Beating the hackers

This is a warning for the freelancers and small business owners out there. While you are sleeping there are an army of hackers out there, hell bent on destroying your web site or using it to distribute spam e-mails, viruses or other malware. And what is worse, there may be very little you can do to stop it.

Once you have a web site you are fair game for every hacker in the world. And they even share your information with each other. They are looking for websites using bulletin board and forum software that has not been kept up to date, and content management systems or operating systems that have known flaws and unlocked back doors.

They are even silently attacking your web host, trying to get hold of your personal log-in details, which makes their life a lot easier.

Don’t believe me? In December 2007 hundreds of websites had to be closed down temporarily after hackers managed to get hold of the personal log-in details from UK web company Fasthosts. The company claimed that it had no option other than to perform an emergency shutdown after it discovered that the hackers had tried to use information gleaned from its servers. New passwords had to be sent out by post rather than e-mail to avoid the information being compromised again.?

And it isn’t just small companies that get their sites hacked. A quick search using Google uncovered a whole host of companies that have had similar problems, including job site Monster.com, US anti-virus specialists Kaspersky and even ex-Beetle Paul McCartney's website.

Hacking can take many forms. The simplest and least damaging is defacing a website. When this occurs your normal home page is replaced by an image with the words “hacked by the Turkish dot squad” or something similar.

This is annoying, but not too damaging. A simple reinstall will get you going again, although you may never know how they got in. After you have reinstalled the site reset your FTP password to something very unusual, preferably consisting or a mixture of letters and numbers. You should also ensure that any software you are using is up to date.

Slightly worse is a hack whereby code is injected into your site to advertise Viagra or something similar. Bulletin boards and forums are classic areas where this can occur. I have also seen an online registration form targeted, whereby a poor unsuspecting conference organiser was inundated with e-mails advertising porn sites. This was happening at a rate of about two per minute until I was able to add a Captcha module, whereby visitors have to key in a four-digit code that is shown to them by way of an image. This won’t stop manual hackers, but it goes some way to defeating computer-automated hacks.

The worst hack involves the distribution of malware, whereby anyone visiting your site gets a PC virus infection or key logger. Again, the only solution is a complete reinstall. If you don’t clean up an infected web site you run the risk of it being blocked by Google, although you can apply for the ban to be lifted once the site is clean again.

So what else can you do to prevent hackers? Firstly, make sure you are using an up to date virus checker on your PC or Mac. Secondly, visit your site on a regular basis and make sure it looks OK and checks out with your antivirus. Lastly, make sure you have a complete back-up of your site so that you can reinstate it should the worst happen.

Then just sit back and cross your fingers. It isn’t a matter of “if” your site will get hacked, but “when”.

Labels: internet

posted by Steve Nichols @ 12:24 PM Comments: 0

The 3M MPro110 pocket projector

Presentations have come a long way since the days of 35mm slides and a Kodak Carousel (remember them?).

Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple’s Keynote have made sure of that. Oh, and while I think of it when you are putting your presentation together think about how you use images. Many people just throw in full-size JPEG images which means that you end up with very bloated PowerPoint files. These can end up too big to e-mail.

It is much better to size your images in Photoshop before you import them. It is quite easy to work out how big to make them. An average digital projector has a horizontal resolution of about 1024-1280 pixels, but images straight out of a digital camera are likely to be around 3000-4000 pixels wide. Place these straight into PowerPoint and you’ll end up with enormous PPT files.

If you are going to use an image full screen your imported image needs to be about the same size as the projector’s resolution – about 1024 pixels wide. Any bigger and you are not gaining quality, but just bloating your files. If you are using an image at half screen size then about 600 pixels wide is fine.

Anyway, back to the main story. Once you have your PowerPoint presentation you still need to have a digital projector to connect to your laptop – and that is where the trouble starts. Firstly, they are still quite expensive with replacement bulbs costing the earth. A quick tip – after using your projector switch it off and let it cool down completely before moving it. The bulb is less likely to blow in future.

Projectors are also bulky and not the sort of thing you want to carry around. By the time you have taken your laptop, your briefcase and your projector you start to look like a packhorse.

But 3M has come up with a product that it hopes will change all that. It says its MPro110 pocket projector is ideal for travellers who deliver a lot of presentations but do not want to carry bulky desktop projectors around with them.

Measuring just 115x50x22 mm (4.5"x1.97"x0.88") the projector is more like a large mobile phone. It weighs just 152 grams (0.33 lbs) and has a built-in lithium ion battery that can provide enough power for about 40-60 minutes.

If that isn’t enough it also has a power supply/charger.

The secret of the projector is that it uses high-powered LEDs and not incandescent bulbs. The LEDs have an estimated life of more than 20,000 hours so should see you through to the end of your career! It is also silent in operation as it doesn’t need a cooling fan.

There are only two controls – an on/off button and a focus ring, although this was quite loose and it was easy to lose focus if you moved the unit around.

3M says the projector is particularly useful for giving impromptu sales pitches to customers while on the road or in a last-minute meeting.

I tested it with both an Apple and Windows PC and it worked well, projecting in its native 640x480 pixel VGA mode. This is quite small, but it will also support 800 x 600 SVGA, 1024 x 768 XGA and 1280 x 768 WXGA modes.

The projector is no match for a full-size projector though and I found that in subdued lighting (but not a dark room) it could only really project up to about 24-30 inches across (60-75 cm). You really need a screen too to make the most of the projected image - something else to carry.

Its own literature says that in a normally-lit room it can manage up to 5 inches (127mm) wide, which is miniscule, but in a darkened room it can project up to 50 inches (127cm) wide.

I can see that as LED technology develops these units could get brighter and brighter. After all, a projector like this was unthinkable just a couple of years ago.

It also needs a small tripod really as laying it on a desk meant that you lost the lower portion of the image. In fact, the company’s own PR photographs show it being used with a mini tripod so I don’t know why they don’t supply one in the box.

So in all, the projector does what it says on the tin, but I’m left wondering if you really need one at all. Given that most venues that you visit are unlikely to have full blackout conditions the usefulness of the projector is going to be limited.

And if you are in a completely dark venue the chances are that you would be using a “proper” projector anyway. If you just presenting to a handful of people then it might be better to use a large-screen laptop, such as a 17- or 20-inch model.

So the 3M Mpro110 is an odd beast. For small presentations you could just use a laptop and for bigger ones you need a proper projector. If you do happen to present to five or six people, in a room with subdued lighting, then I can see that it could be valuable.

At a street price of around £235- £285 it might just be worth having one as a spare for your normal projector. But don’t buy one expecting it to do everything you want. As one review said “it is more of a geek’s toy really”.

posted by Steve Nichols @ 7:02 AM Comments: 0

The Asus Eee netbook

It's a funny old world. A few years ago manufacturers were hell bent on making laptops bigger and bigger. Seventeen-inch screens were de rigueur and there was even one with a 22-inch screen. But that's all changing.

They have finally twigged that for portable use some people want smaller, lighter machines. And so the netbook was born.

A netbook is a tiny portable PC, usually weighing less than 1kg and with a 7 to 9-inch screen. If you only want to do basic world processing and web browsing such a machine has a lot to offer, being small enough to fit in the corner of a briefcase or handbag, but powerful enough to handle two-three hour's work on a single charge.

Netbooks are available from Dell (Mini 9), Acer (Aspire One), MSI (Wind) and Asus (Eee PC) among others and this seemed like a good time to test drive one.

For the test I chose one of the cheapest on the market - the Asus Eee PC 701, running Windows XP with 512Mb of RAM and a sold-state 8Gb drive. At £135+VAT from Carphone Warehouse they don't come much cheaper.

Measuring just under nine inches (23cm) wide by six and half inches (17cm) deep and less than an inch (3cm) thick the PC701 may be small but it packs a punch, with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, three USB sockets and even a VGA port for connecting to an external monitor. It has also a built-in webcam, bundled Skype, audio in and out and a slot for an SD memory card.

The seven-inch screen works at a resolution of 800x600 pixels and automatically pans as you move the cursor towards the edges. It is also quite sharp.

Some netbooks come with a version of the Linux operating system, which shouldn't put you off. Coupled with the bundled open source OpenOffice.org software and the Firefox web browser they are more than up to the job.

This model came with full-blown Windows XP and Microsoft Works - not quite as capable as Microsoft Office but able to open and save .doc or .docx format, as well as Excel's .xls. It comes with a PowerPoint viewer, but you can't actually create PowerPoint slides with it. With Windows XP and the associated software installed the computer's 8Gb of memory still had 5.21Gb left. Not big enough for your digital photograph collection, but more than adequate for documents and the odd additional program or two.

The biggest problem facing any computer only nine inches wide has got to be the keyboard. I have fingers like sausages, but managed to make a fair fist of using it and after a while became quite adept at keying text in without making too many errors. But I think it would drive you nuts if you had to use it as your main machine. Don't forget that you can always plug in an external keyboard and mouse (and screen) if need be.

Microsoft Works is OK, but if you intend sharing documents with other people try to avoid saving them as .wps (Works document) files. These are not very compatible, but it is the default format for Works and you have to physically force the machine to save as .doc each time.

The Eee PC 701 also includes Internet Explorer and this worked fine, although with most web sites you have to pan to see the right hand side as few are now only 800 pixels wide. E-mail is taken care of with either Windows Live Mail or Outlook Express - it does seem strange that both are bundled. It only took a couple of minutes to configure Live Mail with my Gmail IMAP account and all my mail and folders were there.

In case you hadn't gathered already, this feature was written on the Asus, and it did a pretty good job. Anyone familiar with a PC and MS Office will feel quite at home. If you are a Mac user who can't bear to even touch Windows then you can always go for the Linux version. In fact, one or two hackers have actually managed to get Mac OS X running on the Asus and Dell netbooks, although it isn't easy to do and is technically illegal.

At this point in the feature I thought I would try and get a little more adventurous. Could I add a better Office package, like OpenOffice.org or perhaps even use it with my 3G data dongle?

The answer to that second question was very easy as Carphone Warehouse actually bundles some of its netbooks with dongles. The dongle worked fine, although it did put an additional load on the battery, witnessed by increased cooling fan speed.

OpenOffice.org 3.1 is a free open-source office package that mirrors the applications in MS Office very well. I have used it (and its close cousin NeoOffice) on Macs and it is a good substitute.

After installation I still had more than 4Gb left and OpenOffice.org offers a user interface that is more like MS Word's. You can also set up .doc as your default format - much better.

At the two-hour mark the Asus still had 30% of its charge remaining and it was a further 45 minutes before I really had to think about reaching for the power cord.

For around £150 I think this netbook is a bargain. If you fancy a bigger screen and keyboard the Dell Mini 9 is also very nice at £242 + VAT. Just one questions remains - who wants one?

STOP PRESS - I have now bought an Acer Aspire One, which is currently running Windows XP and Mac OSX, but that's another story!

Labels: internet, Mobile

posted by Steve Nichols @ 3:34 PM Comments: 0

Getting linked up to LinkedIn

Social media was one of the internet buzz phrases of 2008, and 2009 doesn't look being much different.

Previously we have looked at Facebook, which is great fun but a little lacking in professional usefulness. People seem very keen on updating their status, trying to get you to join daft groups like the "Baked Beans on Toast Appreciation Society" and generally throwing cream pies at each other.

If you are looking for a "Facebook with A levels" then LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) might be a better bet.

LinkedIn, which is free to join, describes itself as "an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries".

The object of the network is to find, be introduced to, and collaborate with other professionals.

When you join, you create a profile that summarises your professional expertise and accomplishments. You then search for and add other contacts to join you, so creating a network.
Your network then consists of your connections, your connections' connections, and the people they know.

But why would you bother? LinkedIn says that the system will help you find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts.

You can also "create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems".

But does the reality match up to the promise?

I have been a LinkedIn member for about six months, but haven't really taken it that seriously. My "network" consists of 14 people, which is very low. In my group one person has more than 500 contacts and the average is about 30.

I belong to the "intranet professionals" and "internal communication" groups, both of which have a forum, but they are not used very much.

What I do get however, are endless requests from people I have never heard of asking me to "join their network". And according to some e-mails I have received after asking for CiB member's thoughts on LinkedIn I am not alone.

But I do think that you get out of LinkedIn would you put in. CiB member Lorraine Donald said: "I've definitely found it very useful. It helps break the ice with new contacts if you've LinkedIn beforehand, or do it straight after meeting up.

"Potential new clients can check you out in an instant, and see your recommendations, your work history and background - it's like a living CV and credentials document.

"You could discover that you worked in the same company, or went to the same college as a new client, which has happened to me! You find out you know people in common, and that helps build trust and relationships.

"I like the idea of using Facebook for personal and social use, and LinkedIn for business/work related contact," she said.

But Adrian Holliday said that he was also pestered by people he didn't know. "A colleague of mine thinks it's great and is linked in to 200-plus others. I've probably missed the point of it," he said.

Jackie Mitchell had had a similar experience, but Helen Osman, sister-in-law of CiB member Rick Osman, said: "Working for a small consultancy, I am finding it is a good way to stay in touch with people I used to work with and also another way of building relationships with existing clients and increasingly clients who are being made redundant - sadly two in the last couple of weeks.

"I am putting them in touch with people who are in a similar position or are in the same industry and in the longer term these people should get new jobs and could become future clients - over and above that they are nice people. It is also useful for tracking down past clients, whose contact details I no longer have.

"Whilst it is a case that some people are merely collecting contacts - an ego trip (I've got more friends than you) I suspect that there are a lot of passive users. For example, last week I sent out invites to half a dozen people, but only one has come back. This could be because people don't want to be my contact, but I suspect (hopefully!) that this is because a lot of members are not logging on regularly."

But the final word rests with freelancer Carole Seawert who has found the system useful. "I am currently waiting to hear if I have landed a contract to write the copy for a new website," she said. "The contact came via LinkedIn."

So if you do choose to sign up with LinkedIn, the secret may be to a) make sure your profile is as comprehensive as it can be b) that you grow your network of contacts as quickly and widely as possible and c) use LinkedIn as an adjunct to your other network activities and not a replacement.

Labels: internet

posted by Steve Nichols @ 3:30 PM Comments: 0

Ten steps to getting your message across

While the intranet is a fantastic tool, you really have to fight to get your message through the information overkill that seems to pervade organisations nowadays.

You know the problem. You need to get an important message across to employees and you have the corporate intranet at your disposal. But the trouble is, employees have so many demands on their time and attention. They have a group home page, their regional home page, a departmental home page, a divisional microsite, newsfeeds galore - and their real job to get on with too. So ....

1. Get to the point
Read any newspaper and you will find that a good news story gets to the point quickly and succinctly. If you haven't told the story in the first sentence of the first paragraph and preferably in about 20-25 words, you have failed.

If in doubt think of what you would say if someone asked you what the main point of your story was. You can virtually guarantee that the first sentence you utter would make a better opening paragraph than the usual waffle that companies seem to want to publish.

2. Keep it simple
Long-winded prose has no place on an intranet. Get to the point, tell people what they need to know and stop there. Back this up with a hyperlink to a longer more detailed story if need be or use Q&As which are much easier to read.

3. Use your headline
Many people give little thought to the use of headlines and summaries in online stories. In fact, these are more likely to be read than any story that has to clicked on to be read. For example, the headline "Important News" and the summary "Click here for important news" are utterly meaningless. The user has learned nothing and you have not given them enough information to decide whether to click further. Make sure your headline tells your reader something.

4. Use your headline and summary together
People often write these as an afterthought. But work the two together and you can impart a lot more information. The trick is to ensure that you don't just repeat the headline information in the summary, but use the extra space to add something. For example, "Manchester Branch to close" as a headline is good, but if the summary then says "Universal Widget's Manchester Branch is to close" you have just wasted space. Better to say "Cost-cutting exercise will see Leeds being the main branch in the North" has added more detail.

5. Get your timing right.
Find out the best time to publish information onto the intranet. If your news is important there is no point burying it in the middle of three lesser stories. Why not leave it an hour and then publish your main story. That way it will stand out. Core times for maximum readership are likely to be in 09:30-11.00 period, but not on Mondays or Fridays or just before/after a public holiday.

6. Use Questions and Answers
Sometimes a long, rambling story that contains the information people need is just too much to wade through. If you can, break down the story into meaningful questions and answers – the ubiquitous Q&As. The important thing is to ensure that the questions are ones that people would really ask.

7. Use Summaries
At the head of the article, use five or so bulleted points that sums up the content below. That way, the reader can get the gist of the feature without having to read the whole thing. If they then wish to dig deeper they can.

8. Prioritise your articles
It is human nature to read the top story first. So make sure that if you need to publish three or so stories that the most important one is placed at the top of the pile. Make sure it stays there for a good five hours or so for maximum effect. Depending on how your intranet is laid out, make sure it doesn’t go disappear further down the list and so needs the user to scroll – the modern day equivalent of being “below the fold”.

9. Use reminders or pointers
Send an e-mail out once a week that summarises the main news that has appeared. You just need to show the headline and the URL. Better still have a clickable web link. You can order the stories to suit your particular needs and the weight you place behind each story.

10. Highlight important stories with blobs or colour
Nothing makes important stories stand out more than having a red blob or some other image attached to them. You can make up an “Urgent” image and include that if you like. Don’t overdo it though or people will switch off.

Labels: intranet

posted by Steve Nichols @ 12:29 PM Comments: 0

How to make money with blogs

Yes, you have read the headline correctly – it is now possible to make money with blogs.

Until recently, a blog was something that was perhaps a little self-indulgent, but definitely not a money-spinner.

Now you can link a Google AdSense account to your blog. Adsense will then pay you every time someone clicks on one of the display ads at the top of your latest post.

This is incredibly easy to integrate with a blogging service like Blogspot, but there are a few hints and tips. The first is to make sure that your blog is worth reading in the first place. Blogs that are entertaining work well, as do blogs that educate or inform.

You can also make sure that the blog is available as an RSS feed. Again, this can be set up automatically with some blogging systems like Blogspot.

So once you have visitors how do you convert that to cash? Google Adsense pays you money in exchange for being allowed to publish paid-for ads on your blog. The clever thing is that the ads are related to what you write about. If used correctly they can both enhance your site and make you money.

So how does it work? Google automatically provides you with its AdSense code. Then, Google automatically “reads” your blog and decides on the best ads to display.

It uses a sophisticated algorithm that includes such factors as keyword analysis, word frequency, font size, and the overall link structure of the blog.

If a visitor clicks on one of the ads they get taken to the advertiser’s web page and you get paid cash – easy!

Well, not quite. First you must have a site with plenty of visitors, otherwise it isn’t worth the effort. Secondly, your page must be set up in such a way that Google stands a chance of working out what you are trying to promote or sell. In essence, you need to look at your article title and initial copy to make sure that Google matches the right ads to your blog.

For example, on my blog, I wrote about digital photography. I made sure that the article title included the term – in this case “Improve your digital photography in five seconds”. Then I made sure that the words “digital camera” appeared in the first sentence and voila, Google threw up ads for digital cameras.

Don’t expect to earn a fortune though. Google is a bit cagey about its ad rates, but you typically earn a few cents per click.

On the downside, the very nature of Google Adsense means that users navigate away from your site, which may not be in your best interests, but Adsense is worth trying.

• If you are interested in finding out more about how to monetize blogs I can recommend an e-book called "Blogging to the Bank 3.0"

Labels: Blogs

posted by Steve Nichols @ 1:27 PM Comments: 1

Back-up - or else

Back-ups are the things you do after your computer crashes. No, seriously. It is only when you have suffered a catastrophic failure of your hard drive that you realise how important it is to back up your system on a regular basis.

Recordable DVDs have made it easier, but even the 4.7Gb of a DVD disk isn’t big enough nowadays. Backing up to an external hard drive is better, and programs like Apple’s Time Machine have made it an easy, but slow, operation.

But what if your external hard drive fails? Or what if a fire destroys your computer, the external hard drive and your DVD back-ups?

Large companies have planned for this for years and have always maintained off-site back-ups for when the unexpected happens. Well, now you can too.

Companies are starting to offer online back-up facilities that allow you to back your precious data up to their servers. The benefit is that you then take advantage of their own high-end back-up systems and you can access your data from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. The cost is tumbling too.

For example, Amazon’s S3 (Simple Storage Service - see aws.amazon.com/s3) lets you pay for just the data you store and costs 18 Cents per Gigabyte per month, plus 10 Cents for every Gigabyte you transfer. That’s dirt cheap and means that an average laptop-full of data (50Gb) would cost about £2.50 to transfer across and £4.50 per month to store. Amazon takes your data very seriously, ensuring it is safe from fire, computer crashes, and viruses.

It hardly seems worth buying an external hard drive (although I recommend that you do - see later).

To use the Amazon S3 service you need to set up an account and also buy some software.

I tested JungleDisk (www.jungledisk.com), which came recommended and costs just $20.

The reason I plumped for JungleDisk was simple. It is available for both Mac and PC, is very simple to use and works very well.

Once installed you can opt for a new drive on your desktop that you drag and drop your files onto. Or you can ask it to keep track of complete drives, folders or files. Either way, JungleDisk then makes a copy of your selected files and backs them up to Amazon S3.

You can automate this process or opt to back-up manually as you wish. The automated option is quite clever as JungleDisk tracks what you have changed and only backs up the changed files when it next connects.

This is where reality lags the promises, as backing up over an average ADSL connection has a distinct disadvantage - speed, or lack of it.

I opted to back-up my entire “Documents” folder, which amounted to about 8GB. Once running it soon became obvious that this wasn’t going to be a five-minute job. In fact, it took a total of three days to complete the single back-up. Hmm!

My upload speed averaged around 250kbps - that’s about 25k per second or 90Mb per hour. To be fair, subsequent back-ups have been much faster as the system is only handling new and changed files.

Be aware that your service provider might put a monthly limit on how much data you can transfer too.

So is online back-up the way to go? Yes, probably, but be aware of just how long it will take. Buying a £120 external hard drive is probably easier, but only if you store it away from your office. Best bet is to have both remote and local back-ups.

When (if?) we all get fibre-optic internet connections with Gigabit speeds online storage might be useable. For now, I would back up the most vital documents online and continue to use DVDs/external drives for everything else. A 500Gb external drive will cost you about £120-£150 and won’t tie up your internet connection for the next three days. The simple fact is that any back-up is better than none. Just make sure you take it seriously.

Labels: backing up

posted by Steve Nichols @ 6:52 PM Comments: 0

Seeing the light with the Nikon D3

Labels: Photography

posted by Steve Nichols @ 10:25 AM Comments: 0

The deal on dongles

Mobile broadband finally grew up this year with the proliferation of 3G USB Dongles.

If that just sounded like a random collection of techie terms, let me help. A dongle is a small modem that connects to your laptop via the USB port. The 3G bit means that it can then connect your laptop to the internet using the third generation of mobile phone standards, which means near-broadband speeds.

I say “near”, but the actual speed will vary depending on your network and location. Either way, the speed is likely to be miles better than using dial-up or connecting via your mobile phone and GPRS.

Having spent a small fortune on Wi-Fi internet connections at a number of different hotels recently I thought this was a good opportunity to try out one of the latest mobile broadband packages to see how good or bad they actually are.

Broadband dongles are available from all the major providers, including Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3. While there are some differences in the download speeds available, the biggest difference is in how you are charged.

There is a whole host of different packages out there, but they all boil down to two things – a) how long do you want to sign up for a contract and b) how much data do you wish to download per month.

In general, the longer the contract, the cheaper the deal. The 3 network also does a “Pay As You Go” (PAYG) dongle where you pay £10 in advance for a gigabyte of data. The catch is that you have to use the gigabyte up within 30 days, which rather defeats the object of PAYG.

If you struggling to get your head around the various offers go to http://seekbroadband.com/ which outlines all the packages on one page.

I chose a 3Gb package from 3 with a free dongle, costing £15 inc VAT per month.

To give you some idea, a single Gigabyte might equate to surfing the web 12 hours a day for a month, uploading a total of 20,000 MS Word documents, or uploading 300 hi-res photographic JPEGs.

In other words, if you are just using the mobile broadband connection when out and about for casual surfing, e-mailing and the occasional file upload/download you aren’t going to get anywhere near the 3Gb a month limit.

The dongle itself looks just a large USB memory stick. The only difference is that you have to insert a supplied SIM card into the dongle. This is fiddly rather than difficult.

Once that’s done you just plug it into a spare USB port, with the supplied extension lead if you need to, and away you go. Well, almost.

While most dongles will work with both Mac and PCs you will need to install some software. This only takes a minute or so and the software is usually preloaded onto the dongle.

Once you have done that you merely click on “connect” and away you go.
Mine worked very well indeed and while I wouldn’t say that the speed was as fast as my office broadband connection it was still very usable.

I never failed to get a connection in any major town or city, but if you are thinking about sitting in a cottage in the Outer Hebrides for a month I would talk to your supplier about coverage in that neck of the woods before you commit your cash.

But do you really need mobile broadband? If you own a Blackberry and are happy just reading your e-mails on it, probably not.

If you are a photographer, definitely. And if you regularly use a laptop away from the office, need to update websites or intranets and transfer copy, images, presentations, audio or other files around I would say most definitely.

Labels: Mobile

posted by Steve Nichols @ 10:20 AM Comments: 0