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May 13 Newsletter

 

At last we have some decent weather, and summer’s around the corner. I hope you are well.  

Here’s a roundup of the latest IT news.  

 

Wireless Range Extenders

 

 So many of my customers have problems when using wireless devices, such as laptops, Ipads and Kindles etc, when at home and they find the wireless signal is very low or non existent.  There are sometimes blackspots around the house or in the garden, when it’s practically impossible to get a broadband connection. You may want to use your Ipad in the garden but can’t get online.

The answer is installing a Range Extender. There are now many excellent products available designed to boost your broadband signal to every point in the house, so you get full signal strength wherever you are. My favoured choices are Belkin & Netgear, although other makes work equally as well.

So for around £100, I could supply and install a new Range Extender and give you superb wireless Internet throughout the whole house, or even at the end of the back garden.

   

Still Problems with Yahoo Email being hacked.  

 Even though I first alerted you of the problems with millions of Yahoo customers having their email accounts hacked into, 2 months on, and the problem has still not been resolved. I’m getting at least one customer a week who sends me an email from their Yahoo account, which they did not send. Their Yahoo email account has been hacked into, and emails are being sent out in their name, to all their contacts in their address book, with no covering message, just a link which, when clicked, takes you to a dodgy website. It’s a real problem which, to date, is still ongoing. I’ve always believed that prevention is better than cure. So, if you have a Yahoo email account, I would strongly recommend that you do 3 things immediately. First is to change your Yahoo password. Secondly, you should change your security question (e.g. Mother’s maiden name). Thirdly run a full virus and malware scan, to make sure your computer(s) is completely clear of any nasties. Of course, if you would prefer me to come and do this for you, I would be happy to do so.

 

Online Web Albums

 

How often have you been away on holiday, or been to a family celebration, taken photos, and wanted to share them with your family and friends? The trouble is that you don’t want to be sending people an email with dozens of attachments. First it would a nightmare sending more than 20+ pictures, and also the person receiving them may not be happy having to download them.

The answer is to create a Web Album online, which simply means that you can upload your photos onto a free web album, and then send a link to your family and friends, which when they receive it, they simply click on the link on the email which will take them directly to the online album. They can then view and download any pictures they want.

Picasa used to offer this service, but that recently changed its name to Google +. However, many people are having problems sharing their web albums using the Google + service.

So a very good alternative is www.myalbum.co.uk which is a great FREE service. When you create your web album, you can then share it with your friends, and even upload it to your Facebook or Twitter accounts (I know that will sound like gobbledygook to some people, but ask your kids!). You get 1Gb of free space (enough for about 500 photos) but if you want more, you can buy 25Gb of space for less than £20 per year. I think that’s good value.

Again, if you need any help setting this up, please let me know and I’d be happy to come over and do it all for you.

 

Roboform  

 

I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth telling you again about Roboform. It’s a fantastic Password Storage programme which allows you to store 10 of your favourite website passwords for free (if you need more you need the Pro version which is one charge of £20). But it also gives you a Form Filler, which means that when you come across any website which asks you for your name, address, phone number etc, you just click one button, and it fills in all the boxes for you automatically. It’s really good and I’ve been using it of for years.

Go to www.roboform.com and see the various options.

Again, if you would like me to help, just call or email me.  

And finally……  

Back by popular demand is the 3D Stereogram hidden image. Can you see what the hidden image is? First correct answer wins £862 million. I’ll send you a cheque!!

   

 

 

That’s it for this month. I hope you enjoy the summer, and remember I’m always here if you need any help or advice.