Having difficulty choosing a Broadband ISP? Thinking of changing? Be careful, it might be like jumping from the frying pan to the fire just to loose your email address!
The Sunday Times of 1 Oct 06 lists package deals from TalkTalk, Sky, Orange and NTL Telewest; but be careful of 'free' deals where the base price is inflated! For stand alone Broadband, Telewest at £14.99pm for 2Mb has 89% customer satisfaction; Plusnet from £9.99 at 8Mb has 92% customer satisfaction.
The Observer of 7 Oct 06 lists the average time to connect a customer after switching service. This varies from 15.5 to 38 days for, in ascending order, NTL/Telewest, Orange, Tiscali, PluNet, Virgin, BT, Pipex, AOL UK, Tesco and TalkTalk (source www.moneysupermarket.com).
This web site is hosted by PlusNet; I pay £14.99pm for a service that includes 8Mb, web space, roving dial up and other extras. If you would like to subscribe and give me brownie points then please follow this link...
. Caveat Emptor, of course!
F.A.Q's of spring 2006
Q. How do I stop unwanted email, spam?
A. Be very careful not to click on any links or enclosures, especially the 'unsubscribe' link. Read the message, right click the 'from' name and select 'block sender'. I have blocked info @ cradley.org.uk etc as someone very nasty is spoofing my identity.
Q. Why are the web site pictures so small?
A. Because they are captioned links to the large pictures, just click on them!
November 2002, the Braid worm is spreading over the Internet. The 'Funlove' virus, which first appeared in 1999, has been reborn in the form of a new Visual Basic Internet worm named Braid (also known by the aliases Bridex or Brid). At risk are all users of Windows 95, 98 , NT, 2000, XP and ME who have not yet installed security patches to Internet Explorer versions 5.01 and 5.5. Details on the worm may be found here and, here. A Microsoft patch for the worm is available for downloading here and here.
October 2002 Virus alert. jdbgmgr.exe is a HOAX, we all have the file but ONLY need it if we are doing advanced types of JAVA software development. See the SOPHOS links hoax and article. The HOAX message has been changed to refer to BUGBEAR, a real worm of a virus!
BUGBEAR is in the wild, mailing all sorts of credible information to all sorts of addresses, and appearing to come from someone you might know. Remember, if you get unexpected eMail, especially if it seems that there might be something attractive in it for you, then DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY, DO NOT EVEN READ IT! If you get bitten then change your passwords after you have disinfected. BUGBEAR attacks Microsoft products that have not had the latest security patches applied (see below).
June 2002, biggest computer virus of all time!. If you receive unexpected mail, view all the mail header for the 'return-path'. If it does not match the 'sender' then promptly delete the message and warn your friend identified in the 'return path'. Read about the W32/Klez-H worm that attempts to exploit a MIME vulnerability in some versions of
Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer. Get a patch which secures against this Microsoft vulnerability from Microsoft, you will need MS IE browser; to check that your MS Software is up to date check out MicroSoft Update, but beware large downloads. UPDATE YOUR ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE NOW, see IT tips below.
Beware the Trojan Horse. Don't trust gifts from Geeks!
For ME and XP users, note that you must Disable System Restore before removing the worm.
Are you fed up with having a poor quality modem line? You may be interested in supporting a survey by Broadband4Britain.
If you receive an unexpected email with an enclosure DO NOT READ OR DOUBLE CLICK IT unless you already know what it is. If you do not know what it is just bin it and ask the sender about it - they may be able to tell you, or they may be infected with a VIRUS and not know it! If you get infected do not go on-line and send eMail to anyone; the virus may take over your address book!
Sometimes only the latest versions of the virus sweep programs will find an active virus, trojan or worm. For help on computer security see (caveat emptor and all that) Sophos Sweep, McAfee, Norton, Computer Associates.
Three things for you to consider if you get infected.
Firewalls do not necessarily stop incoming email problems, but are a good idea especially if you are responsible for other people's information on your PC. I have not tried one, but if you are concerned about the security of your system take a look at Zone Alarm and Tiny Personal Firewall. There are also some interesting links from those sites.
There are (caveat emptor and all that) several training courses from time to time in the village and some local shops are helpful. Tell me about them and I'll list them here, Computer-Link helped me!