Why not just set up a VPN connection to your home network? Rather than have a laptop switched on.

I have no idea how I could even begin to do that (so any suggestions greatfully received)

Can you access your router, and what make/model is it?

it's a Sky branded DLink router, no model details on it.

I currently have Sky EVERYTHING at home, the internet connection and broadband speeds is really starting to become annoying as I have to reboot the router a few times a week as the speeds drop to like 500-700kb. After it's unplugged and rebooted it goes back to normal (well just under 2Mb as that's the highest I've ever had it, which is a joke imo)

Anyway I do like the Sky plus HD, multi room and Sky Anytime plus (although its slow due to the 1.6Mb connection) however I'm pondering replacing them as my broadband supplier.

Has anyone got and is happy with a total virgin package and how reliable are they? I haven't had cable tv for over 15 years but it used to be ok. I want fast reliable broadband and to keep my current tv package (All basic channels, movies, sports and Epsn in HD)

Don't know whether to keep Sky tv and phone but just change the broadband however i suspect this will put the already expensive price tag up per month.

Thanks

Quote ="Big Graeme"Aha, www.logmein.com will do all you need.'" We use that in the business, works very well. Standee will need to test it before he goes away and read up on how to leave an "unattended access" calling card on the home based PC/laptop because if you don't then someone needs to be at that PC to give you permission to log onto it - we use the latter in the business because other businesses don't like the idea of you being able to log into them at your own whim, so I don't know how to set up the unattended access but I'm sure its simple Might also be useful to set up the file transfer option too as you may need it abroad, it seems to operate as a seperate module as I need to get customers to give me permission to use both so you may need to have unattended access to both as separate functions?

Quote ="Big Graeme"Aha, www.logmein.com will do all you need.'" We use that in the business, works very well. Standee will need to test it before he goes away and read up on how to leave an "unattended access" calling card on the home based PC/laptop because if you don't then someone needs to be at that PC to give you permission to log onto it - we use the latter in the business because other businesses don't like the idea of you being able to log into them at your own whim, so I don't know how to set up the unattended access but I'm sure its simple Might also be useful to set up the file transfer option too as you may need it abroad, it seems to operate as a seperate module as I need to get customers to give me permission to use both so you may need to have unattended access to both as separate functions?

That is the set up default.



Running an FTP server (Filezilla server is good and free) will do the job fine without paying for the full version of Log Me In. When with a Dynamic DNS service you can set it up so it is really easy to log on.

logmein free is brilliant. We also use logmein rescue too but that's not cheap. If your pc/laptop supports it you can remotely switch on your pc from wherever you are!

Quote ="mattyantz"logmein free is brilliant. We also use logmein rescue too but that's not cheap. If your pc/laptop supports it you can remotely switch on your pc from wherever you are!'" Yup, just need to set it to Wake On Lan in the BIOS. Here is the set up we've got here - Netgear VM Router which has a dynamic DNS client for dyn.com/dns/dyndns-free allows you to have a rememberable URL like biggraeme.selfip.com That means I can set up an FTP server on my PC and have the DyDNS service direct traffic to it meaning I can upload and download anything I want, it may also work for Windows Remote Desktop connection if your ISP isn't hiding you behind a proxy. If RDC doesn't work then logmein will, I've never failed to get access to my PC when I've been away.

Quote ="mattyantz"logmein free is brilliant. We also use logmein rescue too but that's not cheap. If your pc/laptop supports it you can remotely switch on your pc from wherever you are!'" Yup, just need to set it to Wake On Lan in the BIOS. Here is the set up we've got here - Netgear VM Router which has a dynamic DNS client for dyn.com/dns/dyndns-free allows you to have a rememberable URL like biggraeme.selfip.com That means I can set up an FTP server on my PC and have the DyDNS service direct traffic to it meaning I can upload and download anything I want, it may also work for Windows Remote Desktop connection if your ISP isn't hiding you behind a proxy. If RDC doesn't work then logmein will, I've never failed to get access to my PC when I've been away.

Quote ="dum-dum"Do you have any idea why you want? I've had a look at your site. I'll knock up a few banners when I have a bit of time see what you think. Is there anything in particular you wanted included besides what's in the current banner?'" Have a look now mate, put your logo on the header. Any feedback welcome! www.internationalrugbyleague.net

Quote ="dum-dum"Do you have any idea why you want? I've had a look at your site. I'll knock up a few banners when I have a bit of time see what you think. Is there anything in particular you wanted included besides what's in the current banner?'" Have a look now mate, put your logo on the header. Any feedback welcome! www.internationalrugbyleague.net

I have bought Football Manager using steam. I want to let other Windows user accounts on the same PC access it. Steam are fine with this as it's the same Steam user account being used on the same PC, so no copyright rules are being broken. However, when I try to do it, it always asks for the administrator password for the PC. Is there any way around this?

Make the other accounts administrators too?

When you install it do you get the option to install for all users or install for current user?

No, no option for that. I have reinstalled it to see, but no. Steam is available for all users by default it seems, it puts an icon on the desktop for all users. But when you go into a game within Steam it comes up with a message asking 'Do you want this game to make changes to your computer?' and asks for the administrator password.

And you enter the password, the game runs? When you quit and restart the game what happens?

Yup, the game runs. If you click 'cancel', the game runs anyway, it just keeps throwing the password screen up and minimises the game.

Sounds like it is a Steam issue mate.

We've been with Virgin for years, through Cable & Wireless and NTL branding before that, in South Manchester. Never had any reliability problems whatsoever, tv is rock solid and the interweb comes through at the advertised speed (i.e. pay for 10mb, get 10mb). Very rarely have any kind of interweb outage, and it's generally resolved by a box reboot (the set top box for the tv is also the router for the internet). You hear horror stories about their customer support, but we've genuinely never had issues with them, on the very small number of times we've needed to call them (no more than 2 or 3 times in maybe 10 years).

We don't have HD, so can't comment on that, but they seem to offer most of the channels that sky do. It seems most of the main channel;s that sky offer are also on Virgin, but some of the niche ones aren't available, but how many shopping and fishing channels can you really need?!

afternoon folks, been text by a friend who is considering buying a HP Pavillion dm-1 ([url=http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hewletpack-pavilion-dm1-4027sa-11-6-laptop-silver-11290967-pdt.htmlhere[/url), I'm going to have a proper look later tonight but I just wondered what people think, can she get better for similar money?

All laptop sales summaries should include 'Can it run Football Manager well?' and a tick box. This one can by the way.

My hotmail E-Mail account has started sending spam type e-mails to my address book over the last couple of weeks but I've only just noticed.

I can't remember clicking a link in one I've received - I get them all the time from various contacts, and don't really know what to do, apart from get a new account which I don't really want to do as I'm applying for placements.

Firefox keeps freezing. Top of page says "Firefox not responding". It can stay like this for 5 minutes or more. This is Firefox 7.0.1 on a desktop PC running Vista.

Happens particularly when I'm downloading. CPU runs at about 62% during the hang period, with Firefox using about 45%. Other applications continue to run normally. Seemed to start doing this at about Firefox v5. I've tried the advice offered on help pages, like reducing max network connections in about:config from 256 (the default) to 50, cleared all data (many times) with CCleaner, run the Places Maintenance add-on, frequently run Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials without finding any problems. I suppose the one thing I haven't tried is uninstalling and re-installing Firefox. Might this help and would I need to clear any of its left-over config data before reinstalling?

Unless anybody on here has a golden bullet to solve this, I'm thinking of moving to another browser - any recommendations welcome. I suppose I'll miss some of Firefox's add-ons like ad blocking and Noscript but I can live without them. TIA.

You've two problems there...

Firefox does get its knickers in a twist sometimes when you upgrade, back up your bookmarks, uninstall Firefox and delete everything in your user profile, download the new version (8 I think) and reinstall any addons, Vista however you are stuck with

OK thanks BigG, I'll try tomorrow. I use Foxmarks or whatever it calls itself now so that should provide a bookmarks backup.

Oh, and I have a Windows 7 upgrade waiting to be installed, though so far I've had no apparent Vista-related issues.

Quote ="BroncOnIon"Firefox keeps freezing. Top of page says "Firefox not responding". It can stay like this for 5 minutes or more. This is Firefox 7.0.1 on a desktop PC running Vista. Happens particularly when I'm downloading. CPU runs at about 62% during the hang period, with Firefox using about 45%. Other applications continue to run normally. Seemed to start doing this at about Firefox v5. I've tried the advice offered on help pages, like reducing max network connections in about:config from 256 (the default) to 50, cleared all data (many times) with CCleaner, run the Places Maintenance add-on, frequently run Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials without finding any problems. I suppose the one thing I haven't tried is uninstalling and re-installing Firefox. Might this help and would I need to clear any of its left-over config data before reinstalling? Unless anybody on here has a golden bullet to solve this, I'm thinking of moving to another browser - any recommendations welcome. I suppose I'll miss some of Firefox's add-ons like ad blocking and Noscript but I can live without them. TIA.'" The latest versions of Firefox have introduced Hardware acceleration, whereby your graphics card takes over the browser work from the CPU, sometime it can be better to disable this. Especially if your graphics card isnt upto scratch or has buggy or old drivers link on how to do it here www.worldstart.com/speed-up-fire ... eleration/ No guarantees but there was a bug where with certain AMD Graphics cards were it used to get effectively stuck in loop and you would see the GPU utilisation stuck at 99% with the graphics card getting nice and warm.

Quote ="BroncOnIon"Firefox keeps freezing. Top of page says "Firefox not responding". It can stay like this for 5 minutes or more. This is Firefox 7.0.1 on a desktop PC running Vista. Happens particularly when I'm downloading. CPU runs at about 62% during the hang period, with Firefox using about 45%. Other applications continue to run normally. Seemed to start doing this at about Firefox v5. I've tried the advice offered on help pages, like reducing max network connections in about:config from 256 (the default) to 50, cleared all data (many times) with CCleaner, run the Places Maintenance add-on, frequently run Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials without finding any problems. I suppose the one thing I haven't tried is uninstalling and re-installing Firefox. Might this help and would I need to clear any of its left-over config data before reinstalling? Unless anybody on here has a golden bullet to solve this, I'm thinking of moving to another browser - any recommendations welcome. I suppose I'll miss some of Firefox's add-ons like ad blocking and Noscript but I can live without them. TIA.'" The latest versions of Firefox have introduced Hardware acceleration, whereby your graphics card takes over the browser work from the CPU, sometime it can be better to disable this. Especially if your graphics card isnt upto scratch or has buggy or old drivers link on how to do it here www.worldstart.com/speed-up-fire ... eleration/ No guarantees but there was a bug where with certain AMD Graphics cards were it used to get effectively stuck in loop and you would see the GPU utilisation stuck at 99% with the graphics card getting nice and warm.