ukbobboy

Scoring Points HI KenB After I finished making my point I realised that it might cause offence but that was not my intent. What I am pointing out is that the IT world is filled with misinformation, propaganda and always trying to frighten and deceive inexperience users. Now take the company I pointed out in my previous post, normally you would not believe a multi-million pound company would be hacked and, by the way they attacked their customers that complained, they would not want you to believe anything else. By the way, the first time I heard about this company being hacked a customer got his credit card number stolen. The thief, who lived on the other side of the world, went on to use the stolen number to make some illegal purchases. Meanwhile the FBI raided some servers selling illegal stuff and passed on the stolen CC number to Scotland Yard. The owner of the CC number got arrested, lost his job, his family stopped talking to him. It took him several years to prove that he was not behind those illegal purchases, in the meantime the life that he had was gone. So you see, I am not attacking Starbuck, I just saying don't believe the propaganda and always be on your guard because the guy that lost everything, believing his financial details were safe with a big company, could have been me. UK Bob

Example of a "Big Boy" caught with his trousers down Hi Guys (especially Starbuck) I came across this article today, please note that it was written this year and is a prime example of lax security in a big company: http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/blog/20130218-tesco-been-hacked-shoppers-complain-vouchers-stolen-clubcard-fraud UK Bob PS. This is the second time to my knowledge that this company has been hacked and their customers have lost money (aka Rich Pickings).

XP's Retirement, Hackers Heaven or Wild Speculation? Hi KenB Something went wrong with the forum yesterday and I could not post my reply. Never mind, here we go.......... You asked: Yes, I have worked in IT for a number of years before my retirement two years ago and during the course of my using, working with (both home and at work) and constantly learning about IT I have made PC security my own pet project. You see, the main thing I noticed when I first started in IT was the complete misunderstanding about computer security and how an unprotected system could succumb to a viral/worm attack. This lack of awareness was pervasive throughout the IT sections I have worked in and personally heard about, i.e. a government department's IT system was compromised by a worm that did it's rounds 12 months previously. And of course, over the years there have been reports in the press about how data, both computer and paper based, have been carelessly disposed of, e.g. a government minister throwing official papers in a street bin, a bank selling it's old computer storage disks on ebay without first wiping off its data, on-line companies through insecure procedures allowing their customers data to be readily accessed. Here's something about how some of those who should know better are still getting caught out: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/02/struggling_us_banks_warned_over_419_scams/ So you see, I try to keep myself informed about the things happening on the IT security front. You also said: Fraudsters come in all shapes and sizes, they can be the guy (and his dog) sitting in his back room to a whole organisation but It doesn't really matter because these 419 type scammers will always go after the gullible. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/21/nigerian_scams_msft_research/ Finally, you said: Amen to that fellow XP user. UK Bob

XP's Retirement, Hackers Heaven or Wild Speculation? Hi Guys First of all, I don't necessarily disagree with both your summaries but I do find the whole IT industry's attitude in trying to get people to move away from WinXP Pro and upgrade to Win7 without any regards to users individual needs somewhat self serving and disingenuous. Grandadfatboy said it best in his post: http://extremetech.support/threads/15168-End-of-XP-support?p=100308&viewfull=1#post100308 However, I will try to explain my position a little bit more; KenB, you said Well, I would agree that millions of us keep important details on our PCs but, as far as I am aware, there is nothing out there can guarantee access all PCs running XP. I think the "guarantee" thing is another wild exaggeration. As for the the big boys, I am quite sure you have heard, like I have, how some of them have been very lax when it comes to keeping their systems secure and holding on to their customers data, SONY immediately comes to mind. So I don't expect them to all have completed their upgrades and ironed out all the bugs they find, after all that's the stuff that keeps the IT industry churning. As for targeting ordinary people, yes I agree, the hackers and phisers tend to go after gullible people (remember the old saying:theirs one born every minute) because there is nothing on earth that can protect someone that does not exercise a good amount of common sense. Therefore, it is far easier and cheaper for criminals to target people with social exploits rather than paying $50,000 for something, which is at best, sketchy. Starbuck, you said: You know, this is an illusion that all the big companies would like to foster, until they get caught out and are forced to publicly admit that they have not been as diligent as they should have been. Simply put, there are still rich pickings out there for the bigger criminals to go after while the gullible will always fall prey to the clever con artists. UK Bob

XP's Retirement Will Be Hacker Heaven or just self-serving speculation? seedy21 Good article but just wild speculation, you see hackers that are willing to pay between $50,000 to $150,000 for an XP exploit are likely to go after high value targets, e.g. banks, multi-national companies, etc. These companies have the necessary finance to buy in security IT consultants and software technicians to protect their systems while migrating to MS's new O/S (or maybe moving over to open source). While the rest of us, the small companies, one man and his dog, hobbiest, etc, will look to protect our systems the best way we can. UK Bob

PC Continuous Restart Hi Harry UK Believe it or not, about a week after I assembled this PC I am now using I ran into the same problem, my WinXP Pro O/S started to go into constant restart and reboot loops, and I had absolutely no idea what was causing it. However, after about between 6 - 9 reboot loops, WinXP showed an error message and said it was going to rebuild it's kernel, after the final reboot (and rebuild) my PC and WinXP has been very stable ever since and has only crashed about 4 or 5 times in the last 3 or so years. Now, KenB could be right and your HD is on the way out but it would not hurt to try a utility that could force WinXP to recreate it's kernel (if one exists). Hope this helps UK Bob

Indian Call Centres are there to get your money, they are not there to help you. Dear AuraTodd I too have had a similar experience with Indian call centres, they treat you like a mug and keep you holding on the premium telephone line while your telephone bill sky rockets. My original ISP got taken over by Pipex and they used an Indian call centre to field their help calls. The first thing I found out was that whenever I called this "centre" they would insist on asking the same questions over and over again, you would think that they would have my computer cleaning habits in their records but, and they admitted this, they had to ask these same repeated questions every time you phoned with a problem. I reckon that this "repeated questioning" policy is there to make the call centres money, I believe the cost of the telephone calls are split between BT, Pipex and the call centre. Therefore, I am not surprised when they tried to keep you on the phone, talking nonsense, for as long as possible because that is the same thing they did to me when I told them that I was leaving their ISP. However, the most important thing to remember is that no company can force you to remain their customer against your will, you have the legal right in this country to spend your money where you want to and no one can tell or force you to do anything different, even if you have to break their contract and pay a fee. Finally, you do not need a MAC address to change your ISP, a MAC address makes things easier for the ISPs but they are not essential. I myself have changed broadband providers three times and I have never needed a MAC address to facilitate any of the changes. UK Bob

Wireless Connections Hi Cheemag First thing I will admit is that my wi-fi knowledge is limit and I strongly feel that you have only provided a small amount of info that will enable anyone to give in-depth help. Saying that, here is my best guess; Use a wireless connector to connect your laptop to your modem-router, I would strongly suggest the same manufacture as your modem-router, e.g if you use a Thomson TG587N wireless router then use a Thomson TG123g connector on your laptop. www.dslsource.co.uk/View/THOMSON-TG123g] Please note, this is just an example of how to set up a wireless home connection. Second, you have to register your laptop within your wireless router, wired connections are permanently registered automatically, and you need to add the necessary username and password (and anything else) in the wireless connector's application in order to identify itself to your router. Once you have done the above preliminaries you will find that your laptop will connect itself to your router and network every time. Hope this helps UK Bob

Server Access Rights Hi John C Just had a thought about your problem, you said that all three XP PCs are connected to your central server and only one PC is giving you a (very) partial access problem. Is it possible that the access rights of this troublesome PC has been changed in some way? Saying that, I agree with Plastic Nev's solution, i.e. restore the PC to the time before the problem occurred. However, if that does not work then it will have to be a full reformat and re-installation of your O/S and all applications. UK Bob

Running WinXP after MS ends support. Hi Guys (especially PilotBob) The article linked to looks at XP and Win7 from the big company's point of view, simply because they have big investment budgets, can buy in the best consultants advice and software technicians to keep their businesses running 24/7. However, as a pensioner not having unlimited funds and someone that uses his PC for the good of his family, I have to look at my circumstances and PC usage very carefully before I can make the jump from XP, which is very stable platform, to Win7, which for me is an unknown quantity. First, I have a number of old software that still serve me very well in my home environment, for example MS Word97. I know purest would say I should upgrade to something more modern but then again why should I? Secondly, the equipment I use, e.g printers, scanner, dial-up modem, etc. will I be able to get Win7 drivers for them? And above all, the unknown downtime I would have to endure trying to get back all the facilities I now have that I would loose when moving to Win7. What I am basically saying is that my PC is a tool I use on a daily basis, I don't play games, and WinXP provides me with the stability I need to perform the tasks I need to complete. At this moment and for the foreseeable future I cannot see a reason for me to invest a lot of time and my limited funds in moving from XP to Win7. UK Bob

Using XP with online Outlook Hi cbx78 I don't know if this will help because I do not use Hotmail or the online version of Outlook but my son does. I have a PC running WinXP SP3 and, as luck would have it, my son wanted to user my PC to catch up on his Hotmail emails. Anyway, like you he got an error message saying that he had to use the latest version of Internet Explorer, I use Opera as my default browser even though IE is installed on my PC. Anyway, my son closed Opera and opened IE, he had some initial problems and I believe he had to slightly update my IE browser but eventually he got to read his emails. So, consequently, I'm guessing that to use online Outlook, which is now the upgraded Hotmail, you must have the following minimum specs PC running WinXP SP3 Internet Explorer 8.0 As a former office worker, I am also guessing that your work PC is likely to be running WinXP SP3 but only IE6.0 or IE7.0 (in order to remain compatible with your legacy applications). Hope this helps. UK Bob

Laptop/Desktop Memory Modules Hi aquaman Just have a small point to make, which you may or may not know about, did you know that just because a memory module fits in your computer that does not mean it will work or is compatible. Let me explain, when you install memory in a computer it has to be of the same type and speed that is compatiblewith the motherboard. Now, you say the 2GB memory module works fine but the 4GB module doesn't (or is it an additional 2GB memory module). Anyway, the 4GB module (or additional 2GB) has to be the same make, model and type as the original 2GB memory module, your 4GB of memory should then work in your laptop. Hope this helps UK Bob

Stuff that causes your PC to freeze Hi PEV Both guys are right, when you use Task Manager to end a process you are not doing anything to harm your system just closing down the problem application. Now, some of the type of things that causes your PC to freeze, apart from a hardware problem, are: 1) Low RAM memory, your PC is shuffling things around in memory and paging stuff to and from your HD. Obvious cure, add more ram memory up to a maximum of 4GB. 2) Too many applications open or too many instances of the same software open, e.g. multiple browser tabs open. Despite what software makers say, in the real world you can never achieve what they indicate on their packaging or in their advertising blurb, therefore work with a smaller number of open windows. 3) Buggy applications, i.e. all versions of Microsoft Word have a tendency to freeze for a few minutes. Sometimes there are work-arounds available to avoid these problems, doing some Internet research may furnish a resolution. Hope this helps UK Bob

Hi Nev You know, I had thought about the implications of buying second hand :confused: and realised that Mr. MS would say that windows licences are not transferable. However, I guess that the second-hand market would say that as long as the software stays unchanged with the hardware then no additional licence fee is required:D. Either way, I have never heard of a software manufacturer going after purchasers of second hand computers :). Finally, these issues of whether second hand software can attract an additional licence fee, regardless of what the "terms and conditions" say, can only be decided by a court . And, by the way, Buyer Beware. UK Bob

Hi Signart You said: Well, every store that sells PCs, such as PC World, has to pay Microsoft a royalty/licence fee per PC sold and that cost is incorporated in the price you pay for your (store bought) computer. So, PCs bought with pre-installed windows are legal because you, when you buy them, have paid the windows licence fee. UK Bob