moonjiver

And thanks to all for the illuminating comments.

Sorry for my delay. The owner of the laptop stated, as if it were a fact, that he could not connect to the internet "because of illegal programs on there". Clearly he either didn't understand the technology properly or was giving me a bit of ******** about what is really the matter with his Mac. Either way, he doesn't come over to me as trustworthy nor his knowledge of computers. (BTW, I've now managed to get some very good honest advice about buying a computer from other sources!).

Yes, it is an odd post, I'm sorry! The reason I'm checking this out is because my friend's friend was supposed to be helping me towards choosing a new PC, "knew a lot about it". But now I'm in quite a suspicious mood, don't think I'll trust the guy! So far, people largely are suggesting that the laptop may have ransomware or malware on it, or possibly pirated software. But the original statement made to me that it "prevented access to the internet" has been dismissed by one of my friends as baloney! Thanks for the comments. I'll try to get more precise info about what exactly is on the laptop.

Thanks very much. The same comment was made elsewhere by someone, which leads me to think that the "illegal programs" were some kind of risky download. I gather that there are actually straightforward fixes, and anyway surely the programs could just be uninstalled if they are causing problems? Sorry for my limited amount of info. It mostly boils down to an issue of trust - I wonder what sort of illegal downloads my friend's "friend" has got on his laptop and why he is being so cagey about the situation!

I have a conundrum, hoping someone is able to shed light on it. One of my friends knows someone who has an Apple Mac laptop, not recent, which is used mainly for typing and other basics, also some photo-editing. Apparently the laptop cannot be connected to the internet because "it has some illegal programs on it". Sounds bad! I don't have reason to think there is anything terrible on there - even so, it sounds very odd and I'm not sure the laptop owner is being straightforward about it. I don't know whether the programs were once downloaded from somewhere, or maybe copied from another computer (possibly without licences?). But even if that were so, would such "illegal" programs actually prevent the laptop from functioning properly on broadband (maybe security software would detect things)? Or maybe they would interfere with other newer programs one might wish to install onto the laptop? I don't understand the technology enough to know the truth of the matter, but I wonder if it makes sense to someone else?

Well, I'm close to buying a new PC (upgrading from a laptop with Windows 7) - taken me half a century to get here cos I know virtually nobody who understands much about computers! But I'm homing in on an Acer Aspire XC-710 desktop. The older guy in my local shop gave me a lot of technical info which was completely meaningless to me and then printed out a quote for a pc which, even to me, was obviously vastly more powerful and expensive than I would ever need. In contrast yesterday, a nice young guy down at Currys seemed to be completely on my wavelength, explained the essential technology that I needed and wasn't a bit fazed by my dumb questions! The Acer I'm looking at seems to have all my minimum requirements, 4GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10, built in wi-fi, plus room for expansion. I will be doing all the usual stuff, no gaming, some films etc. But I need to install Photoshop or possibly one of the free editing programs.The only thing worrying me is the processor. I've been told by others to look for an up-to-date quad core but this one has only a dual core - Intel Core i3-6100. The Currys guy said that the "the Intel Pentium is too slow for Photoshop" - do others agree with that assessment? I gather that the processor is the most expensive component to upgrade later! Before then, I was looking at a very similar P/Bell pc with a quad core Intel Pentium N3700 processor. One older guy told me it was the latest processor but the young chap yesterday steered me away from it! I need some helpful advice to get through the minefield!

Anyone having email problems with Nokias? Microsoft, having bought up the mobile phone division of Nokia, have just ended the email facility on many Nokia models, mainly non-touchscreen phones (they have posted statements about it online). For me it's quite a disaster because I often leave my HTC smartphone at home and take out my small handy Nokia - just for calls and checking emails. But using the email menu, or downloading the email applications of Yahoo, Gmail etc. no longer works on the Nokia and going to the Yahoo or Google website and trying to log-in that way also fails. Anyone have any thoughts? It has increased my cynicism about big companies which hold near-monopolies and can do as they please, presumably the hope is to push customers towards buying the more modern phones with Windows software. But am I understanding this correctly? I can hardly believe that the basic Nokias, plenty in the shops still, have suddenly been rendered half useless - good only for phone calls by grannie! So far I have been into one mobile phone shop and the "advisor" knew less than I did, failed completely to set up email again on my Nokia, had no ideas how to get round it ...

Thanks a lot, I may well check out those two ideas shortly. Since I posted, I have learned that some blogging sites are indeed problematic on a smartphone (apparently there are apps which make things easier on well-known sites like Wordpress). Most blogging sites talk about posting from mobiles, don't tell you that it is actually difficult, depends on the phone etc.! I'll post more about this if I get further useful info.

Not sure if this is the right place for this moan .. but trying to find a blogging website which works well on my HTC Desire S. My experience is so far awful! Tumblr is quite simple to use but keeps logging me out suddenly. Blogster will accept photos but not text input - screen just freezes. It's very difficult to access Blogger - Google keeps directing me to someone else's account! Are they all as clunky and difficult as this?Maybe they are really meant to be used on PCs. Please advise a Not-quite-beginner (probably still bit dumb).