13. Gain some space on your hard drive

It’s amazing the way hard disk capacities have shot up in recent years. My rather-elderly laptop has a hard disk capacity of 80 GB (gigabytes) which seemed pretty good when I bought it. A desktop PC, bought in 2007, had a seemingly-enormous 320 GB, and my current PC, bought a year ago, boasts 1 TB (a terabyte, or 1024 gigabytes). With almost any PC you buy these days, you receive a huge hard drive but these can quickly be filled with games, digital photographs, or downloaded movies.

Of course, you don’t want to do that – free space on your hard disk is good! And, by the same token, a lack of free space is definitely bad. Windows has to do all sorts of complicated things behind the scenes, many of which entail finding some space to store data, and if there’s little space available, your PC will tend to slow to a crawl.

On old PCs and laptops, 40 GB certainly isn’t unusual. That’s not a problem in itself, of course: as long as your hard disk has enough space to store all you need, and has enough free space remaining for Windows to work properly, everything is fine. Unfortunately, these days, it’s all too easy to fill up a disk of that capacity. Start storing digital media files like photos, videos and audio files, and you’ll work your way through your remaining few gigabytes in next to no time.

So what can you do to free-up some space and get Windows running at a decent lick again? Here are a few suggestions:

•    Empty the Recycle Bin regularly to avoid keeping unwanted, space-wasting files.

•    Uninstall any programs you never use. Have a look through the Start menu and you’ll probably find all sorts of old programs you’ve installed over the years and forgotten about!

•    Move your digital media files to a different disk. For a few tens of pounds, you can buy an external hard drive that plugs into a USB socket on your PC and gives you several hundred gigabytes of space.

•    Prevent Internet Explorer from storing large amounts of website information. Press the Alt key to display Internet Explorer’s menu bar, choose Tools > Internet Options, and then click Settings in the ‘Browsing history’ section. In the Disk space to use box, type a low figure such as 10 MB.

•    Reduce the space used by System Restore. Assuming you’re using Windows XP, right-click the My Computer icon on your Start menu or desktop, choose Properties, and select the System Restore tab in the window that appears. Drag the slider all the way back to Min, then click OK.

These tips won't solve all your problems but you will keep a clean system and have your PC running at its best.

 

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12. How safe is a wireless network

When you have a wireless (or ‘Wi-Fi’) network, you have a device called a wireless router which connects to your phone line and, as a result, your broadband. This router constantly sends out wireless signals announcing its existence (a bit like a radio station), and any computer within range of those signals can try to connect to it (just as your radio can tune in to your county’s local radio station).

In theory, that means someone living along the road, or sitting in a car down the street, could connect to your wireless network and use your broadband to surf the Internet – possibly doing all sorts of illegal things that would be traced back to your network. Theoretically, too, they could connect to any computers of yours that are connected to your wireless network and sift through your files. Stretching theory even further, they could potentially intercept and analyse information you send and receive over this connection, such as online banking passwords.

I know that all sounds horrible. But if those three theories could work in practice, no sane person would ever use wireless Internet! Here’s what prevents those three theories from becoming reality:

•    Your wireless network should be protected with a password – indeed, it absolutely must be! In setting up your router, you’ll be prompted to choose a password for it, and no-one can connect to your network without first entering its password. This password is used to encrypt all the data that flies through the ether between your PCs and the router. Better still, and making this almost impossible to crack, the modern security system used by routers changes the encryption system frequently. Therefore, anyone trying to hack their way into your network is chasing a moving target. In truth, unless you’re MI5 or the Pentagon, it wouldn’t be worth all that bother!

•    What about someone accessing your computers and files? Well, we’ve established that your router’s password keeps your network out of reach, so that keeps your computers out of reach too. But, even if you’d bizarrely chosen not protect your network with a password, Windows protects your files. The only files visible over the network would be those you’d expressly chosen to share with other network users.

•    Third, what about the possibility of someone intercepting private data you send, such as online banking passwords? Well, again, this is all strongly encrypted by your network, and should be impossible to decrypt. In addition, websites like as your bank are secure websites: the password you enter is encrypted once by your browser, and a second time by your network, so it’s safe to regard this as quite impossible to decrypt. And, if someone down the road were monitoring this stream of data and trying to decrypt it, how could they possibly know which little fragment contains a password? Quite simply, even if they were also watching you type through binoculars, they couldn’t.

Out of all this, let me underline two points. First, you absolutely must use your router’s security feature by setting a strong, unguessable password for it. Second – and assuming you’ve followed point one – your secured network is one of many millions just like it around the country, so unless a highly-skilled hacker suspects you’re doing something particularly secret and valuable, there’s no reason for him to try to force his way in.

I’ll add one extra quick point which may allay any lingering concerns. If you can place your router within a few metres of your main PC – the one you use for Internet banking and so on – you can connect the two using a network cable. This way, the wireless network is available for grandchildren and their laptops, but your main PC is doing everything through cables. I do this myself; not due to any security fears, but simply because the cabled connection is a tiny bit faster than wireless and a fair bit more reliable.

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