Yammer Highlights July 2020

Dennis Parsons

Windows 10

Most of us have been down the sorry road of deleting a file only to realise later that we shouldn’t have and being unable to retrieve it. All too often this leads to users frantically searching on-line for a solution and choosing to download some dodgy tool that doesn’t recover the file and comes with a lovely side serve of malware, leaving you worse off. Malcolm highlighted that for the less technically inclined, the resources Melb PC has available to members such as iHelp (or indeed Yammer) is an excellent reason to be a member.

Microsoft has finally introduced a file recovery tool in Windows 10 version 2004 – it’s been a long time coming but now you’ll no longer have to frantically search for a suitable tool and it may very well save your bacon. It can’t work miracles and recover a file that’s been overwritten, no tool can, but it should recover a file if it’s possible and won’t come with malware.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=773130855964672>

Market Place

If you’re looking for a replacement computer or phone members continue to post details of good value deals mainly on refurbished and used devices, some from eBay or Gumtree, and others from various vendors, both on-line & local stores. Obviously in the age of COVID-19 lockdowns having your device delivered is probably the only way you’ll manage to buy one unless you strike it lucky with a nearby seller so buying on-line is a good option.

Dave regularly posts details of cheap desktops and laptops such as this HP system:

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=794862271832064>

And I keep an eye on Lenovo Thinkpad laptops and Nokia Android phones mainly on eBay and Gumtree:

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=793610853482496>

Genealogy

If you’re interested in your family tree, Jan mentioned that the State Library of Victoria is continuing to provide access to Ancestry and a wide range of other resources for free on-line to library members. Membership is free and open to Victorian residents so looks like an excellent resource to use while we’re locked down.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=796038925852672>

NBN Questions and Comments

An interesting question was raised by Paul as part of this thread that posed the question “Do we have anyone else for whom NBN is not yet available? Or anyone holding out to the bitter end?”. Can the granny flat he has on his property have an independent NBN connection to replace the Optus HFC connection it currently has?

Unfortunately, there was no clear answer – information available from the NBN website appears to indicate the answer is “no” unless the granny flat has a separate address, but there are some claims on Whirlpool that it’s possible with a HFC connection but they don’t offer any independent evidence to support what they say. Looks like Paul will have to dig a bit deeper to get an answer.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=784764697903104>

Security, Scams and Phishing

A member reported his misadventures in being caught up in a telephone-based scam that even though he went along with it for over an hour, fortunately, doesn’t appear to have done any damage. The caller claimed to be from Telstra (despite our member using Optus as his NBN provider) and after “checking” upload and download speeds advised that they were very low and that this would be remedied by technicians and a new modem would also be delivered and installed by a technician.

After an hour of following instructions to click on various things, the member was “smelling a rat” and ended the call, arranging for them to call him back later on. During the interim, he scanned his computer with an anti-virus program and called Optus who confirmed it was a scam.

As a scan with Malwarebytes turned up nothing untoward the only remaining concern was receiving e-mail requests for authorisation from his password managing software provider. These would seem to indicate the scammers are trying to change his passwords but don’t have access to the e-mail account so can’t reset the passwords. A good thing.

The lesson is just hang up!

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=793207608991744>