Ask the Expert

What your friend is talking about is Voice over IP (VoIP). It is most commonly referred to as Skype but there are others, Jajah for example. With Skype you can make cheap or free calls using your computer and the broadband internet connection. You will also need a microphone, speakers or a headset. These are available from about £15. You both need to download the program from www.skype.com and create accounts. This will give you both Skype names. When you add each other as contacts you will be able to see when you are each on-line and can call each other for free. If you have webcams attached you will also be able to see each other too. This just plugs in and should work straight away. You can search for other skype users by their name or email and build up a contact list. You will be able to see which ones are available to talk at any time and even have several people connected to a single call. Please do bear in mind that some internet providers put a cap on the amount of usage you can make each month with VoIP and some mobile broadband packages block it completely. I hope that this keeps you in touch with your family when they are so far away.

1 sugar for me thanks…. It’s unlikely that you need a new computer. As you say that this slow down has happened at the same time as the broadband work my gut reaction is that you have installed all of the software that is provided, this includes a full anti-virus package. Software manufacturers keep on adding new features to their software and base their requirements on modern computer specifications. If your computer is over 3 years old it is likely that this new software is using up all of your system resources, hence the entire computer being slow and not just the internet. Whilst the included software is good it is particularly draining on your computer’s resources and is likely to be causing your problems. The good news is that you don’t need all of this extra software for the broadband to function. You can uninstall the anti-virus software that was sent and install a lighter anti-virus product such as AVG or Avast (both of which have free versions) to protect your computer. These can be downloaded easily from the internet. You should see an instant improvement.

Thank you for bragging about your wonderful holiday that you and your wife going on. I am sure you will have a fantastic time. You don’t tell me what sort of camera you have bought but I will assume that it is 12 megapixels as that is the average nowadays. With a 8GB memory card fitted you will be able store about 1,500 photos so if you take a spare memory card or two you should be able to store plenty of photos. However, most cameras can now take video clips. These take up much more space than pictures so you may need a larger memory card. You can get cards up to 32GB for most cameras. I would also advise that you back up your pictures and video clips. You can use a small laptop or netbook and connect the camera to it to download the images to its hard drive and therefore clear up the memory card. It’s easier to edit and crop the images on a laptop than on the camera itself. If you don’t fancy the idea of taking a laptop with you I suggest you get a USB memory card reader (about £5 from Amazon). This will enable you to use a local internet cafe to upload your pictures to an online service such as SnapFish where your images can be stored safely. You can even have them print out your favourite pictures in top quality so they’ll be at home when you get back.

Yes, this can be set up so that you have your mail, contact and calendar on your phone, you just have to set it up slightly differently. Firstly you do not set it up using the Google account wizard on the iPhone.  Instead, use the Exchange option. Put in your email address, the username is the same address, and your password where prompted. If it tells you that it cannot verify the certificate just ‘Accept’ and it will continue. You will next be asked for the server information, enter m.google.com and tap next. You will then get the option to sync mail, contacts and calendars. When you now go to contacts it will download them from your google mail account. Just make sure you back-up the phone first just in case there is a problem.

You do not say how old your laptop is but it sounds more likely that you need a new battery and not a power adaptor. Batteries can begin not holding their charge within a couple of years and this gives the same symptoms you describe. Some laptops will continue to work fine with the power plugged in, some will start to work again if used on power with the battery removed ,whilst others will no longer power up at all. It very much depends on the specific laptop. The good news is that it is simple to buy a replacement battery. You can go direct to the manufacturer or there are several websites that allow you to choose the make and model of laptop and they will send you a suitable battery, usually at a cheaper price than going direct. I do not however recommend getting a second hand one as you have no way of knowing its condition. I hope that solves your problem.

The best thing to do is see who provides services in your area. If you have satellite or cable TV then they often provide the best deals; sometimes even a free connection. The next port of call is your telephone company. Companies such as TalkTalk and Virgin will give you an inclusive package of calls and internet. The advantage of using your telephone supplier is that if there is a problem you only have the one company to deal with and not have the internet and phone companies shifting the blame onto each other. Check out the deals that they have on offer. Most will include a free wireless modem router. All service providers will give you an e-mail address that you can use but you can sign up for an online account with Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail that will be independent  of  your service provider so if you decide to change supplier you will not need to change your e-mail address.

Happy surfing.

You are correct in thinking that the problem is to do with the age of your version of Microsoft Office. When Microsoft brought out Office 2007 they changed the way that documents and files are saved. This means that any file created in Word 2007 or Word 2010 will not open in previous versions of Word.  This is also the case for Excel too. You can identify these new files by the x at the end of the file names. The good news is that you do not need to purchase new software. Microsoft have produced a Compatibility Pack that can be downloaded from their website. Go to www.microsoft.com/downloads  and install this pack and then you will be able to open and view these attachments. Best of all, it’s FREE.

If you had asked me this 5 years ago I would be talking about servers but now there are many tools that can give you full connectivity without the need for expensive hardware or a central office. There are products such as DropBox and Cubby that will enable you to share your files with colleagues and synchronise them between computers. Depending on how much data you are storing these can even be free! The other benefit of ‘cloud’ storage like this is that they also act as a back-up for you. If you wish to have a shared diary you can use free services such as Gmail where you can share a calendar as well as contacts and documents or you can use a Hosted Exchange solution so you can use Outlook on your computer or your ipad or mobile and this can be had from just a few pounds per month. We are able to advise and set-up the right solutions for your business so that it will work right now and cover you for future expansion. Good luck with your new venture.

What you have got is a variant of the Crypto virus, sometimes known as CryptoLocker. These are what are known as Ransom Ware as they encrypt your documents, pictures and other files and require you to pay a ransom to decrypt them, somewhere in the region of $500-1000! The problem is that, even if you do decide to pay them, there is no guarantee that these criminals will unlock your files.  The virus seems to get in either via an email attachment or where other spyware has got in and opened the gates to more infections. There is no way to remove the encryption so you must use back-up copies of your files once the infection is removed. This highlights the importance of taking regular back-ups. Sometimes we can find previous versions of documents on clients’ systems but back-ups are the best way to protect your information. As part of our routine maintenance visits we check your protection and can advise on back-ups.

You have not told me which operating system you upgraded from. I suspect it was Windows 7. Whilst it is offered to all Windows 7 and Windows 8 users I do not recommend upgrading from Windows 7. Those machines often are not powerful enough to run Windows 10 efficiently and it often causes problems with compatibility. Customers who are currently on Windows 8 and 8.1 will benefit from the upgrade as it resolves many of the issues with that operating system. The good news is that even if you have upgraded you have 30 days to revert back to the original and the process is relatively straight forward. go to Settings, Update & Security then Recovery. From there you have the option to revert to the previous version of Windows. The process is all automatic and takes about 30 minutes in most cases. Good luck.