Q: I have a problem reading Chinese characters in e-mail from Taiwan. They become gibberish, even though my Yahoo mail is set in Chinese. What's wrong, and what can I do?

-- R.H., St. Marys, Ga.

A: First, make sure that you have Chinese fonts installed on your computer, said Jon Jordan, president of Atlantic Business Technologies, a Raleigh Web development company.

You can download a Chinese language pack by going to Microsoft.com. When you search for "Chinese language pack," you'll have the choice of simplified or traditional Chinese. It looks as if you'll want to go with traditional Chinese for Taiwanese characters.

Apple also has a traditional Chinese language kit for Macs available; find it using search.info.apple.com. But before downloading the kit, you must make sure that your operating system is set up to accept Chinese characters. There's a detailed tutorial for preparing computers that run Mac 0S 9 at www.nisus.com/NisusWriter/ Support/Tips/LanguageKitsOS9 .php. If you have OS X, Apple has posted a document about languages at docs.info.apple.com /article.html?artnum=106700.

Next, make sure your browser is set to use Chinese as a default font when the Web page you're viewing doesn't specify a font, Jordan said.

In Internet Explorer, click on the "tools" menu at the top of the screen, then select "options." At the bottom of the "general" tab, click on "fonts." You can select the traditional Chinese language script from the menu, then a Web page font and a plain-text font.

If your PC uses Firefox, go to "tools," then "options." Select the "contents" tab and click on the button labeled "advanced" at the bottom of the screen. You'll have two places to choose fonts: a menu for language at the top and default character encoding at the bottom.

If you're using Firefox on a Mac, you can find the fonts menu by clicking on "Firefox" at the top of the screen, choosing "preferences", then "content." Fonts are at the bottom of that screen.

Finally, if you use Safari, click on the Safari menu, preferences," then "appearance." At the bottom of the screen is a menu to select your default language font.

Q: I have set the power settings for my laptop to "do nothing" when I close the lid. However, the Internet will automatically disconnect, interrupting downloads in progress. What can I do to stop this?

-- S.T., Missouri

A: If you have checked and double-checked that Windows isn't set to suspend or hibernate when you close your lid, then the problem is probably with your wireless or networked Internet card, said Jim Rappl, chief technical officer at Exceptional IT Services in Cary.

You can look at those settings by going to the control panel, then clicking on "system," "hardware" and "device manager." You should find your card under "network adapters."

Right-click on that and select "properties," then look for the power management settings. My husband's Atheros wireless card has a power save mode that he can turn off. My Intel card lets me choose how efficient I want the card to be. Hopefully, you have a similar option that would solve your problem, but beware -- it will drain your battery faster, too.

If you have a separate program that manages your wireless network, you will want to look at that software for additional power settings.

If neither of those options work, Rappl suggests checking the system BIOS, software that controls how the computer communicates with hardware, for power settings. If you need to change the BIOS, he recommends that you contact your computer's manufacturer.

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Interested in listening to locally produced podcasts? Ernie Hood might have just what you're looking for. The Hillsborough science writer and editor hosts a weekly radio program on WCOM (103.5 FM) in Carrboro, "Radio In Vivo: Your Link to the Triangle Science Community."

He interviews local scientists 11 a.m. to noon Wednesdays; you can find archived editions as podcasts on iTunes.