Ask Leo! #330 - TV over the internet? Being labeled a spammer, finding your IP address via IM and more... - Confident Computing

The Ask Leo! Newsletter

*** New Articles

Can someone get my IP address?

It's often possible to get someone else's IP address by establishing a direct connection via an instant messaging tool.

In this audio clip from an Ask Leo! webinar, I'll discuss how a firewall protects you from any malicious activity and why, while the remote side does have your IP address, it really doesn't matter.

Continue reading: Can someone get my IP address?
http://ask-leo.com/C5082

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I've been wrongly labeled as a spammer. What can I do about it?

I've been wrongly labeled as a spammer - what can I do about it?

I have used the same email address (me@mydomain.co.uk) for about 10 years. I am the author of a newsletter which goes to about 150 people, ALL of whom have ASKED to be included in my list, and I send and receive about 30 emails/day, mainly business. I never have and do not currently use my ID for any spamming to anyone, nor do I forward any of the dozens of spam emails I receive from "friends."

When I sent an email to two different local contacts recently, I received the same message by return: "This message was undeliverable due to the following reason: Your message was not delivered because the return address was refused. The return address was "<me@mydomain.co.uk>" Please reply to <Postmaster@ispmail.ntl.com> if you feel this message to be in error."

I DO consider this message to be SERIOUSLY in error - I have written to them several times, but I have been ignored. What do I do now, please?

Very little that you haven't already done.

First, you're assuming that the message means that the remote system thinks you're a spammer. That's not necessarily true.

Even if it is, it's very important to realize that this isn't some global database where everyone in the world now thinks you're a spammer.

On the contrary.

It's very likely to be this one email system that you're having trouble with and perhaps only a single user thereon.

Continue reading: I've been wrongly labeled as a spammer. What can I do about it?
http://ask-leo.com/C5081

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Can I get my TV programming over the internet?

For the past five years, I have had satellite TV. I moved to Las Vegas two years ago and continued watching DirecTV. For the past year, I've really started noticing how bad the commercials were getting. It's getting so bad that you can barely watch enough programming to know it's a program. This is what brings me to my question. Is it possible to getting both local, networks, and all the other channels off the internet to your TV? I know you can watch TV on your PC, but from what I've seen, the quality isn't that good. What about porting it over to your TV? My TV is internet ready.

The practical answer to your question is a pretty clear "no."

There are piecemeal approaches that can get you a lot, but there's still no complete replacement for getting your local or cable or satellite channels directly.

Assuming that's what you actually need.

Let's look at a few of the common approaches and their limitations.

Continue reading: Can I get my TV programming over the internet?
http://ask-leo.com/C5080

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*** Last Issue's Articles

*** Word o' the Week

Image Backup

An image backup is a complete copy of a hard disk or other media being backed up. The copy is complete in that it can be restored to a completely empty hard drive - as in a replacement hard drive after a failure - and the result is a hard drive that contains everything that the original did.

There are, of course, nuances to the term.

An image of a hard disk can take either of two forms:

A copy of all files, folders, and overhead information stored on the disk, including the information required to boot.
A copy of every sector on the disk, including those that are not used.

The first is all that is needed for backup purposes. When restored, the files are replaced on the hard disk, but not necessarily in the same physical locations as they were originally. (A side effect is that a restored hard disk often has no fragmentation.)

The second, when restored, it places all files in exactly the same physical location as the original and restores all unused sectors as well - thus enabling deleted-file data recovery and potentially other forensic techniques.

Finally, most backup programs create an image of a partition. To fully backup disks that contain multiple partitions, an image must be created of each.

Word o' the Week features a computer term or acronym taken from the Ask Leo! Glossary. If there's a word you're not sure of and would like to see defined, click here to let me know.

*** Leo Recommends

AWeber Email Service Provider for email newsletters and more

If you're a spammer, you can stop reading now. AWeber will not help you.

On the other hand, if you're considering setting up a CAN-SPAM compliant email mailing list, AWeber may be the solution for you.

AWeber is an Email Service Provider (ESP) that provides bulk and sequence emailing services. The most common example might be periodic newsletters: for example, I use AWeber to send out my newsletter every week to over 125,000 subscribers.

Not to sound too "marketing-ish", but AWeber leads the industry in an incredibly important measurement: deliverability.

Continue reading: AWeber Email Service Provider for email newsletters and more
http://ask-leo.com/C3407

Each week, I recommend a specific product or resource that I've found valuable and that I think you may as well. What does my recommendation mean?

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