1. Connect your router to the master socket - the one closest to the point where your phone line enters the property. Now use a wired connection (Ethernet if you can position the wire safely or mains electrical circuit with a couple of adapters otherwise) to transport the signal to your computer(s).

2. So small and oft forgotten, microfilters account for many a poor broadband signal. Generally speaking, skip the tiny devices that plug right into the socket and use either one built in to the socket itself, or one with a little tail. It is worth spending a little more to get a quality components. Better ones will contain something like

   • 1 Spark Gap
   • 4 Ferrite cores
   • 5 Diodes
   • 5 Capacitors
   • 7 Resistors
   • 2 Transistors

   Cheap devices are smaller as they may contain only

   • 1 Ferrite core (2 coils)
   • 1 Diode
   • 2 Capacitors
   • 2 Resistors

   and can not do a decent job of filtering the high frequency broadband from the lower frequency analogue voice signals. If your phone line sounds anything other than crystal clear, disconnect all other devices connected to the phone line and see if the problem remains. If it does, replace the microfilter with one costing no less than £5.

• The first was Windows XP and Linux (Mint Distro) to give the user the opportunity to evaluate Linux as a free alternative to Windows.
• Then XP as it had been used for four years on one partition and a new installation of XP on the other. This let the user get used to a much faster clean install without giving up the option of using programs the source files and/or product keys of which were long lost.
• Finally was Windows XP and Windows 7 to give the user time to ease into the new user interface while keeping a slippered foot in the door of the comfortable.

Boot to Recovery Console and then
copy {ODD}:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy {ODD}:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
attrib -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
del C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild

Now remove all hardware not essential for a boot.
Next time you boot off the CD you should have a repair option.

Before you launch into a repair of Windows XP make sure that service packs later than the level on the installation medium are removed, and that Internet Explorer is not at a later version than on the CD. Details at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917964/

There is one other cause of repair failure that can be easily fixed: a corrupted registry hive. In this case just follow the instructions at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

After a testing time trying to find out the full specification of the Dell PC I was able to send my client the results as a table that compared my initial spec (£618), the Dell headline version of the Optiplex 380 (£399) and the Dell version that matched most closely the balanced system I had proposed for him. The Dell headline version of their system was indeed £219 cheaper, but the components were generally much more modest and did not include items such as a monitor display - in the use my client typically puts his PC to this computer would perform like a dog with no legs.

By 'customising' the Dell specification to match as closely as possible the PC I designed for my client the cost rose to exactly £999 - a £381 difference. And what's more, if a Dell main board fails after a couple of years it is next to impossible to get a replacement as Dell are the sole suppliers.

I knew that custom built computers were better value for money than mass produced ones in the long term but I hadn't appreciated just how much of a saving there is from day one. I should add that I believe Dell are no worse and indeed, somewhat better than other off-the-shelf distributors including large nationwide shops.

• with no moving parts the mean time before failure rises dramatically - meaning that it's lifetime is much longer;
• it produces far less heat than conventional disks which means less cooling is required which means less noise;
• because less cooling is required and due to its own construction the power consumption is reduced;
• it transfers data at about three times the speed of a regular disk.

How much faster the computer appears depends on which programs are run and how, but it is certainly noticeably faster. The difference would be even more noticeable had I been running the usual 7,200rpm disk rather than the velociraptor.

By not starting the process correctly – i.e. asking ‘what tasks do I want done’ (trade description: requirements analysis), the chances of finding a suitable combination of components, price and after sales service are slim. In this case my correspondent wanted to run applications locally to write a letter or use instant messaging so the 2GB storage would have been inadequate and the 128MB volatile memory would make the device perform like a dog with no legs.

At £89.99 the ‘portable mini’ computer is certainly cheap, but would you really be comfortable squinting at a 7” screen or typing on an 8” keyboard for anything but occasional web based mail messages ?

The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ really applies with computing, and as with all purchases of things you don’t fully understand, buying a little independent consultancy first will usually save big bucks over the lifetime of the product.

The more programs that are installed in memory the slower the PC performs generally as they all compete for a slice of the limited memory resource. Not only that but as increased paging is required, there is a greater risk that program faults will develop when shutting down a computer that is completing maintenance operations in the background.

In general, but especially in the above cases, I recommend having CPU and disk activity meters permanently visible on the desktop. These are freely available, for example as gadgets from Microsoft or Google

This will enable you to postpone significant events (e.g. program (un)installation, shutting down the computer, calling for support when something is not working as expected) until the PC is quiesced - hence, limiting the likelihood of interrupting an important modification to the system state.

In much the same vein, it is good to let the system finish its start up procedures as much as possible before beginning work. So start the computer 5 minutes before you start work and shut down 5 minutes after you close the last program to reduce the risk of interrupting important background tasks.

To protect themselves from being spoofed, some people let the mouse pointer hover over the link and read the destination address in the status bar, but this is not a safe way to detect phishing because the status bar can easily be programmed by Javascript so show something legitimate.

The only safe way is to open your browser and type an address (or use a favourite/bookmark) into the appropriate field.