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The Digital Life, Houston We Have a Problem, 102 27/09/08
A Degree of Security
My daughter is
off to uni with a brand new laptop. She
can obviously use any security features present in Vista to prevent access to
the computer but if someone steals it, is there any software, which might
prevent longer-term access and as such make the computer worthless to steal.
N.H., by email
Vista’s security features
are quite good but obviously they are only effective if they are actually used.
However, a stolen laptop will always have some black-market value. Even if all
the data it contains is encrypted or protected it is a relatively simple matter
for a thief to reformat or replace the hard drive and sell it on.
In fact there are
programs that will destroy the data on a drive if the machine is stolen and
these can be activated remotely, or by repeated entry of an incorrect password.
Security software is also available that uses an Internet connection to report
if it has been stolen but all these measures are expensive – in some cases
costing more than a mid-range machine -- and by the time they’re activated it’s
too late and you are just bolting the stable door.
The best thing you can do
is help to prevent her PC being stolen in the first place. Provide your
daughter with a good quality laptop cable locking device, so it can be tethered
to something immovable when it is left unattended. Alternatively install a
laptop-sized locking security cabinet in her room. Any irreplaceable data
should be routinely backed up to a removable media (CD/DVD or USB flash drive)
and kept in a safe place away form the laptop, and instil in her how important
it is not to let it out of her sight when she takes it out and about with her.
Three Dimensional
Digital Recorder
My Humax PVR-9200T
digital TV recorder has twin tuners. What puzzles me is how I am able to record
two digital channels while watching a third one? I would have thought that
doing that would have required three tuners.
James Burgess, by
email
It does seem a bit
odd but I think there is a simple explanation. Terrestrial channels are broadcast
in groups or multiplexes (muxes) and since this machine has two tuners it can receive
and record two channel streams at once. That means if you are recording two
channels from one multiplex you can watch a third one. However, if you are
recording from two different multiplexes this trick doesn’t work. This can also
happen on other digital video recording systems, like Sky +, where, for example
you are watching a ‘live’ broadcast of a third TV channel, whilst recording two
different channels, in which case the third channel is coming through the UHF
or Freeview tuner built into your TV.
Orange Off Colour
I have installed
an Orange mobile broadband modem dongle on my laptop with Waitrose as my
ISP. Now I find I cannot send emails via Outlook Express, although I can
receive them OK.
Sheila Drury, by email
If you think about it
when you use your mobile broadband dongle to connect to the Internet, Orange
becomes your Internet Service Provider or ISP. This doesn’t matter when surfing
the web or receiving emails but it will prevent you sending emails. That’s
because emails are sent using a system called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(smtp), which basically means outgoing messages have to go through your active
ISP’s mail server computer.
Outlook Express on your
laptop is almost certainly set for the Waitrose smtp server, so when you send
emails through Orange you have to change it. To do that go to Tools >
Accounts, highlight your email account, click Properties then select the
Servers tab. Make a note of the current Outgoing mail (SMTP) setting – you will
need to restore it when connecting through Waitrose -- and replace it with the
Orange SMTP server address, which should be ‘smtp.orange.net’.
Incidentally, I’m putting
together a short series of articles on the delights and difficulties of mobile
broadband. It’ll be available in a couple of weeks and for those of you reading
this online all you have to do is click the Boot Camp link on the left,
otherwise go to: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/digitallife/index.jhtml
Broadband in the
Sticks
I’ve recently moved to
a rural location and after much to-ing and fro-ing BT have told me that they
can’t provide broadband as we’re too far from the exchange. I’ve pretty much
accepted that I’ll have to use dial-up if I want to continue to access the web
from home. It’s quite few years since I’ve done this and my recollection is
that it was slow and expensive. I also remember that it took ages to download
updates (e.g. for virus checking software) and as one of the main things I’d
use it for are Internet banking and shopping security is really important for
me. Is there any hope? What would you recommend (apart form moving house!)
Neil Rose, by email
Where there’s a will… If
you and enough of your neighbours make a fuss BT will often relent and make the
appropriate upgrades after all, they're in business to make money. Otherwise
the main alternatives are mobile broadband using high-speed data modems on
cellphone networks – still pricey but getting cheaper; satellite broadband
– very expensive and reliant on a BT line for the back-channel/uploading data,
and local Wi-Fi or ‘Wimax’, which again needs enough local interest to set up,
maybe 10 - 20 potential subscribers. There’s some useful advice and links on the
ruralbroadband.co.uk website.
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© R. Maybury 2008 0809
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