Free online file storage benefitsI recently signed up to a website that allows you to store your personal documents, files, pictures and music online. I though I’d discuss it here as there are great benefits to the service and it’s free. We repair laptops and computers in Aberdeen and are always seeing computers with faulty hard disc drives. The hard disc drive is the part inside your computer or laptop that stores all your files. Unfortunately for 85% of our customers we have to inform them that there has been a hard disc drive failure on their computer or laptop. This means all the information stored has been lost. The only way to recover those files is to send the data of to a specialist. Who can charge hundreds as a special procedure is required to extract the data off a faulty hard disc drive and has to be worked on in a clean dust free almost surgical environment. Occasionally we can recover the data with our own hardware tools however as mentioned the majority of the time it can be costly. To avoid costly mistakes I always recommend backing up data to a blank DVD once a month. This is probably the cheapest method of backup as a blank DVD can hold quite a lot of information and is an easy process. However most of us are lazy it comes to backup of my home computers. The solution is an online storage facility such as drop box, which is free. What is really great about drop box is that you can use the system on any computer, anywhere with an internet connection. This means you could be at work in the office and have a file you want to take home to work on. If you’ve got the drop box installed on your computer all you have to do is save the file to the drop box folder and it can be accessed from anywhere, securely. Anything IT we can help. If you’d like help setting up drop box feel free to call us. This is something we can do remotely with no call out charge.      
Secure your wireless InternetNowadays we rely much more on the internet for daily activities. Households have more than one computer or laptop in the home. These additional computers or laptops are usually connected wirelessly to the internet via a wireless router supplied by your broadband supplier. When you plug a wireless router in and start accessing the internet via them you are leaving your computer unsecure. If your wireless router is unsecure then online banking, credit card information, emails and all web activity could be watched and recorded. This is called a man in the middle attack (someone between your router and laptop/computer). Of course they do not physically have to be in the middle and can be up to 150 metres from your router. Of course if you have up to date ant virus software this can help against malicious websites or emails however having an unsecure wireless router will go undetected by all antivirus software. It’s hoped that this information will provide useful to households and friends as these types of attacks are increasingly taking place. TAGS: Computer maintenance, IT support, network security Aberdeen      
Laptops, which is best?I repair quite a few laptops. From my experience I get more faults with certain types of laptops. Most companies will not publish which laptops are better than others when it comes down to reliability. This information is crucial because laptops are expensive to repair. Anyway here is the list the higher on the list the more I see of them! 1. Hewlett Packard (HP) – Dead laptops that will not power on, this is a common fault. So there you have it Acer coming out on top for reliability. There are together makers of laptops, Samsung for example. I have one of their netbooks which is starting to act up due to a dodgy laptop screen. However they have not been producing laptops for long so I can’t really comment on them. Hope this list helps if you’re choosing a laptop in the January sales.
     
How to use your computer as a burgalr alarmAfter I got my car broken into (see my last post) I thought about how secure my house is. I do have security measures to keep people out however I’ve taken things a step further with my computer and almost no budget. What I’ve set up is a burglar alarm that will send a photo to my mobile phone if anyone approaches the back door of my house. The future is here! And it’s cheap – that will be good news to most Aberdonians. What is required. A webcam – anything will do – I had this one gathering dust at the back of my desk.
Download this free web cam software. This is one of a 2-part trick to get this system up and running. The software is called Yawcam (yet another webcam software). Install and run the program. Hidden in the menu is “motion detection” Setting the motion detection to active you have a few choices of what you can do.
As you can see from the above menu there are options to select when movement is detected.
For this set up we are going to select “Send an email”, I’ve also selected play a sound so I know the detection is working. This helps when configuring the email settings and making sure motion is detected but the cat is not! In the example below I’ve chosen to use my gmail account to send the email. Now these settings are important. I’m not going to go through all the settings here if you need help call me. I’m in Aberdeen and will happily help anyone set up this system for a fee :) As mentioned it’s a 2 part trick – we’ve got the system sending an email when motion is detected – all working and tested. The next part is to get that email in the form of a text message. Now this might not be a concern if you have a blackberry or a phone with push email. However you want to know as soon as motion is detected so a text message to your phone is probably going to be the best solution. I use a service called TextMagic which is basically an online service that provides email to sms (text messages) Sign up with them and you’ll be charged £0.068 per text message. You’ll also get an email address to use with the service. I would recommend that you do not tell anyone this email address apart from the box in the image above. I’ve sent up similar systems to text me when a room gets too hot, this was handy when the server room at my work’s air conditioning had a intermittent fault!      
Will I be catching the low life that nicked my phone?Quite possibly thanks to Google. My car got broken into early Monday morning. I stupidly left my phone in the car. The phone is a Windows mobile based device and it’s a “smart phone”. At the weekend I was playing around with a new toy from google called Google latitude. When you run this application on your phone it tracks your movements. It’s web-based so I can fire up any web browser and look at my location or my friend’s locations if they have the app running on their phone. Anyway the stolen phone has started talking back the google! Here is a screen shot…I’ll be calling the bobbies once I’ve figured out this persons daily routine. Just a word of caution to anyone in Aberdeen that car thief’s are a real problem. It’s the 2nd time this has happened to me in under a year! I’ve learnt my lesson now though. strange location but my guess is that the phone has not left their house yet, just a matter of time…
     
Tips to buying a new computer this ChristmasIf you’re thinking of buying a new computer or laptop this Christmas in Aberdeen here are the main considerations to think about and look for. Laptop or desktop? This is down to personal preference. In the past desktops were much more powerful than laptops but now you can get the same amount of efficiency out a laptop. The decision comes down how much space you have and if you’d use the portability factor of a laptop compared to a desktop. Advantages of a desktop system are that you’ll usually get a bigger screen and games will play a lot smoother using a dedicated graphics card. They are also cheaper to repair if something goes wrong. Make sure the PC or laptop has the newest version of Windows installed. The latest version is Microsoft Windows 7 and has been heavily advertised on TV recently by Microsoft. Windows 7 runs a lot more quickly than Microsoft’s last version called Windows Vista which should be avoided at all costs. If you’ve got an old computer you can upgrade to Windows 7 in Aberdeen, just call us. Choose a system that has at least 2GB of RAM. RAM stands for random access memory. The more RAM you have the quicker your system will respond. Anything less than 2GB of RAM on a new computer should be avoided. Storage on a computer is not really an issue nowadays. The minimum storage on most new systems is 120GB which is plenty for storing photos/music/files. If you plan to download movies then you may consider larger storage. Antivirus software and security should also be considered. Usually you’ll get a 3 month trial of anti-virus software included with you new system however you pay for what you get and Mcafee/Norton anti virus will slow a system down compared to something like Kaspersky Anti-Virus which will usually be a separate purchase. Microsoft Office suite which includes the productivity tools Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook do not come included with a new system and again have to be separately purchased. Please consider this when budgeting for a new system as the office suite can be a considerable amount. There are alternative free versions such as Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/ and Google Docs http://docs.google.com. These are worth consideration especially Google’s product as it can be accessed anywhere on any computer with an Internet connection.
     
Windows 7 first thoughts…Finally had a chance to install Windows 7 on a little shuttle PC I had. The plan is to turn this system into a CCTV server as our neighbours garage got broken into recently and we want to catch anyone entering. Here is a shot of the system it’s tiny!
Windows 7, looks good, feels better. Very much has the same look as Vista but more responsive. The hard drive is not constantly churning away in the background. This is something vista is famous for, slow hard drive, slow system. Laptops have slow hard drives. I can only see good things for laptop users and Windows 7 :) The shuttle only has 512MB RAM and a celeron CPU (spares I had lying around) however it was very quick loading vista and noticed no delay which is always a good sign. I also like how when you click the start menu the shut down button actually shuts down the computer. In vista it by default it would put the PC to sleep which still required power. I’ll be offering Windows 7 upgrads next month with pricing. If you’d like to upgrade to windows 7 in Aberdeen look back here in a few weeks as I’ll have a special price. Lower that the rest of the computer shop in Aberdeen of course! :) In the mean time I’ll post what other features I find.      
Upgrade to Windows 7 in AberdeenIf you are running a PC it’s time to start thinking about upgrading to Windows 7. Mircosoft’s new operating system has all the best bits of Windows Vista but with the speed of XP. I guarantee that upgrading to Windows 7 will boost your laptop/computers performance as Vista is such a CPU hog.
     
Recover HP backup .fbw filesJust spent the best part of a Sunday morning trying to figure out how to recover HP backup files .fbw On all HP systems running windows vista there is an option to backup your system prior to doing a system restore. However once the system is restored the files created in the miniwinpc folder can not be easily resotred. HP are no help with this issue and after a lot of google searching I found this utility which can read and recover .fbw files. Hopefully someone with the same issue will google and find this page :) tags: Once less Aberdeen computer user with lost pictures :)      
3 Ways to speed up your internet.As discussed in the previously the number one top tip to speed up an aging computer is to add extra memory. However even brand new computers can suffer performance issues if you have a slow broadband connection. The average monthly charge is approximately £20 a month for a service which you may only be half receiving. Would you continue to pay the gas board if you only got warm water? Or the Hydro board if your lights were always dim? Here are the top three tips for increasing broadband speed. 1. Plug your router / ADSL modem into the master phone socket in your house. Do not run it off an extension socket or extension cable. If your master socket is in an awkward place, consider wirelessly networking your computer to the router. 2. Use micro-filters on all equipment plugged into telephone sockets in your house. This includes phones, faxes, sky box, and security alarms. Micro-filters filter the broadband data from the voice calls on a telephone line. If you don’t have them on all sockets you’ll find anytime the phone rings or a call is made your broadband will drop connection which will lowers your speed over time. 3. Remove the ring wire from your telephone wiring. The ring wire was used in old telephones, it made them ring. However this wire causes interference on a broadband telephone line and generally is not needed on modern phones. These tips are very common trouble shooting advice which any computer maintenance provider should be able to offer help with at a reasonable price.
Tags: Aberdeen broadband, Help with internet aberdeenshire, fast broadband in aberdeen, laptop internet aberdeen.      
Take advantage of free internet tools.Google has recently released some very useful web based internet tools which can benefit everyone in a positive way. The free service is called “Google Alerts” www.google.co.uk/alerts . This service allows you to specify a daily email delivery of new articles or content published on the Internet.
     
Buy laptop in AberdeenDo you have an old laptop that is never used or a broken laptop? If your in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire and have a laptop sitting around gathering dust we offer a free collection service. Laptop parts are hard to get hold of and some parts in broken/damaged laptops can be re-used. This can cut the cost of laptop repairs for other customers and can give you peice of mind that the battery in your old laptop will not end up leaking toxics in a landfill. We can offer free collection of old/broken & damaged laptops. In return we can destroy all data on the system so it does not get into the wrong hands. If you require data recovery from the old laptop this can be done for free. We’ll move the data onto your new system at no cost to you. In return we will offer one free support call out if you are having computer issues on another system. If your looking for a new laptop we can offer you a trade in price and give you access to great reducions on name brand laptops/computer like Dell, Toshiba, Acer & HP. Benefits of laptop collection/recycle service in Aberdeen.
     
New bi-monthly article – Midstocket MattersAB1 Computers now has a new bi-monthly article in the Aberdeen based Midstocket Matters. The new “IT Matters” page will have useful information for all in the local area of Aberdeen > Midstocket / Rosemount area. I plan to make the articles as informative as possible to the reader. Next issue will be based on the security issues that wireless broadband can open you up to.      
Backup your data, the cheap way.How many pictures do you have on your computer that you’ve not printed and are no longer on your camera? Are they important, baby, wedding, special holiday/events. You should back these up, your computer is not going to last as long as you! One of the main physical issue I see when someone brings me a computer or laptop in Aberdeen is the hard drive. This is the only mechanical part inside a computer apart from the fans and will 95% of the time fail first. The hard drive is the part of the computer which stores all the data so 95% of the time the data is lost! There are varouis ways to backup your information these include.
Most organizations backup to tape as they have large volumes of data and your average tape can hold 800GB of data. Backup solutions can cost £1000’s. However I know my blog audience and they are home/residential one or two computers users. The best way for you to backup important pictures/files/emails or music you’ve paid for is to buy a few blank DVDs. Burn the files to the blank DVD and put on your bookshelf. Do this every month and you’ll be safe. A blank DVD costs about 10p so it’s a very cheap insurance policy. bolg oot….-Scott      
Speed up your computer/laptop.
My system that runs Vista has 8GB of RAM! I still have slow downs, due to this I’m rolling back to Windows XP on my main rig until Windows 7 is released which is later this year. Of course not all computer users have the option to roll back to Windows XP. It can be a real hassle and you have to know what you’re doing. I regularly install Windows XP on computers and laptops in Aberdeen. I could do it in my sleep however there are some steps you must take before even thinking about rolling back. 1. Back up all your data (files, documents, music, pictures) 2. Make sure you have the original CDs for software on your computer. 3. Take not of what software programs you use, can newer versions be downloaded? 4. Backup your email; take a note of your email account settings. 5. Make sure you have a valid copy of Windows XP and a valid license for it. 6. Install, restore and make sure you have all the correct drivers loaded on your system.
This isn’t an easy task and can take 3 hours or so to perform. I can help with this is required. If you are in the Aberdeen area and maybe just want your system memory upgraded I can do this for a fee of £20 plus the price of the RAM itself. Pretty cheap for a quick fix.      
Broadband Help in AberdeenI thought I’d just let everyone know how insecure wireless networks really are. I install a lot of wireless broadband routers in Aberdeen and it amazes me how insecure some wireless routers are out of the box. If you have a SKY broadband connection try entering your Wireless Network Key in the first option on this page If you have a thomson speed touch wireless router try this page Thomson speedtouch broadband cracker I’ll stop there. Simply put if your with Sky broadband or have a Thomson speedtocuh router from your ISP then there is a good chance it can be hacked with not much technical knowledge needed! Just access to the two web pages I’ve listed above. Guess what? BT Broadband users you also have the same insecurity. In conclusion if you live in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire and have a wireless network I can help secure it against these type of attacks.  broadband help aberdeen Why should you secure your connection? Well if your neighbour wants free broadband and you care to share then that’s not a problem. However if you do online shopping/banking or anything else sensitive via a wireless network then “they” can see it. Give me call to protect your system.      
Shell offices hacked in AberdeenJust in case you though those big oil companines were safe from computer viruses think again! It does not matter how much money you throw at security… Computer virus hits Shell UK’s servers By Alan Majury Published: 03/03/2009 BUG: Computer systems at Aberdeen-based oil giant Shell have been attacked by a virus. COMPUTER systems at an Aberdeen-based oil giant have been attacked by a virus. As much as 90% of Shell’s servers were affected by the bug, it was understood. Shell said its IT staff were working hard to repair the problem. A Shell UK spokeswoman said the system had been experiencing problems, but would not say how many staff had been affected. She said: “We can confirm that there have been IT and information management issues with our system. “As a result, some staff may experience problems in accessing the system. “Our IT staff are working hard to rectify the problem.” Some Shell workers were unable to work on their computers while others found the system slowed down. Other oil firms were warned to protect their systems from a bug known as the Zero Day virus.      
Hack Windows PasswordsI get quite a few requests by parents about on line security of their children. One of the requests that I get often is access to family computer accounts to check for Internet browsing history. this does not really fall under computer or laptop repair but I do anything I.T. so read on… Most home PCs have Windows XP Home edition installed. Within XP there is the option to have separate account which are password protected. Quite often the accounts are password protected and it would be great to have access just to check up on someones on line activity. Step 1: Enter windows in safe mode. Restart the computer, whilst at the computer start up screen (just after the BIOS screen) continually press the F8 key. This will bring up a menu. One of the options is enter windows in safe mode. Choose this.  aberdeen pc help Step 2: When you enter safe mode, choose the option to log into the system as “Administrator”. Usually there is no password and this is left blank. The administrator account allows you to control all aspects of Windows. It is the god account. Step 3: Whilst in safe mode, go to start>control panel>user accounts  laptop aberdeenshire Choose the user in question and select them. Then click “reset password” button. This will allow you to reset the users password. Of course the user will now know that the password has been reset but it will give you access to their account. If you require that the password remains the same and the password is cracked. Stay tuned I’ll show you how in my next post.      
Laptop Repair in Aberdeen
     
Get email on your phone for free.
Ever seen a blackberry? Not the fruit the phone? Well a lot of business people use them for email. It’s just a mobile phone with a special bit of software that lets you send/receive email. What makes the blackberry special is that when someone sends you an email it will pop up on the phone like a text message alerting you to the new email. This was a revolution and the technology is called Push technology. The disadvantage to Blackberry is that it costs money for the service and your tied down to a certain type of phone. Microsoft launched it’s equivalent of push technology to Windows mobile smart phones. However again you were limited to a few phones. The other limit on the Microsoft service was that you needed a server to push the emails to your phone. This has all changed thanks to Google Email (Gmail). Newer Sony Ericsson’s and Nokia’s support Push technology out the box with a google email address you can utilise this feature on your phone. Best of all, it’s free and you don’t need to be running a server or a business to have such a technology. Step 1 Check your phone supports Push Technology. Google email (Gmail) uses two technologies for email phone support, IMAP and Push. Go to your phone manufactures website (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung) Enter your mobile phone model in their search and you should be able to find the product details on your phone. Check to see if your phones does it. Step 2 Create a Gmail account. Go to Gmail.com and follow the steps to create a new google email account. This will give you a new email address. Gmail works with most email programs so if you use Windows Outlook you can configure gmail to work with it. You’ll have to tell everyone that you’ve changed your email of course. You can also use Gmail through your web browser. Step 3 Configure Gmail Once you’ve logged into gmail.com under your new account go to the settings Tab > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Enable IMAP.
Step 4 Configure your phone Consult your phone manual on how to create a new email account on your phone. Here are the gmail settings you’ll need. Incoming mail username: yourname@gmail.com password: your gmail password IMAP server: imap.gmail.com encryption: SSL Port: 993 Outgoing mail username: yourname@gmail.com password: your gmail password IMAP server: smtp.gmail.com encryption: SSL Port: 465 Step 5 Test it works. Send yourself an email, then reply via the phone did you get it? Other tips would be to buy a data bundle with your mobile phone contract as it does cost a little money to send and receive the emails via your phone. To keep costs down most mobile phone companies offer data bundles. My data bundle comes free so I don’t have to worry. You should check this prior to sending and receiving emails as it can be costly if for example you do not have a contract and are on pay as you go. I’m available to set up this type of email service in Aberdeen if required. I don’t just do computer repairs in Aberdeen. As I say, anything IT.      
Use the internet better. StumbleUponOne of my bad habits when surfing the web is not surfing the web. Instead I’ve got 5 or 6 sites that I regularly go to and that’s it. I’m missing out on so much more but I can’t figure out what to use as keywords to search for interesting/useful/cool stuff. I don’t use the Internet to it’s full capacity. It’s a bit like reading the same 2 pages of a newspaper whilst not exploring the thing as a whole. There is something that can help you break out of the rut though, StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a tool bar that attaches itself to your Internet Explorer/Firefox browser.
It’s a bit like a bookmark utility. You find a site you like and then bookmark it so you can come back to it. However what makes it different is that you share the bookmark with everyone. When you sign-up to stubmleupon (free) it asks you what your interests are. I chose movies, film making, hacking, philosophy. When I click the stubmleupon button it takes me to a site that someone has bookmarked in that genre. There is also a rating system so if a site is useful/good the more people that review or give it the thumbs up the more likely you’ll stubmleupon it when you click the stumble button. Try it out, you’ll be suprised how handy it is.      
Top 10 Free Software titles.Top Ten free bits of software. I repair computers and laptops in Aberdeen. Due to this fact I deal with a lot of Aberdonians, who like a good price. In fact they almost want my services for free. Well that’s not going to happen but here is a list of freebies to keep Computer users in Aberdeen happy over Christmas. No need to spend money…. 10. VLC Media Player Have you ever tried playing a DVD on your computer? Well VLC works wonders. It is a free DVD playback software for your computer. Best of all it play lots of other video types as well and is remarkably small in size. It’s been out for a good few years and has lots of different options like accessing video files on another computer and playing over a network. 9. CDBurnerXP If your still using Microsoft Windows XP then this is the best free CD burning software. Windows does have its own inbuilt CD burning software however this does not always work depending on the types of files you’re burning. You can burn data discs very easily so backing up pictures/files to CD is a breeze. 8. Winamp Tired of iTunes? Well I did use iTunes for all of about two minutes until I relised how much it slowed down my computer. Winamp is an Internet oldie that has been out a while. It was snapped up by AOL a few years ago however it still has all the original features and is excellent for ripping/ipoding and the like. It also has a great output visualisation tools which is far superior to Windows Media Player. 7. Openoffice Fancy paying Microsoft another £200 so you can get word/excel on your computer? No, I did not think so. Instead of going down the Microsoft Office route, consider Open Office if your on a budget. Open Office has all the major features of Microsoft office and works with Microsoft Office files however it’s free! 6. Foxit PDF Uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader now, it’s bloatware and takes anything up to 30 seconds to open a PDF file so you can view. Foxit PDF is a much smaller light weight program that is much quicker, smaller and free. 5. Ultradefrag As you may or may not know over time your computer hard disc drive will become fragmented. Basically what happens is that Windows saves files all over the place on your hard disc drive inside your computer. Over time it becomes noticeable as your computer will get slower because the disc is fragmented. Windows does have inbuilt defragment software which takes the files and clumps them all back up in one place for faster access. However Ultradefrag is much quicker and better at this job. Download and run now :) Another Windows XP only application. Have you every tired to send pictures from your digital camera via email or upload them to bebo/facebook. Does it always take ages? That becuase you’ve probably got a digital camera that has a lot of megapixels. The picture your trying to send is about 5 times as large as it needs to be. Powertoys resize integrates itseld into windows. Next time you right click on a photo there will be an option to resize the picture to a more web friendly file size. What makes it so great is that you don’t need to open up the program to use, it’s done on the fly so makes life that little bit easier. Of course Vista does not have this option yet! 3. Ultra VNC VNC is a program that lets you control and view another computer as if you were on it. Best of all it’s free. It can be a little complicated to set up however once it’s working you can for instance set it up so you can access your home computer whilst at work. Or if you have a family/friend that is always having difficulty with IT problems, set it up on their machine. Next time they phone you with a question you can go onto VNC and show them how to do the task. You might know this already but I recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus however for 90 days you can get Avast Anti-Virus for free. If you do not plan to spend some money protection your computer/internet/bank details and personal data then this is the next best thing. I used to recommend AVG however it has become a bit of a CPU hog and bloats up your system. If you can’t afford Kaspersky (I sell it at £25 for a 3 computer license) then Avast is the next best thing. Please note that you only get 90 days worth of protection. 1. Google Well this is not really software but a website. Google is a great tool. I’ve leave you with this excellent quote. “If I can operate Google, I can find anything… Google, combined with Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God. God is wireless, God is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. Throughout history, people connected to God without wires. Now, for many questions in the world, you ask Google, and increasingly, you can do it without wires, too.”      
Remove VirusResponse Lab 2009 AberdeenPreviously I’ve talked about anti-virus 2009 which has hit a lot of computers in the Aberdeen area. I get at least one a week with this virus that pretends to be anti-virus. It tells you there is a virus on your system the asks for credit card details to remove the virus!!! Well there is now a newer version of the same virus called VirusResponse Lab 2009 as pictured below.  VirusRespone 2009 I thought I’d just post this to make you aware that this is not a genuine anti-virus package alerting you to the fact that you have a virus on your system. In fact it is the virus! What is worrying about this virus is the fact that the customers that have it on thier system have proper anti-virus software installed to start with. However the security suite is not that good, both Macafee and Norton are a no no. I’m selling Kaspersky Anti-virus 3 user license at £25 a great deal and can be used on 3 machines. It will also protect you against VirusResponse Lab 2009.      
Get a website in AberdeenI always get positive comments about my website from customers. I’ve even had a few ask if I’d build them a website. I used to turn down such offers however I’ve started to enjoy the process of website design and publication. Back about 10 years ago I was really into websites and have quite a few up and running for family and friends. I lost interest when I had to get a real job and go out and work. It’s quite a creative process and my graphic design skills at the time were excellent. 10 years later and I’ve come full circle. I built this website earlier this year and was amazed at how far the web has come along (they call it web 2.0) Web 2.0 is the way to go, I’ve not fully embraced it however I can see the potential and application over the next few years. I think this is the first post I’ve not rambled on about computer repair in Aberdeen or computer support in Aberdeen. But I thought a break from the norm would add a bit of freshness my thoughts and this small business. If your just starting out and need a website created with easy access then give me a call I’m sure I can lend some advice for free. :)      
New broadband supplier recommendation.Just changed broadband supplier. I was with ADSL24 who offered very good service for over a year but latley the download speed started to decrease. Best place to search for good suppliers is thinkbroadband.com. There are always users on the forum moaning about thier current supplier and helpful posts on who are good suppliers. I chose to go with a company called UK Online. They also manage sky broadband however they are an extra £10-£15 / month. Usually I look for the cheapest however I’m so relient on broadband it’s not always about price. Quality matters to. UK Online have ADSL2 in Aberdeen so I now have a 11meg connection to the local BT exchange and my average download speed is 9.5meg!!!! That is fast. I can download a DVD in 1 hour (4gb) or a divx movie in 10 minutes!!! UK Online also offer a referal scheme, if you state that you were refered by a friend and supply thier UK Online email address both you and the friend get a free month worth of broadband from them. Here is my UK Online email address… You will not be disapointed with thier service.      
Website ane email problemsJust a quick note to say there are a few issues with my website this week. Changed broadband provider and have had to move my website. Email is now up and running however images are not being displayed on this blog at the moment. Will get this fixed as soon as I get a chance!      
Virus Removal AberdeenThe most common virus at the moment on computer systems is the Anti Virus 2009. This is a virus that tries mimik a anti virus software. It will inform you that your system is infected. However the only infection is this software which harasses you to purchase thier removal tools. This usually ends up on a system after you’ve downloaded a video or mp3 from somewhere like limewire. You click the file to open, it asks you to install a codec or somthing similar. Then bang! You now have a virus on your system. I am currently selling lean mean anti virus software for £25. This is Kaspersky 3 user license software which can be used on 3 machines. PC World are selling Kaspersky however it is £25 for only one license. Give me a call if your in Aberdeen and want anti virus software up-to-date.      
Computer for sale in Aberdeen
System specification 40GB Hard Drive      
Faster broadband for Aberdeen.
Back in the old days there was no internet so people used computers offline, the speed of your computer mattered. The more money you were willing to spend the quicker/smoother your computing experience would be. This is no longer true. Not only has the cost of computers dropped the amount of online activity you use your computer for has increased. Personally 85%-90% of time I spend on a computer is now online. Now what matters is your broadband connection. At the moment if you are in a residential area of Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire you probably are getting a broadband connection anywhere between 2mb and 7mb of speed. You can use the Aberdeen Broadband Help page to check you speed. ADSL2 offers speeds of up to 24mb’s. Now that is only a number but if you can get anywhere between 10mb-20mb and you’ll be in the minority of broadband users. Having a connection that fast means the web should load instantly on your computer. You could download a feature film in 2 minutes compared to 2 Hours. Currently BT has not provided Aberdeen with ADSL2. However other service providers are offering ADSL2 and some are setting up ADSL2 in Aberdeen. AOL, Tiscali & Sky have all got ADSL2 service in Aberdeen however a word of warning. Some of these ISPs are awful. You get a fast connection but it may be a congested connection. The more popular the ISP the more congested the connection. This leads to a slow down. o2 broadband however may be the way to go. They are currently working on ADSL2 and have set an online date for 30 of October. After this date you should be able to sign up to their service and get fast speeds. Not only that if you are on an o2 contract you can save quite a bit of money on the broadband cost every month. As mentioned I do computer repair Aberdeen but also can help with broadband issues. Any queries about broadband feel free to email me.      
Secure your wireless network.
You should check that you are running WPA, or at least WEP. If there is no security your neighbours will probably be stealing your broadband, this saves them £20 a month, very generous of you :) However the real concern is if you have a neighbour that knows what they are doing! They could be intercepting all your online activity. Anytime you log onto hotmail or online banking they can be taking your passwords. If they are real geeks then they can see everything on your computer! If you’d like to get your network checked then give me a call.      
ADSL2+ Delay in Aberdeen :(
Looks like BT are delaying the ADSL2 upgrade of the Aberdeen exchange. This is a bit of a disappointment however it does not surprise me as BT are always letting me down. I manage quite a number of broadband lines for a charity in Aberdeen. They have around 50-60 BT broadband lines in Elgin, Inverurie, Huntly, Peterhead, Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Aboyne, Banchory to name a few. If there is an issue at one of the lines it can take BT 5-7 days before an engineer fixes the problem! My advice to you is do not be too reliant on your broadband connection. If it goes down you may be without service for a week if the issue is not within your home. Back to the ADSL2, I’ve did a bit of research this morning and it looks like SKY broadband Max package are now offering ADSL2 in Aberdeen. This is an unbundled service not managed by BT, that’s why it is up and ruining. If you’ve got sky this will only cost £10/month a true bargain. Download speeds of 16mb and there is no traffic shaping I’m aware of. Go via quidco.co.uk for some cash back ;)      
Broken laptop Aberdeen
Whilst it is possible to replace specific keys (eBay). This keyboard is also missing the connectors to the keys so again I’ve to swap it out. I find the most difficult repairs are on more expensive laptops. Not only are they usually more fragile than the sub £400 laptops. They are also more expensive to repair. If you find that you’ve dropped your laptop check your home insurance policy. There is a good chance they’ll just swap it out for a new laptop. If this is the case, give me a call I’ll be more than willing to take the broken laptop off your hands. Not only will I recycle the parts from the laptop I can also wipe the data off the system so it does not get into the wrong hands. What ever you do do not put a broken laptop in the bin. The battery in these systems is not land fill material and has to be disposed of correctly. Stay tuned and I’ll show you the repair process on the broken laptop.      
Computer repair in AberdeenI mainly repair computers in Aberdeen. However I also do laptop repair in Aberdeen as well. The main physical repair issues are around broken laptop screens or laptops that won’t turn on. 75% of the time the laptop is worth fixing. However depending on the age of the laptop it may not be. I offer a trade-in service. I’ll give you a discount on your old laptop, transfer the data off it, even if it’s not working. The data can then be loaded onto a new laptop. I usually knock off around £30 and can offer cheap laptops in aberdeen for £270 on a trade-in basis. These are brand new Dell systems that come with a full warranty via Dell. As for desktops 99% of the time the repair is worth fixing. I consider my quotes honest and offer value for money on my service. I also offer discount on repeat business. To sum it up if you need your computer or laptop repaired in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire and want a quality service at a good price you’ve found the correct phone number 01224-516033        
Computer shops in AberdeenUsually when someone calls me with a Computer problem in Aberdeen they want it fixed as soon as possible. I tend to do a 24 hour turn around service however this is not always possible. The main reason is that the computer part that needs replaced is not in stock. Laptop motherboards and screens in Aberdeen are hard to come by so usually I have to order up. Other items that are needed “now” and I don’t have stock of I can call upon my friends. When I get a call for a repair I always quote the best price I can find on hardware. Laptop screens are always the most expensive items to replace in any system but I can usually still make it worth while for a repair. Some folk will charge £200 to repair laptop screens plus the price of the screen. I believe this is ripping the customer off when you can get a new laptop for £300. If I think the laptop is not worth reparing I’ll let the customer know. I do offer a trade-in price for laptops as I can recycle or use other parts of the laptop. I can also transfer the data off the old laptop onto the new one, which is always helpful! I also sell refurbished laptops in Aberdeen. The best computer shops in Aberdeen at the moment are Everest Tech on Holburn street. They have a good range of hardware and offer good prices. They also have customer parking which is handy. The other good computer shop in Aberdeen is North East periperals on George Street.        
Get more from your Computer!Over the past few months I’ve seen slow slow computers and laptops. Here are five easy ways to speed up your PC / laptop. If you are in Aberdeen give me a tinkle and I can lend a hand. 1. Add more RAM (memory) it’s cheap! Back in the dark ages of IT computer memory was very expensive. This has now changed and if you have an aging computer the single best solution is to add in extra RAM. If you have an older machine the software that came with that machine was designed to run with the memory installed. However over the past few years software has been gaining the need for more RAM. So if you’ve recently installed a new bit of software in an old machine there is a very good chance that it’s slowing the machine down a lot. 2. Defrag your hard disk. Windows likes to spread data around your hard drive like butter on toast however hard drives work faster when the data is all together, like one big clump. Defragging a hard disc orders the data on your hard drive so windows can access it faster, this in turn will speed up the running of your hard drive. Download, install and run ultra defrag this is far better than the defrag utility in windows and is free! 3. Uninstall Norton, Macafee and AVG anti virus! Am i nuts, uninstall your anti virus? Well Fixing computers in Aberdeen has led me to the conclusion that these 3 are bad for your computer. AVG never used to be so bad but since version 8 (released May ‘08) It is now up with Norton and Macafee as processor hogs of the computer. Don’t believe me? Google “Norton is a virus” or click here for some reasons that make my statement ring true. Okay I have removed Norton/Macfee/AVG now what? Well congratulations firstly, I know how difficult it is to remove Norton from a system. There are plenty of alternatives to the big three. I recommend Avast Free edition and Super Anti Spyware. However there are others that I also recommend, give me a all if you need a virus removed or an anti virus removed in Aberdeen :) 4. Speed Up your Internet Some people think the more expensive the computer or the newer the computer the faster it will be, wrong! Nowadays most people use their computer to surf the web. That means that your broadband connection has much more of a role in system performance compared to the actual performance of your computer. Here is how to speed up your broadband in Aberdeen, or anywhere else for that matter! Plug your router into the master socket in your house. Do not run your router or modem off an extension in your house. If the master socket is somewhere that the computer can’t go I can help with this, either via a wireless network or a home plug network (Internet gets sent around your electricity supply!) Having a hardwired connection is always better, wireless sucks most of the time, especially with the granite walls in Aberdeen. Remove the ring wire from your master socket. This is usually an orange wire, if you don’t feel comfortable doing this then you know who to call at this point. The ring wire used to be used on old telephone systems and made the telephone “ring”. It is no longer used and actually causes interference with the broadband signal, slowing down your connection. Get a new ISP, maybe, if you’re with a big ISP like BT, Virgin, AOL, Tiscali then this is probably one of the main factors why you have slow Internet. Because they are big they have more customers, more customers means more people using the same connection to their servers. This spells disaster for the power user. A general rule of thumb, the smaller the ISP the better the service. I use an outfit called ADSL24, there are others. You’ll also find with the bigger ISP they’ll throlle/restrict usage to the Internet at certain times of the day, mainly between 4pm-9pm. 5. Re-install windowzzzz Windows is great but over time it will slow down and get cluttered up. I’m not going to go into the detail on how to do this as there are a few steps and it take a good 3 hours to get it all running again. However the is probably one of the best tips, if you need a windows reinstall in Aberdeen give me a call. Or look further down this blog where I outline the process.        
Slingbox Aberdeen
Well he purchased a slingbox. It’s a device that you hook up to your sky TV /DVD/Freeview. The other end of the slingbox goes to your broadband router. What the box does is pull the TV source (sky in his case) convert it into a digital form that can be sent around a home network or the Internet. I’ve heard about these devices before but this was the first time I have seen one. At first I thought, what’s the point? Then it clicked, you can access TV from anywhere, as long as you have an Internet connection. Anyway the customer is happy, I managed to configure the slingbox so that it can broadcast outside the home network. This allows him to fire up the sling player on his laptop in Asia and watch AND control his sky box in Aberdeen. He almost had it set up by himself the only thing he got stuck on was port forwarding on the router, this ain’t simple and took me a good couple of months to fully understand. I use port forwarding all the time for remote access into computers but the slingbox also requires it. So I’m fully qualified in setting up slingbox’s. If you’ve got one (they are currently only £60 from expansys.com) and are having “issues” let me know. I’m thinking of buying one for myself now and giving my brother and father access to it as they live in the states. Best of all it has an inbuilt freeview tuner so I cvould just hook up to my router and leave them to use it. Nice Christmas present for them :)        
Speed test your broadband.I’ve been round at a few of houses doing a couple of computer repairs in Aberdeen. Most broadband users don’t notice that much difference in speed however the 2 houses I’ve visited have had really slow connections to the Internet. I tested thier computers to make sure that there were no large downloads at the time. All clear. Next I tested thier connection speed which can be easily done here
Most users should get at least 2000kbps download with it downloads in Aberdeen topping out at 7000kbps, if you can reach above 5000kbps then you should be happy as that is a 5mb connection to the internet which can handle even the biggest type of downloads. However if you have an upto 8mb service and are getting below 1000kbps then things are not right. Either on your system or with your ISP, and you should not be paying for an 8mb service (which most people are on) if you are getting under 1000kbps. I have a list of things that can speed up any connection. If you require a speed upgrade service on your broadband then get in touch. I’m currently offering a MOT for your broadband for £40.        
Remove Antivirus 2009.I’ve been getting a lot of calls from folk in Aberdeen and the shire. “Help” I have a virus. Anti virus 2009 pop ups and the like. It’s a nasty marketing software product that takes control of your computer and tries to sell you anti virus software. It also slows down your machine and at a guess installs a key logger so knows everything your typing. Not good if you do online banking. How to remove anti virus 2009 ? Well there is no easy way. Do a search on google and there are plenty of tutorials and other software makers that will try and make you part with cash if you buy their anti virus software! The tutorials may work but are a lengthy process 3-4 hours worth of scanning and the nasty still might be on there. My best advice is to give me a call if your in Aberdeen. The removal takes around 2 hours. If you are not in Aberdeen get a quote from someone that can: A) back up your data (pictures, music, documents, videos, itunes) essentially your PC will get taken back to the factory default settings with a clean copy of Windows. The only disadvantage to this process is that you must have the original software CDs for programs you use (games, programs, office, word, excel) If you don’t then you’ll have to download them again or source alternatives which I can also help with ;)        
Get a website in Aberdeen easy!It is still thought to be a black art, build your own website. However it is really easy. I’ve got a friend in Aberdeen he is a video production editor and is always looking for extra work. When he films his own stuff for production he always goes under the name of Day of the Dog Productions. I suggested to him that he should have his own website to promote his interests and business. A great tool for networking. He just looked at me and asked how much it would cost. “Around a fiver”, I told him. Like the true Aberdonain that he is this sounded about the correct amount to invest on a website. 1) Buy a domain name Goto 123reg and search for the domain name you’d like. Most .co.uk domains are about £5 for two years. Once you’ve chosen the domain add it to your shopping cart, make sure to remove any unwanted domains that they have suggested. Then click buy and create an account. 2) Use Bebo/Myspace/Facebook/Blogger/Youtube to create your homepage. My friend was promoting video production in Aberdeen so it made sense to use his profile homepage on Youtube as his Website front page. It is not finished yet but there are lots of options on all the Web 2.0 services (youtube/bebo etc) to customise your homepage to a certain look and feel. All that is left then is to add content to the page on the item/product/service your promoting. 3) Redirect your new domain name to your page. Log into the control panel on the 123reg website with your new username/password. Scroll down to “manage domains”. Choose your new domain and click modify domain. Then click web forwarding. You want to choose framed web forwarding (2nd option). Scroll down to the bottom of the page and edit the following fields. Meta tag Author: put your name or company name here. Meta tag Keywords (separate with commas): put keywords that people would type into google to find you. For example Aberdeen Computer Repair, Computer Man in Aberdeen this is what I use for this website amongst others. Meta tag description: put in a relevant description for your site here. Then click the update web forwarding button. That’s it!!! The possibilities are endless. I am planning on doing something similar with photography using facebook. What is great about this type of website is if you have satisfied customers they can add you as friends on their bebo/facebook pages which will give you a positive feedback loop. Of course this is not going to look 100% professional but how many websites do look professional? Quite a lot but they’ve spent £100’s if not £1000’s and if they’ve spent £10,000’s you’ll probably not be hanging around thier too long as it is so corporate. Start small with something I’ve suggested above then get a professional website created by a professional. Over and out for now folks.        
USB ports not working?Error code 41 usb not working. The drivers were loaded but the device was not found. Read on if you want to know the fix :) I just got a system in with this error. None of the USB ports were working. I had a look in the event viewer and saw bad blocks on the hard drive, so cloned the drive onto another drive that was fine. I thought the bad blocks might be corrupting the relevant USB drivers. However that did not fix! Then I checked the BIOS to make sure that USB was enabled, it was. Still no idea! I then went and purchased a USB PCI card and put it in the system. That did not work either! Last ditch attempt, I did a repair install of Windows, guess what, that did not work either! Google saves the day. Turns out that antivirus Kaspersky was installed on this system and then removed. There is some sort of bug when it is removed and messes with the registery. Managed to find a link to a reg file that seems to do the trick here is the link to the relevant thread on the Kaspersky forums. I’ve earned my beer for tonight I think :)        
Got a lot of cables ? If you are trying to store a lot of cables neatly go down to your local b&q and get garden wire. it’s the same stuff as the black wire you get that is tied around new cables but is green. Works a treat !        
ADSL2 In Aberdeen coming soon.If you are like me then you want the fastest connection to the internet possible. I recently moved from a cottage south of Udny back into Aberdeen. With this brought a speed boost on my broadband. Out at the cottage if it rained my broadband would slow down. If it snowed the broadband would switch off! My maximum speed was 512k when I was on broadband max (upto 8megs) my speed was 256k, I had to get BT to put me on a fixed line. Quite a good tip if you live very far out from you local BT exchange. Anyway back in Aberdeen now and about half a mile from the nearest BT exchange, which is the Denburn exchange. I’m getting 6mb connection now. This is set to increase to 12mb in November. You can check when your broadband is set to increase by using the ADSL2 checker. Half of Aberdeen is set for this speed increase between 19/11/2008 and 18/02/2009. However as with anything computer related and that’s new. An upgrade may be required in the form of an ADSL2+ modem router. If you’ve had broadband for a few years now more than likely your router will only work with the ADSL 1 standard. I won’t get into the technical details on the standard but you’ll need a ADSL2+ modem to make full use of the new features BT will be implementing at the exchange. If you are in the Aberdeen area and require an upgrade check my website out. You can contact me for advise and upgrade options for ADSL2 in Aberdeen.        
Cracking wireless networks.
There is a great tool called backtrack. It is a LiveCD, which basically means it’s an operating system that can be booted from a CD. Anyway the CD lets you boot into a distribution of Linux that has many tools for “hacking” or “cracking” computer systems. I use the tool mainly at work to penetration test my systems. I currently support around 600 users here in Aberdeen and across the north-east of Scotland. The system we use runs at our head office and all computers connect to it to run applications and access files. With such a reliance on having all the systems in one place things have to be secure. I mainly use backtrack to gain access to my companies wireless networks. There have been cases of some Polish guys sitting outside our offices in Elgin and tapping into our wireless network for free broadband. If they really wanted to mess with us though and knew what they were doing they’d highjack client connections. Meaning that all data our staff are accessing goes through their laptop first. This is also known as a man in the middle attack. Apart from this type of wireless network thing I also warn customers of the security risk they have. I was in a customer’s house a few weeks back fixing her wireless connection. A big granite 3 story house in the Cornhill area. The wifi signal did not have a chance. I recommended the network homeplugs. However I also secured her wireless. You see the BT Home hubs which many people have are secured using a standard called WEP encryption. Which takes around 3 minutes to break into using a backtrack CD and the correct hardware. I plan to help my neighbours out as well as there are a few BT Home hubs in the area. Lucky I’m an honest kind of guy and don’t go around stealing people’s broadband or worse man in the middle attacks. Booking a holiday online? They might take your credit card details. Over the next few weeks I’ll be blogging about backtrack with some in-depth tutorials for cracking wireless networks. Then it’s off to starbucks to crack to bluetooth headsets.        
Lucky I don’t live in Texas!A new state law has just been past in Texas. If you are a computer technician and own a shop you must have a PI (private investigator) license. In order to obtain the license you must have a criminal Justice degree which usually takes 3 years to study for. If you are caught without a licence will get a $4000 fine! Reading this crazy news story I can only assume that it is a case of “big brother gone mad”.        
What OS?I sell quite a few Dell laptops to people in and around Aberdeen. When you go to PC w0rld or any other local computer shop and buy a new system you’ll find it comes pre-loaded with the new Windows Vista OS (operating system). However this really kills the performance on a brand new laptop or desktop machine. My advice to all my customers is to “Upgrade to XP“. I offer this service as part of my sale when a new system is purchased at AB1 Computers. There are many reasons that Vista is good but there are also many reasons why XP is still king. Vista is an embarrassment for Microsoft and it’s not the first time the software giant has offered a poor OS. Back in 1999 I believe Microsoft released Windows ME which was also a poor excuse for a new operating system. Built around Windows 98 core it had few improvements, just a some what glossy image. Sound familiar? My own choice was Windows 98 and Windows 2000 at the time. However Windows 2000 was brand new and few software vendors supported desktop user applications. I had to learn the hard way! Now there is a similar situation with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. I’ve opted to try Windows Server 2008 as my new “power user” workstation OS. However I’m already learning from my mistakes. I installed it on my system last night with somewhat ease. The new 8gigs of RAM in my system are now being seen and the quad core CPU I picked up from the U.S. on the cheap is doing the trick. However I have no Internet access. It turns out that very few wireless (wifi) cards are supported in the new Server 2008. This is mainly due to it being built around the Vista x64 core and all drivers have to be signed from Microsoft. This means that any hardware makers have to approach MS for driver signing prior to the hardware being compatible with Server 2008. Anyways it looks like I’ll be under my house at some point hard wiring a connection to my modem ! As I’ve said before, it’s not a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.        
On HolidayGoing on holiday this week. Will be back 28/6 3 weeks :D        
SHMU Radio Aberdeen
My friends Richard and John have a show called film frenzie. It’s on at Thursday at 3pm and Also Monday night at 12. Have a listen if your bored :) The website is SHMU        
Brand new DellTransfering the old files takes a while.        
My 5 year old printer.Just run out of ink for the first time. Cheapest place for ink in aberdeen is cartridge world on Rosemount. Spot the cat paw in the dust.        
Pc world = dog pooNever buy from pc world this one blue screens the fault lies with a cheap motherboard. I preformed a debug on a mini memory dump. This throws up lots of info. The main bit being there is an error in the HD Audio Bus driver. As it’s mass produced it can’t be the driver so it must be the hardware. A new motherboard is needed.
       
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Computer Repair, Laptop Repairs Aberdeen / AberdeenshireAB1 Computers is based in Aberdeen, Scotland. We provide PC help, computer and laptop repairs in Aberdeen. We specialise in offering a mobile repair service, resolving your Computer or Laptop problems in your own home. We offer a friendly personal service and guarantee to have you sorted in no time. We cover Aberdeen, Ellon, Inverurie & Stonehaven area. We do not have a shop front this provides our customers substantial savings compared to the competitors. TEL: 01224-516033
| AB1 Computers IT Help for the 21st Century. Aberdeen based IT service provider. |
How to use google alerts.
I’ve had a number of laptop repairs in Aberdeen this week, more than the usual. My best advice to anyone that want to keep their laptop happy is hoover the keyboard. Unlike a desktop system the keyboard is part of the whole system and keeping it clean will increase the life expectancy of your laptop. Just a little tip, will get a bit more technical next week.
