Cold callers claiming to be from Microsoft

I am hearing more and more cases of the cold callers claiming to be from Microsoft and claiming that “you have errors on your Windows computer.” I blogged about these bogus callers  18 months ago, and it seems to be a growing trend.

Note: Microsoft do not cold call people! Never ever! Nor do they cold email people.

If you get one of these malicious calls, I urge you to hang up immediately and tell them nothing. Or tell them you know they are phoney, ask for their phone number, and google it, or call a techie. If you are in Pembrokeshire, call me for advice on 01646 602248.

Wikipedia

 

I love Wikipedia. In fact, as a child, I had a set of the Children’s Encyclopedia Brittanica, all 20 volumes, and I would spend hours, randomly flipping through articles. Now, we have a resource which is massively bigger, more detailed, and kept up to date. It is criticised because people can edit it. However, edits and new articles are subject to review, and on a pretty democratic basis. Experts in the field of say, Agaricus mushrooms, will keep an eye on that area to make sure articles are fair and well researched.

I think it would be a sad day if Wikipedia were to go, or if it was populated by ads. Its income is entirely based on donations. I have decided to donate to it, and I urge any of you who value knowledge to donate to it too. More on Wikipedia here

Bad visa credit card website security questions

Security questions used for website security are generally a terrible idea, as the information is often easy to obtain. The classic example is mother’s maiden name. For famous people, this is easily available on the web, and anyone determined can find this for less famous people. The examples on this form have many poor choices, that are easily found out, favourite niece (I only have one niece), street you grew up on.

What really smacks me about this one, is how restrictive it is. Firstly it’s annoying that I have to use one word for my first car (not my real answer) which would also be an annoyance for “street I grew up on.” I also couldn’t use Paris as my honeymoon location. Secondly, it seems bizarre (and unlikely) that their database cannot store spaces nor punctuation, eg St. David’s Street. A no-brainer rule of passwords is – the more complex the password, the harder for a hacker to crack.

Help with broadband for those with slow or no connections

The Welsh government has an incentive scheme to provide wireless broadband for those with less than 2Mb/s speeds.
The You can claim up to £1000 towards the cost of installing a broadband solution that can provide faster than 2Mbps via the Welsh government’s Broadband Support Scheme. The application form is available here. Such solutions are satellite broadband, and a current provider of this is Avonline Broadband.
One thing to bear in mind with satellite broadband is the time it takes for signals to reach the earth from space. This can cause a bit of extra lag, when looking at webpages, for example. However, for services such as BBC iPlayer, and streaming, or large file downloads, the speeds will be very good. Another solution by the same company uses a special roof aerial.

BT Infinity – Superfast Broadband for all Wales by 2015

Snowdon Summit Cafe - When will it get superfast broadband?

Further to yesterday’s “BT Infinity Hype” post, here is an update on the plans for rollout of BT Infinity / Superfast Broadband in Wales.
The technology used for the provision of fibre is of two types, FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) and FTTP (fibre to the premises.) The vast majority of the infrastructure upgrade will be FTTC as this is much cheaper. The good news is really that this means that a lot of copper will be replaced up to street cabinet level. Longer runs of copper, where the signal degrades significantly, will be replaced by fibre, which doesn’t degrade in quality over these distances. People a long way from BT exchanges will see the biggest improvements, as some of these more outlying areas are getting speeds as low as 512MB or lower. With the promised FTTC speeds of 40Meg/s, this could offer an incredible performance boost.

Wales allocated £56.9 million for broadband roll-out

So what are the timescales for this rollout?
In July 2011, the UK government allocated £56.9 million for a superfast broadband rollout, to be matched by the Welsh Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Welsh Assembly is considering bids for the work of ungrading the infrastructure and plan to award the contract in March 2012. In this statement “Welsh Ministers have set a target for all businesses to have access to Next Generation broadband by mid-2016, and all households by 2020 – ahead of European targets. “

However, in a more recent statement on 12th September 2011 by Edwina Hart , the plans appear to have been accelerated. “It is a Welsh Government commitment to deliver broadband to all households and businesses by 2015 through our Next Generation Broadband for Wales (NGBW) project.” Next-generation broadband includes giving access to a minimum speed of 30 Mbps (mega bits per second).

All in all, the users who stand to benefit most from this upgrade are those who are several miles from their exchange. I, for one, have no need for more than 8Mbps, as this is ample to watch BBC iPlayer in HD!

I do wonder, how long before the cafe on Mount Snowdon gets Superfast Broadband. The government statement did say “all businesses!”

Fibre Optic Broadband – BT Infinity – What’s the hype?

Courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons. Original location and license information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fibreoptic.jpg

I am always keen to see new technology being rolled out and even as a youth (in the 80s) I

remember getting excited about fibre optic technology. So, has it finally arrived? And is it as exciting as it sounds, or is it like Virtual Reality or 3D (yes, I remember 3D movies in the 1980s too, I predict it will fail to take off again this time too)

Firstly, what are the main advantages of fibre optic?

A major advantage is that its signal does not degrade over distance as much as copper. This allows for long cable runs without the need for attenuators / repeaters every few miles to boost the signal .

Another advantage is the huge speeds it is capable of (up tp 111Gigabits/sec) - however, copper is also capable of great speeds. A Cat 6 cable (available for less than £5) is capable of transmitting 10Gigabits/sec,  more than 1000 times faster than a typical broadband connection of 8Megabits/sec.

A third, little discussed advantage is security. Copper is much easier to eavesdrop on than fibre optic. A device can be placed on a telephone cable to tap an ADSL connection. This cannot be done with Fibre optic as it doesn’t leak an electric or magnetic field. Eavesdropping would only be possible at cable junctions.

Practical Rollout Of Fibre Optic Broadband (BT Infinity)

BT Infinity is the product BT is rolling out across the UK that plans to offer speeds of up to 300Megabits/sec.

How will this affect consumers in Pembrokeshire? Well, it will be a while before it arrives here. No exchanges are currently on the list for 2011/2012 and BT plans for two-thirds UK coverage by 2014. So, I fear Pembrokeshire is likely to be the 1/3 not to get it.

Does it matter?

Not really. Most home users have little need for speeds in excess of 8Meg. For larger organisations, such as government, and large offices, faster speeds would give benefits when 100s of users have to share a single line.

My gripe is that the marketing material by BT and other providers gives the impression that the main benefit of fibre optic is speed. This is definitely not the case for current usage as copper is capable of speeds 1000s of times greater than its current usage.

XLN Telecom – avoid like the plague

Feel bad comparing sharks with this company, they don't deserve it (sharks aren't so bad))

I had a call from XLN telecom, to sell me their phone line services. This was a line rate of £11.99 on a 60 day trial. This sounded quite reasonable and I asked if they did a phone and broadband deal. I was looking to change my existing provider, Newnet, because their bandwidth limit was quite low, at 20GB. So I signed up for their “Total Business Standard” package for £26.95 + Vat. The telesales agent told me the call was being recorded and would form the basis of the contract, no need to sign anything. He then told me the deal came with a free wireless router, free setup and 50GB/month of bandwidth and that it was a 12 month contract. This sounded ideal, so I agreed. He told me they take two months’ payment in advance, which irked a little but I went along with it.

The first sign of a problem was when the ADSL switched from Newnet to XLN Telecom. The following day, You Tube was almost unusable, a 3 minute clip might take 7-8 minutes to watch, with frequent “buffering” ie freezing while it was downloading. I then tried to download something on BitTorrent. It didn’t work at all. When I called XLN Telecom about these issues, I was simply told that these aren’t business services and are either deprioritised or blocked in the case of BitTorrent.

Firstly, I work from home, so I use the PCs for business and home use.

Secondly, I often use You Tube for watching videos on laptop disassembly or software tutorials. I use BitTorrent occasionally for software, where I have genuine serial numbers but where customers have lost or not been provided with a software CD/DVD. I should add that I am opposed to software theft.

Thirdly, how dare XLN Telecom decide how I use the Internet! The phrase “net neutrality” is far too weak to describe this, it is this is censorship pure and simple.

With a broadband service that is crippled, I decided to cancel, and was told there was a £99 cancellation fee, but that this would be waived if I carried on with just their phone services.

Within 2 weeks of going live with them, I receive my first invoice for £119.41! I was shocked, as I was expecting it so be around double the monthly £26.95, i.e about £54. As it was about to be taken from my account, I called my bank and cancelled the direct debit. Upon checking the invoice, I see I have been charged £28.99 setup and £15 for a router. I already had a router and was only taking it as I was told it was free (as is normal for 12 month contracts.) I also checked the paper contract, and see it is for a 24 month contract.

So I called XLN telecom to ask for an explanation. I was told that the errors would be sorted out on my next invoice, but I had to pay this one. I said that was ridiculous, I had no intention of paying an incorrect invoice, and said I wanted a credit note for the items I hadn’t received.

I could continue, but I am now trapped in a 24 month contract with these people, where they have a £99 broadband cancellation fee, which I am still waiting to get a credit for. They have a £199 cancellation fee for their phone services. I would still be billed for setup fee and router, so would cost me over £400 to cancel.

Avoid XLN Telecom like the plague!

Its good to remove programmes you no longer need…except when they are Windows Updates!

I recently reformatted a badly infected PC for a customer. It had a number of nasty trojans, plus some files with broken digital signatures. After reinstalling Windows Vista plus the 100 or so updates, and restoring her documents, I returned the PC.

I always try to advise customers on how to protect themselves online, as so much malware is now a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” masquerading as some useful piece of software. “Honest guv, I will speed up your pc, plus give you virus protection, make you lots of money and even bring you regular cups of tea” (well ok, not that.)

As part of this advice, I advise customers to remove software they no longer need, such as RealPlayer, Java, Shockwave, a gazillion toolbars etc.
Startlingly, during the course of my conversation with my customer, she starting telling me how she had removed all those surplus Microsoft Updates, as they were years old, and she doesn’t use them! I had to explain how they are vital for her protection, but it never occurred to me that this could make sense and there is a certain logic to it. The average user just installs the updates automatically without ever needing to understand these updates fix security holes in Windows.

What is the solution to this? Microsoft can’t prevent users from uninstalling updates, as updates can cause  other programmes or entire systems to crash or cease working. As much as I dislike the “are you sure?” and “are you really, really sure” type of dialogues, perhaps a sterner warning before uninstalling critical updates is needed.

Why not use counterfeit Windows software?

I sometimes stumble across computers running counterfeit copies of Windows Vista, 7 and less commonly XP. In most cases, these are machines that have been upgraded by a friend who “knows a lot about computers.” Whether this is because the original machine needed its hard disk wiping due to virus infestation or the hard drive itself had failed. In many cases, a genuine copy of Windows is replaced by a more “premium” counterfeit copy, usually Vista or 7 Ultimate. I can only guess at the reasoning bethind this. It must be because the “friend” has downloaded this cracked copy and can install it on multiple computers. At first glance, this sounds appealing, as it is usually done “on the cheap” and you get enhanced features.

The advantages offered by Ultimate editions over the standard “home premium” or “Business/Professional” editions are seldom used by the average user. For Windows 7, this is:

• BitLocker – whole drive encryption (the freeware TrueCrypt is highly regarded if you need this functionality)

So in 99% of cases, you can install your genuine copy of Windows and it will do what you need without using counterfeit software with the risks detailed below.

1) Windows updates. Counterfeit Windows software generally works by preventing Windows from activating or by preventing the process detecting activation. You can run into trouble downloading updates, which will render the computer vulnerable to exploits often found on malicious webpages, such as phishing sites (these are sites that appear to come from the likes of Paypal or a bank etc and get you to enter your password so they can steal it)

2) Malware – often cracked copies of Windows come with sneaky malware (viruses or trojans) attached. Often these are undetectable to antivirus software, as they are installed first, with Windows and then they hide themselves very well.

Many end users are grateful to their friend for helping them out of a spot, and I can’t blame them. I would blame PC vendors for not providing installation DVDs for people who need to reinstall. Its all very well to provide a recovery utility on the hard disk, until the hard disk fails! In most cases, you can contact the tech support of the PC supplier and buy a replacement disk (usually for much less than a new copy of Windows e.g  £20) This is one way to stay safe and legit. Another is to contact a PC technician like me, who keeps a set of disks, and can install using your genuine licence key.

How to speed up your PC

I’ve had a lot of calls lately from customers whose PCs are running very slowly.
Firstly, it is important to separate a slow PC from a slow Internet connection and many people mix them up. So you need to check how the PC performs using non-internet programmes such as Word, Excel and generally clicking through menus such as the control panel.

Once you have identified that it is the PC that is slow, the causes can be split into two categories:

A) Hardware

Windows versions have recommended hardware specifications. The important ones are processor speed, hard drive space and memory (RAM).
The biggest bottleneck for most users is RAM and this is also the cheapest upgrade. For Windows XP, I recommend 1GB of RAM and for Vista/Windows 7, I recommend 2GB. The cost of this RAM upgrade varies from week to week as RAM prices are notoriously changeable, but you can think of a guide price of £20-£30 plus labour for a RAM upgrade.
Other issues that can cause slowness are malfunctioning hardware, even something as simple as a wireless mouse/keyboard that is running very low on battery.

B)  Software

Nailing down the reasons for a slow pc due to software is much more tricky as there are a multitude of factors that can be responsible.
The following are some of the factors that can slow a PC down.

• Malware
• Multiple Antivirus programmes (there can only be one!)
• Lots of unnecessary programmes running constantly (key offenders are Live Messenger, Skype, Adobe Reader, RealPlayer, BitTorrent programmes
• Surplus printers/drive mappings/network connections installed
• Heavily fragmented drives (unlikely to be a problem with Windows 7 / Vista)
• Fragmented page file and/or system files
• Driver conflicts

Work through these possibilities and you should find the bottleneck.