Leo’s Answers #300 – September 13, 2011

Why can't I access Hotmail?

I've complained about this bug for years and no one has an answer. It's horrible - forums are full of people who are experiencing this bug and no one has an answer. It's been there for years and Microsoft continues to just ignore us. Obviously, Bill's too busy trying to make more money by forcing us to upgrade and doesn't have time for bugs that impact lots of people. WHY WON'T THEY FIX THIS HORRIBLE BUG?

My machine is an emachines T2792 and has six USB ports. No matter which port I plug into or what type of hardware that I try to use, my computer tells me that the “hardware has malfunctioned” or “hardware not recognized”. My OS is XP-Home edition. I've tried no fewer than a half-dozen driver repair and PC rejuvenators - all to no avail. What do you think is the most likely culprit?

In a previous newsletter, someone was explaining how they lost data because they encrypted it and they couldn't decrypt it. You said it is always a good idea to keep an unencrypted copy of your data to prevent you from losing it. Doesn't doing this completely defeat the purpose of encrypting your data in the first place?

We want to know if there is way to connect to the internet without having to pay the high fees that our cable company charges for internet access ($55 a month). We are on a fixed income and in our sixties. We enjoy being connected to our friends thru the internet and playing games like Mah-Jong and Farmville on Facebook. But when it comes right down to it, when being forced to choose between our cable and internet connection (which together cost $115 a month), the internet would be the one that we'd have to cut, as without cable, we receive no television signals. We are homebodies and love each other a lot (married 42 years), but we need the entertainment factor that watching TV and being on the internet provide us. ;-) We read today's edition of your newsletter about a person asking if they could share the password for their router with their neighbor. We think that we got the gist of what you were saying and wonder... Can this “router thing” allow us to connect to the internet without having to go through a separate company? How much does a router cost? Is it hard to hook up? Is it something that we could do ourselves?

Paul writes:

Just had a call ( 2215 MDT ) from an very impatient East Indian woman that said she was from Microsoft and that she was calling me because my computer was sending infectious emails. Woke me up actually. Stupid me went and turned on computer and she had me open event viewer ( first time I have ever been in there to be honest). Asked me to scroll through one of the pages and tell her if there were any red or yellow icons with warning beside them. There were 57,000+ events and after 3 or 4 seconds she was asking me what I had found. I told her I was still looking and she kept asking. I became impatient with her and told he to just relax and give me a minute. When I found a couple she said "Oh my god, you have more than 3 ?!". I said there were a number of them. Told me to wait till the supervisor came on. Another East Indian chap ( Joe I think) came on and said that he was there to help me. I became a bit suspicious at this time and asked how they got my phone number and who they were. Said he got my name from my URL and that they were with "pc live support" or something like that. I asked what he was selling and he said for me "not to worry he was not selling anything but merely here to help me". I became very suspicious at this point and said that I will have my I.T guy look at it in the morning. He became a bit excited at this time and asked; " Do you trust your I.T. guy? Do You? , if you do why does he not know about the event viewer and all these errors, tell me, why". At this point I think I may have mentioned something derogatory towards him and hung up. Started to think about it a bit more and came back online and found this page. Good scam they have and after reading the above info about the event viewer I am glad that I did finally hang up. They did however, have me for a minute or two. I will still mention it to my I.T. guy and watch him smile at me and shake his head roll his eyes and call me stupid for not hanging up sooner and even opening anything they had me do. Lesson learned.

Ken B writes:

Note that you might not hove to buy a second router. For example, our wireless router has built-in support for "guest access". This has a separate SSID (along with separate security and keys), and a separate subnet, and the router keeps the guest part of the connections away from your main network. And you can change the guest access password any time you want, without affecting your main network.

You still have the same issues of them using your ISP's connection, but it makes for a much easier setup.

Alex writes:

"I can,t believe that some people are still using Vista ! Dump it and move on~ download Ubuntu 11 for free and see your computer come alive."

Sure, if you can understand it and have a PhD. in computer skills. I like what Ubuntu has done, but I don't think it's ready for Grandma yet, the test of a real desktop system. My last trial of it, I had to open the command line too often to install what I wanted, and the boot loader somehow h0sed my system, and I had to format the whole hard drive, in the process h0sing my recovery partition. Had I not made a recovery DVD.... well.

My machine came pre-installed with Vista, and I love it! I haven't had ANY of the problems described by people who tried to install it over XP (or ME???); the machine just runs, is reliable, and I only paid about $300 US new! (2.2 Ghz dual core Athlon 64X2, 2 Gb DDR2, 320 Gb SATA, Windows Vista Home Premium.) I have been amazed since I got it, and like it at least as well as my wife's laptop with Win 7.

When new computers start shipping with Ubuntu and an emulator (so I can play my few Windows games I enjoy), I will think about it. For now, I'll "dance with the one that brung me".

Texan 2000 writes:

One other little thing, the legality. I don't think that the ISP wants you to be providing a contractually leased connection to people with whom they do not have a contract. Result, the ISP could remove your service and blackball you with other providers.

GREG JACKSON writes:

FYI - if LockNote is kind of a fun little application, you'll love "Hide In Picture" (HIP). It is a program that allows you to "hide" any kind of file inside standard bitmap pictures. via GUI application (drag and drop the file into the picture).

While it's fun, easy, and even cute, strong security remains a primary concern. The "Read Me" alone is worth getting the download. The information behind this small package, and additional security recommendations allows one to better appreciate it. And it really works. http://hide-in-picture.sf.net/.

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