service over the same wire that brings in your cable TV signal, instead of a phone line. You can also obtain broadband service from some satellite services, or from a wireless phone company.

I have a one-year-old 24″ Apple iMac. I would like to burn my movies to Blu-ray discs to play on my Blu-ray player. Do I need an external Blu-ray burner/drive?

Yes. The drive inside your iMac can burn only CDs or DVDs, not Blu-ray discs. But there are external Blu-ray drives available for Macs.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

I have a laptop that I use primarily to play music. Is there any way to disable its connection to a wireless network?

Sure, but exactly how you do that depends on the laptop’s hardware and operating system. Some Windows laptops have a hardware switch, or a keyboard function — often identified by some sort of transmitter icon — that turns the Wi-Fi wireless radio inside off. If yours does, just use these hardware controls to kill Wi-Fi.

Others require disabling Wi-Fi via software. In Windows XP, go to the Network Connections control panel, find the Wi-Fi connection, right-click on that icon, and select “Disable.” In Windows Vista, go to the Network and Sharing Center control panel, locate the wireless network, and click the “Disconnect” command in the information area under its name. On a Mac laptop, you can just click on the fan-like Wi-Fi symbol in the menu bar and select “Turn Airport Off” (”Airport” is Apple’s term for its Wi-Fi radio).

If your Windows laptop uses an application other than control panels to manage your Wi-Fi connections, you may have to disable them from within that program.

Thanks for your column on netbooks. Which of the netbooks came pre-installed with Microsoft Office? For those that didn’t, how can you install Microsoft Office onto the device?

I tested only four models, all running Windows XP. None came with a full, activated version of Office installed. Two — the Acer Aspire One and the MSI Wind U100 — came with trial versions of Office pre-installed. Another, the Asus Eee 1000H, came with an alternative office suite, StarOffice. Two, the Asus and the MSI, came with a stripped-down office suite, Microsoft Works.

The simplest way to install Office, or any other software that comes on disc, onto a netbook is to plug in an external DVD drive using a USB port.

I have two questions about the iPhone. My first question is whether or not it’s possible to tether the phone to a computer for use as a modem. My second question is whether it’s possible to rent or buy movies on the phone itself or if that needs to be done from a laptop or desktop?

It isn’t currently possible to use the iPhone as a tethered modem, but AT&T recently said that functionality might be coming. It also isn’t possible to buy or rent movies directly on the phone, only music. You have to transfer movies from a computer.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Has anyone come up with a method that allows people to take pictures with a regular digital camera and then download them wirelessly to a computer, and/or perhaps to the Internet?

There have been a few digital cameras with built-in Wi-Fi wireless capability, but the best and simplest method I know is a $100 product called Eye-Fi. This tiny gadget looks and works like a regular, garden-variety SD memory card, but it packs a Wi-Fi transmitter inside. It fits into a standard SD memory-card slot and is compatible with a wide range of camera models from Canon (CAJ), Kodak (EK), Nikon (NINOF.PK) and others.

Coupled with clever software, and a clever Web site, the Eye-Fi card automatically zips your pictures wirelessly to your PC or Mac, and/or to your choice of over 20 online photo-sharing services.

For more information, see www.eye.fi. For a list of compatible cameras, see support.eye.fi/compatibility/. For a full review of the product, see: solution.allthingsd.com/20071121/.

You mentioned last week that SugarSync might be a good solution for backups, so if one computer dies your files still exist on another system. But what if the doomed computer doesn’t actually die but its files are corrupted by malicious software? Do those newly corrupted files overwrite the good copies on your SugarSync network?

They could do so, depending on which folders you had chosen to replicate on your other computers. Automatic-synchronization services like SugarSync have a tough time telling whether changes to a file are deliberate, accidental or the result of some sort of corruption. Though the last is rare, it could look to SugarSync like you had changed the file on purpose.

One way to guard against that is for a service to offer “versioning” — the practice of maintaining multiple past copies of a file. That way, if a change isn’t intentional, you can go back to the prior, pristine version. Sharpcast, the company that makes SugarSync, says it is planning to add versioning to the service, but offers no specific date. In the meantime, one way to back up a file without fear of its being overwritten by a corrupted version is to upload it to SugarSync’s special “Web Archive” folder, whose contents are never automatically updated.

Have you ever reviewed and suggested a media player for connecting to a home theater to play all songs, videos and photos that exist on your home computers?

Yes, I have reviewed several over the years. The one I find simplest and best designed is Apple TV, which, despite its name, can work fine in a household with no other Apple (AAPL) hardware. It costs $229 and is a small, thin, unobtrusive box that fetches music, photos and videos from your home network using either a wired or a wireless connection. It can connect to your TV set or home theater via a variety of analog and digital ports, including component-video, HDMI, and optical and analog audio. It supports high-definition video and works with any computer, Windows or Mac, that has Apple’s free iTunes software installed and running.

Apple TV handles many standard photo, music and video formats, but it is limited to music and video files that iTunes can handle. That excludes copy-protected files in Microsoft’s formats, and certain open Microsoft formats, but includes common files like MP3s. Apple TV also allows you to access YouTube and to purchase music and TV shows from Apple, and rent movies from Apple, without the use of a computer.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.