fulcrum

[quote user="Jonzjob"] Well, I thought that I was sure before, but now I am more confusticated [8-)]. Simply (a necessity for me!) when I, in France, use my French phone to phone a U.K. based mobile (07), where ever it is. Do I need the U.K. prefix, whatever it is, on the front of the mobile number please? Nurse! I need me medication again!!![:-))][8-)] quickly?!?! [/quote] John If you dial 0044 or +44 and then the mobile number, less the leading zero,  you will be guaranteed to make the call OK. Someone already said that further up the thread. 

Angela Thanks. I just assumed that all the world had standardised their dialing rules and country codes as per this page. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/dialing.html I just thought the plus sign and 00 were interchangeable.

[quote user="Spg"][quote user="cooperlola"]  I too don't get the + business - how do you enter it in your phone book?[/quote] Just hold down the 0 key for longer than normal and the 0 changes to a + at least that's how it is on my phone. Sue [/quote] Another mystery solved. Tks Sue.

[quote user="Bob T"] AVG is free and better than Windows firewall though. [/quote] I too agree that it is better to use both the router firewall and something like ZoneAlarm as well. However I am sure that AVG free is only anti virus. Not a firewall.

I've only ever used 00 because I've never understood the meaning of the + symbol at the beginning. It obviously doesn't matter which you use. But you must use one of them.

Paul Good, useful information there. Makes me want to start my own stall today. Thanks

RH That's good. I'm glad you were able to sort it.

RH My brain too needed a rest. I mentioned the router firewall (hardware) but I'm not sure, now that I think about it, that it would block individual programs. Certainly if you have a software firewall like ZoneAlarm then that could be blocking the program. But then again, as you said, it could of course be AVG itself. Hope I haven't muddied the waters.

[quote user="Russethouse"]The free version of AVG does not give you updates it is only as good as the day it was downloaded, you will not be protected against any new virus that comes along.  Ron, I'm sorry but that isn't correct. I have my Free AVG 7 set to update everyday and it does, if I'm not online when it should update I do it manually. In fact I have changed to a wireless router today and its upset my AVG settings and it will not update so I may have to delete and have a clean install (unless I can find out where to adjust it) and I'm fretting ! [/quote] RH You may find that the router firewall is possibly blocking the connection to the AVG site. You will need to check for the allowable programs in the routers settings.

[quote user="tizzylizzy"]Thanks for the advice.  My computer is an LG 702S, bought in France.  I have been online and looked at AVG and it looks very good.  The only negative comment I've picked up is that the latest version 7 is not as good as the preceeding one.  If I were to download this should I de-install Norton first?[/quote] I have noted the two posts by Ron and Gary. But I would add that whatever you do, don't try to run both at the same time. I too run AVG free (version 7-5-446) and can confirm that it does update the virus definitions regularly.

I too am very glad it has all ended and all fifteen personel are to be released. They looked in good spirits and I'm sure their own diplomacy skills also helped in ensuring their release. Good ending.

I too find the message text, sent to my mail box, a very useful feature.

[quote user="TreizeVents"]Interesting that you found the possibility that the UK government might be lying "humourous".  But there was a fair bit of humour in one of the articles.  I really dislike it when governments lie even though they do it all the time.  I just find it a recurrent source of annoyance.  Especially when they do it about war, which they always do. What is it "on TV" (French? English?) that made you think all would be well for the captured military?  And did you think that the captured soldiers were treated badly before and were in danger?  I never thought they were in danger of any kind, and they seemed to be treated quite well from the beginning.  Non? [/quote] TV I'm presuming your reply was to my post. I read the first two articles and found them both quite humourous and it put a light hearted slant on what is after all a ridiculous situation. The fact that our government lied is neither here nor there. All governments lie when they feel it is appropriate. I posted earlier that I couldn't understand what the rest of the fleet was doing while these unfortunate crew were going about their job and then getting captured. There was a reference to this fact in one of the articles. With regard to the television program that I saw. That was on C*N news and showed the crew in comfortable attire smoking and laughing (smiling anyway) and not seeming too phased by what was happening. Hence my comment about them not coming to any harm. I too thought they were never in danger of any kind, and they seemed to be treated quite well from the beginning. 

TV Very interesting and humourous articles. After I watched the TV tonight I felt sure that the 15 won't come to any real harm.

If it's still on 7% then you may have nothing to loose by restarting with one of the advanced options. Try the first advanced option to copy the old files but you may have to do the second option and quick format.

[quote user="Suninfrance"]Made a cuppa, had a fag, done the ironing, washed up, put more logs on the fire, stroked the cat - me stressed [:'(]  Seems like all my files cannot be opened including AutoRecovery - shall I let it keep running. [/quote] Stroking the cat is very important.  [:D] As Pierre says. Leave it running overnight. If it hasn't done the right thing by then maybe try one of the advanced options and stroke the cat again.

It may not seem like it has done much but I would let it run. Perhaps you should have a cup of tea or somesuch.

[quote user="Suninfrance"] I give up - now when I restart the PC the message "A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" and guess what, I just keep getting the same message. Good job I'm booked to go back to England on the 24th, I shall be straight down to PC World to get my money back - the machine is only 8 months old. [/quote] This link may help you. It has the complete recovery instrauctions for your PC. You may not need the XP disk and there is a possibility that it didn't come with one. http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/laptop/7098.htm You will need to go down the page until you reach Using the HDD Recovery System    

Suninfrance Can you boot from your XP Installation disk as I outlined above? This is not the drivers disk but the disk that the OS actually came on. It will have a silver hologrammed surface and say Windows XP.

[quote user="Suninfrance"]My BIOS - sorry - total computer numpty here - can you explain in simple terms please[/quote] Suninfrance I didn't get the impression that you were a numpty from your original post. The BIOS is the bit of the computer that lets the Windows XP Operating System access all your particular PC's hardware. Try putting the XP CD into the drive and then restart the PC. If the BIOS is enabled to boot from CD then it will tell you to press any keyboard key. If this doesn't work then you will have to find out the keyboard keys that let you have access to the BIOS.   Edit:  The Delete or Del key usually does it. Once in you will have to find the section that deals with Boot devices and their order of preference. Anyway it may be better to follow PiereZFP's advice as this could get a bit messy.

Suninfrance You should be able to boot to the install CD. Your BIOS has to be enabled to Boot from a CD though.

Bob The main issue with Linux is the time taken to diagnose and rectify system problems. OK if you're a Unix/Linux guru who likes to do a lot of fiddling around. I do agree that the Linux Live CD's are very useful. I have a copy of both PCLinuxOS 9.2 and Knoppix 5.1.1 which are ideal for booting up a dead system, Linux or Windows.

[quote user="Bob T"]Does not really matter what sort Dick as all Linux distros are free to download anyway. I am using Novell SUSE 10.2 at the moments and it has features that are better than Windoze Vista. Part of the reason that Dell are offering Linux on their PCs, must be that they don't have to charge customers for any Microsoft products in the price that they pay for the PC. When you consider that Vista can cost from £130 to £300 and MS Office another £200, but Linux, which comes with Office and amny other programs, is free, it makes good sense. [/quote] Bob Linux needs to be carefully matched to the hardware that it will run on in order for it to work reliably. Windows is generally more tollerant of hardware issues and will work with most stuff. Linux on the other hand can be a users nightmare if the hardware isn't chosen with care.

JR No problems and I'm glad I didn't provoke a bun fight. [;-)]

JR You are quite right as I too know all that stuff but the original poster sounded as if they did as well. You could also have explained that they will need an LNB, Dish, Digital Satellite box, Coax. And preferably a vertical post to mount the dish on.. When the original poster asked for a direction I should have said "out into space" ..... somewhere.  After all, I did think they would figure it out from my brief reply.  [:D]  [;-)]