Newsletters

In this month's Newsletter:

How do I know if my computer is safe and secure?

By now, most people have taken reasonable step to secure their computers: antivirus software and firewalls are installed and accounts are password-protected. But how do you know if its working? There is no way to be certain but there are some tests that should help to either reassure or else highlight problems.

1. The first is from (surprisingly enough) Microsoft! MS have made available their MS Baseline Security Analyzer. It checks your system not just for any missing updates but also for common configuration problems. Download and run the program and it will give your system an MOT and tell you what you need to do to make it more secure.

2. The second thing you can do is go to go to the ‘Shields Up’ site and check your “File Sharing” and “Common Ports” weaknesses. The site will attempt to access your system and give you a report. Links and instructions are on my site.

3. The Baseline Security Analyzer checks your Microsoft software for security flaws but what about your other programs? I recommend Secunia. Download and run the program and it will identify any insecure programs installed on your computer and give you links to the solutions.

4. The last recommendation I have is to check the quality of your passwords. For this, go to CertainKey.com and it will tell you how long it takes to crack your password - you’ll be surprised.

All these products are FREE. Please contact me if you need further help.

Is 'google.co.uk' down (unavailable) to everyone or is it a problem with my computer? Has my own website been 'down' during the last month?

When go to a web page and you get the "Server Not Found" error it could be that the page is 'broken' (their problem) or it could be a problem at your end. How do you know which it is? I'm going to assume that you've entered the correct address!
Go to: downforeveryoneorjustme.com and enter the address and it will tell you. Simples!

If you have your own website you will want to know if the site has ever been 'down'. Whenever the site is down you are potentially losing money! I use JoomlaMonitor for the sites that I am responsible for. I get a monthly report showing uptime; downtime and outage. This helps me to monitor the quality of the hosting company I use. For the record, I've had no downtime on any of my sites for the 12 months I've been receiving reports.
This is FREE for single sites.

Website Steve's Q&A FREE Stuff

MS Baseline Security Analyzer: A FREE security check from Bill Gates!

ShieldsUp: They will try to break into your computer - for FREE.

Secunia: Identify security weaknesses in your programs for FREE.

CertainKey: How many minutes or months does it take to crack your password? Add a symbol to your password and see the difference! FREE.

DownForEveryoneOrJustMe: Is it their problem or yours?! FREE check.

JoomlaMonitor: Keep tabs on your host company! For FREE.

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

Steve
PC Resolver
966 967 439
650 354 629
Skype: stevegleds

Please email Steve if any of the links in this article don't work.

Newsletters

In this month's Newsletter:

PC Resolver, in partnership with The Inland Magazine, is publishing a Questions and Answers section in the published magazine. The questions and answers themselves are in the Website Steve's Q&A section of Support. This section will grow and will include non-published questions.

A key part of Website Steve's Q&A is questions about websites. Having your own website has never been easier, cheaper or more necessary than it is today. A fully functioning professionally designed and built website costs 300 Euros to build to your requirements and less than 10 Euros a month to host (including your domain name and IVA). I will give a 50 Euro discount to anyone quoting this newsletter!

You can meet me at my Free Computer Clinic at The Inland Magazine Bootsale in Salinas on the First Sunday of each month.

Due to an increasing number of requests for help via email I am now answering many of these by creating an article on my website. To receive a 'tweet' everytime I publish something new Follow me on Twitter:

Follow PCResolver on Twitter

How Can I Get BBC iPlayer in Spain?

This has to be one of the most frequent questions I get asked and (until now) I’ve said “You Can’t”. Well, it turns out that I’m wrong ... and it gets worse! It turns out that I’ve been wrong for years! I have the solution!

First the problem: because of licensing restrictions the BBC, Channel 4 etc are not allowed to broadcast outside of the UK. They therefore have to monitor users of iPlayer etc to see where they are accessing the service from. They do this by looking at your IP address (this is given to you by your Spanish Internet provided).

There are a number of people offering access to these sites for either a one-off fee of several hundred Euros or a monthly fee. What they do is set up a ‘proxy’ account for you which means that all the information you send or receive is redirected via another computer in the UK. You can do this yourself and you can even find free proxy servers.

My concern is: what are they doing with that information? This includes everything you send or receive (bank details as well as the latest Eastenders). You can always turn the proxy off when you’ve finished but will you remember? And, if even if you turn it off, what has happened whilst you were connected? What Malware has been downloaded for instance? Even if they are legitimate services you will run into frustrating reliability problems.

The Solution

The fix I have for this is a product called OnSpeed. I’ve used this on and off for years, even in the UK! It’s primary function is to speed up your Internet access (it makes a difference even on a 1mb broadband/ADSL link). It costs less than 30 Euros a year and has a money back guarantee. SAFE, LEGAL & CHEAP!

It does this by reducing the amount of information downloaded by compressing it and then decompresses it on your PC. Believe it or not, it is faster to compress, send and decompress than it is to just send. To do this it has to use its own high-speed servers in the UK to request and receive the data. This is how you are able to get iPlayer etc!! OnSpeed is asking for the programs from within the UK and forwarding them to you!

It also displays pages intelligently – for instance, the quality of pictures improves as the page loads so that you see all the text and a low resolution pictures immediately which means you can probably see all you need to see and be on another page in less time than it previously took just to download the page.

If you give it a try and you don’t see a significant improvement you can always cancel within the 14 days.

Unlike the other options, this is safe, secure and reliable! And LEGAL!! Oh, and you get faster Internet!!

ONSPEED - The Aternative To Broadband

Please see the fulll article for uptodate issues.

How Can I Get My Website To Be Number One In Google?

Following on from the last 2 months’ articles (we’ve paid for our own Google ads on Google pages and we have paying ads on our site earning commission) we now want to be on the first page of Google.

The important question is: "what search terms (key words) do you want to appear on the first page for?"

The more precise the key words the easier it is to be Number 1. For example: if you search “Computer Repairs Alicante” you will see PC Resolver on page 2. Change Alicante to Sax and I’m number 2 on page 1.

You need to:

  • Be sure of the search phrase/words that you are targeting
  • Write your content with these keywords / phrases in mind
  • Have links to your site from other (relevant) web sites
  • Write content for other sites and link to yours
  • Update your site regularly and keep it up-to-date

Don’t pay for short term success (there are many people offering to get to you page one but the results are not sustainable). The best and most reliable way of getting higher in the results is content, content, content. Your content should be relevant, up-to-date and interesting.

There are other steps you can take to improve your ranking but the list above is going to give you the most consistent results. When I build websites I build them with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind and offer advice to existing sites.

Website Steve's Q&A FREE Stuff

My Sky

mysky.sky.com: This is your Free Sky account page. Sign Up and check out the “Never Miss” option. Tell Sky the programs you’re interested in and they’ll send you an email telling you when the Series or program is due to start. How good is that?!

iWin Games

iWin.com: More entertainment - this time computer games. 100s and 1000s of games. Free to download and play with adverts or pay to remove the ads.

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

Steve
PC Resolver
966 967 439
650 354 629

Please email Steve if any of the links in this article don't work.

Following on from the last 2 months’ articles (we’ve paid for our own Google ads on Google pages and we havepaying ads on our site earning commission) we now want to be on the first page of Google.

The important question is: "what search terms (key words) do you want to appear on the first page for?"

The more precise the key words the easier it is to be Number 1. For example: if you search “Computer Repairs Alicante” you will see PC Resolver on page 2. Change Alicante to Sax and I’m number 2 on page 1.

You need to:

  • Be sure of the search phrase/words that you are targeting
  • Write your content with these keywords / phrases in mind
  • Have links to your site from other (relevant) web sites
  • Write content for other sites and link to yours
  • Update your site regularly and keep it up-to-date

Don’t pay for short term success (there are many people offering to get to you page one but the results are not sustainable). The best and most reliable way of getting higher in the results is content, content, content. Your content should be relevant, up-to-date and interesting.

There are other steps you can take to improve your ranking but the list above is going to give you the most consistent results. When I build websites I build them with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind and offer advice to existing sites.

Newsletters

In this month's Newsletter:

Introduction

PC Resolver, in partnership with The Inland Magazine, is publishing a Questions and Answers section in the published magazine. The questions and answers themselves are in the Website Steve's Q&A section of Support. This section will grow and will include non-published questions.

A key part of Website Steve's Q&A is questions about websites. Having your own website has never been easier, cheaper or more necessary than it is today. A fully functioning professionally designed and built website costs 300 Euros to build to your requirements and less than 10 Euros a month to host (including your domain name and IVA). I will give a 50 Euro discount to anyone quoting this newsletter!

You can meet me at my Free Computer Clinic at The Inland Magazine Bootsale in Salinas on the First Sunday of each month.

Follow PCResolver on Twitter

Is this email for real? How can I know if it is a hoax or a scam?

How do you know if the latest email forwarded to you by well-meaning friends is for real or not? Is it a scam or a hoax?

The most recent question related to an email stating that MSN was closing down its email service. It went on to say that if you didn’t forward the email to all your contacts it would cost 10.00 to use it. So, you have to pay 10 ‘somethings’ to pay for a service that is no longer available!

This was obviously a hoax but others are more believable but still a hoax. There are a great many email hoaxes going around all the time and some keep circulating for years (this one has been on the go since 2001!). Most of us have fallen for an email hoax at some point (including yours truly!). These days, before I forward an email message, I always check it out at www.hoax-slayer.com. This also helps me identify the scams and phishing emails.

Hoaxes are less serious than the scams and phishing emails but still not harmless: they cause worry and I have known people stop using a service because of them. If you are at all concerned about an email you have received then check it out on line. If you’re still concerned then send it to me and I’ll check it for you (for free of course!).

Finally, if you do forward these emails (and the jokes etc.) then please use your BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) function of your email program to protect your friends’ email addresses. Contact me if you don’t know how (for some reason the BCC option is not displayed by default in most email programs). You can read more about using BCC in my article:

Blind Carbon Copy - What It Is, Why And How To Use It

How do I advertise with GoogleAds and how much does it cost?

Last month I covered how to add GoogleAds to your site to make money. I’ve had a couple of questions since about how to pay Google to advertise Websites.
For your advert to appear on Google’s search results pages and on other websites you create an advertising campaign with Google. You design your advert and include relevant key words to ensure your ad appears on relevant search results and websites.
You decide how much to pay per ‘impression’ (view) and how much per click. The more you pay, the higher up the list your ad will appear. You also dictate a limit spend per day or month: when your limit is reached your ad stops appearing and you stop paying. I limit mine to 1 Euro a day; not expensive and it drives traffic to my site.
It should cost less than 25 Euros for a web designer to do this for you.
As always, feel free to contact me if you need help or more information.

Website Steve's Q&A FREE Stuff

Hoax-slayer

Hoax-Slayer is dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues.
Hoax-Slayer allows Internet users to check the veracity of common email hoaxes and aims to counteract criminal activity by publishing information about common types of Internet scams.
Hoax-Slayer also includes anti-spam tips, computer and email security information, articles about true email forwards, and much more. New articles are added to the Hoax-Slayer website every week.

YouSendIt

Send files up to 100mb. Simply and easily ... and FREE. You don’t even need to create an account! In today’s file-sharing world, this is a must have!

All you do is enter the email address of who you want to send the file to, your email address and browse to the file that you want to send. Click 'send' and your friend will receive a link to download your file. Easy!! Click here.

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

Steve
PC Resolver
966 967 439
650 354 629

Please email Steve if any of the links in this article don't work.

Newsletters

In this month's Newsletter:

Website Steve's Q&A

Introduction

PC Resolver, in partnership with The Inland Magazine, is publishing a Questions and Answers section in the published magazine. The purpose of this is to answer the most common questions that are currently affecting my clients and readers of the magazine. You are encouraged to contact me with any questions you may have.

The questions and answers themselves are in the Website Steve's Q&A section of Support. This section will grow and will include non-published questions.

A key part of Website Steve's Q&A is questions about websites. Having your own website has never been easier, cheaper or more necessary than it is today. A fully functioning professionally designed and built website costs 300 Euros to build to your requirements and less than 10 Euros a month to host (including your domain name and IVA). I will give a 50 Euro discount to anyone quoting this newsletter!

You can meet me at my Free Computer Clinic at The Inland Magazine Bootsale in Salinas on the First Sunday of each month.

Is it safe to let my browser remember my passwords? If not, what is the alternative?

No! No! No! Let’s be very clear: It is NOT SAFE to allow your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox ...) to remember your passwords. I have written in a previous newsletter about how easy it is to reveal these saved passwords - in plain text! Anyone with 10 seconds access to your computer can see them! What happens if your computer is stolen? It doesn't bear thinking about does it?

So, what can you do to protect yourself?

You should, at the very least, use the master password facility if it exists for your browser. Do it now! I'll wait (the instructions for Firefox are here). But don’t think you’re safe because a quick search on the Internet will reveal many programs that will recover or reset this, and other, passwords!

Does this mean you have to remember all your passwords and type them in every time? NO.

I’ve used a great little program for years: Roboform.
Roboform:

• Integrates with all browsers
• Stores and Encrypts your passwords.
• Automatically fills registration forms with 1-click.
• Loads web pages and fills in the login details automatically (no risk of
phishing attacks).
• Backs up and synchronizes your passwords between computers.
• Generates random passwords (more secure).
• Stores and Encrypts notes of any kind.
• You can access your passwords online (securely!) from any computer.

Please contact me for free advice and guidance and make sure your Internet browsing is safe, secure AND easy!!

How can I add Google Adverts to my site? How much will I earn and who pays?

Google Adverts are the small text or ‘banner’ ads that appear on many sites (mine included!). If anyone clicks on these they are taken to a new site that will have content relevant to the ‘host’ site (your site).


To add these to your site you need firstly to create an account with Google and then you can apply for a Google Adsense account. From this account you create the size and style of ads you want to appear on your site. Google provide you with the code and you put this on your site.
You earn based on the number of “impressions” (how many times these advert have been displayed on your site) and “clicks”. My average payment is 25 cents per click (after Google‘s cut).
So who pays? The person who supplies the ad pays Google to place these ads on their behalf and Google pay a portion of that to the host site.


It should cost less than 25 Euros (less than 100 clicks!) for a web designer to do this for you. After that, you get your "money for nothing and your clicks for free"!


As always, feel free to contact me if you need help.

Website Steve's Q&A FREE Stuff

Roboform

Roboform is the top-rated Password Manager and Web Form Filler that completely automates password entering and form filling. It is free for a limited number of passwords.

RoboForm is an award-winning automated password manager and web form filler with some serious Artificial Intelligence. This is what it does:
• AutoSave passwords in browser.
• AutoFill passwords to login form.
• Click Login button for you.
• Fill personal info into online forms.
• Save offline passwords & notes.
• Generate Secure Random Passwords.
• Encrypt passwords and personal data using AES, Blowfish, RC6, 3-DES or 1-DES algorithms.
• All personal info is stored on your computer only.
• Take RoboForm with you on USB disk for ultimate portability.
• Sync your passwords and notes to Palm or Pocket PC.
• Backup & Restore, Print your passwords.
• More features: drill down for more.
• It is well-behaved: NO ADWARE, NO SPYWARE.
• Works under Windows as an add-on to IE-based browsers.
• Works with Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox under Windows.

Final Word

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

Steve
PC Resolver
966 967 439
650 354 629

Please email Steve if any of the links in this article don't work.

Newsletters

In this month's Newsletter:

Website Steve's Q&A

Introduction

PC Resolver, in partnership with The Inland Magazine, is publishing a Questions and Answers section in the published magazine. The purpose of this is to answer the most common questions that are currently affecting my clients and readers of the magazine. You are encouraged to contact me with any questions you may have.

The questions and answers themselves are in the Website Steve's Q&A section of Support. This section will grow and will include non-published questions.

A key part of Website Steve's Q&A is questions about websites. Having your own website has never been easier, cheaper or more necessary than it is today. A fully functioning professionally designed and built website costs 300 Euros to build to your requirements and less than 10 Euros a month to host (including your domain name and IVA). I will give a 50 Euro discount to anyone quoting this newsletter!

What can I do to make 2010 better than 2009 for my computer?

OK, I’ve not been asked this question in so many words but these recommendations are based on real questions I’ve received during 2009. Your computer is now an essential tool in your life that enables you to communicate, work and play - it needs some TLC!

How do I protect my computer from power problems?

You need a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). These are better than the simple Surge Protectors because they also regulate the voltage coming in and provide backup power if power fails. A good UPS costs 70 Euros. A bad experience will cost a minimum of 200 Euros. See my article on UPS.

How do I protect my computer from Viruses and other Malware?

You need to install a good Firewall and Anti-virus software. I use FREE software to protect mine so it doesn’t have to cost a lot! To remove a virus from a computer can cost between 20 and 60 Euros. See my article on Malware for more information.

How do I protect my data?

You need to back it up. You need to back it up. You can keep copies on CD, external disks or on the Internet. The software is free. The loss of data costs so much more than money!

How can PC Resolver help?

You can get FREE help and advice from PC Resolver in a number of ways:
• Visit The Inland Magazine (TIM) Computer Forum
• See me at The TIM Boot Sale in Salinas (First Sunday of each month)
• Use the Search facility on my website
• Email or Call me

I made some changes to my website and now I want to undo them. How can I restore my site to how it used to be?

The answer to this is in the question itself: “Restore”. You need to restore from a backup. If you don’t have a backup of how the site used to be then you need to undo your changes one by one and this is not at all easy and in some cases is impossible.

A web hosting company will create a regular backup in case of system failure but this will be your site as it is today (not what you want!).
If you’re lucky, your web designer will have a copy of your site when it was first designed (I always keep a copy for my clients just in case). This is OK if you haven’t changed your site much since it was built.

If you have a database (as used in shops, estate agencies, forums, blogs etc) then you really need to backup regularly and certainly before any changes. You can do this yourself or ask your designer (I charge 25 Euros). Remember to backup the site (pages etc) AND the database!!

Website Steve's Q&A FREE Stuff

AlternativeTo.Net

Tired of over-priced software?

AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations.

AlternativeTo have one mission: helping you find the right software for your computer or mobile phone. To do this they wanted to rethink the whole process of searching for apps. No more browsing through categories with long lists of crappy software.

Based on their users recommendations they list great alternatives to the applications you want to replace. By joining the site you can participate in the process of making these recommendations better, so please join in!

Final Word

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or click 'Add Comment' below to add a comment to this web page.

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

Steve
PC Resolver
966 967 439
650 354 629

Please email Steve if any of the links in this article don't work.

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