Aunty Virus 12th April 2010
Ken from the UK asks:
Hello Aunty, I’ve just been reading your page and refer to the email from Pat regarding Photo editing. I occasionally use a couple of free download sites that are quite comprehensive in what they can do. They are as follows: www.fotoflexer.com and www.picnik.com Perhaps these may be of help.
Aunty Says:
Thanks for that Ken. I had a look at fotoflexer and it is very good. I will have a play with picnic.com and let you know how I get on.
Dennis via email asks:
I am hoping you will be able to advise me on the problem I am having at the moment. For the past two days I have had over 3,000 spam emails giving a message 'unable to deliver'. I believe they are coming in hoping to get into our address book. We have previously added AAAAAAAA@AAAAAA at the top of our address book to stop anyone getting past. Is there anything we can do stop messages coming in.
Aunty Says:
Hi Dennis. If you’re receiving 3000 'unable to deliver' email warnings then I think we will need to investigate this a bit more. From what you’ve told me I suspect either your email address is being used by spammers, or you may have a virus on your computer that is able to generate POP3 emails without you knowing. If your email address is being used to generate and deliver spam then there is little or nothing you can do and I noticed you have a company email address, so it may be best changing this as a starting point. Certainly scan your computer for virus and spyware and maybe check some of the undeliverable emails to see the destination address they were heading to. Let me know how you get on.
Alan from Benidorm asks:
I have a charger from a defunct laptop and would like to know if it is safe to use it for another laptop as it would be convenient to be able to plug in in two places around the house without moving the original charger.
Aunty Says:
It will need to be the same voltage and amperage Alan. It will also need to have the same physical size connector, and on some older power supplies the polarity was different (i.e. positive on the outer part of the small plug) This should all be marked on the power supply and on the underside of the laptop.
Jeff via email asks:
Hi Aunty, I use Windows Vista Home Premium. The problem I have is I use wireless internet in my apartment and throughout the building with no problems using my D Link router but when I visit a shopping centre or somewhere else which says they have free WiFi I cannot get onto the internet. If I try and diagnose the problem it says Windows cannot identify any problem! I have tried 4 different locations without success. In one of the shopping centres I get a message saying I may have to adjust my browser! (Have not got a clue what this means). Any ideas please!
Aunty Says:
Hi Jeff. Normally this problem is down to the security key that most wifi connections require and the first thing you need to establish is whether the wifi connection you are trying to connect to has security enabled. When you click on the network icon in the bottom right of your screen you should see an option to connect to a network and then browse/scan for available wireless signals in range, and at this point you can see if it's an unsecure network or whether it needs a code. If it is unsecure then you should be able to simply click on it and then ‘connect’. Try this first and let me know what happens.
Edward via email asks:
Hi Aunty, just a quick question if I may, not a big hassle but annoying. I have the Malwarebytes programme on my Laptop, and up to now have had no problem. However when I have scanned my Laptop (once a week), programmes advises that I need to restart computer to finish. Now when I do that, I am presented with a message from Windows that they have blocked a programme that is run on start up, check the box, and it’s Malwarebytes that is being blocked. It is possible of course to unblock each time, but why would they suddenly decide they don't like this programme?
Aunty Says:
This is a security feature built into Vista and Win7 that warns you of any programs that are running on startup and adding themselves to your System Tray (icons in the bottom right corner) Why it has just started I cannot be sure. There is a fairly complicated registry hack that will disable this feature but I would suggest trying out the Vista Manager 4.02 program from download.com. It costs about 25€ but it is very useful.
Hello Aunty, I’ve just been reading your page and refer to the email from Pat regarding Photo editing. I occasionally use a couple of free download sites that are quite comprehensive in what they can do. They are as follows: www.fotoflexer.com and www.picnik.com Perhaps these may be of help.
Aunty Says:
Thanks for that Ken. I had a look at fotoflexer and it is very good. I will have a play with picnic.com and let you know how I get on.
Dennis via email asks:
I am hoping you will be able to advise me on the problem I am having at the moment. For the past two days I have had over 3,000 spam emails giving a message 'unable to deliver'. I believe they are coming in hoping to get into our address book. We have previously added AAAAAAAA@AAAAAA at the top of our address book to stop anyone getting past. Is there anything we can do stop messages coming in.
Aunty Says:
Hi Dennis. If you’re receiving 3000 'unable to deliver' email warnings then I think we will need to investigate this a bit more. From what you’ve told me I suspect either your email address is being used by spammers, or you may have a virus on your computer that is able to generate POP3 emails without you knowing. If your email address is being used to generate and deliver spam then there is little or nothing you can do and I noticed you have a company email address, so it may be best changing this as a starting point. Certainly scan your computer for virus and spyware and maybe check some of the undeliverable emails to see the destination address they were heading to. Let me know how you get on.
Alan from Benidorm asks:
I have a charger from a defunct laptop and would like to know if it is safe to use it for another laptop as it would be convenient to be able to plug in in two places around the house without moving the original charger.
Aunty Says:
It will need to be the same voltage and amperage Alan. It will also need to have the same physical size connector, and on some older power supplies the polarity was different (i.e. positive on the outer part of the small plug) This should all be marked on the power supply and on the underside of the laptop.
Jeff via email asks:
Hi Aunty, I use Windows Vista Home Premium. The problem I have is I use wireless internet in my apartment and throughout the building with no problems using my D Link router but when I visit a shopping centre or somewhere else which says they have free WiFi I cannot get onto the internet. If I try and diagnose the problem it says Windows cannot identify any problem! I have tried 4 different locations without success. In one of the shopping centres I get a message saying I may have to adjust my browser! (Have not got a clue what this means). Any ideas please!
Aunty Says:
Hi Jeff. Normally this problem is down to the security key that most wifi connections require and the first thing you need to establish is whether the wifi connection you are trying to connect to has security enabled. When you click on the network icon in the bottom right of your screen you should see an option to connect to a network and then browse/scan for available wireless signals in range, and at this point you can see if it's an unsecure network or whether it needs a code. If it is unsecure then you should be able to simply click on it and then ‘connect’. Try this first and let me know what happens.
Edward via email asks:
Hi Aunty, just a quick question if I may, not a big hassle but annoying. I have the Malwarebytes programme on my Laptop, and up to now have had no problem. However when I have scanned my Laptop (once a week), programmes advises that I need to restart computer to finish. Now when I do that, I am presented with a message from Windows that they have blocked a programme that is run on start up, check the box, and it’s Malwarebytes that is being blocked. It is possible of course to unblock each time, but why would they suddenly decide they don't like this programme?
Aunty Says:
This is a security feature built into Vista and Win7 that warns you of any programs that are running on startup and adding themselves to your System Tray (icons in the bottom right corner) Why it has just started I cannot be sure. There is a fairly complicated registry hack that will disable this feature but I would suggest trying out the Vista Manager 4.02 program from download.com. It costs about 25€ but it is very useful.