Ascend IT Services

Logitech K360 Keyboard

2012-02-08T10:34:00.001Z

The Logitech K360 is an absolute delight of a keyboard. I wanted something that resembled the new style MacBook keyboard layout, with the aesthetically pleasing design and the spacing between the keys for clumsy fingers. The keyboard is extremely responsive although not as responsive as the MacBook feel. Button presses are nice without having that top of the range feel of the higher end keyboards and Mac style keyboards. Nevertheless, the space layout between the keys and the colour contrast of black keys on white background make typing at speed very enjoyable. I find that I am able to touch type much better as well as the keyboard looking very funky.

The quick button controls on the top are all there with previous keyboard commands like PC shut down, windows lock, switch between monitor and projector and the usual short cut keys for documents and music are work satisfactorily.

The design is gorgeous, the keyboard is compact but does have the side keypad for those wanting quick number typing, handy for those working on spreadsheets for example. It is stylish and has quickly become my personal keyboard for long essay writing and reviews. Ascend gives this maximum marks!

Logitech K360 Wireless Keyboard -
Price - £12.99 to £19.99 (best Offer Dixons)

Serious security issues with Symantec pcAnywhere

2012-01-26T17:41:00.003Z

Symantec recommends disabling pcAnywhere and waiting for security patches

Symantec identified serious security issues in pcAnywhere after the product's code was stolen

By Lucian Constantin | 26 January 12

Security vendor Symantec has advised users of its pcAnywhere remote control software to disable it, because hackers with access to the product's source code could exploit security holes identified in the application.

Earlier this month Symantec confirmed that the source code for the 2006 versions of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks and pcAnywhere was stolen by hackers.

The security vendor said at the time that because the code is old, customers running Norton products today should not be in any increased danger of cyberattacks. However, the company admitted that users of pcAnywhere, which has not changed as much as the Norton products over the past few years, might face an increased risk because of the leak.

In a white paper published on Monday, Symantec revealed that encoding and encryption elements used by pcAnywhere to secure PC to PC communications were found to be vulnerable. "Therefore it is possible that successful man-in-the-middle attacks may occur depending on the configuration and use of the product," the company said.

If attackers manage to obtain the cryptographic key used by the application they can launch unauthorized remote control sessions and potentially gain access to other data stored on an internal network.

The application's login credentials can also be intercepted with the help of a network sniffer. However, for this to happen, the attacker must already have access to the network via a malware-compromised computer or some other method.

"At this time, Symantec recommends disabling the product until we release a final set of software updates that resolve currently known vulnerability risks," Symantec said in a statement.

"For customers that require pcAnywhere for business critical purposes, it is recommended that customers understand the current risks, ensure pcAnywhere 12.5 is installed, apply all relevant patches as they are released, and follow general security best practices," the company said.

Symantec's white paper includes general and pcAnywhere-specific security recommendations, as well as links to instructions for disabling or uninstalling the product.

In addition to being sold as a stand-alone program, pcAnywhere is also bundled with other Syamantec products like Altiris Client Management Suite version 7.0 or later, Altiris IT Management Suite version 7.0 or later and Altiris Deployment Solution with Remote v7.1.

"Our current analysis shows that all pcAnywhere 12.0, 12.1 and 12.5 customers are at increased risk, as well as customers with prior, unsupported versions of the product," Symantec said in its white paper.

A patch for pcAnywhere 12.5 was released on Tuesday in order to address two security vulnerabilities that could lead to arbitrary code execution or privilege escalation. The flaws were reported privately to Symantec by security researchers Tal Seltzer and Edward Torkington.

"Additional patches are planned for release during the week of January 23 for pcAnywhere 12.0, pcAnywhere 12.1 and pcAnywhere 12.5," Christine Ewing, director of product marketing for Symantec's Endpoint Management group, said in a blog post on Tuesday. "Symantec will continue to issue patches as needed until a new version of pcAnywhere that addresses all currently known vulnerabilities is released."

O2 leaking customer numbers

2012-01-26T08:38:00.002Z

O2 apologises as it plugs phone number leak

Gallery

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 25 Jan 2012 at 15:43

O2 has quickly fixed a flaw that leaked customer phone numbers to websites they visited - but admitted it still hands such data to some "trusted partners".

The flaw, uncovered by system administrator Lewis Peckover, meant websites could have potentially harvested phone numbers from visitors on O2's network, causing an uproar over privacy concerns.

The mobile operator said it normally passes phone numbers to "trusted partners", such as for billing reasons, but said such information was mistakenly passed to other sites since 10 January after "technical changes" following "routine maintenance".

We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon

"We have seen the report published this morning suggesting the potential for disclosure of customers’ mobile phone numbers to website owners," O2 said in a statement on itswebsite.

"We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon," it added. "We would like to apologise for the concern we have caused."

However, O2 noted that it does share mobile numbers with some websites, for age verification, billing for premium content such as downloads or ringtones, and to identify O2 customers on its own sites.

"When you browse from an O2 mobile, we add the user's mobile number to this technical information, but only with certain trusted partners," O2 said. "This is standard industry practice."

However, Peckover noted: "Some questions still remain about which 'trusted partners' do get to see your phone number, but I'm not holding my breath for a response on that one."

We've asked for clarification on what sites O2 considers "trusted partners", but have yet to hear back from the firm.

O2 claimed the phone numbers could not be linked to other identifying information about customers, and confirmed the original report that the leak only occurred over 3G, not Wi-Fi.

The mobile operator has said it is working with the Information Commissioner's Office regarding the incident, and has also been in touch with Ofcom.

Google U-turn on nicknames for Google+ networking

2012-01-25T08:04:00.000Z

A U-turn by any other name: Google Plus reverses decision to ban nicknames from social network site

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 6:53 AM on 25th January 2012

Google is to allow people to sign up to its rapidly-growing social network Google+ using just a nickname or pseudonym.

Just a few months ago the company was widely criticised for deleting accounts of users who had joined the site using made up monickers.

Many of those who tried the seven-month old service argued that some people are actually better known on the internet by their nicknames.

Turnaround: People will now be able to sign up to the Google+ social networking service using just a nickname

It was also pointed out that many users need to conceal their identities for safety reasons, such as those involved in last year's Arab Spring revolutions across the Middle East.

Around 625,000 members sign up to the service every day and experts have predicted it will have more than 400million users by the end of 2012.

One reason behind its rapid growth is the success of Google's portable operating system Android which makes signing up to Google Plus much simpler.

Around 700,00 Android device are bought every day.

Radley Horowitz, vice president for product development at Google said: 'Today we're pleased to be launching features that will address and remedy the majority of these issues.

The internet giant is unifying its privacy policy across all of its online services

'To be clear -- our work here isn't done, but I'm really pleased to be shipping a milestone on our journey.'

Google will reserve the right to flag up new names if they deem them to be inappropriate, however users will be given a chance to appeal.

The move is part of wider plans by Google to unify its privacy policy and terms of service across its online offerings, including its flagship search, Gmail and Google+ products, to make them easier to use, but the move could attract greater scrutiny from anti-trust regulators.

In an online blog post, Google said it expects to roll out the revised guidelines in over a month's time, consolidating more than 60 separate privacy policies it uses for its online products.

Google currently has more than 70 privacy policies covering all of its products.

Right now, users of Google products have to agree to a new set of privacy policy and terms of services almost every time they sign up for a new service.

This leaves them with an option to opt out of certain services like Google+ or Picasa.

After the new policy comes into effect, user information from most Google products will be treated as a single trove of data, which the company could use for its targeted advertising dollars, raising potential red flags for anti-trust regulators.

'If you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services,' Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, Alma Whitten wrote in blog post.

Revolutionary: Social networking sites played a major role in last year's Arab Spring. However for obvious safety reasons activists would not use their real names online

'In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience."

The announcement comes days after Google's decision to personalize its search feature drew criticism over privacy and anti-trust issues.

Online privacy has come under scrutiny from anti-trust regulators as a handful of web giants have been accused of compromising user privacy to attract advertisers.

Late last year, Facebook settled with the U.S. FTC agreeing to be regulated for a period of 20 years whenever it decided to change its privacy policy.

In 2010, the FTC settled charges with Twitter, after the agency alleged that the social networking service had failed to safeguard users' personal information.

U.S. regulators are reportedly looking into whether Google manipulates its search results to favor its own products and have expanded the probe to include Google+.

'Regulators globally have been calling for shorter, simpler privacy policies - and having one policy covering many different products is now fairly standard across the Web," Whitten said in the post.

The revised policy will take effect on March 1, the blog post said.

Retaliation in Megaupload shutdown by hacker group Anonymous

2012-01-20T11:21:00.002Z

It was only a matter of time before there was retaliation in the shutting down of on-line site Megaupload, but many including myself are surprised at how quick the internet community has acted. After the file-sahring website was closed down, there was almost an immediate response from hacker group Anonymous, a group who states that it fights for the freedom of information on the net.

Here's the story -

Anonymous attacks FBI website over Megaupload raids

American government and entertainment industry websites have been crippled after the “hacktivist” group Anonymous launched a series of cyber attacks in retaliation for the closure of Megaupload.com.

The homepage of the website Megaupload.com Photo: AP

By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent

10:44AM GMT 20 Jan 2012

1 Comment

The filesharing website, which allowed users to freely exchange large video and audio files, was closed overnight and its operators were charged with criminal copyright infringement. They are accused of deliberately ignoring requests from film and music firms to remove pirated material, while making more than $175m from membership fees and advertising.

Anonymous supporters attacked the websites of the Department of Justice, the FBI and Universal Music group, among others. The hacktivists used a technique called a Distributed Denial of Service to overload their targets with web traffic and effectively force them offline.

The Twitter account @AnonymousIRC, one the most prominent of dozens associated with the "leaderless" group, taunted authorities.

“We sincerely hope you like your own medicine!,” it said in a comment directed at the FBI.

The attacks on official websites were only briefly effective but Universal Music remains offline.

Security experts warned that Anonymous was using a new tactic that meant people might unknowingly participate in its attacks.

"In the past, Anonymous has encouraged supporters to install a program called LOIC, which allows computers to join in an attack on a particular website, blasting it with unwanted traffic," said Graham Cluley of Sophos.

"This change in tactic from Anonymous, which allows attacks to be launched by simply clicking on a link, means that internet users need to be extremely careful when clicking on unknown URLs or they could unwittingly be joining this latest zombie army."

It marks a further escalation of the battle between copyright holders, who say the film and music industries are being badly damaged by digital piracy, and those who oppose regulation of the internet.

This week saw an unprecedented protest against stricter enforcement of copyright online by major web organisations including Wikipedia, which made its English version inaccessible for 24 hours. The blackout was designed to galvanise opposition to Sopa and Pipa, two pieces of legislation under consideration in Congress that would make it easier to cut off pirate websites.

The action against Megaupload.com is being touted as one the biggest copyright cases in US history, but a Department of Justice official said the timing of the arrests and unsealing of the case were not related to the battle on Capitol Hill.

A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 web address associated with Megaupload.com be seized. Some 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and eight other countries and about $50 million in assets were also seized.

The website acted as a “cyber locker”, allowing users to upload large files for others to download for free. Dozens of similar services exist, but Megaupload.com was the biggest.

Users could also pay at least $9.99 per month for a premium membership, to receive faster downloads. Megaupload.com boasted of accounting for four percent of all traffic on the internet and receiving 50 million visitors per day.

Megaupload.com even claimed support from popular artists including Will.I.am and Kanye West, who both appeared in a video promoting the website.

The two companies associated with Megaupload.com, as well as seven men who allegedly ran it, now, however, face charges of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and criminal copyright infringement.

Four of the men, including Kim Dotcom, the alleged leader of the enterprise, were arrested yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand. A flamboyant 37-year-old German, Dotcom is also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and has several previous convictions for computer crimes. All the men face up to 20 years imprisonment.

The case against them alleges they did not respond to complaints of infringement by copyright holders and “and deliberately misrepresented to copyright holders that they had removed infringing content”.

“When notified by a rights holder that a file contained infringing content... the conspirators would disable only a single link to the file, deliberately and deceptively leaving the infringing content in place to make it seamlessly available to millions of users to access through any one of the many duplicate links,” the Department of Justice alleged.

It said the Metropolitan Police assisted in the investigation. A spokesman for the Met was not immediately able to say what help British authorities gave.

Here's the story with comments at the bottom -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9027246/Anonymous-attacks-FBI-website-over-Megaupload-raids.html

US authorities shut down Megaupload.com over copyright infringement

2012-01-20T08:11:00.003Z

US authorities shut down Megaupload.com over copyright infringement

A major internet content hosting website, Megaupload.com, its founders and several employees have been charged by US authorities for a massive copyright infringement scheme, the latest skirmish in a battle against piracy of movies and music.

The homepage of the website Megaupload.com Photo: AP

6:21AM GMT 20 Jan 2012

8 Comments

The indictment and arrests of four company executives comes as debate in Washington reaches a fever pitch over online piracy as lawyers try to craft legislation cracking down on it while trying to avoid censoring the internet.

The group, dubbed by prosecutors as "Mega Conspiracy," was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

"In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its servers located around the world," the indictment said.

US Justice Department officials said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders was on the low end and likely significantly more.

A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the group be seized. Further, some 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and eight other countries and about $50 million in assets and targeted sites were also seized.

The founders of the company – Kim Dotcom, who is also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and Mathias Ortmann – were charged. The company's chief marketing and sales officer, Finn Batato, head of development Sven Echternach and other company officials were also charged.

Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and another individual charged were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, by local authorities on Thursday and will face extradition hearings, the US Justice Department said. Echternach and two others charged remain at large.

The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

If convicted, the maximum penalties are 20 years for conspiracy to commit racketeering and to commit money laundering and five years for each count of copyright infringement and five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom. A lawyer who has previously worked with Megaupload was not immediately available for comment.

The charges emerge as the US Congress is struggling over legislation sought by the movie and music industries to crack down on internet piracy and theft of content. Major internet sites like Google and Facebook complained that such legislation as it was drafted would lead to censorship.

A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests and unsealing of the case were not related to the battle in Congress. Hours after announcing the indictment and arrests, the Justice Department's website was inaccessible.

Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the internet.

Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the indictment said.

Users could purchase memberships to the site to obtain faster upload and download services, the primary source of revenue. Material that was not regularly downloaded was deleted and financial incentives were offered for popular content, according to the charges.

The web page with the link to the copyrighted material would include advertisements, another source of revenue.

If copyright holders complained about a specific link to the website, prosecutors said that Megaupload.com would remove that link but scores of others existed to the same material, according to prosecutors.

Other material found uploaded included child pornography and terrorism propaganda videos, according to the indictment. The US government's investigation began in March 2010.

To see the article with comments, go here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/9026766/US-authorities-shut-down-Megaupload.com-over-copyright-infringement.html

McAfee warns of flaw in own security

2012-01-19T16:36:00.002Z

McAfee warns of flaw in own security software

Gallery

By Reuters

Posted on 19 Jan 2012 at 08:35

Security firm McAfee has warned a flaw in one of its products could leave customers' PCs vulnerable.

The company, which was acquired by Intel, disclosed the flaw in a message to customers on its website, saying hackers could use affected computers to distribute spam.

McAfee spokesman Ian Bain said at least one customer had fallen victim to such an attack, which leveraged a flaw in a service offering known as McAfee SaaS for Total Protection.

The web-based service protects customers from viruses hidden in emails and websites. Bain said the flaw was in a piece of software that McAfee customers install on their PCs to enable them to use the service.

While the flaw could enable hackers to send spam from machines of McAfee SaaS for Total Protection customers, it does not grant them access to data on an affected PC, Bain said.

He said that the company's engineers were working to fix the bug and expected to have it fixed today.

In April 2010, a glitch included in a regular release of McAfee's anti-virus software mistakenly identified part of Microsoft's popular Windows XP operating system as a virus, triggering personal computer outages at many of its customers, including more than 100 large corporations.

My Big Fat Greek PES 2012 v FIFA 12 Final Review!

2012-01-18T20:00:00.002Z

Oh man. Where do I start?!?

Okay so this year has been THE most frustrating PES v FIFA year ever for me. Just a little background may be a good idea at this junction. I played the PES demo's and the FIFA one, and by and large hated the FIFA demo, and loved the PES demo's. I thought this year, PES could be absolutely fantastic. Even at the early stage of development, keepers were an issue with PES, and this was something that had to be worked on. For FIFA, it was another story entirely, it was a decent enough game, but it just lacked any charisma or life.

I then purchased the American version of PES so that I could trial it before the UK release on the PS3, and although I enjoyed it, there were some glaring problems that I thought could be catastrophic. The keepers still were not up to scratch, and the active AI and player individuality, for my money anyway, had been toned down. On UK release, many people felt the same way. PES brought two patches out then, 1.1 and 1.2, both to try and address the keeper issues. In short, they were terrible. Patch 1.2 was a real KONAMI trying to pull the wool over the people's eyes, they essentially tried to solve the 'keeper issue' by making near enough all shots go centrally. I am convinced to this day, that this was intentional and KONAMI trying to pull a fast one with rubbish keepers appearing to look half decent. Patch 1.3, addressed many other issues as well as making the keepers bearable overall. So PES 2012, patched to 1.3, on the PS3, had generally become a decent product.

FIFA was bought soon after, first for the PC (although the spec of my PC couldn't handle it truly) and then for the PS3. PES 2012 was also bought for the PC, in what was to become my best purchase ever!

So, I have played both PES and FIFA, on both the PC and the PS3. I have the games, on both formats, patched to the latest updates.

So, onto the general review.

First off, I am a PES fan at heart, although what I am after is the best football experience overall. So for me, animations and extravagance mean very little if the core gameplay and match dynamics are not met. I loved the old PS2 days of PES right up until next gen, when PES became laughable. I played FIFA10 over PES 2010, but I loved PES 2011 with all my heart, massive flaws and all. I also enjoyed FIFA 11, and only if they had ironed out the tackle radius, together with introducing a decent stamina system so that online sprint whores couldn't flourish, FIFA 11 would have been a great game.

This year's PES feels freer than its predecessor, lighter and more responsive. One of the problems with 2011 was that people complained that individuality had perhaps been taken too far with the likes of Carragher turning like the QE2. With everything though, there is a trade off. Many people have now argued that individuality is lost in PES 2012 as things have become more freer less rigid.

FIFA on the other hand tried to go the simulation route. Out goes legacy defending (holding down tackle button to track the player) and now we have tactical defending. FIFA had ambitions too to become a little slower so that attacks were more thought out, and the games weren't so arcadey. So, how do they both fair?

I am going to state my findings with regards to firstly PES 2012 on PS3 v FIFA on PS3, officially patched, with no modifications. The second review will be a review of a modded PES 2012 on the PC v a slider changed game with FIFA 12 PS3.

So first -

PES 2012 v FIFA 12 (out of the box, then patched)

Both titles have good points, and shockingly bad points. PES need to get its act together with the presentation of the game BIG TIME. I have stated on countless occasions that this quaint little retro Japanese angle isn't going to cut it any more. Gamers want pristine presentation, with cutting edge graphics. The blurry stuff that is going on in PES just isn't acceptable, and the animations are pretty bad too. Up to the patched 1.3 version, the keepers were a game breaking shambles, spilling the tamest of shots, and letting rubbish non powered efforts go in far too easily. General gameplay in PES goes from being great, when playing against a team that is willing to play football like you, to a chore and a bore, when playing against a team who parks the bus. Earlier patches meant that games would grind to a halt because of the infuriating nature of the CPU defensive units who would put all eleven players behind the ball, and then counter you with blistering accuracy.

This was not good. 1.3 addressed this issue a little, and made the game more enjoyable as well as being less pinball in feel. PES has it's usual learning curve, and let me say, this year it was steep! Through the demo's, I once went 10 games without beating Napoli. I play PES on Top Player and now on Superstar. However, Superstar, although technically should be harder provides a greater balance and more realistic footballing experience. Top Player in PES, in certain situations just down right cheats. This is a major problem in PES. On Top Player, the CPU will hit diagonal balls in behind the wing backs, for the CPU to hit unstoppable crosses and headers whilst the CPU also drags your centre backs out of position. Also, if the CPU wants to score, sometimes it will just parade through an entire defence, with Maradona-esque skills. So for me, Superstar, provides fairness, even though it is still hard.

The presentation in PES is so-so, the music is sometimes annoying, and the graphics could be better. Night games still don't have the vibrancy of a PES2010, and some of the animations for a modern day football game are just absurd. Saying that, the things that I love about PES this year is the gameplay and the defensive game.

To put it simply, lots of people have been bitching and moaning about quite possibly THE BEST introduction of how to defend in any football game. Tackling is an art form, and defending properly with jockey and contain is sublime when you pull it off. I literally spend a thousand hours getting to grips with defending alone this year, and I love it. You can defend deep, or high up. If you charge into a skilful player he'll leave you for dead. Defensive patterns and defensive positioning is vital in this years PES, both from you and the CPU. Shooting is still another hot potato issue, with some people getting it and others not. Shooting, for me, on an unmodded PS3 version is underpowered with directional issues. Animations and ball physics seem a little off sometimes, and the game has literally played balls with my head.

In trying to get the best PES experience, I have used every setting, every camera angle, different tele's, different speeds etc etc. You name it, I have done it. The CPU attacks can be a little too direct at times although there is a nice blend of attacking patterns and angles together with an array of goals scored. This is PES' great strength that almost anything is possible if you have the vision.

What would I give PES 2012 for the PS3? Out of 10, I would say a 6. The gameplay I find brilliant at times, but there are just too many other niggling factors that ensure I cannot give it higher.

Onto FIFA, PS3, no slider alterations.

To put it bluntly, the game was better than the demo, but was still a joyless bore to play. The animations are superb, the physics are excellent, the presentation, fantastic. Things like more managerial control over the players is introduced as well as news stories breaking, and an injury system. The main introductions were the tactical defending (which is a broken disaster) and the impact engine (it's had stick, but I think it has been a great addition). There are issues regarding the impact engine and player collisions, but they are understandable as it was a bold move from EA to introduce something like this. Like I said previously, if EA had ironed out FIFA 11, given it greater array in attack, made the tackle radius smaller, and eradicated the pressure abusers by introducing a stamina fatigue system that meant you couldn't press all the time, they would have been onto a winner this year.

The general gameplay though is totally monotonous. The game plays out in some sort of grid like formula, as you move slowly from one area to another. There is no vibrancy to the plays, and both you and the CPU have to attack in one way only, a slow turgid ball along the floor game. There is little or no variation in attacks and the goals that you score can be categorised in a couple of areas whilst the CPU looks for the reflex advantage, corner of the 18 yard box effort, to leave your unresponsive defender on his arse. Bear in mind I play this FIFA on World Class level, where there is absolutely obvious CPU stats boosting. There is no aerial game to think of, with the CPU winning all confrontations. Because of this you never get the feeling that the ball is an entity on its own and that it could literally bounce anywhere.

Human controlled defenders are a disaster. Veteran defenders like a Carragher are next to useless as a CPU stat boosted Tevez out reflexes you in another one on one battle, to score another tap in. I wrote somewhere before that out of ten games between PES and FIFA, PES had the upper hand in terms of free kicks being give, corners, fouls, yellow/red cards, 50/50 challenges, penalties, variety of goals etc etc. FIFA looks fantastic, but the games all pan out the same whether you play Burton Albion or Barcelona. Every CPU team will pass the ball around like Barce, with the occasional variety thrown in. It's essentially a joyless grind.

There were early problems with player development too with some players by the end of the first season having a huge, huge development curves, but that was straightened out. The age old game-breaking goals and when they are scored is just as prevalent this year as any. The amount of goals scored in the 45th minute and then in minutes 80+, is truly, truly, laughable. Watch in horror as your defenders get pulled out of position, watch as the CPU win everything and your players run away from the defender with the CPU completely swarming you ensuring it is virtually impossible to get any route out from the back. Once, in four consecutive games of FIFA, I scored two goals in the 45th minue, 1 goal in the 90th, whilst the CPU scored three goals in minutes 88+....give me a break, it's just ludicrous.

So essentially, we have one game in PES that plays well with variety, but has obvious cheating on Top Player, appalling animations and rubbish presentation and another game with lovely glitz and glam, but a totally dull gameplay experience and terrible AI. FIFA 12 for the PS3, out of the box, would also get a 6 out of ten. This is purely based on the fact that at least it's a solid game in many areas if nothing else.

MODDED GAMES

PES 2012 (PC, Jenkey's/Yair) v FIFA 12 (PS3, Slider changes)

FIFA

So here we have the nitty gritty. Both titles out of the box are distinctly average if you take everything into consideration. But this is where the real battle is I feel, and both games improve dramatically. Let's do FIFA first.

I won't put what slider settings I use, you just need to know that I spent ages altering, changing, analysing what they do etc, to get to stage where the game becomes playable and a little enjoyable. The settings themselves will obviously be different for different people, but at least I have a game in FIFA which at least plays a little more life-like. With a faster passing speed, the game opens up from the monotony that it was before. Needless to say that the game has more life to it now, and there are more opportunities for the CPU to score a slightly broader variety of goals. One of the major problems with FIFA though is that you off-set everything, as going through the levels on FIFA doesn't mean that it gets smarter in its play, it just means that it will screw you over and cheat you much more. The jump from Professional for example, to World Class sees ludicrous CPU telepathy as apparently inertia and momentum are not in FIFA 12 reality. The main issue with FIFA 12 regardless of sliders, is that the defensive system is just broken. You can see what EA have tried to do, but whilst the CPU defence defends in numbers and tries to crowd you out, your defenders stand around like divs whilst your defenders are left constantly one on one. The only way to then make a fairer game of it is to change the CPU acceleration and speed stats lower than yours, as they already have an evident stats boost anyway.

Even if you defend well enough, the CPU will ALWAYS manufacture a one on one at some point in the game and out-reflex you with some blatant CPU cheating. It's at this point where it doesn't matter what slider you set the CPU keeper to or your own, sometimes you can have 4,5,6 one on ones against the CPU and not score a single one. Even with slider changes there are the 45/90 minute goals. With my slider settings, the game is more open and with this openness the animations really shine through. But still, the CPU still win almost everything 50/50 and you always get the feeling that the game isn't playing fair. The best way to defend in FIFA 12 is just to move your player manually, the contain function is useless in the top modes and just serves to steer the CPU into your penalty area where it will inevitably score. CPU defenders have the upper hand over you as they can always sense what you are doing before it's done.

There's also some crazy momentum scripting in FIFA which can destroy the game.

The bright points is that when it plays well outside of these 'cheat/glitch' time zones, some of the gameplay can be excellent. But it still feels non-free. FIFA still feels very do this to get to there, and then do this, and then do this, and then finesse it. Very linear, very non life-like. There's no sense of the ball being an object that can bounce anywhere, and the aerial game is practically impossible t play as the CPU wins the vast majority of duels. However, what FIFA has with slider alterations is a product that appears solid, is easy to pick up for the casual gamer, and combined with the shiny presentation is probably the choice of most footy fans because of the accessibility.

So, my slider modded PS3 FIFA gets an overall 7 out of 10.

PES

Quite simply a modded PES, PC, is a joy. With the latest Fire Patch to get the stadiums and players and kits, it was down to the long winded journey to seek out the perfect gameplay patch. This has been an experience. Using Jenkey's stuff at first and now using Yair's, the game is exquisite.

Gameplay is varied, CPU attacks ate intelligent and varied, the keepers are excellent and even the animations are being made better and better by the day. Through Jenkey's you can specifically change shot power, add curve, disable cheat scripts and add or lessen ball weight as well as a plethora of other options.

Jenkey has done a brilliant job, but Yair is the man at the moment for me. His gameplay patches incorporate things like Jenkey's shot power but add some brilliant gameplay alterations. Gone are the CPU cheat glitch areas, gone is parking the bus, what we have now (certainly with his latest Yair's 1.1 gameplay patch) is a game of football that is truly stunning. The graphics are stunning and clear, the ball physics excellent, player faces great, variety of goals from you and the CPU is almost infinite. The ball is alive, it can bounce anywhere and everywhere. Duels are seen al over the pitch with defensive lines and positioning being replicated. The defensive system works as always with the emphasis on contain and timed tackle, and it is key to keep your team in shape formation wise. You can trick the CPU with body movement and use inertia and momentum, you can play a long ball game or possession football. The levels through to Superstar are made harder but by crafty play rather than blatant CPU cheating and stats boosting.

I use Yair's with -2 gamespeed for a realistic game of footy, but I can honestly attest that a modded PC version of PES 2012, is wonderful. I'm sure that given another month or two this game will be a 10/10. But for now, there are minor, minor quirks that ensure it's a 9/10.

OVERALL

PES 2012 on the PS3, for me, is disappointing. I had high hopes this year that this would be THE year that KONAMI raised their game. They still haven't got their head around this 'next gen' thing, and seem happy and content to make games in the stone age, presentation wise. People whined also that the demo's were too hard and so they cut out some aspects of the active AI that made the demo's great. They then botched up many things with the release and then the patches, and finally, about two months AFTER release we had a game that was playable.

FIFA on the other hand is just there. It sits there and is sturdy enough in all departments. What it lacks is the nuances of football, which make the game so special. EA has got to work on the gameplay a lot, as the AI in FIFA is truly terrible. Human attacks are good enough and with slider settings some of the football you play is decent to very good. But the defensive system in FIFA is awful. The CPU stats boosting cheating is awful. The 45/90 minutes goals are awful. The CPU keeper making 6 one on one saves is awful. The presentation is brilliant, and the polish makes the game sell. I think it outsells PES 25 to 1, but if EA put a piece of dog poo in a box, that would sell 25 to 1 against PES too. What FIFA lacks is the life. The enjoyment factor. Players are still not intelligent enough to behave like footballers pressuring where need be and standing off when need be. It's all very clear cut, very linear, very do this to get here, and do this to get here, when football isn't about that, it's about creating, changing angles of attack with short balls, long balls. This is what PES gives me that FIFA has never replicated. Can FIFA just make this happen? Who knows. The coding is weak but the marketing is second to none.

A modded PC version of PES 2012 is something else. A wonderful game of football. But this isn't the work of KONAMI, this is the work of genius programmers who change the game and out-strip the crap from it. The vibrancy in PES 2012 modded for the PC is astounding. The game plays like football, with it's scuffles, players crowding each other, long balls, short balls, changes of the angle of attack, yellow and red cards, different shots and deflections, excellent AI etc etc.

But whilst PES gets a 6 from me for the PS3 version and a 9 for the PC version (modded) and FIFA only a 6 for PS3 no sliders and 7 with sliders, you have to really mark on the overall product from the supplier, without any modifications.

In this case, this year you would have to say that FIFA gets a 6, 6.5 out of ten for the overall product, and PES would get a 6 from me without the help of third party gameplay experts.

Everyone has their opinion, and this is mine!

Back-up your data before it's too late

2012-01-18T13:26:00.000Z

It is always very important to back-up your data, whether it is to a device like a USB Flash Drive, a piece of software like Drop Box, or copying to CDs/DVDs. It is amazing how many home and business clients do not back up their data, and when the inevitable machine crash happens, there is widespread panic. It is one of things which requires only a few minutes in most cases but will causes huge headaches should you lose the data.

Documents, music and pictures are the easiest to back up as you just need to copy the files to your required destination. Programs and pieces of installed software are trickier to back up as you cannot just copy over MS Word for example to a flash drive, as this requires an installation where some files get copied to the system registry.

Popular modes of backup have been mentioned already, from USB flash drives to bigger capacity external hard drives (of which I keep most of my music and videos backed up on). If you want the security of storing important pictures/documents/videos to somewhere other than on your person, than you could look at the possibility of copying your files to services which hold the files for you. For photos and pictures you could upload your files to Picasa (now Web Albums from Google). YouTube may be a solution to upload video content to. And if you want to store your important documents away from your computer then you could upload them to a storage service like Drop Box, which stores all the relevant information on their servers, directly from a folder on your computer. All you need here is a Drop Box account.

Of course with all services, there is a charge for bigger usage and storage space, but for most users the free service will be just fine.

Here are the links to services if you do not wish to use conventional back-up devices like USB flash drives, CD/DVDs and external drives.

http://www.dropbox.com/ - Drop Box, store your files safely to Drop Box storage provider

http://picasa.google.com/ - Picasa Web albums

http://www.youtube.com/ - You Tube, upload your videos

Keep track of upcoming concerts with Songkick

2012-01-15T07:16:00.001Z

If you enjoy music of any kind, then browsing the web has made searching for your favourite bands or artists easier than ever. But there is still the browsing aspect and searching for the correct pages with the correct information for all your artists.

Songkick makes searching when your bands are playing next much, much easier. Go the website 'www.songkick.com', and you can choose to enter your Facebook credentials to login or to enter fresh registration details. Songkick will then send you a verification email to make sure that the address given is correct. From there Songkick has lots of options that allow you to search by artists and location etc, and then a list is generated of when the artist is playing next together with all other necessary details.

UK Student could face extradition due to his TV Shack website

2012-01-14T07:28:00.002Z

A British student could face extradition to the US after a Judge ruled it possible, on the grounds of copyright infringement. Richard O'Dwyer hosted a website named TV Shack, which allowed people to watch TV and films for free. The bigger issues at stake though are causing uproar in the legal profession and with British citizens themselves. The first point is that it seems it has now become far too easy for the US to extradite people from Britain after the US-UK Anti-terrorist Treaty had been brought into play. Many people are now arguing that the human rights of the British citizen have now been totally eroded. Whether O'Dwyer has done something wrong or not should be contested on his home soil, in Britain, and should he be found guilty it would have to be done through the UK legal system.

The other point that people want to bring up is that it only ever seems to be inconsequential people that get targeted for this kind of technology justice. O'Dwyer's lawyers will argue that search engines like Google in essence, already provide this service, and that simply by entering 'free' anything in its search engine a list of hundreds of links will pop up, pointing you in the direction of the free things, something which O'Dwyer contents that it's all he was doing.

O'Dwyer advertised on his site to be able to offer the free movies and TV programmes, but again it could be contested that Google advertise on it's search results page with sponsored links etc.

IT enthusiasts as well as those in the legal profession are looking on this case as a major deal, with many seeing that Britain is still the soft touch to America. Indeed, how many times have active terrorists and tyrants been declined extradition to the UK, whilst a British citizen can be whisked out of his country at the drop of a hat it seems?

The full story is here - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/372214/judge-tv-shack-website-owner-can-be-extradited-to-us

Drivers

2012-01-12T15:51:00.000Z

GRAPHICS DRIVERS
AMD Drivers - http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

SOUND DRIVERS
Realtek AC'97 Sound Drivers - http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/

PC Pro - Lenovo at CES 2012

2012-01-12T11:52:00.002Z

Forget innovation: why Lenovo leads the way for sheer fun at CES 2012

The most fun I’ve had in Las Vegas? Spending ten minutes with the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720. Sounds crazy but it’s also 100% true.

I played the piano, lost a strange game involving multiplying insects (don’t ask) and then showed my considerable skill at losing by being heavily defeated at an excellent multiplayer game in the mould of Guitar Hero. Who needs dancing girls, cocktails or casinos?

The reason is a piece of innovation that’s bound to be copied quicker than the speed of my colleagues’ ears pricking up at the sound of dancing girls: a folding arm.

In this instance, a video is worth at least a thousand words:

The rest of the spec is almost irrelevant. Yes, it’s got a 27in display, an Intel Core processor, Nvidia GeForce graphics and up to 1TB of storage – but what matters is that arm!

Perhaps that simplifies it a little bit. Another key technical inclusion is support for ten-point multitouch. That means you can play sophisticated games with multiple players, plus any number of other applications: photo and video editing, maps, music creation to name but a few.

And it isn’t just for home use: the A720 would be absolutely perfect as a “front of office” PC for a trendy company. The A720 will be released with Windows 7, but the version I played with was running Windows 8 Developer, and it’s undoubtedly the best showpiece yet for Microsoft’s forthcoming OS.

Then we come to the Android TV

Now this one is a little more of a concept piece; it’s a 55in TV that will be released in China this year, along with a 42in version, and it looks terrific.

Its headline feature is that it runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and Lenovo has done some clever interface work – as seen by the photo.

Nor is it just a pretty face, with some equally clever work going into the remote. Want to perform a search? Then speak into it. Want to swipe left or right? Then sweep away with your finger using the remote’s built-in touch-sensitive area.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera to bring in some interaction, and the inevitable tickbox of 3D.

Unfortunately the Lenovo rep was guarding the remote quite closely, so I couldn’t actually play with this one. But if and when this machine arrives in the PC Pro Labs, I’ll be asking for first dibs.

Tags: Android, CES, CES 2012, lenovo, Windows 8

Posted in: Hardware, Newsdesk

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The importance of 'sfc /scannow'

2012-01-12T08:23:00.003Z

Many clients have operating system problems after a major virus, trojan or spyware attack has hit them. Many of the aforementioned attacks change, remove or corrupt some operating system files rendering the system slow whilst causing issues with general use.

At this point, and after you have run the relevant virus and spyware/malware checks, it may be a good idea to use a command called 'sfc /scannow'. This repairs protected windows operating system files, ensuring that the computer runs efficiently again.

To use the windows operating system repair file command -

1) Run command prompt in an elevated mode. To do this click on Start-->search programs and files-->type in cmd-->right click on the cmd file that it finds-->click run as administrator.

This should take you to a windows command prompt (black screen). Here you type 'sfc /scannow'. Note there is a space between the 'sfc' and the '/'.

Windows will then continue to repair any system files that have been changed or altered.

NOTE - Users using XP may have to get to the command prompt via Start-->Programs-->Accessories-->Command prompt, but the principle of right clicking on the command prompt file and using it as administrator is the same.

Complete Football Review Coming!

2012-01-11T08:40:00.002Z

Ascend IT Services will be reviewing completely the battle between Pro Evo 2012 and FIFA12, to give you the overall final verdict, after patches, of the two giant footy games - stay tuned!

Get anything free online - videos, music, movies, TV!

2012-01-10T08:10:00.001Z

As we move into a new year, Ascend IT Services is issuing a 'freebie guide' for you to get your teeth into. Ranging from movies and music to videos and software, here's our list of the goodies that are waiting to be exploited on the web - all free!

TV AND VIDEO
BBC iPlayer
Download the BBC's Iplayer and you'll have access to programming from the last month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

ITV Player, 4OD and Channel 5
Similar to the BBC iPlayer, but for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/
http://www.channel4.com/programmes
http://www.channel5.com/demand5

BBC Archive
The BBC has stored past documentaries and news programmes in it's archive for you to watch again. These programmes can be searched for with subject matter for example.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/

YouTube
Also shows shows in its designated page
http://www.youtube.com/shows?feature=mh

MSN Video Player
Some BBC shows that are more than 30 days old, but not old enough to be put in the archive may be on here. Programmes like Spooks can be caught up here.
http://video.uk.msn.com/browse/tv-shows

MOVIES
Blinkbox
Blinkbox is primarily a pay site for new movies, but there are a selection of old movies for free.
http://www.blinkbox.com/

Indie Movies Online
Primarily short films and vignettes, nevertheless there are a large number of interesting documentaries that are hard to find anywhere else
http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/

MUSIC
Spotify, Jamendo, Epitonic, NPR
Music sites which have free content available
http://www.spotify.com/uk/
http://www.jamendo.com/en/
http://www.epitonic.com/
http://www.npr.org/

EBOOKS
Amazon
There are countless freebies to be had using Amazon. Visit the homepage, then go to Kindle in the top left-hand navigation bar and then click on Kindle books. Then there is a link for free book collection.
http://www.amazon.co.uk

Project Guttenburg
This was one of the first free sources of ebooks started many years ago. There are now over 36,000 books at its disposal.
http://www.gutenberg.org/

PHONE CALLS
Skype
The most popular internet voice and video call service
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/home

Fantastic Value/Performance PC - Chillblast Shadow

2012-01-08T08:37:00.001Z

Have a look at this desktop computer, Ascend IT Services believes this combines value for money together with performance. It's not up there with the purely specific gaming rigs, the Radeon 6670 GPU will allow customers to play games at decent levels of detail, but not the best. BUT, as an overall package, this machine is a monster. The Intel i5 processor has been overclocked to a massive 4.6ghz and the 1gig graphics card will breeze through most high powered games (Crysis etc) with medium settings. At resolution of 1920x1080 with quality set to Ultra Dirt 3 played at a farme rate of 21.9fps, but changing the resolution to 1280x720 and with graphics set to High, the score was boosted to a blistering 69.3fps. Of course the PC is fully customisable and so for the gamers out there you may want to add the Radeon 6690 to have that extra punch.

Here's the website address! - http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fusion-Shadow.html

Chillblast Fusion Shadow

Best Buy award winner in Expert Reviews and Computer Shopper Magazine, our Fusion Shadow is a stunning base unit PC for £510. Its Radeon 6670 affords it credible casual gaming performance, while the motherboard allows the potential for some serious overclocking. The system offers 4.6GHz of Sandy-Bridge powered Core i5 Quad-Core performance, combined with 4GB of RAM and a spacious 1TB drive. The board comes with native Serial ATA 6.0Gbps so you are future proof, and it is a B3 revision so you can be sure the system is free of any SATA issues!.

This system comes fully installed with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit as standard!

Basic Specification:

CIT Shadow ATX Case
Intel Core i5 2500K Processor overclocked to 4.6GHz
Asus P8Z68-V LE Motherboard
4GB PC3-10666 DDR3 Memory
AMD Radeon 6670 1GB Graphics Card
1000GB SATA 7200rpm Hard Disk
24x Sony DVD-RW Drive
500watt Basic EZCool PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM

Included Peripherals:

Corded Cherry Keyboard & Mouse

4 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x USB 3.0 ports
1 x PS/2 for keyboard
Audio outputs
1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet for network
1 x DVI output
1 x HDMI output
1 x VGA output

* May vary if configuration is altered!

Ports on case:

3 x USB 2.0 ports
FP audio

Details
Availability	7-10 Working Days
Our price:	£425.00 ex VAT (£510.00 inc VAT)

USB Network Adapters - TP Link v Belkin

2012-01-07T14:56:00.000Z

TP Link TL-WN821N v Belkin F7D4101 v1

In my previous home, I used a TP Link network adapter to connect to the Internet as it was the only viable way to connect at the time. Over the course of that year, I bought and sold many more TP Link adpaters to my own and others' satisfaction. When I moved into the new home the router was positioned in my work area, but the connection was not the main telephone line. The internet connection was slow in my work space and so I tried to put the router into the main telephone socket in the living room. Again the connection was slower than my ISP had advertised, and eventually I found out there was a problem with the faceplate knocking my connection down from 4MB to just over 1MB. The temporary solution at the moment is to connect the DSL filter into the test socket beneath the faceplate to get a true reading of my speed, which of course reveals the connections within, something that will have to be dealt with over this week.

But the quandary meant that I was now back to wireless to get my main PC and clients PC's to get connected to the Internet. So with my Belkin F6D4630 router in place I needed a wireless device to get connected again. In a rush, it was a visit to PC World where normally I only go if I am desperate as traditionally it has not been a happy place for myself or my clients, and bought the only viable option on display which was a Belkin F7D4101 v1.

BELKIN F7D4101 - Price £44.99 PC World

From startup there were initial problems. The adapter would not connect straight away, and needed alterations from the router. Switching from dual band-width to single and also changing the wireless mode from anything n, the device connected for five or so minutes, before again disconnecting. A full reset of router settings and some days of configuring later, it seems that with my current PC setup, the device is only ever happy with wireless g turned on, on only a few select channels.

The device also seems to upset the networking balance with the router and isn't happy when other laptops connect to the network. Also, after a reasonable duration of say more than thirty minutes, the device seems to get very hot indeed, which may be a contributory factor as to why the connections are so fragile.

Succinctly then, the device has caused nothing short of carnage. I even had to revert back to my Sky Wireless G router and set everything to it's bare minimum (TKIP, a certain channel) etc. Also the device, when working, displayed huge fluctuations in speed and when the signal strength ever reached excellent, the connection would drop. Sometimes the speed would be 125.00 Mbps, and then fall dramatically to around 30 Mbps. So between constant connection drops, issues with other connections on the networks, heat problems and it only working with a specific set of basic settings and staying clear from n connection, the device has been nothing short of horrific. Which prompted me to change to TP-Link.

TP-Link TL-WN821N - Price £11.22 Amazon.co.uk

With the absolute pain that the Belkin was, I jumped straight into the deep end and there was no messing about. I want a device that works and works well, as occasionally when I work I stream things like live sport or media on a 37" LCD alongside my work's computer via dual screen. The TP Link therefore had no settling in period, and was given the chance to shine against router settings that included wireless n mode, dual bandwidth together with any channel I wished. The device was plugged in and Windows 7 didn't install any drivers which is common, so it was an install off the disc, or rather the specific drivers selected from Device Manager's Update Driver option.

Immediately I was greeted with a connection speed of 150Mbps and a four bar signal strength which was a constant very good. The speed also didn't fluctuate one bit. Running other devices over the network didn't make the router go insane and the device runs at a temperature that I would class as reasonable. After a number of days of testing there was not one drop in connection and speeds and signal strength were a constant. The bottom line is that I shall never stray from TP Link again, together with the lesson learnt that Belkin's USB adapters have a LOT to live up to. One further note which everyone will have noticed, is the price differential. To get the best signal and connectivity I actually paid over £40 for something that doesn't even work with a router of the same make, whereby the TP Link was less than £12! Sometimes, you don't get what you pay for it seems.

OVERALL (performance, quality, value for money etc)

TP-Link TL-WN821N -
Belkin F7D4101 -

Microsoft issue legal proceedings against Comet Group

2012-01-04T12:05:00.003Z

Microsoft have started legal proceedings against Comet Group over allegations that around 94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows have been sold.

Read here for the full story -

Comet "sold 94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows"

Gallery

Posted on 4 Jan 2012 at 09:55

Microsoft has accused high street retailer Comet of creating and selling more than 94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows recovery discs.

The software giant has issued legal proceedings against the Comet Group for selling the alleged counterfeits to customers that bought computers loaded with Windows Vista and Windows XP.

“As detailed in the complaint filed today, Comet produced and sold thousands of counterfeit Windows CDs to unsuspecting customers in the United Kingdom,” said David Finn, associate general counsel for worldwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting at Microsoft.

“Comet’s actions were unfair to customers. We expect better from retailers of Microsoft products

“Comet’s actions were unfair to customers. We expect better from retailers of Microsoft products — and our customers deserve better, too.”

According to Microsoft, the legal action charges Comet with producing the counterfeits in a factory in Hampshire and then selling the media to customers at retail outlets around Britain.

Comet has yet to respond to requests for comment on the issue, but the action comes at a critical time for the company. Comet is currently owned by French retailer Kesa Electricals, but is expected to be sold to private equity firm OpCapita this year.

Microsoft said customers concerned that software was fake should visit the company's How to tell website.

Source - PC Pro Website

Recovery Discs

2012-01-03T09:04:00.001Z

If you have just bought a new computer or laptop over Christmas then don't forget to set up your recovery discs as soon as possible. Years ago the discs were shipped with the computers, but now due to manufacturing cutting of costs it is left to the consumer to make their own. This is important and should be done as quickly as possible. Setting up the discs usually requires around 3/4 discs and can take up to an hour, so be prepared for a wait. The recovery discs will act as a factory default safety net in case you run into problems down the line with the computer.

Using the discs in the future, you can then restore your PC to it's initial 'factory default state'. Of course this is helpful when you want to just start over again without the hassle of copying files and programs.

The media creator is usually found within the start menu, then all programs (or programs) and then within the manufacturer of the laptop/computer folder. So for example, if it was a Toshiba laptop, the recovery disc creator would be found in Start>All programs>Toshiba>Recovery discs.

There may be variations of what the recovery discs are called, but essentially they should all be in the start menu somewhere!

If you've lost the driver discs

2011-11-09T16:48:00.001Z

Remember, if you've lost the driver discs for your computer, then you can always go online and hunt them down from there. For example, a client had misplaced her HP Photosmart printer discs and thought that she would have to go through the process of ordering a new one. However, a simple Google search of HP Drivers pointed her in the right direction and she was able to install the drivers for her printer from the HP site.

Many manufacturers now have their drivers on their websites for easier customer use, so just type the search term in a Google Search and see what drivers come up for that manufacturer.

Networking Problems

2011-10-10T14:37:00.000+01:00

One of the easiest ways to solve certain network problems, particularly if the services have failed, is to reset winsock.

To do this open up a command prompt, preferably running it as administrator is case dos asks you to run any commands in elevated mode. Then type 'netsh winsock reset'. After rebooting the machine, the network services may have resumed (Wireless and Wired) and other services may have corrected themselves as well

PC Tools compatibility issue with IE9

2011-09-07T18:05:00.000+01:00

I stumbled across an issue today where some instances of PC Tools will not sit well with the new Internet Explorer 9 browser. The PC Tools Browser Guard sends IE9 into a state of 'not responding'. The way around this is to either run Internet Explorer 9 in 'no add-on' mode, then disable the add-on permanently from there, or to roll back to the previous browser. To do this go to Programs and Features and Uninstall a Program. Then at the top right you'll see an option to 'View Installed Updates'. Click on this and Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 should be listed - simply click on it and uninstall. PC Tools touched on the issue on their webpage and unless you re-install the program with the program that they suggest then PC Tools simply won't sit well with IE9 using the browser guard.

Activate your Operating System

2011-09-07T12:21:00.001+01:00

Please be aware that it is always the best practice to activate your Operating System if you receive the activation error message on start up. A lot of people ignore these messages and eventually you will see a decrease in performance with a number of applications and processes beginning to not function properly.

If you have an error message and have tried to activate your software with a genuine product key and you still have problems, then please contact Microsoft and do not ignore the problems.

Client Advice Line

2011-09-05T19:19:00.001+01:00

On this blog page I will be outlining some of the issues that clients have when they ring me up for advice over the phone, so that others can have an indication of what types of issues people have and how best to deal with them. Tonight a client had three areas of concern. The first part was about anti-virus software on a newly bought Net book, which I also previously gave advice about. The client did not wish to buy any software but wished just to have a go at some of the free software on offer. The three free products I would tend to lean to are AVG Anti Virus, Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials. My personal preference would be Avast. In my experience not only does Avast do it's job without much fuss, but it is light on resources and updates nicely.

The second point was in reference to any backing up. There are online backup suites, external drives and suites that backup to either different areas of the hard drive or different folders apart from the obvious My Documents folder etc. My preference is the plain and simple Flash Drive. The client wanted something light, quite cheap and something that could be easily transported from location to location.

The third area of concern was in relation to whether or not he would have to completely set up his wireless network when going away and coming back. His home network is configured using a BT Home Hub, but if he signed up to the BT Open service, he could pick up a wireless signal provided he was within range of the BT Open facility.

I am aiming to keep these advice snippets as straight forward and simple as possible. A lot of my clients are asking for plain talk and so often I will try not to get tangled up in the jargon that accompanies computer problem solving.

Welcome to our Blog Page!

2011-09-05T10:37:00.000+01:00

A big welcome to our viewers as Ascend IT Services now has a blog presence. Lots of information will be published on here during the next three days, so keep this blog as one of your favourites to ensure you don't miss anything.

Ascend IT Services

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