jyvais

You can download a free utility called NTPasswd (just do a Google to find it). Basically, the download enables you to create a Linux boot CD. You then boot your PC from this and it enables you to change the password of any of the XP users. Generally, its safest just to blank the password and then to set it to something else once you are back into Windows XP proper. Make sure you understand what you are doing before you use it. If you search you should find instructions on the Net. There's also another similar utility called nt_pass. I once had to use NTPasswd and it worked for me. Bonne Chance :-)

[quote user="jyvais"]Thanks Clair, yes I saw that Neuf are selling the Alcatel Versatis D150 Voice Duo and it states that they've been specially adapted to work with the Neuf box but it doesn't say in what way. Is anybody out there using these phones? Are they any good? Opinions appreciated on these or other Neuf 'compatible' phones. (Must go and cool off now, its soo hot here - not that I am complaining :-))[/quote] Any Neuf box users willing to say which model of cordless phone they are using and whether they work okay with the Neufbox? Thanks

Thanks Clair, yes I saw that Neuf are selling the Alcatel Versatis D150 Voice Duo and it states that they've been specially adapted to work with the Neuf box but it doesn't say in what way. Is anybody out there using these phones? Are they any good? Opinions appreciated on these or other Neuf 'compatible' phones. (Must go and cool off now, its soo hot here - not that I am complaining :-))

An update on the Neuf box saga. A friend of ours said that they were having similar problems but they found that if they used an old style corded phone and dialled slowly, the telephone connection was a lot more reliable. As it happened, we had an old UK phone in the loft complete with a BT to RJ11 adapter. Sure enough, so far we have been able to use the phone again without any problems so far. But we are dialling manually and really want the convenience of a cordless phone. Our cordless phone is a Siemens Gigaset C455 but I want to replace it with something more compatible with the Neuf box. Would anybody who is using a cordless phone with Neuf / SFR box without any problems be kind enough to let me know which model it is? Thanks in Advance

"Incidentally if Mr Gates products were so wonderful they wouldn't be scattering file fragments all over the HD like a mad womans ***** in the first place " miaow Errnie!!! All OSes suffer from fragmentation problems. If the disk is chock full and heavily used performance will start to suffer. BUT I don't normally bother defragging my Windows systems because mostly any performance improvement is very small, I just try and make sure that my C: drive has plenty of free space.

We have the idiots in the EU Competition Commission to thank for that....

The reason for multiple passes is that the disk head doesn't always place itself exactly in the same position every time it accesses a track on the disk, there are minute variations. (a magnetic disk is not a digital device, an analogue to digital conversion has to be done to read the data). Normally these variations are not detectable but with sensitive electronic equipment it’s possible to read the ghost parallel tracks. So if you do multiple passes, there's less chance that these ghost tracks will contain any useful data. BUT I think some of you are getting your knickers in a twist over this. I would be quite happy to sell a disk drive that I'd wiped. The reason being that unless the disk contained very sensitive highly valuable data it would not be worth the effort to try and recover the data; even then success would be far from guaranteed. Have any of you guys actually tried to recover a corrupted disk? Even with a heavy weight disk recovery tool, trying to piece together file fragments is no easy task and takes ages!! [Edit] @Pierre ZFP, I'm not doubting what you say but I don't understand what you mean by the phrase "there is a lot of latency with overwriting". Are you saying the data was recovered from a disk cache? If so, as soon as the power was cut the disk cache would be lost. Have you any details of this demo. It just seems highly unlikely to me but I am always open to learning something new.....

Thanks Danny, and apologies Ernie, I completely mis-read the post and thought Ernie was referring to the wiped laptop. I'll try and pay more attention in future :-))

I thing you're being a bit parnoid Ernie. If you use a Wipe program like the one Danny suggested, it may be still theoretically possible to recover some of the data but it could take someone a very long time and the tools involved are pretty expensive. Unless, the laptop contained highly valuable secrets, I seriously doubt anyone would bother to recover the average joe's emails and documents - I know the contents of my disk wouldn't be worth all that effort and expense ;-))

[quote user="cooperlola"] I use Alice and have no such problems although my browser is the dreaded IE8 which so many people seem to like to slag off at the mo! One thing occurs to me and I expect you know this so sorry if I'm teaching my grandmother- but those transactions do require you to have a card reader now, and N/W have no doubt mentioned too.  That's the only thing I can think of. [/quote] I use Nationwide as well and I am aslo a fellow IE8 heretic ;-)). I can use the site without any problems. I was surprised when I saw you mention that a card reader is required. I've not got one, yet I can do payments and transfers no problem. Perhaps it depends upon the type of NW account you have??

It sounds to me F1steveuk that you've got a problem with your Windows installation. I don't know why your colleagues told you that IE8 would "drag your PC down" and that its buggy. In fact, several months ago before IE8 was even released PC Pro were saying that the code was that stable that they'd happily use it instead of IE7. I have it installed on a humble Netbook and it runs well on that under Windows XP.

Is it possible for you to borrow someone else's laptop for a short while? If so, before you borrow it, verify that you can access your Nationwide account okay via your friend's connection. Then, connect the laptop to your ADSL box. You shouldn't have to install any of the ADSL software but if you do make sure that you create a restore point first, then you can make sure that after the experiment the laptop can be returned to the state it was before you installed anything. Hook up the laptop, connect to the Nationwide. If you still have a problem, its very likely to be a problem with your Alice connection, if not, then there's a problem with your PC setup. Does that make sense? I know the above won't fix the problem but at least by a process of elimination you will have a pretty good idea where the problem lies.

I owe Linux nothing, I happily use Windows XP and Vista on my computers. I do not feel the need to put down Linux. And in any case it would be silly for me to say one is better than the other. My requirements maybe very different from someone else's.

ErnieY and F1SteveUK, its all very well listening to what your mates and colleagues are saying, but sometimes the chatter isn't borne out by the facts. Its true, MS had a big problem with IE6, it had stagnated and excellent products such as Firefox appeared on the scene that highlighted its deficiencies and this together with many security problems gave it a bad reputation. But fast forward to now, have a look at Secunia.com, one of the major sites that tracks security vulnerabilities. This year so far, there have been 7 vulnerabilities for Firefox and just 1 for IE8. I am not arguing that FF is beter than IE8, or visa versa. Every browser has security issues, but IE8 is now no worse than others. And this will surprise you, one of the security issues with Firefox fixed by Mozilla recently was discovered by Microsoft! BUT things move on. MS has put a massive effort into making IE very secure and feature rich. Now as I said, in my ealier post I don't want to get into a 'which browser is best argument' but the gap between the leading contenders has narrowed considerably to the point where they are all perfectly useable, and choice is down to personal preference. Oh and a final point, F1SteveUK any complex piece of software will always contain bugs, anybody who has studied software engineering is painfully aware of this. And I guarantee that there are bugs in Firefox, Chrome, Safari4, IE8 and Opera et al.

Well Ernie, its funny that you should provide a link to the ComputerWorld website. This very site concluded its recent review of IE8 as follows; "For core browsing, IE is superior. It offers better tab handling, a better Search Box, and a slew of features that Firefox doesn't have, such as "porn mode," anti-malware protection, and Web Slices and Accelerators" So perhaps they need to get their story straight! Listen I don't want to get into a "which browser is best" argument. My point is that you are advising people to stay clear of IE8, yet you have no direct experience of it. I have direct experince of both IE8 and Firefox, they are both good products. I have installed IE8 on 5 PCs without a problem. If, like me, you prefer not to have two browsers installed, then I can categorically say that IE8 is much superior to IE6 and is well worth the upgrade. Perhaps you ought to try it Ernie, you never know you might like it ;-) (And actually, from a security perspective, you should have at least upgraded to IE7 by now.)

@ErnieY "It does seem that, true to MS form, IE8 has caused as many problems as it has solved. I gave up on it several years ago firstly in favour of Maxthon but in the last year or so I have used Firefox almost exclusively." Ernie, I'm curious, since you have stated many times that you use IE6 only occasionally. How do you know that IE8 "has caused as many problems as it has solved" ?? It would be interesting if you could be more specific. All the reviews I have read conclude that whilst IE8 may not be the fastest browser, it’s still a perfectly good one and a significant improvement over IE7 (and indeed IE6).

Two thoughts come to mind; Firstly, you need to find which program is running at start up that's trying to open a web page. You could run MSCONFIG (Google it, if you are not sure how to run it) and selectively disable programs at start up to find out which is the offending program). Secondly, in IE8 under Tools->Internet Options->Advanced Tab make sure both 'Disable Script Debugging' checkboxes are ticked. Hope that helps. PS I've used IE8 for several months now and it runs very well, much quicker than IE7. I actually use FF as well but happen to prefer IE8 so obviously that means I'm no 'expert' and a heretic ;-)

We've had similar problems for several months. There was some information about it in a news letter I received from the dordogne-on-line.info site as follows; Possible refund for SFR customers. --------------------------------------- SFR have had a problem for over a month now affecting many (but not all) customers with phone numbers starting 0553 52 and 0553 62. The symptoms are: When you dial a number it often rings engaged when it is not. It can take several attempts to get the number to ring. When dialling UK numbers no ring tone is heard but the phone you are calling does ring and the person picks up even though you have just heard silence. Sometimes calls do not connect and you just hear an echo of your own voice. This is a known problem that SFR are working on. Also people who have been affected can get a refund from SFR for the period that the problem persists. I find that the basic ADSL connection is very good but the quality of the VOIP telephone service is getting worse to the point now where it's unacceptable. My other half will be ringing SFR this afternoon with her best French... I will post again with the results. Incidentally, I know there's a lot of folks out there who do not have any problems with SFR. And lest you were wondering, I have no connection with Dordogne Online.