source: pcpro.co.uk

Toshiba has issued a recall for T130 Satellite laptops after some melted, burning two people.

A flaw with the power adaptor is causing overheating across three lines – the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D or Satellite ProT130.

"The defective harness may, in some circumstances, overheat to the point of melting the computer’s base at the location where the AC adaptor plugs into the unit," Toshiba said.

The heat has lead to 129 complaints and reports of two minor burns and property damage, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

Worldwide, 41,000 laptops are affected, but Toshiba wouldn’t say how many were sold in the UK.

The action is being referred to as a recall by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Health Canada, and Toshiba in North America.

A spokesperson for the company in the UK said customers simply need to install a BIOS update to check for the flaw. "Should the BIOS determine that a harness failure is occurring, external power will immediately be disabled eliminating the possibility of the overheating," Toshiba said. "You will then need to contact the Toshiba call center to set up a warranty repair."

Toshiba said anyone noticing an overheating laptop should unplug it, save any work while battery power remains, and take it in for repair.

Microsoft has revived its Windows 7 Family Pack discount, just days after confirming it was over.

The package offered three upgrade licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for £150, a decent discount off the £99 full price for each license.

However, some looking to upgrade haven’t been able to find the deal lately, including one PC Pro reader who wrote in saying the cost to move his family’s PCs to Windows 7 was simply too high without the discount.

When asked last week why the Family Pack was no more, Microsoft told PC Pro that the discount was always intended to be for a limited time.

“When launched in the UK, the Windows 7 Family Pack was only available while supplies lasted,” explained Leila Martine, director for Windows Consumer Microsoft in the UK. “We’ll continue to explore ways of bringing value to our customers through compelling offers.”

Microsoft seems to have changed its mind, announcing in a blog post that the Family Pack is back. Sales will start in the US on 3 October, followed by the UK and other markets on 22 October – which Microsoft points out is the first birthday of its operating system.

Anyone looking to take advantage of the discount should mark that date in their calendars, as Microsoft said the Family Pack is again only here "while supplies last."

Read more: Microsoft brings back Windows 7 Family Pack | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/360766/microsoft-brings-back-windows-7-family-pack#ixzz0yMLKRP2D

source: pcpro.co.uk

Today Microsoft released 14 new security updates.

• 7 updates for Microsoft Windows
• 2 updates for Microsoft Office
• 1 update for Windows Media Player
• 1 update for Windows Server
• 1 update for Microsoft XML
• 1 update for Internet Explorer
• 1 update for .NET Framework

You can download the updates via Windows Update or click here to visit the bulletin page.

If a deal for software seems too good to be true, then it probably is. The software could be pirated, which means that it’s been copied and sold illegally.

One of the dangers of using pirated software is that you might not get security updates, which means that your computer and your personal information could be at risk.

One way you can usually identify genuine Microsoft software is by ensuring it has the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) label.

A typical COA looks like this:

We offer free, confidential audits and advice to businesses who are concerned over software licensing. Contact us for details.

There are several common ways that spammers can get your email address:

• Crawling the web for the @ sign. Spammers and cybercriminals use sophisticated tools to scan the web and harvest email addresses. If you publicly post your email address online, a spammer will find it.
• Making good guesses… and lots of them. Cybercriminals use tools to generate common user names and pair them with common domains. These tools are similar to the ones that are used to crack passwords. And they work.
• Tricking your friends. Even if you know better than to publicly post your email address on the web, it could still be stored in the email inbox of anyone who’s ever emailed you or whom you’ve ever emailed. Cybercriminals can steal contact lists or use social engineering to trick people into giving them access.
• Buying lists. Spammers can purchase lists legally and illegally. When you sign up for a website or a service, make sure you read the privacy policy carefully to find out what the site plans to do with your email address.

It pays to keep your email address as private as possible, but sometimes it seems like there’s nothing you can do to keep it out of the hands of spammers. For this reason you have to combine smart privacy practices with strong email filters.

You may or may not have heard about the ongoing problems with BT vs UCE Protect Spam House in Germany?

Essentially, the problem is that BT and UCE protect are locked into an ongoing feud over spam – UCE protect are blocking ALL MAIL FROM BT IP ADDRESSES from sending to anyone utilising the UCE protect system (many of which are not even aware that UCE protect are running the background processes of their spam checks).

UCE protect say that this is because they are not happy about the way that BT deal with spammers on their networks, as they allegedly don’t have adequate blocks to stop anyone that is spamming on their network. Hence the reason they have taken the step to block all IP addresses that are associated with BT accounts.

In contrast, BT say that they have no problems with spammers, and there protection is more than adequate! Hence the ongoing feud….

 

So, how does this affect me?

Well – it seems today that the whole affair has ‘come to a head’. So far today, we have had an influx of support calls from customers with BT services unable to send emails to high priority customers? So what do BT offer as a fix? As yet, they don’t!

 

So, what can we do about it?

Barton Technology have a fix for you! Our domain hosting packages AND our adsl packages BOTH include an outbound mail server through our datacentre hosted servers! Problem solved! – as long as the mail passes through Barton’s servers the BT/UCE protect business is bypassed and mail flow may continue!

 

If your experiencing these problems – give us a call as soon as possible and we will help to get your Business emails back up and running!