An excellent feature which Google introduced last year for account security is 2-step verification. This is designed to combat the rising incidents of user’s email accounts being hacked and hijacked. With 2-step verification enabled on your Gmail account, once you have submitted your username and password you need to enter a one use code which is either SMSed to your phone or generated using an app on your phone. Only then can you gain access to the account. This means that for someone to hack your account they would need both your username and password, plus your phone. For more information on 2-step verification visit: googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-sign-in-security-for-your.html .

During Windows startup a message appears informing that the Windows Firewall has blocked “netsession_win” with an unknown publisher. The message asks whether I wish to block, unblock, or ask again later. Thus far I have selected the “Ask again later” option because I am uncertain whether it is safe to allow the unblocking of this file. However, this message appearing every time the computer starts is becoming quite annoying. Could you provide any advice on the purpose of this file and whether it can be safely blocked or unblocked? The computer is running Windows XP SP3. (more…)

A subtle improvement in Windows 7 is the ability to drag a maximised window. In previous versions of Windows if you had an application window maximised (such as a Microsoft Word window maximised) you would need to restore (or un-maximise) the window prior to attempting to drag the window to a different place on the screen. However, in Windows 7 you can click and drag on the title bar of a maximised window and it will automatically un-maximise the window when you start dragging. A small change, but something which could potentially make life easier for you.

For several months I have been experiencing connection problems with my pre-paid 3G broadband connection. Frequently a message appears informing that I need to recharge even though I have not exhausted my credit, although the message does eventually go away. More problematic though is that the bars in the connection manager vary and sometimes I am informed that it is “roaming” (whatever that means) even though the computer is in the same location every day. I assume this is why in Outlook I frequently receive messages saying that the connection to the server has failed: “Server: smtp.gmail.com. Protocol: SMTP. Port: 465. Socket error: 10060. Error: 0×800CCC0E” and “Server: pop.gmail.com. Protocol: POP3. Port: 995. Socket error: 10060. Error: 0×800CCC0E”. This will generally right itself, but can take anywhere from a few minutes to (more often) several hours. The other interesting aspect is that while I cannot access email or the internet, the bytes count still goes up in the “Sent” and “Received” columns in the internet connection status box. This is a maddening problem because I now only have intermittent and unpredictable access to email and the internet. Can you help please? (more…)

A problem has occurred with the installation of Mozilla Firefox on my computer and I need to reinstall the software. Is it possible to save my current bookmarks so that they can be brought back into the new version of Firefox? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)