FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  533 (03/10/06)

Q. After a year of poor service I have decided to change my broadband supplier but one ‘expert’ has told me that this could take several weeks for BT to make the necessary changers at the exchange. Is this correct surely all it takes is someone to flick a few switches or tap a computer keyboard?

Graham Samuels, via email

A. That used to be the case but nowadays most UK broadband suppliers have signed up to the Broadband Migration Industry Code of Practice. If you want to switch your current ISP should give you a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) within 5 days of you terminating your contract. You then give this to your new provider and in theory there should be little or no disruption to your connection (the switchover usually take place at night). There are a couple of points to be aware of; MAC codes are valid for 30 days, if you don’t use it you will have to go through the sign-up process for a new account from the beginning, and MAC codes only work with broadband services supplied by normal phone lines, cable broadband services are not covered by the scheme. Incidentally a MAC code shouldn’t be confused with MAC Addresses, which are unique identity codes assigned to networking devices.

Q. For many months my AntiVir Personal Edition has automatically updated each time I connected to the Internet. However, for the past two weeks it has failed to connect and as a consequence I went for 3 or 4 days without realising it. All my attempts, including a couple of System Restores has failed. Do you have any ideas?

Brian Beddoes, via email

A. I am not surprised System Restore didn’t help; its job is to backup and restore important Windows files, rather than the software on your PC. It’s almost impossible to say what has gone wrong but my guess is the update utility is faulty or the connection is being blocked by your firewall. If it is not your firewall then the simplest thing to do is start again by uninstalling the program then download and install the latest version. 

Q. I have inherited a Time PC with a 40Gb hard drive, which I would like to upgrade but the hard disk drive shows as invalid when I try to copy it to a newer, larger and faster drive. Do you have any solutions?

David Snook, via email

A. Time computers built before the original company went bust in 2005 often used an odd combination of components and software and they could be real swines to maintain and repair. Without knowing what you’ve been doing it’s difficult to say what’s going wrong in your case, but on a general note there are several ways to copy data from one drive to another. You can copy smallish chunks on recordable discs and memory devices but for larger volumes of data the best solution is to either connect the PC to a network and use that to transfer data to another PC or remove the old drive and ‘slave’ it to the main drive in a second PC, or temporarily install a slave drive in the old machine.

Q. I have many thousands of 35mm mounted slides and several hundred old lantern slides (approximately 4"x4").  Do you know of any affordable home equipment, which would help me to digitise these, preferably in batches or better than one every six minutes!

Ian Marshall, via email

A. Digitising your collection of 35mm slides shouldn’t be a problem and many flatbed scanners come with transparency adaptors. The results can be very good indeed, though you may need to experiment with the resolution and colour settings. Dedicated slide scanners are also available, and the quality should be even better, they are quicker too but they tend to be quite expensive, though you might find a bargain on ebay. Alternatively, if you have a SLR-type digital camera it’s worth checking to see if there’s slide copier attachment available for your model.

In theory scanning glass lantern slides on a flatbed scanner should be fairly straightforward but there are several different sizes so it is difficult to obtain the correct holders or adaptors. The Epson 4490 Photo Scanner is one of the few flatbed scanners that can handle both 35mm transparencies and lantern slides but it appears that that the maximum size of slide it can take is 3.5 inches, nevertheless it is worth checking as it may be possible to modify the adaptor. See also this useful article on scanning lantern slides

Q. Could you tell me what the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation update is for? I am being encouraged to download and install it on my computer each day. If it collects information where does it go?

Patrick Barrington

A. The Windows WGA update has been causing a bit of a stir recently because it does sound a lot like spyware. WGA’s job is to check that your copy of Windows has been correctly authenticated before you are allowed to download updates and patches, which is fair enough. But it comes with an extra component, called the WGA Notification Tool, which calls home to Microsoft every time you boot up your PC, or once a day, if you leave it switched on. Microsoft say it checks for pirated copies of Windows and the data it sends from your PC doesn’t contain any personal information, but that doesn’t explain why a daily check is necessary. Needless to say there are plenty of theories about what it is up to on the web, just google ‘WGA spyware’. If it worries you then you can remove just the Notification Tool with a small utility called RemoveWGA, and this won’t affect your PC’s ability to download updates (but you do so entirely at your own risk!)

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© R. Maybury 2006, 1909