New Year – New secure Password

  • December 19, 2011 4:56 pm

Every year we all make some kind of new years resoloution, some of them we keep some we dont.
Consider the new year as a new fresh start on line create yourself a secure password for all your online sites

there are many password generators out there but are they any good recent tests have shown that with automatic password cracking software an 8 character password can be done in an hour and a half (1.5 hrs) which all things considered isnt very long at all, and that includes ” special ” characters !@#$%^&() and so on.

the key to a secure password is length just by extending the length of your password by 4 charachter to 12 this 1.5hr cracking time would incrase to an estimated 17,134 years. i think we all agree that probably covers most of our life spans.


so how do you go about how to create a secure password?

As mentioned above it doesnt have to contain special charaters however some websites require at least 1 number to form part of your password
some security experts recommend just using 3 or 4 short ramdom words that you wont forget (3×4 letters or 4 x 3 letters)
eg. Pink Pigs Fly Sky ( ok so thats 14 charaters) but you can see 4 easy words but when used together pinkpigsflysky thats a dammed secure password
so what about those websites that require a number? simplicty is the key here.
Just change 1 or more vowels to numbers i=1 e=3 a=4 o=0 by using numbers the passwords become only slightly more secure so theres no need to change all of the voewls.

Another way to make an easy to use password is to take someone or 2 peoples names and add your part of your date of birth this could be your something like this “mum01011990dad” replacing mum and dad with acutal names and choosing just a few numbers ie: just the day or month / year or short year ‘mum1990dad’.

You may well be worried about people knowing your passwords and watching you type them in and hacking your bank or other websites like facebook.
heres another tip first create your new password. and update all your regurlar sites that you visit with it.
then for those high secuirty websites that your worried about choose the same password but inlcude 1 or 2 random caps on the letter ‘muM1990Dad’
anyone watching you will think you typed in your normal password but wont see you holding the shift key (if your fast or clever enough).

You dont have to put the number in the middle it can be on either end.

Start the new year safe! make this one resolution that you keep.

Iphone 3gs / 4 / 4s battery life very short or multiple ring tones for messages

  • November 2, 2011 5:22 pm

Well its been a short while since the Ios 5 has been released and there have been a number of issues surrounding the update, although the update is in general very welcome and provides some much needed and useful features, there have been some issues. 2 that i have personally come across are thankfully both fixed in the same method.
1. a stuttering message tone on receipt of text message or notification.
2 extremely short battery life on the iphone 4s (less than 12 hours on standby).

turns out that the ios5 that runs on iphone 4s is slightly different to that of the iphone 4 and iphone 3gs each phone containing different firmware as well so if you get a new iphone and restore it from the old iphones back up you end up confusing it basicly.

The FIX:
to fix this isnt as bad as it first seems.
1. Firstly open itunes and goto edit and preferences, click on the devices tab and jsut have a mental note of your last back up.
2. now plug in your iphone and right click it ( from the left coloumn and run a fresh back up.
3. go back to preferences and make a note of the time/date of the back up you just ran.
4. delete all previous back ups leaving just the new one.
5. Right click on the iphone again and choose restore.
6. When prompted YOU MUST CHOOSE SET UP IPHONE AS NEW PHONE. (very important ) else this fix wont work.
7. Once the restore has completed and the phone is set up as new ( you may need to change the name of the phone) you can then restore from the back up you made earlier.
8. during the restore the phone will make a new back up . its very important that you dont use this one as the back up and use the earlier one.
9. restart phone and you should now have inscreased battery life and text alerts that sound normal.

hope you found this helpful.
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UPDATE 07/11/2011
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while this works on some phones it appears that it doesnt work on all, but its worth a shot right? this is damn annoying New MR apple!


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UPDATE 11/11/2011
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AN UPDATE FOR iOS5 HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AND SO FAR THIS APPEARS TO FIX VARIOUS ISSUES AS DESCRIBED ABOVE

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UPDATE 1/12/2011
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Go to general and settings in the sound options turn off vibrate, ( you can leave vibrate for silent to “on”)
this may help im currently testing this with some sucesss.

please leave a comment below if any of this helped you.

Beware of phone calls saying they are calling to help with broadband issue

  • November 2, 2011 5:06 pm

Just a warning that the cold phone calls from microsoft, saying your pc has an error, have changed theier tactics recently and although still trying the old one they are now calling to “help you with a broadband issue” ….. i mean who doesnt have a braodband issue right?
slightly easier to fall for. if you have an issue with your broadband speed do a test at speedtest.net and then call your braidband supplier.

NEVER allow someone remote access to your pc no matter who they are or unless you personally know them and have asked them do do so or unless you call them and they are from a reputalble company, if in doubt check with me 07599 279 796.


safe browsing



phone calls from microsoft claiming your comuter has reported a virus

  • November 2, 2011 5:01 pm

Last week i received a number of calls from a supposed microsft call center, the caller was of eastern/Asian origin and claimed to be from Microsoft and that he was calling becasue my computer had reported an error to microsoft, the caller tried every trick in the book to get access to my computer but as i knew what he was trying to do my aim was to waste thier time and wind him up…..
eventually i told him that i knew he was a scammer and told him that he was stupid if he thought i would fall for suc ha trick and hung up.

he promptly called back and said “same to you ” and swore at me !

NEVER allow someone remote access to your pc no matter who they are or unless you personally know them and have asked them do do so or unless you call them and they are from a reputalble company, if in doubt check with me 07599 279 796.


safe browsing



World Back up day 2011

  • March 31, 2011 6:44 pm

Backing up is as importnat today as it has been since home pc’s were invented dta can still be lost if your hard drive fails, tkae it from someone who knows personally and 2 of my regular clients have had catastrophic failures on drives…..
yes it takes time but what price do you put on family photos lost forever?


world back up day 2011 find out more ….




i will be doing a post soon about cost effective back ups and the best hard ware / software to use and why you should use a network drive or a usb drive to back up to or even dvds

New HQ Same Reliable Quality Service

  • March 10, 2011 10:44 pm

The HQ of Mobile-pc-repairs.net has now moved location.

The New address for all correspondence is:-


10 Bleaches Court
Lavant
Chichester
West Sussex
PO18 0FE


phone numbers remain same
07599 279796



 



Now offering basic apple mac problem solving

  • February 2, 2011 6:33 pm

I just wanted to inform you that I have started servicing Apple Macs. At the moment I can help with the basics, i.e. setting up email, adding printers etc. as well as transferring documents, music and pictures over from your old PCs and laptops. I can also help with adding email addresses and “favourites” or bookmarks. If you are not sure about any aspects of your Apple product, please call me to enquire, I will endeavour to help, however, if it’s something I don’t completely understand yet, I’ll let you know and investigate further before servicing your product. I am planning on having a Mac up and running soon on my own workbench and I will eventually be offering a full service for Macs.

Revised Charges

  • January 1, 2011 1:02 pm

Sadly due to the New VAT rate and rising fuel costs it has been necessary to raise my hourly rates in order to stay in business.
My business ethic is to offer an outstanding service that is second to none and at the same time value for money, while not exceeding the value of replacing a broken computer. Where possible I will do everything I can to keep costs down in order to pass on a great deal to you.
I will also price match on any labour costs to any other competitor if they offer a cheaper service.

Please see revised prices on the Charges page

Chirstmas opening and help

  • December 25, 2010 9:40 am

Just a quick note to wish all a meery christmas and a happy new year.

i will be celebrating with my family and look forward to a rest but if you have any issue with new gifts being set up or require anti virus for your new computer i shall be taking calls from 27th Decmeber.

all the best

Yet another security flaw in windows…….

  • November 25, 2010 9:00 pm

UAC the (user account Control) that nags you every time a prgram wants permission to access your machine is designed to keep out viruses and malware, unfortunatley someone has found a way of getting round this, be aware of any thing you down load or links you may follow, if your not sure scan it with your anti virus before opening.
read the full story here …. …story< target="blank">