After many UK networks gathering for a meeting it has been announced by the mobile firm EE that the 4G network will launch 30 October.

The plans had been laid out for some time, but announcements had been held off about a finalised date while peace talks between rival network operators commenced.

With rival companies were as to be expected, unhappy about other companies gaining an unfair advantage by launching the 4G network before they do.

O2 and Vodafone have now agreed that they would not pursue legal action to block EE’s roll-out.

In return they have been promised that officials will accelerate the process to free airwaves so they can offer their own high-speed data services. Their 4G networks are due to launch in spring 2013.

EE’s network will cover 16 cities this year. The firm’s target is be able to offer the facility to 98% of the UK’s population by 2014.

EE’s chief executive Olaf Swantee said: “This is a significant milestone for the United Kingdom, and for the people and businesses of our country who will now be able to enjoy the huge advantages of super-fast 4G technology for the first time”.

In recent news a new controversial law developed in the hopes of combating against cybercrime in the Philippines has come into effect. With it’s pass it has raised countless protests and concerns from citizens and media alike fearing censorship.

Named as the “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012” it was signed last month on September 12 by the Filipino president. It’s intent is to try and stop cybersex, online child pornography, identity theft and spamming according to governmental officials. But the part which people are protesting against is the 12 year prison sentence which comes along side it.

“Questions have been raised about the constitutionality of certain provisions of the act. We recognise and respect efforts not only to raise these issues in court, but to propose amendments to the law in accordance with constitutional processes”

The act has been reported of have had at least eight large court cases raised already from large groups challenging its constitutionality and have been filed against the Philippines high court. Fears continued to rise about it being used by the government to crack down on critics freedom of speech. Under the new act, a person found guilt of libellous comments online, including comments made on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter or blogs, could be fined or jailed. But despite efforts made by protesters the act took place.

The turmoil that has been created because of this Act have lead activists to hacking into government websites, large social media campaigns being support across the globe with journalists holding rallies and citizens blacking out their social media avatars on Facebook and Twitter.

With the added power from the Government to search and seize any data from people’s online accounts, it has been questioned by numerous groups including a US-based Human Rights watch saying it is a clear violation of free speech.

“The cybercrime law needs to be repealed or replaced,” said the group’s Asia director, Brad Adams.
“It violates Filipinos’ rights to free expression and it is wholly incompatible with the Philippine government’s obligations under international law.”
The full Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 can be found here

Are you having problems with your computer? Is it running slow and not at the peak performance that it once was at? Has your PC had it? Then MAD IT!

Over time PC’s get clogged up with both dust and unwanted software. Both of these cause unnecessary strain on the computer system causing it to slow down and run at poor speeds.

Cleaning out dust may sound as simple as cleaning anything else but there is sensitive components inside a computer which can easily get damaged if not done correctly, why take the risk when you can let a professional take care of the work for you?

As we move further into the digital age more and more documents are being stored on computers as well as the increase in online banking, thus making it vitally important to make sure that the computer is secure from any unwanted information stealing malware.

Computer Repairs Halesowen

Like all machinery, over time things wear, systems get clogged up and things eventually break. Has this happened to your computer, then we can help. With our No fix No Fee solution we can give you peace of mind that your computer is in professional hands. With both onsite and in our local Halesowen workshop we are tailored to suit you.

PC Health Check Halesowen

Here at MAD Computer Solutions we offer a professional PC Heath Check service, which includes but is not limited to:

• Virus, Malware and Adware check & removal to ensure a clean PC.
• Dust removal to make sure your machine isn’t overheating
• Microsoft updates ensuring all your software is up to date
• Hard Drive checks to remove any errors
• Defragmentation to free up wasted space
• System diagnosis
• Uninstall old and unused programs to speed up your PC

Remote Support Halesowen

Sometimes remote support can be quicker, more efficient and cheaper for software based problems. Rather than visiting our workshop in Halesowen or have an engineer come for a site visit, a faster solution can be delivered to you through the use of remote internet support.

Data Recovery Halesowen

Your data is precious to you, from work to home life, from memories to essays we at MAD Computer Solutions understand that when the worst comes to the worst, loosing your data can be saddening. With many nearby schools and colleagues in the Halesowen area it can be sickening to loose work which you’ve spent hours on only for a computer error to loose it for you. With our specialist software we can attempt to get your software back with our No Fix No Fee guarantee.

Did you know that the time of the day can dramatically affect your download and upload speeds for the internet?

Many Internet Services Providers conveniently ignore this factor when advertising their download speeds and also their tests are sometimes from right next to the exchange. This distance will falsify the speeds obtained if you live further away as distance matters.

A graph obtained from the BBC using uSwitch’s information is shown below.

“Not many internet users enjoy the maximum headline broadband speeds offered by providers, and certainly not during the working week,”

The graph quite clearly shows a difference in 35%, The speed has been proven differ from an average of 35% up to 70% when comparing the early hours of the morning to peak time.

Almost half of broadband users are now on packages with advertised speeds above 10Mbps but the average broadband speed is 6.8Mbps according to Ofcom.

So in conclusion, when checking what deals are available for your internet packages, make sure the package you opt for will give you the speeds they advertise during peak time. Otherwise you could be paying for a service you won’t receive.

Telephone scams and fraud are commonplace at the moment with many cake companies pretending to be legitimate official companies such as microsoft or apple in an attempt to get money from you. Recently there has been a wave of scams that have been targeting PC users. They will claim to be from Microsoft and will phone you up telling you that your have errors or a virus on your computer which needs to be checked.

After this they would attempt to convince you to install software to allow them access to your computer, from here they would show you your log files and say that all of the errors are serious. The event viewer which they would use records all the computers logs, it’s natural that it has all the errors recorded, even from web pages not being displayed.

Once they have access to your computer they will then install malicious software onto your computer which can then track your keyboard inputs so that they can easily acquire your bank details or failing this they might invoice you for the fake work that they have done and request your bank details.

We at Mad Computer Solutions highly recommend that your inform those you know about the scams as we are well aware that numerous businesses and individuals have fallen for it already.

If you have let them onto your computer unknowingly it’s also a good idea to keep a track on your bank account finances over the next few months in the event that your bank security is compromised. Additionally we can offer a service to remove any potentially unwanted software which they may have installed onto your computer.

Remember: Microsoft Microsoft will never ask you to provide your user name, password, date of birth, country, credit card number, or any other personal information. Additionally Microsoft do not perform unsolicited phone calls to help fix your computer.

If on the unfortunate chance your or a friend or relative has been caught out by one of these scams and you think your PC may have likely been compromised, then please feel free to contact us using our Contact Form. We will perform a thorough check up on your computer to ensure that there is no residual software on your computer that may harm or steal your data.

Update – These calls do not only impersonate Microsoft, they have also been caught impersonating a company called Alien Touch.

Not quite what you would think, a harmless chunk of code labelled as “big boobs” can cause quite the controversy for one of the worlds leading computing companies, Microsoft.
In recent news a small hexadecimal string “0xB1GBOOB5” was discovered when when developers of the Linux kernel found it in a piece of software which helps a Microsoft program with with Linux open source software.

The piece of code executed every time that Microsoft program ran a virtual version of Linux.
“Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess” as said by Kernel hacker Paolo Bonzini.
Microsoft was deeply embarrised by the mistake and quickly made a statement:
“We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string,”

Also adding that they had prepared a patch that would change the spelling of the string in an update to come. Ironically the first form of the code, as pointed out by developer Dr Matthew Garrett was spelt as “0X0B00B135”, a rough form of letters and numbers which translates to “boobies”.
“Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys’ club where girls aren’t welcome,” had left speculation of possible sexism within the world of computing as noted by Dr Garrett.

The discovery of the string and the comments rasied by Dr Garrett have left a large debate on the Linux mailing list about whether use of the string was sexist and how male developers should conduct themselves. On Dr Garrett’s blog he questioned how easy it would to change the string considering that numerous services including Microsoft’s Azure cloud service are believed to make extensive use of it.

In early June, Microsoft suffered another embarrassment over ‘”vulgar” language used during a song and dance routine at a company conference.

It’s always a good idea to keep web browsers up to date as flaws are fixed and new features to improve your web experience are added. Outdated browsers can pose security risks such as the numerous exploits that are out there for Internet Explorer 6.

Internet Explorer:

Help -> About Internet Explorer
The best way to check for Internet Explorer updates is to check via the windows update tool.

Firefox:

Help -> About Mozilla Firefox
A nice feature that’s in Firefox is that when you go to check the version, it will automatically search for an update for you.

Google Chrome:

Click the Spanner in the top right corner -> About Google Chrome.
A nice feature that’s in Chrome is that when you go to check the version, it will automatically search for an update for you.

Opera:

Help -> About Opera
If you want to update Opera the update feature is in Help -> Check for Updates

If you find that you can’t find the help menu, press the alt key while in your browser and it should unveil a toolbar.

List of latest versions as of (July 23, 2012)

Internet Explorer – 9.0.8112.16421
Firefox – 14.0.1
Google Chrome – 20.0.1132.57
Opera – 12.00
Safari – 5.1.7

Want to find out more about how to check versions or update a browser that’s not featured here? Feel free to request it through our Contact Form.

Writing a blog isn’t as scary as you think – everyone can do it. A blog is like a conversation with a friend where you impart knowledge and share ideas as well as thoughts. A well-written blog will drive traffic to your website and hopefully people will stay long enough to buy the product or service that you are selling or they will tell their friends about your blog especially if they feel they can learn something from it.

Some blogs can be very boring because they just concentrate on one product or service and how to sell it and those tend not to keep your attention and you feel less inclined to linger. Ideally, you need to add pictures to break up the page a little and make it more interesting. Talking about other things too such as associated products or services, for example, if you are a wedding photographer try talking about venues, stationery, the latest trends and maybe include tips on how to choose a photographer. People love free things so tips are a great way of imparting knowledge and keeping people interested.

You may be wondering how you can drive traffic to your website via a blog and again this is not as difficult as you may think. Some of the best websites have a blog incorporated into them and this is easily done by using WordPress because your site can then be themed to your business brand. Each time you update your blog tweet about it and include a link to your blog that way people will go and read it, you can also use RSS feeds on your blog too so that when people subscribe to your blog they receive notification that you have posted something new. Adding tags to your blog will also help because people tend to search the internet for snippets of information and by using words that appear in your blog as tags then these make your blog more searchable. Remember too that if you comment on another person’s blog then add a link back to your own blog so that they can then follow you.

Top Tips for your Blog

1. Make the blog interesting by adding photographs to break up the text
2. Add RSS Feeds and Share buttons so that you can ping out to other search engines and your subscribers
3. Add tags as these will help your SEO and make your blog more searchable.
4. Ask questions of your readers – this will make them think and they will come back for more.
5. Share your knowledge to demonstrate that you are an expert in your field.
6. Be conversational
7. Add links to other webpages that you may own
8. Allow comments – that way you can build up a regular readership
9. Offer to write a guest blog for someone and return the favour by letting someone write for you, that way you get some blogging experience whilst at the same time putting a different perspective on things and offering your own readers something a little different.
10. Try and blog regularly.

Now it’s your turn..it really is that easy.

Computer Help and Advice

10 Tips to protect your PC and data.

Every computer attached to the internet is open to attack from a virus, spyware, hoax emails and phishing. These attacks may damage or delete your important data, or install malicious software which may steal your passwords, credit card details or use your PC to attack other systems over the internet. According to Symantec, an unprotected, unpatched computer system is attacked within 20 minutes of connecting to the internet. The following 10 tips below will assist in protecting a Windows XP computer from such attacks, and help to protect your important data.

1. Administrator Account. DO NOT use an account with administrator privileges for everyday use, as this could allow viruses and spyware the ability to self install on your PC. Always create a limited account for everyday use. If you need to install anything you can login as administrator or use Run As (shift and right click the file) to install without logging off.To create a limited account:
   Start>Settings>Control Panel>User Accounts
   Select Create a new account, give it a name, and select Limited as the account type.
2. Security Updates. Always ensure that all critical security updates are installed on your computer. These are released by Microsoft each month, and fix known security issues that have been discovered.
3. Passwords. Always use a password; the longer the better. Make sure it is not something that someone could easily guess i.e. a child’s name. Use a mixture of numbers, upper-case and lower-case letters, and symbols. Do not write the password down, or let others know what it is.
4. Firewalls. Microsoft Windows XP Service pack 2 provides you with a free personal firewall. Make sure that it is activated by going to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Windows Firewall.
   Alternatively you can download ZoneAlarm, a free personal firewall for individual use from www.zonelabs.com.If you have a broadband router with built in firewall, ensure that it is active. Details will be in the manual supplied with the router. Only install one software, and one hardware firewall, or you may not be able to connect to the internet.
5. Anti-virus Software. To protect yourself from viruses, you will need to install an anti-virus software package. There are many commercial packages available, offering complete protection, including firewall, spyware protection, and spam filtering for your email. These packages provided by suppliers such as Mcafee and Symantec will normally have a yearly subscription charge and provide updates for your software as new threats appear. For those on a tight budget there are a many free anti-virus products available, such as Antivir (www.free-av.com), Avast! (www.avast.com) and AVG (www.free.grisoft.com).As mentioned, updates are released for these packages frequently, so you will need to check the settings of your installed anti-virus software to ensure that it is scheduled to automatically install new updates. It is also advisable to set a scheduled time for the software to check your files automatically.
6. Anti-spyware & Malware. Spyware and Malware are programs that once installed onto your PC will collect personal information, install other programs and take over your web browser. They will redirect you to other malicious web sites, pop up offensive or irritating advertisements, and also slow down your computer.There are many anti-spyware packages available, including many that are free. Free anti-spyware packages include Microsoft Defender (www.microsoft.com), though the most popular is Ad-aware (www.lavasoft.com), and Search & Destroy (www.spybot.com). Remember to install any updates to ensure full protection from the latest threats.
7. Install the Latest Web Browser. Install Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 from (www.microsoft.com) or Firefox from (www.mozilla.com). The latest browsers will provide increased security against phishing (Spoof websites that steal account details). The recent updates will also give you enhancements, such as tabbed browsing, live web feeds (RSS) and pop-up blocking.
8. Shared Files and Folders. Check that your important files and folders are not shared. Click on ‘My Computer’, right click your ‘C: Drive’ and select ‘Properties’. Select the ‘Sharing Tab’ and select ‘Do not share this folder’. Click ‘OK’
9. Backing up Your Files. Always prepare for the worst. A virus could infect your computer, or a component such as the hard disk may fail. keeping a recent copy of your files and storing them elsewhere could save you hours of work in an emergency. Start getting into the habit of routinely saving all your important files to either a CD, USB flash or external drive. Alternatively back up those files to an online data storage website such as www.humyo.com. It is free to use, has unlimited storage space, and is flexible enough to allow you to share files with friends, and access your data on your mobile phone.
10. User Awareness. The final and most important security tip is user awareness. All the extra protection installed will be useless if you install software that has Malware built in. Many file sharing software packages are guilty of this.Do not open email attachments from someone you do not know, or with a suspicious subject. If you need to view them, save the attachment first and check it with your virus software. Do not pass on chain e-mails as these are considered spam.If you have children, make sure that you can see which sites they visit, and make sure they are logged in with a limited account. Install content software similar to net nanny which will restrict malicious or adult web sites.

Welcome to the MAD world of computer support.
For both small business and home computer users, finding reliable support for your computer problems is time consuming and often expensive. Many local stores will require you to take your computer to their workshops for repair, leaving you without a computer for days, sometimes weeks.

With our Remote computer support subscription MAD computers help you with your everyday PC problems from virus and spyware removal, to friendly help and advice about your IT systems. 90% of computer problems are able to be resolved remotely, with no visit to your home or office required.

Telephone our Remote Computer Support helpdesk today on 0843 2893818 to find out how MAD Computer Solutions may help you.