Phishing emails

Unsurprisingly, the more online activity you get involved in, the more your email address gets abused by fake emails. Personally I can receive up to four or five a day - at work we get dozens every day. Some are relatively easy to spot, for instance the 'legacy' scam where you are told a previously unknown relative has left you money in a will - or the 'cash movement' scam where you are invited by the relative of a deposed dictator to help move millions of dollars with the promise of a cut... These are designed ultimately to get you to pay a charge for the transaction which will never actually happen... Frankly if you fall for these, you shouldn't be allowed to have a bank account in the first place.
More worrying is the scam mails supposedly from your bank or from Paypal etc.. Some banks may actually use email communications, I know mine does, so people can be drawn in - the things to look out for here are:

• Are they using an email address that you have given to your bank? 
• Do they use your name in the email? 
• Is there a link in the email asking you to 'log-on' to change your settings or contact the bank? 

Use these questions to test the validity, and email that starts, Dear (blank) or Dear User/Dear Customer... can be ignored, if they don't know your name they are NOT your bank. Naturally many of us have multiple email addresses, is the email address used the one you gave to your bank or to Paypal? if not, you can ignore/delete it.
Pretty much all of these scams will use a link to get you to click on something that is designed to get information for you - NEVER click on a link in this type of email. If you think you should log-on to your bank website, by all means do (via your normal link in your 'favourites'/'bookmarks', or by typing the URL directly into your browser), but NOT via the link given in the email - whatever it looks like, it is certainly not directing you to your bank.
If you are still uncertain, before taking any action, simply forward the email to Paypal or your bank using an email address provided by the bank - they will be able to tell you if it can be ignored. You can use 'spoof@' for suspected bogus Payal emails, each bank may have it's own reporting procedures.
Don't be caught out, treat every unsolicited email as potential spam, and a few you were expecting may catch you out. I have seen loads supposedly from credible courier companies asking for payments before deliveries are made - again, treat these with the utmost caution, even if you are expecting a courier delivery.

Internet security

Some Do's and Don'ts for internet users everywhere - you may find something on this list that you do, but shouldn't...

• Don’t re-use your email password - if you log into a third party site with your email address and the same password that you use for your emails (ie. your hotmail, gmail, etc..) that third party site has both your email address AND your password...
• Use two-factor passwords when you can  - I keep an 'offline' (ie. a notepad in my office) record of my passwords. I tend to have a list of about three or four different words and about three or four different numbers that I use - but I will still use totally random configurations just to keep things fresh - that's when you need a notebook or pother physical record (as opposed to a spreadsheet which might be accessed on a PC)
• Don’t use the same username everywhere people don’t realise that people can use Google to connect accounts accross all the different networks they visit, and then work out a way in. For instance Facebook can give visitors clues as to pets names childrens names, car type - all things that can give a clue to passwords. Forums will do the same, if you are logged into a Yamaha forum - what's the betting that one of your passwords is a favourite Yamaha model??
• Keeps plug-ins such as Flash and Java up to date as many of them are to guard against vunerabilities
• Be careful about who you friend on Facebook 
• Don’t trust public wi-fi - fine to use it now and again, but just be careful about what might be accessible on your laptop - and even worse, your phone (phones are generally less well-protected than computers)...

Cheap Web Hosting

I have mentioned on numerous occasions, the great web hosting package that I bought last year - it is an unlimited package allowing me to add as many domains as I want to the single-priced package. I wrote an article on my website called 'cheap web hosting' which looks at using different suppliers for hosting and domain registration. Since then I have purchased more domains, set up a few new sites and just recently ended my long-running expensive hosting package that I took out about four years ago.
I think it's true to say that once you take out your first hosting package, you are more than likely to stick with them. However, for my main (cassette to CD conversion) site, I have tried to get the best prices and tried not to be put off by the miserable prospect of trying to move hosts on a live site.
This last move however, was the smoothest simply because I now know what to expect. I now know that if I use a nameserver to redirect my site that the email will go with it, and if I use the IP address of the server, it will not....
With this in mind (and bearing in mind this is the most important of all the sites I have) I arranged to transfer the domain to 1and1 internet (the best price I have found for registering .co.uk domains) - this entails obtaining the 'IPSTAG' of your preferred domain registrar, and passing this on to your 'old' registrar.
Whilst I was waiting for the domain to be transferred, I copied all the files from the old site onto my super new unlimited hosting server, and added the domain on my 'CPANEL'. Then I went over to my 1and1 account dashboard and entered the nameserver of my hosting service against the domain I was expecting to transfer. Then I went back to my hosting CPANEL and opened accounts for all the email addresses I would be likely to need (three in all) - I then configured OUTLOOK to pick up mail for these email addresses.
Al that remained was for me to sit back and wait - I put up a note on the old site that over the next day or two, mail or web pages might go missing - and sure enough one test mail that I sent from the contact form on the site did not get through during this period. Nonetheless in about 24 hours or so, the site was showing on the new server (I made an adjustment to the copied web files so I would know when the transfer had taken place), and over the next 24 hours, the mail started to come across into the OUTLOOK accounts I had set up.
Now I have saved myself a lot of money in hosting and domain registration fees, although admittedly all my 'eggs' are in one 'basket' when it comes to hosting, domain registration is kept separate which makes a lot of sense when you control multiple domains. My whole online 'operation' is now completely streamlined (funny 'cos my expensive hosting service was called 'streamline'...), and I am happy that I am working as efficiently as possible with the money that I have available.
The learning curve with unlimited hosting is steep, but very rewarding when you realise just how much you can achieve with it - and I am thinking of maybe doing some tutorials for the tasks that I have done so far,to encourage others who are planning to go down the same route - believe me, if you plan to ever have more than one website on the go, then unlimited hosting is for you... to learn more about the services I use click the link to go to my web hosting and domain registration article.

Log Me In

I have been using 'LogMeIn.com' for a little while now, long enough for the free trial to have ceased and I am now running the free version.
LogMeIn is a service that allows remote access via the web between computers. I use two laptops at work and two desktops at home - they all have the software installed so I can access any of the four computers now from the web.
Although I have been downgraded to the free service, it still has all the features I need for simply checking my OUTLOOK inbox, or accessing the works database from home. The free version does not have file transfer capabilities, but I can always send files via email if I need to. I am sure there are other fuseful functions that are missing from the free version, but as far as I can tell, it does what it says it will, and allows remote access for no monthly fees...
I use 'Radmin' for the same thing at the moment, and that had an initial startup fee - however I can only ever use it on a single licence, LogMeIn Free allows me to add as many PC's as I want to my account, so I doubt whether I am ever going to need to use Radmin again (although it does have the missing 'file transfer' feature that LogMeIn Free does not have).
As far as free software goes, I am ranking this one up there with OpenOffice and AVG and all those other top free software titles that we tend to take for granted.

February 2014 - update about LogMeIn free service

1 and 1 Internet

I regularly use two domain registration services, I started with 'GoDaddy' and have found them to be excellent, but when I discovered that they don't really do '.co.uk' domains, I had to find an alternative.
I have to say I have been very pleased with 1 and 1 for domain registration - they offer a cheap and comprehensive service with easy-to-use front panel which allows you to change settings such as DNS. They are also helpful when it comes to getting support.
However. the reason I am most impressed with them is they are turning into my most active affiliate. The payouts are relatively small, but come in quite regularly - I even had two notifications today! The reason they are successful for me as an affiliate (I believe) is that I think they actually provide a decent service - and they really do offer competitive prices. So many other affiliates I try to promote are not really competitive price-wise. They offer big incentives, but you can't really put your heart and soul into promoting them because you can't in all honesty say they offer great value.
So hand on heart, especially for UK domains, if you are looking to buy a domain name or looking for a comprehensive hosting or email package, try 1 and 1 (they are not limited to UK domains by any means, but that is the reason I started using them in the first place).

Free software alert!

I am always on the lookout for free software, and think I have found another winner!
'LogMeIn' provides a free service for remote access to a PC, for instance, so that you can access your home PC from work, or your work PC from home (assuming you have permission from work to do either of these things..).
In the past I have used Radmin and have been very pleased with the results - however you have to pay for each new PC you add to your Radmin account. This rivals the service 'GoToMyPC' which charges quite a steep monthly fee (in my estimation).

When you sign up for 'LogMeIn' (www.logmein.com), the PC's you add will automatically be assigned to a free trial (30 day) of LogMeIn Pro. However, at the end of the trial, I am assured that these will revert to LogMeIn Free if I choose not to purchase a licence for the Pro version.
The Pro version offers file transfer and other features which I do not think I will need, so I fully intend to let my account become downgraded to the free version - I will post again about any short-falls I detect in the Free version, but so far I am impressed with this free software.
I am particularly impressed with how easy it is to add PC's to your account. With Radmin I had to set port forwarding on my router, no such issues with LogMeIn - just download the software onto the PC you want to be connected to remotely (even if it's on a network) - it's that simple....should I be worried about that??

February 2014 - update about LogMeIn free service

Virus and Malware problems

I run a fairly tight ship when it comes to the PC's that I use on a regular basis - I have regular use of two laptops and two desktops, and they all have plenty of applications to fight 'nasties'. I have noticed recently that a lot of friends and colleagues are reporting viruses, particularly of the kind that pose as anti-virus, tell you that your computer is infected before offering to remove the infection if you hand over your credit card details...
I really hate this type of enterprise, so I thought I would share some knowledge on how to combat it.
First of all, get yourself some great free anti-virus/anti-malware software you can use either:
'AVG Free' or 'Microsoft Security essentials', both of these self-update and run scheduled scans, but MSE gives wider cover for Malware - since the last AVG update, the two applications no longer run on the same machine (shame on AVG for adding that 'tweak' to their latest version...)
I would recommend a belt and braces approach by also downloading Malware Bytes (MBAM) - you have to update and run this one manually, but it is extremely effective at ridding your PC of nasties.
The problem with 'clever' malware, is that they are able to disable your existing antivirus, and won't let you download anything or run MBAM - so what do you do now???
All is not lost, there are two courses of action, Firstly download the latest copy of MacAfee 'Stinger' onto a memory stick using a separate PC, run this on the infected PC. If the malware does not stop it in it's tracks, it will find any dodgy stuff and you can opt to delete the files. Job done...
Some malware will 'know' to stop Stinger from working, so there is another option...
Visit the 'bleeping computer' forum and download 'Rkill' - in all it's seven formats. Rkill will attempt to halt the 'processes' that the malware uses, meaning you can now run MBAM, MSE AVG or any other previously affected anti-virus. Please note that it does NOT make any changes whatsoever to your computer setup - your anti-virus must do that, if you restart your computer, the virus will reappear if you did nothing to remove it.
Rkill comes in many guises in order to fool the malware into thinking is is not 'Rkill' - if the standard Rkill.exe file does not work, there are more versions of the same thing with different names, some of which are named to look like common PC files like 'iexplore.exe'.
If all this is new to you, then use a search engine to search out any of the software files below that you don't have - store them somewhere and every so often update them with the latest versions:

• RKILL - bleeping computer.com
• STINGER - MacAfee
• MSE - Microsoft
• AVG FREE - AVG
• MBAM - Malware Bytes

Once you have this lot in your arsenal, you will be well-equipped for any attack of the 'nasties' - you could even fix PC's for your mates too.

Still looking for slide-show feature

Having given 'Lunapic' a positive write-up, I find that it no longer works!!

I checked and it seems that the images are hosted by photobucket, so I tried them too... Their system works well, but I noted that the show does not work in Google 'Chrome' - not only that, but I can't assign a URL to the show - if I click on it, it takes me to the photobucket site - which is NOT what I wanted...

Admittedly, I have only tried free services, but even so, I would be happy with a low level of self-promotion for the service - I certainly don't want the slideshow to 'take over' and drive a lot of traffic back to itself.

I will continue to look for an alternative, but might have to end up with a coded solution after all...

Free Slideshow

I have been looking for a free service that will host a slideshow for a website, I couldn't get to grips with 'flikr' and 'photobucket' insist on advertising their service alongside the slideshow. In the end, I looked up questions on yahoo answers and found a suggestion for a site I had not heard of before. If you need animations or a slideshow for a website, don't want to pay, AND don't want to advertise the provider... then you can try: 'Lunapic'

It worked great for me, although not all the transitions work as they should, a simple slideshow was easy to create. I pasted the code into my site, and was well pleased with the results. The photobucket results were better quality, but as this 'job' isn't going to earn me anything, I was reluctant to pay for the non-advert version. I reckon I owe 'Lunapic' a review and a link, so here it is...

Don't you just hate spam?

Not the reconstituted meat variety, but the tons of unsolicited mail that carries a message of mischief, malice and downright criminality. The biggest insult is that they are hoping you will be vulnerable to their clumsy advances... The bank that I don't have an account with, and doesn't even know my name is telling me that my fictional account has been compromised... For that reason alone, I have vowed never to have a HSBC bank account, just so I don't even have to filter the emails that have HSBC in the title...

What can we do about it? Well, so far the best defence I have found is to have a gmail account - I have had a gmail account with googlemail for a couple of months now and have not had a single bit of junk mail. I do not leave the email address 'lying around' in forums and other places that might allow it to be picked up by spammers, this of course helps...

I like the way that gmail presents emails as 'threads' like in a form, and I also like that you can forward your mails (for free) and even filter mails and just have selected mails forwarded. So, in return, I am posting in favour of gmail - for free!

HD ready?

Now I am NOT an early-adopter, it's not like I don't trust or like new technology - I just don't believe in paying through the nose to be the first in line to have the latest gadget. I have no pieces of technology with the prefix 'i' for example, marketed by a certain Steve Jobs.

I am quite happy with the wonders of Nicam Stereo, and do not feel the desire to buy 7.1 surround sound. And now hard on the heels of extremely large expensive TV screens, comes High Definition...

I have recently started to wear glasses and am coming to terms with the adjustments, in poor lighting I sometimes struggle, even though I am long-sighted. So this thought occurred to me this weekend..

"why would I need high definition TV if I don't even have High Definition eyesight?"... just a thought....

Laptop Insurance

If you don't have laptop insurance, then you probably should (assuming you have a laptop!) consider it. The usefulness of the laptop lies in the fact that it is portable, and that introduces three problems that will affect laptops more than dektops:

• Your laptop will spend time in your car, on a train and in your bag - places that make it vulnerable to theft
• Your laptop is slim and lightweight, at some point you are going to drop it!
• A laptop comes out of the bag, is snapped open, snapped shut, bumped against things and generally will suffer more wear and tear than a desktop can even imagine

If you can see sense in the points above, you can see why you should be considering insurance for your laptop.

Home Network

Home PC systems and networks are now about as complex as business systems of just a few years ago. Our systems are networked, mostly via wireless networks, not only including PCs and laptops, but also integrating gaming and entertainment devices.

Most of these devices do not demand an individual network server with dedicated operating system, yet servers may take much of the strain of a home system in the future, removing much of the computational stress from the individual components of the complete home entertainment network.

I can see a future where a house could have anything from a single 1U server tucked away under the stairs, to a complete 'clean room' with stacked servers like something from a Sci-Fi set. The future of home computers and how they will finally merge into a complete home entertainment system is still being formed.

Oooops!

The picture here is my printer scanner in bits... stupid thought he would print off some sticky labels even though one of the labels wasn't properly affixed to the paper.. within seconds it was not attached to the paper at all, but it was well and truly attached to the inner workings of my printer!

Quite prepared to chuck the thing if my 'repair' didn't work, I set about the printer with my screwdriver and a certain amount of misgivings.. After about 10 minutes or so, with about a dozen screws lying around my feet, I finally removed the paper, but not before inadvertently removing a ribbon cable that did not look like it was going to easily slot back into place..

I battled with the ribbon cable eventually forcing it home, gathered up my screws and put it all back together again. it's a testament to Hewlett Packard that the whole thing went nicely back together, and worked! Hats off to HP, not all manufacturers are bothered about making repairable goods nowadays, and although HP did not exactly make it easy for me, a bit of determination and invention was all it took to correct my stupidity, now where did I put the rest of those sticky labels....?

Backup update

Well, it's just as well that I have my backup system in place as my main hard-drive has disappeared from 'My Computer' today... I have one 500GB SATA drive on one of my PC's which holds the data files from my cassette to CD conversions. This is no longer showing, but fortunately everything is backed up using my new system, so I am not too concerned.

There is every chance that the power cable has come out as the SATA cables on this system have a tendency to drop out, and yesterday I disconnected a floppy drive - I am assuming that I have been a bit clumsy during this process... I don't have to worry either way as I am quite safe in the knowledge that I have lost no data (as long as nothing has gone wrong with my backup drives!).

New backup system

I mentioned some time ago about some great free (for home use) software by '2 bright sparks' called 'Syncback' - a really excellent backup/synchronise utility. Originally I used it with a small (160GB) external drive that I bought, but inevitably I have outgrown this and the other 250GB drive that I have.

I tried a cheap NAS (Network attached storage) system, but it proved unreliable, so I now have another external drive, this time a 'dual' caddy with 2 x 400GB hard drives installed. (400GB seem to be better value on eBay, probably because people do not search for them so much!). The new caddy (which has a built in fan) seems a little noisy, so I have devised a cunning new system...

I have two PC's in my home office which are 'semi-networked', one of them has the older 160 GB drive and 250GB drive attached, the other has the newer 800 GB device, a total of 1.2TB... (purely for backup). I have all of these drives plugged into a multi-plug which has a timer set to come on just for four hours every day. I have timed my backups to take place within this time-frame, so that I am not powering up these external devices unnecessarily. I was telling someone last week how many sockets were in use in my home office - it came to a total of 16 sockets to run two PC's and associated devices, and another 6 for the sound system....

Every so often I change the plugs and sockets around a bit, but one day I plan to have a system that will make it easy for me to switch off devices that are not needed all the time in order to save a little electricity.

Check your spam..

Symantec have issued a warning that 'short URL' spamming is on the increase. Short URL's are those handy cut-down URL's that are particularly useful for using in twitter, or for concealing an affiliate link. Obviously they can also be used for something far worse than an affiliate link and they can be difficult for spam software to pick up.

Always check a link that arrives by unsolicited email, and if you think it is from your bank or Paypal etc.. always log on in the usual way (eg. via your 'favourites') rather than clicking on the link within the mail.

On the other hand, short URLs can be very useful, and I use a service called 'Tiny.cc" who allow you to use a custom URL within their shortened framework - all for free too!

Free anti-virus software

It is a fairly well-established fact that much of the everyday software we use is free for home users. Years ago we used to have freeware and shareware which to be frank, was a bit clunky and amateurish, but nowadays, often fully-fledged professionally tried and tested software is available to all and sundry - and the price... is borne by the commercial users.

In many cases, it is a cut-down version of software that is available for free, and this is the case for many anti-virus software packages such as AVG, who offer 'AVG free' to home users. This is the first of my recommendations for anti-virus programs - it is free, self updating and trusted by many many users worldwide.

Those in the know understand that anti-virus need to be supplemented with anti-malware too, and my offering for this is Malware Bytes, again a cut-down free offering, and this program needs updating manually. Finally, Microsoft themselves have stepped into the arena with Microsoft Security Essentials - and the beauty of this system is that it is not only fully-functioning, and self-updating, it is also equipped to fight viruses AND malware all in one package.

So that's my three offerings:

1. AVG Free
2. Malware Bytes Anti-Malware (MBAM)
3. Microsoft Security Essentials

'Google' them to find a reliable download site (for the Microsoft program go direct to Microsoft) - Although some software of this type can conflict, I am happy to report that I run all three of these together on several PC's with no ill effects. Why have more than one? you may ask, and my answer is the old 'belt and braces' argument...two ways to attack viruses and malware has got to be better than one. These software options all have different priorities and different ways of detecting problems, so relying on just one may be too much of a risk.

Latest Gadgets

I am still playing with my new NAS that I bought from eBay, and so far have found that it works pretty much as I hoped. Access speeds are hardly blistering, but I only really want to use it for back-ups anyway...
I have installed to hard drives (400GB each) and set them up to be seen as a single disk. I am currently moving my current back-up files from my USB drives onto this new 800GB drive. Once these are safely done, I can wipe to old USB drives and then add them onto the NAS as extra storage space available to the network. My next task will be to configure my backup software to carry on backing up the various files that I need - I am also considering moving all my pictures onto the NAS so that they are available across my network and maybe backing them up onto one of the USB drives - I have already moved my music files (which I will also need to back up).

So as it stands, I have found two distinct uses for the NAS, firstly to back up files that I want to keep, and secondly to make certain files available across my network - where this has been done, another back-up will be required for which I will use the USB drives that the NAS has replaced. I have found the free back up software 'SyncBack' from '2brightsparks' to be perfectly adequate for my needs, so I will control most of the back-ups using this software, although I do have the option of the software that came with my Packard Bell external drive - this software is a lot quicker to set up, so I may try to see if it will work across the network.

The final task that I want the NAS to do for me is to provide a folder for other to access remotely with a password, this should be possible using the FTP server, but I haven't tried his yet and am not sure how it will work out.

Latest Purchases

My quest for improving my PC set-up never ceases...which ends up costing me a bit, at least I rarely have to use my 'own' money as my internet earnings cover most of my purchases...
It's not like I have the latest CPUs and Motherboards, but I do like to build new systems from scratch using old components, then add big hard-drives and plenty of RAM... currently I have two socket 939 board systems, one with a 2.2GHz single core, and one with a 2.0GHz dual core. I have a USB back-up hard-drive on each machine, but they are both pretty much full now. There is a 250GB backup drive on one, and a 150GB backup drive on the other.
I spotted a NAS (network attached storage drive) system some time ago, and have been interested ever since. The NAS works as extra storage just like a USB drive, except that it is connected via the network router and is therefore available to the whole network. Not only that, but some of them have USB ports so that USB drives can be added, plus many of them offer options for remote access. I tracked some on eBay and ended up with the IcyBox (pictured) this one takes two SATA drives (I also got 2 x 400GB drives from eBay), plus it has two USB ports to accomodate my existing USB drives which will give ne a total storage solution of 1.2TB. You can set up the IcyBox to RAID settings so that one drive is backed up by the other, but my intention is only to use the system to back up my PC's, so I don't really need to back up my back up!
I intend to use the system as a server for some files that I want to share over the network, so it will be interesting to see if that will work as I want it to. I am also quite excited about the internet access features, particularly if I can use it to host files that I use for websites - in theory, I could place all my blog pictures on there which would mean that I no longer needed to upload pictures...
I will post about how this new 'solution' works out in practice, so far I can only report that the 'refurbished' model that I bought looks cosmetically pretty much perfect, and the English version of the manual is not the best translation I have ever seen - hopefully the product itself and it's associated software will be fairly intuitive and I won't need to refer to the manual much..