Aunty Virus 22nd March 2010
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John via email asks:
Dear Aunty, I have tried to block an address which is sending me unwanted sensitive subject messages but I have not been successful. Could you please advise or let me know how I can change my Email address.
Aunty Says:
Hello John. This will depend on what email provider you use and whether you use webmail or a local email program such as Outlook or Live. I know with Google’s free Gmail you can simply click the ‘report spam’ button which dumps the offending email to your spam folder and sends a report to the Gmail security team who will hopefully flag that address as malicious. To get a free Gmail address simply go to gmail.com and click on the ‘create an account’ button. During the setup change your location to the US or UK or the gmail page will appear in Spanish.
Elizabeth via email asks:
I have a problem in printing a booking confirmation. It will not print and the message is "an error off line". I've no idea what this means.
Aunty Says:
An off-line error message usually indicates that your computer has detected your printer software is installed but the printer is either switched off, the USB cable is disconnected or the printer is in off-line mode. Check the USB cable first as this is relatively easy, failing that go to ‘control panel’ ‘printers and faxes’ and right click on the printer icon and see if you can switch it online from there.
Trevor via email asks:
Hi Aunty, I would be grateful for your advice as I use internet banking and I currently have installed AVG, Spamfighter and Spybot Search and Destroy. Do these programmes give me adequate cover? Thanks for your help and a great column. I cannot always get RTN so any chance you could Email me as a belt and braces?
Aunty Says:
Hello Trevor. You could probably do with an additional anti spyware program so give SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes a go. Both are free and available from download.com or the homepage of eNET Computers. Rather than email articles I much prefer it if you access them via the RTN website or even better click on "Subscribe via email" on eNET Computers and have Aunty Virus delivered to your email inbox every week, figuratively speaking of course.
Steve via email asks:
Hi Aunty, the keypad on our Acer laptop needs more pressure on each key than my wife, a trained touch typist, is used to using. She has problems with characters not registering on the screen, especially when I have turned the sound off using the fn+f8 keys simultaneously. This means that she has great difficulty in getting the sound back on and the air turns a trifle blue. Is there a way to make the keys need less pressure? My wife suggests using WD40 but I think that would only work on purely mechanical typewriters!
Aunty Says:
I’m not sure about this to be honest Steve. You may find there is an option under ‘control panel’ somewhere or via one of the many Acer applications that should appear under ‘start’ ‘all programs’. Certainly WD40 wont help as you are right in your assumption that computer keyboards are primarily electrical rather than mechanical. You could simply purchase a €15 USB keyboard that you good wife could plug in whenever she needs to type any great amount.
June via email asks:
Dear Aunty, I have had AVG8.5 on my Toshiba laptop since I acquired the laptop six months ago. I am perfectly happy with it but in the last week or so a message keeps popping up saying that "time is running out and you have not updated to AVG9 version yet". When I click on this window it appears to be nothing more than an advert for AVG Internet Security with only a facility to upgrade to this paying version. My questions is, are they about to pull the plug on AVG8.5 (and is it therefore essential for me to update to AVG9) or can I just go on happily the way I am and ignore this popup? Would you advise me to update to AVG9 anyway (and how to do it) and many thanks for your help.
Aunty Says:
Your best bet June is to uninstall AVG 8 from ‘control panel’ and download the latest free install of version 9 from either download.com or the homepage here.
Les via email asks:
Thank you for your recent advice on Ccleaner which I will try next time I run it (about once a month). Another small problem is that it is very irritating when some UK web pages I contact start showing script or advertising material in Spanish, or worse still present me with a registration page in Spanish (Paypal for example), which I don’t want and can hardly read anyway. This presumably comes through my computer’s IP address or physical address being read by the web site. Is there any way that I can stop this address info being read? Would operating in Private Browsing be a solution?
Aunty Says:
You can often get around this automatic location detection problem by using a .co.uk or .ie extension. For example, if you type in ebay.co.uk rather than ebay.com it will force the UK and English language site. If there is only a .com version of the website, and you don’t see a link on the site where you can change your location, you may have some success by changing your regional settings through ‘control panel’.
Dear Aunty, I have tried to block an address which is sending me unwanted sensitive subject messages but I have not been successful. Could you please advise or let me know how I can change my Email address.
Aunty Says:
Hello John. This will depend on what email provider you use and whether you use webmail or a local email program such as Outlook or Live. I know with Google’s free Gmail you can simply click the ‘report spam’ button which dumps the offending email to your spam folder and sends a report to the Gmail security team who will hopefully flag that address as malicious. To get a free Gmail address simply go to gmail.com and click on the ‘create an account’ button. During the setup change your location to the US or UK or the gmail page will appear in Spanish.
Elizabeth via email asks:
I have a problem in printing a booking confirmation. It will not print and the message is "an error off line". I've no idea what this means.
Aunty Says:
An off-line error message usually indicates that your computer has detected your printer software is installed but the printer is either switched off, the USB cable is disconnected or the printer is in off-line mode. Check the USB cable first as this is relatively easy, failing that go to ‘control panel’ ‘printers and faxes’ and right click on the printer icon and see if you can switch it online from there.
Trevor via email asks:
Hi Aunty, I would be grateful for your advice as I use internet banking and I currently have installed AVG, Spamfighter and Spybot Search and Destroy. Do these programmes give me adequate cover? Thanks for your help and a great column. I cannot always get RTN so any chance you could Email me as a belt and braces?
Aunty Says:
Hello Trevor. You could probably do with an additional anti spyware program so give SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes a go. Both are free and available from download.com or the homepage of eNET Computers. Rather than email articles I much prefer it if you access them via the RTN website or even better click on "Subscribe via email" on eNET Computers and have Aunty Virus delivered to your email inbox every week, figuratively speaking of course.
Steve via email asks:
Hi Aunty, the keypad on our Acer laptop needs more pressure on each key than my wife, a trained touch typist, is used to using. She has problems with characters not registering on the screen, especially when I have turned the sound off using the fn+f8 keys simultaneously. This means that she has great difficulty in getting the sound back on and the air turns a trifle blue. Is there a way to make the keys need less pressure? My wife suggests using WD40 but I think that would only work on purely mechanical typewriters!
Aunty Says:
I’m not sure about this to be honest Steve. You may find there is an option under ‘control panel’ somewhere or via one of the many Acer applications that should appear under ‘start’ ‘all programs’. Certainly WD40 wont help as you are right in your assumption that computer keyboards are primarily electrical rather than mechanical. You could simply purchase a €15 USB keyboard that you good wife could plug in whenever she needs to type any great amount.
June via email asks:
Dear Aunty, I have had AVG8.5 on my Toshiba laptop since I acquired the laptop six months ago. I am perfectly happy with it but in the last week or so a message keeps popping up saying that "time is running out and you have not updated to AVG9 version yet". When I click on this window it appears to be nothing more than an advert for AVG Internet Security with only a facility to upgrade to this paying version. My questions is, are they about to pull the plug on AVG8.5 (and is it therefore essential for me to update to AVG9) or can I just go on happily the way I am and ignore this popup? Would you advise me to update to AVG9 anyway (and how to do it) and many thanks for your help.
Aunty Says:
Your best bet June is to uninstall AVG 8 from ‘control panel’ and download the latest free install of version 9 from either download.com or the homepage here.
Les via email asks:
Thank you for your recent advice on Ccleaner which I will try next time I run it (about once a month). Another small problem is that it is very irritating when some UK web pages I contact start showing script or advertising material in Spanish, or worse still present me with a registration page in Spanish (Paypal for example), which I don’t want and can hardly read anyway. This presumably comes through my computer’s IP address or physical address being read by the web site. Is there any way that I can stop this address info being read? Would operating in Private Browsing be a solution?
Aunty Says:
You can often get around this automatic location detection problem by using a .co.uk or .ie extension. For example, if you type in ebay.co.uk rather than ebay.com it will force the UK and English language site. If there is only a .com version of the website, and you don’t see a link on the site where you can change your location, you may have some success by changing your regional settings through ‘control panel’.