Wednesday 13th January 2021

Club Dates
As things may get a bit busier this year, I plan to revert to the Club running monthly on the second Wednesday of the month.

Covid-19 Vaccination Priorities
Phil shared this PHE document with me which shows the priority groups for the Covid-19 vaccines:-
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/943726/PHE_11895_COVID_vaccine_priority_poster.pdf

Police Alerts
We have talked a lot about scams and related issues recently, but it is a while since I mentioned the Cheshire Police Alert system.  We did discuss this back at the Club on 14^th Oct 2015 (pre-blog) and briefly mentioned it on 14^th Feb 2018 in a discussion about DNS.

It is a community messaging system run by Cheshire Police that can alert you by email about crimes and crime-prevention in your local area.  This includes warnings of prevalent scams, particularly in your neighbourhood.  To sign up to the system, go to:-
https://www.cheshirepolicealert.co.uk/

The scheme operates in other parts of the country such as Devon and Cornwall:-
https://alerts.dc.police.uk/

The national system can also be accessed at:-
https://www.neighbourhoodalert.co.uk/

Once you have signed in and entered your personal details, you can select Community Interests to choose the categories of information you would like to hear about.  The most important category is probably Neighbourhood Alerts, but you can also get news and information from the Fire and Rescue Service and the Local Authority.  It is worth spending a little time going through the settings to fine-tune the information you want to receive.

The service is completely free and can provide you with useful warnings such as crimes and scams in your area.

Netflix
Linda had an issue where she started watching a Netflix programme on her TV then went to continue watching it using Edge on her PC, the programme reverted to the beginning instead of continuing where she left off.  However, if she used Chrome instead of Edge, it worked correctly.  This could be an issue/bug in Edge, or a setting in Edge, possibly cookie permissions.

John pointed out that there is a Netflix app in the Microsoft Store which could be used on a PC, so this should circumvent the problem.

Stored Credit Card Info
Linda was puzzled that a web site which, as far as she knew she was buying from for the first time, asked if she wanted to use the card ending in XXXX.  This sounds like the card details were already known by the web site - it could be that the company is part of a group and she had purchased from another related company before.  If so, she should be able to log into the web site and see what payment details are stored there.

The browser (Edge, in the case) can auto-fill certain information, including credit card details.  To do this in Edge, click in the 3-dots, Settings, Profiles, Payment Info.  Here you can enable/disable Save and fill payment info.  You will also see any saved card details which you can delete or edit.

Cookies
Cookie settings could be the issue with Linda's Netflix problem mentioned above.

Cookies are small text files which relate to specific web sites and are stored on your device (PC or mobile device) by the browser.  Note that each browser (e.g. Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) maintains it's own cookie library.  Cookies are essential for some sites to work correctly.  The cookie can 'remember' your status (e.g. signed in or signed out) and allow you to add personalisations to a site. 

Thanks to GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, all sites that may be used in the EU must display a cookie banner when you first visit them which asks for your permission to store cookies on your device.  If you agree to accepting cookies (which I would generally recommend), the banner will not pop up next time you visit the site - because your acceptance is 'remembered' in the cookie for that site.

You can access the cookie settings in Edge by going to:-
3-dots, Settings, Cookies and site permissions, Cookies and site data.
Here you can enable/disable saving/reading of cookies.  You can also block third-party cookies.  Third-party cookies relate to a domain name other than the site you have actually visited, most commonly these relate to the advertising which populates spaces in the main web site.  These third-party cookies can, therefore, allow cross-site tracking by the advertisers, so some people prefer to disable them to thwart such tracking. 

You can click on See all cookies and site data (in the Edge settings) where you can view and delete individual cookies or remove them all.

Similar settings for cookies and auto-fill data can be found in other browsers.

PayPal
While talking about payment methods we discussed PayPal.  If sites offer Paypal as a payment option, this means you do not need to give that site your credit/debit cards details, so is a safer way to pay, especially on sites you may not fully trust.

As Brian pointed out, you can also pay money to an individual using PayPal just by using their email address.  This avoids people needing to reveal their bank details.  PayPal accounts link to either your bank and/or credit/debit card.

Here is a little more on using PayPal from Digital Unite:-https://www.digitalunite.com/technology-guides/government-services-shopping-banking/online-shopping/how-use-paypal

Ad Blocking
We had a brief discussion on ad blocking.  Many sites rely on the advertising spaces which they sell on their web sites to finance their operation, so that you can use them for free.  However, ads can become quite a nuisance.  Also, loading all the ads increases both the time taken to load the web page and the amount of bandwidth used.

You can add an ad-blocking extension to most web browsers which will prevent the ads from being fetched and displayed on the web page.  My preferred ad-blocker on a Windows PC is uBlock Origin (by Raymond Hill).  You can search for this and then add the extension.

Once installed, you will see a uBlock Origin icon in the browser toolbar.  Clicking this, when on a particular site, allows you to turn ad-blocking off (or on again) by clicking the big blue power button.  So, you can easily allow some sites to display adds, perhaps those you wish to see supported by the ad revenue, while blocking ads for others.

uBlock Origin is not available on iPads, but alternatives such as AdGuard can be used, although I have not personally used it.

Spurious Adult Web Sites Appearing
Phil had a curious issue where adult web sites would randomly appear intermittently when trying to view some respected sites such as Microsoft Teams or Age UK.  This happened on two different machines on the same network.  This tends to suggest that the problem is the router which, of course, is common to both the machines in this case.

I have seen a problem like this before which was caused by a hacked router where the secondary DNS server settings had been changed.  DNS is the Domain Name System which converts the web addresses which we humans use (e.g. bbc.co.uk) into an IP (Internet Protocol) address which computers actually use.  You can think of this as a kind of telephone directory which looks the sites IP number by using its name.  We discussed DNS is more detail at the Club on 14th February 2018:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2018_02_11_archive.html

Each device which connects to your network will have DNS server addresses which it usually gets from your router.  The router, in turn, gets its DNS server addresses from your ISP (unless you have changed the default settings).  Usually, there is a primary and a secondary DNS server address in the router.  The secondary is only used if the primary server is busy.  I have seen a router hack where the secondary DNS server address was changed to a malicious server.  So, when going to a web site, mostly things worked OK because DNS Server 1 was used for address lookup.  However, just occasionally (and randomly) when DNS Server 1 was busy it had to used the compromised DNS Server 2 and this routed to an adult web site instead of the required site.  

A router that can be hacked in this way is probably out of date and the best bet is to replace it with a new one.  The average user would simply ask their ISP to supply a new pre-configured router.  If you supply your own router, as I do, you have to be happy that you can set this up yourself.  Even if your ISP supplies a new router, it will generally have a different network name, so you will have to re-connect all your wi-fi devices.

Windows 10 - Task View
Task View is a standard icon on the Windows 10 Taskbar - unless you have turned it off by right-clicking on the Taskbar.  Task View shows some apps that you have been using over the last 30 days.  Only compliant, mainly Microsoft apps, use this feature.  Linda found that some sites she visited using Edge (which is a compliant app) did not appear in Task View, while others did.  I don't have any explanation for this odd behaviour.

Task View is probably most useful for people who use several Windows 10 systems.  Provided they sign in to each one with the same Microsoft credentials, Task View will show your recent activity across all those machines.

Backup

Both Cherry and Brian had issues with the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) in Windows 10.  This system appears to make a full backup first, followed by a series of incremental backups, i.e. just backing up those files which have changed since the last backup.  So this creates a backup set, so you find the backups cover a 'period' rather than have one specific date.  Also, if the backup series has already started and then you replaced the external hard drive, that would also cause problems.

OneDrive

Microsoft has online storage called OneDrive.  Just by creating a Microsoft Account, you get 5GB of free OneDrive storage and you can purchase more.  If you subscribe to Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365), you get 1TB of OneDrive storage.

You can simply use this online storage by going to onedrive.com in any browser.  Here you can upload or download files or folders.  You can store any files or folders on OneDrive in this way.

To complicate things, there are a couple of other components of Windows 10 which are related and are also called "OneDrive".  These are:-

• A folder on your local hard drive called OneDrive.
• An app called OneDrive which syncs the contents of the local OneDrive folder with the online OneDrive cloud storage.

By default, the OneDrive syncing app will be running - if so, you will see a cloud icon in the System Tray (aka Notification Area) near the clock on the Taskbar - you may need to click the up-arrow to reveal the hidden icons to see it.  By clicking this icon you can get to the sync settings (Help & Settings, Settings) where you can select which files/folders on the OneDrive cloud should sync to the OneDrive folder on your hard drive (by using the Choose folders button).  Remember that everything you put in the OneDrive folder on your Hard drive will still sync to your OneDrive cloud.  In these settings, you can also untick the box (in the Settings tab) to prevent the OneDrive sync app running at Startup and you can then exit the app - this would stop any further syncing either way.

OneDrive Backup
The OneDrive app offers the option to back up some of your data to the cloud, namely your Document, Pictures and Desktop folders.  However, the way it does this is to first move those folders from their usual location.  For example, the Documents folder would move from:-
C:\users\username\documents)
to your OneDrive folder:-
C:\users\username\onedrive\documents
As it does not explain this, you may end up wondering where your folders have gone!

By relocating these folders into the OneDrive folder they will, like anything else in the OneDrive folder, get synced to your OneDrive cloud and thus backed up - provided you have the OneDrive app running, of course.

The fact that there are 3 OneDrive elements all called Onedrive, i.e. the cloud storage, the local folder and the syncing app, can be confusing.  Using this as a backup of things like your Documents adds further confusion when you discover this folder has now been moved.

My personal preference is to turn off the OneDrive app, so that nothing is synced (which means the OneDrive folder has no use, although it will still be there) and just use the OneDrive cloud directly at onedrive.com.

Relocating System Folders
So, I mentioned above that using the OneDrive Backup will relocate some of the main system folders.  You can manually relocate any of the standard system folders, i.e. Documents, Pictures, Music, Desktop, Videos and Downloads.  To do this, navigate to one of these folders in File Explorer and right-click on it and select Properties.  You will find a Location tab where you will see the current location and can use the Move button to relocate it.

Note that if these folders are relocated, either manually or by using the OneDrive backup, apps that previously used files in these folders will need to be directed to the new location. 

Other Backup Options
The File History function in Windows 10 does work fairly well.  You need to keep an external drive connected most of the time and it will back up any files that have changed every hour (by default).  You can subsequently access the history in File Explorer (on the Home tab) and select a file and see and recover all previous versions of that file.  To enable File History, go to:-
Start, Settings, Update & Security, Backup

Another well-respected and long-standing backup solution is provided by EaseUS:-

https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/

There is a free version which is quite simple to use and works well.

A paid-for product from Acronis is also worth considering:-

https://www.acronis.com/en-us/products/true-image/

Search for Files by Date

Allan wanted to search for files with particular dates.  You can do this using File Explorer and I demonstrated this process.  I have subsequently found this site which takes you through the process:-

https://www.howtogeek.com/243511/how-to-search-for-files-from-a-certain-date-range-in-windows-8-and-10/

Having done a search for files with the required criteria, you can select them all by pressing Ctrl+A.  Then, with the mouse over the select files, right-click and select Copy.  Position the mouse pointer over the required destination drive/folder (e.g. a USB drive), right-click and select Paste.  This would copy the selected files to the USB drive.

Printing From iPad
Allan was having issues trying to print from his iPad.  The iPad did not 'see' the printer.  This seemed to be because his printer was not connected to his wi-fi.

The usual arrangement is that all devices, including the iPad and the printer, would be wirelessly connected to the network. When you select Print on the iPad, it should see any printer on the network and you can select it and print.

The easiest way to connect a wireless printer to a router is to use WPS, if this is available.  WPS is Wi-Fi Protected Setup and is invoked by pressing the WPS button on the router and on the printer - you usually have to hold the buttons down for about 3 seconds.  This allows the router to broadcast the wi-fi password which will be captured and stored by the printer.  There is usually a blue network light on the printer which is permanently lit when connected to wi-fi.

Printers usually also have a "Wi-Fi Direct" feature which could be used, for example, if you did not have wi-fi.  For example, someone may use an iPad with only mobile data, but still want to print.  The printer acts as a wi-fi access point and you will find it in the wi-fi connection settings of the iPad and can connect directly to it.  Some printers use the Wi-Fi Direct feature temporarily to allow you to configure the printer, via an app on your mobile device, with the network credentials of the router, although using the WPS button is the simpler way, if this feature exists on both the router and printer.

Next Session
Wed 10th February 2021 at 2pm by Zoom.