Hertfordshire Computer Repair and Pc RepairWelcome to Hertfordshire Computer Repair and Pc Repair, part of the Computer Repair UK network. Hertfordshire computer repair and Pc repair covers the entire Hertfordshire area so to find your local repairer simply enter your city, town or village in the search box on the left to go straight to your area page. First Things First Has your computer stopped
working or is it just running poorly? If it is just running
slowly then you may only need to install more memory or have
your local repairer do this for you. You can check to see if
you have sufficient memory in your computer by running a
free memory
scan which
you can do here. The Crucial Memory
Advisor Tool takes the guesswork out of
upgrading. If it has stopped working then before you call out a computer repairer check to make sure that all the power leads are connected correctly and that none of the fuses have blown. If it is still not working then you will need a computer repair call out. Computer or Laptop Just Running Slow? If your computer is just running slowly we advise that you downloaded and run our recommended system repair software if you have not done so already. Invariably we find that many problems are only software related and this will help you avoid paying for uneccessary call out charges. If your computer is only running poorly then there is a fair chance that your problem is software or virus related. Each year people waste hundreds of pounds on computer repair call outs that are really not neccessary and ones that they could easily remedy themselves with the appropriate software. With call out charges ranging between £25-£45, a 2-3 hour repair can easily cost well in excess of £100 which is sometimes more than the computer is actually worth. If it is out of hours, or your computer is just running slow, then we recommend you run your own diagnostics before calling out a professional - you could possibly be saving yourself hundreds of pounds in potential call out charges. System repair tools are inexpensive in this day and age and are designed to be easy to use by both the novice and professional alike, and at less than the cost of a typical initial call out charge this software will not only help get your system back up and running quickly, but will also help keep your computer in tip top condition as long as you have the software installed. We would recommend the award winning XP Repair Pro. XP Repair Pro 2007 By ddXSoftware
Hertfordshire Computer Repairers
Computer Repair Tips From Computers Repairs UK PC Security - Fighting Spam: User Strategies Fighting spam - like countering any illegitimate activity - is a never-ending battle. You devise a strategy and there's a counter-response. But taking low-effort steps that make spammers actions ineffective or difficult puts you at an advantage. FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE If a spammer had to gather e-mail addresses manually and send ads one at a time, the whole enterprise wouldn't be worth his effort. Unfortunately, automation gives him a huge assist. Two can play at that game. Since spam is made possible by programs, programs can fight it - and, fortunately, there are many already available. Before learning how to use them, it's helpful to know how spammers do their dirty deeds and what simple actions a user can take to counter them. One of the most effective tools spammers have are spambots - programs that automatically browses websites looking for e-mail addresses, which it then "harvests" and stores into large lists. The lists are then either used directly for marketing purposes or sold, often as CDs listing millions of addresses. There aren't yet perfect mechanisms for foiling spambots, but there are several effective techniques. MISDIRECT If you don't expose an e-mail address to harvest, you can't get harvested. But in a time when blogs, forums and other public sites are heavily used - and most require providing an e-mail address to post if not to read - it's difficult to avoid. So for those public venues, define and use an address where you intend to get no personal e-mail. After responding to the sign-up confirmation you don't have to care what goes there. Keep another for personal use and give it only to trusted individuals and vendors. A word of caution: Hotmail, Yahoo and other large providers have often been used for this purpose. Some sites are wise to this and won't allow addresses with @hotmail.com, for example. Fortunately, there are dozens of free e-mail providers and you don't have to use the same one every time. CAMOUFLAGE Spambots are clever, but they're not human. They can't make subtle distinctions or inferences unless they're programmed to do so. Often, disguising a publicly visible e-mail address is enough to cause the spambot to bypass you. They're frequently programmed to look for character strings like John_Example@somecleverdomainname.com. Programs only do what they're instructed, so even so simple a change as John_Example_at_NOSPAMsomecleverdomainname.com is enough to fool them. Even if your disguised e-mail address is still harvested, at minimum the address has to be 'scrubbed' in order to be used. Scrubbing routines are even harder to write than spambots, because there are so many possible variations. (NO_SPAM, NOSPAM, no*spam and many that are much more clever. Be creative!) Those variations are usually simple for humans to decipher, but again programs only do what they're instructed. The method does have potential drawbacks. Humans have to strip out the extra letters and insert the @-sign (in the above example) - something they sometimes fail to do out of failure to understand the need to, or because they simply hit Reply To. Also, since many e-mail confirmation systems are themselves automated (by software, naturally), they too will fail to deliver to the desired address. A variation on the technique can be used not only by web site designers but (to an extent) users. You can usually configure your e-mail account to make the receiver see your e-mail address as anything you wish, regardless of the actual address. After all, that's how spammers often disguise themselves, too. FILTERS Once you make the effort to create an e-mail account and 'advertise' it to your friends, business associates and trusted vendors changing (or even disguising) it can be undesirable. That puts you in the position of making high cost efforts for low reward - exactly the role you want the spammer to be in, not you. Spam or Junk Mail filters to the rescue. Filters examine every e-mail before it's delivered and apply complex algorithms to determine whether one is junk or not. They're configurable so that e-mail from senders listed in your address book pass through to your Inbox, with others directed to a Junk folder. Though imperfect, those algorithms are reviewed often by e-mail providers and evolve to capture more junk and fewer valid messages. And, when reviewing the junk mail folder, some allow you to specify whether they 'guessed' correctly. Your answers allow the algorithms to make better guesses. RAISE THE PRICE Eventually, even determined spammers get tired of programming variations to bypass the hurdles thrown in their way, deciding the effort isn't worth the reward. The trick is to make the cost of their effort much higher than the reward, while making the cost to you low and the reward high. Spammers haven't surrendered, but progress to date has been impressive. |
