Then again, I never had an issue with Telefonica/Movistar but I know a lot of you do. If I ever had an issue with their service, I'd call them and they got it sorted. In fact, every service provider I've been with have always been good with me.

At our new house, I've gone with a company called Conecta3 because people said they were good.
They offer various levels of speed on their rural (wifi) internet and I chose their 12Meg offering which was the same price as the 8Meg I had with Enersol. Result, I thought.

Having arranged for their guy to call and do the business, he duly turns up, quick site survey and it's a go'er.
Straps their little receiving dish to the TV aerial pole, cable fed into the house, router connected, pc connected and ......... ooppsss.

I could tell from their faces and the nervous chatter something was wrong. After 30 minutes of the aerial pointer pointing the aerial all over the place and the technico giving instructions it's still not working so they reverse roles. Technico is now on the roof asking for the numbers on the screen.

Another 30 minutes pass and aerial pointer is reunited with technico and they now have happy smiley faces. Internet working and shows the 12Meg I've asked for. Result! and off they go.

3 weeks on and it's not all roses in the garden, far from it. The internet was never that responsive and for 12Meg, I would have expected it to be at least as fast as the 8Meg I'd had previously but no. But at least it worked. Then we've had a little wind which has mucked things up a bit more with virtually no upload speed at all rendering it virtually useless AND I've just received an email wanting 2 months rental. Ha!!! Fat chance.

I've included a picture that will probably help some of you work out why my internet is so poor. The receiving dish is BEHIND a metal chimney!!! DOH!!

For those who don't understand, the dish operates in the same way as your satellite tv dish, it collects the signal and reflects it to the bit in the middle, only in this instance, it collects some of the signal whilst the metal chimney reflects the rest of the signal across it's path and so hinders reception (download) and transmission (upload). Fabulous! So it looks like they're going to have to come back and do the job properly or I'll be going somewhere else.

Whilst my previous supplier, Enersol, didn't have a working signal here, they did offer to set up an experimental solution for me but that was after I'd got Connecta3. I did tell them if Connecta3 couldn't supply the service, I'd let them experiment so that might be my next option.

I'll post an update later.

**Update** 19 June 17.30
Well, went into see Connecta-3 this morning.

It appears someone 'forgot' to tell me that after your first month, they take two months money - one for last month and one for the coming month. That's not bad, taking money for a service you haven't provided yet.

After having this confirmed, I paid my dues and raised the issue about how poor the service is I'm getting. They got my email last week but decided to do nothing. Now I'm speaking to the technical boss who, after making a phone call, assures me the engineer will be here to put things right between 2-3pm and I'm still waiting.

At the moment, every speed test I do fails to upload and sometimes fails on the download. Oh Connecta-3, what a shitty start to a business relationship. Struggling to provide a service and struggling to get the engineer here.

**Update** 25 June 12.20

So, the engineer finally came this week to see what the problem is.

A quick chat and he connects his laptop to the internet (not the router) and after a few clicks doesn't appear impressed. In fact, he's so unimpressed he has to ask what speed I'm supposed to have.

12M says I and see a glimpse of 'oh shit' in his face. Now I reveal the reason it doesn't work - the dish is hiding behind the chimney - so he goes outside to look.

Not impressed, he says it's been installed wrong. I know says I and he explains that he needs to have a look in his van to see if he has a 'U' pipe mount so he can attach it to the tv aerial mast and swing the dish out into the open.

Success, so up the ladder he goes and sets it all up. One small problem arises. He has to call base on his phone whilst repositioning the dish to get a signal. He tells me it's the best he can do without having an accomplice to fine tune it here.

I now have internet (of sorts). The speed test shows the right numbers so he's happy (sort of). Thing is you see, whilst I get the right numbers, the internet is still crap, pages take forever to load and the computer keeps reporting no internet connection on a regular basis.

Would I recommend Connecta-3? In a word no!

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who don't have any problems with them but I'm a demanding user who pushes my internet connection to it's limits so it simply has to be ultra reliable - which this isn't.

Communicaciones Enersol hardly missed a beat, I had to call them 3 times in four and a half years and they resolved the problem within the hour. I had 8M internet with them and it ran a lot faster then the 12M I currently have, which reminds me of an old saying "it's quality, not quantity, that counts.". Something a lot of us tend to forget.

**Update 6th July **

After living with this for a couple of months now I have to say it's the worst move I've ever made.
Example 1: Emails take what seems forever to open and if it has graphics in it you can be looking at 45 seconds.
Example 2: My downloads constantly disconnect and fail.
Example 3: My TV buffers like crazy.

This is supposed to be 12M internet for goodness sake.

It shows 12M on speed checks but, in real terms, it certainly isn't running anywhere near 6M which can only be down to constraints imposed by the provider.

Based on my experience, my opinion has to be AVOID CONNECTA-3 LIKE THE PLAGUE

** Update 18th Jan 2018 **

We've moved house and I've switched suppliers to ComEnersol who I had before the disastrous Conecta3 fiasco.

Was it worth it? Oh yes!! 8 meg internet €10 cheaper than C3 12 meg and it works. No buffering TV, no disconnecting downloads and email attachments open when clicked.

This confirms my earlier statement in respect of C3 rural (wifi) internet - avoid it like the plague, it's total crap!!

This is a little rant I'm afraid. I know it's basically my fault BUT!!!!!

Sometimes when at clients premises, I have to use a series of rescue/installation discs to resolve an issue.

Sometimes, it can take quite a few hours to sort out the multiple problems people allow to accumulate on their computer before seeking professional help. A lot of which is helped along by the 'bar room fixers' who know absolutely sod all in real terms about much at all.

They don't know what the real problem is because they've not seen it and clients rarely know how to describe the problem fully anyway - not that there's anything wrong with that, I don't expect it.

The client then goes and mis-follows the wrong advice they've been given and make an even bigger dogs breakfast of the whole thing and after they've totally screwed their computer, they call me.

Now to the point of my rant.

After I've spent hours sorting out the cock-up, I put my things back in my bag (or so I think) and head off home. Some days, or even weeks, later I open my bag looking for the discs to find that I've accidentally left at my clients.

The annoying thing is the client, who now has a full set of service and recovery discs that I've paid for, and doesn't have a clue in hell how to use them, hasn't had the decency to ring me and let me know I've left them. This has happened every time I've done it.

I now have to go through the time and expense of getting a new set of dics together.

ONE THING YOU GET FROM ME IS HONESTY, IF YOU CAN'T RETURN THE FAVOUR THEN YOU DON'T DESERVE THE SERVICES I OFFER.

​I will work out where I left them and that person will have a heavy bill next time they call me!

It just goes to show, there's a lot of really dishonest immigrants out there.

How many of you out there have noticed the free windows 10 upgrade notice lurking near the clock down in the bottom right of your screen?

One of my clients did, and they decided to take advantage of it. Oooops.

Don't get me wrong, it's very easy to do the update but that's when your problems will begin and, to make matters worse, microsoft know all about the problems you're going to experience.

As with any update, always back up your stuff, all your photos, those letters to the solicitors and all the other stuff you've accumulated on your trusty computer.

Now you need to make sure you have all the drivers for all the bits you've got bolted on to the computer as well because chances are, they ain't gonna work after the upgrade.

The problems we had included deleted drivers for the pci-e usb3 card, printer not working, machine taking more than 10 minutes to boot up. No, it's not an old pc unless you call 8 months old. Win10 is supposed to work on old machinery.

OK, supposing you've managed to get everything working in windoze 10 and you decide you don't like it, how can you get rid of it?

Well, that's supposed to be easy too. You go to the start menu, go to settings, then update and security then recovery. There you'll be given the option to revert back to win7 (or 8) but don't bank on that working either. On my clients machine, it simply would not roll back to windoze 7 and kept defaulting back to 10 saying there was a problem.

Don't get me wrong, not everyone will have a screwed machine after doing the 'upgrade' but if you are, well.........


Search the internet, it's a known problem and the ONLY answer is to reinstall your previous version of windoze from your disc, your motherboard drivers and all the discs for the bits you've got bolted onto it.

Not got your windoze or motherboard discs? Oh bugger, you're in real bother now. You've got win10 and stuff that don't work and no way of getting back to what you had before without forking out for a new copy of windoze. That's a bit of a shitter innit.

I've just spent the best part of a day recovering a computer back to it's previous state because of the damage caused by microsoft. Having to source obscure drivers because the original pc builder didn't give any discs to the client.

From what I've seen of win10, I'm not impressed. It's yet another learning curve to try and work out where everything is. Haven't the people at microsoft-in-the-head heard the old saying - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We've moved on from a menu system that was easy to work to something that isn't, and they call that progress.

So for now, ladies and gentlemen, keep away from the win10 free upgrade until they've got the bugs out of it. When will that be? Give it at least 6 months and definitely not before service pack 1.


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If you ever needed a reason to move away from a Windows OS, this is it.

The Cryptolocker Virus is gaining victims by the hour and there is very little you can do about it.

When you know you have this particular virus, the damage has already been done. The way it works is by getting into your system via email, social media sites (facebook), pirate downloads or other infected website that you happen to drop on. It then starts encrypting EVERY data file on your Windows PC using industry standard technology as used by places such as The Pentagon and other high profile organisations.

There are currently only 2 ways to get your data back, pay the €300 ransom or totally format your hard drive, reinstall from your recovery discs (you know, the ones I'm always telling you to do) and restore your data from that backup you've done (what do you mean, what backup).

I think that means you have a couple of jobs to do sooner, rather than later! That's backup your data - all those photos and important documents - and create your recovery discs so your PC can be reset to the day you bought it. Generally speaking, if you have Windows XP, you should have an installation disc somewhere, if not, get one form your PC manufacturer or we can source one for you. Most Windows 7 systems have an option to create recovery media as do Windows 8. Do it!

You cannot be complacent, this threat can and will destroy your data and/or the entire contents of your hard drives if you don't pay the ransom.

I am receiving regular updates of individuals and corporations alike, all succumbing to this threat at an alarming rate and most are paying the ransom to get their data back because they didn't look after it in the first place. Don't let this happen to you.

The easiest way to backup your photos and documents is to copy your 'my documents' folder (or libraries folder - win7/8) onto a usb memory stick. If you don't have all the photos and documents on your PC in the 'my documents/libraries' folder, then put them there now and stop being sloppy. That's where they belong if they're on your PC.

Please be assured that if you get this and you don't have your data backed up, there is only one way you MIGHT get it back, and that's paying the €300 to the crooks within 3 days or it's gone. If they 'give' you your data back, it can take days before all your files are returned and you need to keep you PC turned on and connected to the internet until the job is finished or you lose what hasn't been undone.

This can be a problem for those on wireless services such as Ole, Telecable, TeleEast and the like because they always have momentary dips in service when it's not available and this can be enough to disconnect from the remote PC doing the decryption.

Some of you know I sell mobile phones and tablet PCs and it has been mentioned that you can buy them cheaper elsewhere. Of course you can but remember, just because it's cheaper, it doesn't make it better value. Read on and I'll explain why.

The suppliers I use carry out quality control checks to make sure they're not shipping out junk. Quality control checks cost time, and time costs money, and that cost has to be added onto the price of the items being sold.

I've bought from the 'cheap' suppliers in the past and had over 80% fail rate within the guarantee period. That's OK you say, just send it back for a refund or replacement. That's when it gets interesting.

Here's how it goes:
You buy a great looking iPhone copy from el chinese cheapo dot com for €80 cos you can't afford the real thing - lots can't - pop your sim card in and away you go. Things are great - for a couple of weeks - then you realise how limited it really is, how quickly the battery runs out, how easily marked the case and screen are and, to top it all, the tv function that you thought would be handy doesn't actually work cos it's analogue and all your local tv channels are digital. Phooey!
Of course, the batteries aren't covered under the warranty, nor is the fact it looks like a box of shite after only 2 months use. Then, just 6 months in, it stops working - now this is where it really gets good!
You contact the super-cheap seller (if they're still around) and they tell you to get a quote for the repair and they'll help with the cost if it's not too much. Pardon? Isn't this under guarantee? Aren't you supposed to offer a replacement or a refund? How much are you prepared to give me towards a repair?
Now for the punchline - Send it back to us (in china) by registered post and if it's a manufacturing fault, we'll give you a 5% discount on a new phone over €120. WHAT!?!?!?!?
OK, if you send it back, that €80 phone has just cost you €100 or more and you'll have to spend another €100+ to get another phone that will probably fail whilst still under guarantee. Guarantee???
Oh yes, if you manage to get a refund, you will still be out of pocket because you don't get the return postage back, nor the original delivery charge either! That's at least €30 down the drain and you no longer have a phone.
Then you don't buy budget phones from people like me because you've already been duped with the garbage chinese suppliers and all these chinese phones are total crap, aren't they - wrong! It's only the cheapo suppliers where you get the crap, if indeed, you actually get anything.

Just remember the old adage - you get what you pay for. Buy super cheap, get super crap.

I've been on the Costa Blanca for over six and a half years now and have built a strong reputation for getting things right. If the phone or tablet you bought from me goes wrong and it's covered by the manufacturers warranty, it gets replaced or you get a refund of the purchase price. Simples!

Loss of data, photos, apps, documents, account information, batteries, flashing or rooting, overall appearance and durability of certain items are not covered under the warranty, nor are we responsible for loss of, or anything associated with, such items. They are your responsibility. This list is not exhaustive.

I bet you didn't know that, did you! I wonder how many of you out there have been doing your on-line banking using some Android App, or other in blissful ignorance.

Me? Never! Android is the most targeted mobile operating system on the market - just like Windows is the most targeted operating system on PCs.

Ahhh, you reply, I've got my anti-virus program in place to protect me!

That is good, says I but the way this works by-passes your anti-virus programs protection system.

The best of it is, this vulnerability was discovered some 4 years ago in Android 1.6 (Donut) and has been carried over into every version since.

Basically, the flaw exposed in the Application Packages (APK) allows a hacker to add malicious code into an already signed App without changing the Apps signature so the App still reads as genuine and safe.

It is effectively like giving the hackers the keys to your device. They can steal all your data, accounts, passwords and run any App on your phone without your knowledge.

Google were notified of this vulnerability in February (which begs the question why were they kept in the dark for so long) and have reworked the Google Play store so it rejects any Apps that are vulnerable to the flaw. Any infected Apps already on your phone will no longer get updates from Google Play Store.

What this means for you is that any App you downloaded before this month COULD (not IS) be infected. The only ways to ensure your phone has no infected Apps is to download and install your Android operating system from the Android archives (only for experienced users) or uninstall all your Apps and reset your phone to factory defaults (assuming this hasn't been infected).

How do I keep myself from being infected?

Keep away from those 3rd party app providers - only download from a trusted source - make sure you've got that in your settings be careful of emails and don't plug in any USB device from your friends (this also means don't plug your USB device into a friends phone). Basically the same advice you give to anyone with a computer.

Don't have nightmares folks!

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Hello everybody.

Please be advised that we are starting to get booked up for April, so if you think your PC has a problem, or you're considering taking up one of our other services then please contact us now or we may not be able to get you sorted before we go.

You might even miss out on our FREE telephone install offer available for this month only if you don't get in now! Check our Special Offer page for more details.

Please don't leave it until the last minute and miss out.

Over the past few months, I've been extolling the virtues of a wonderful website that allows all us ex-pats to view live UK TV without the need to do anything special, and without the need for satellite TV installations. This website is www.filmon.com. It seems that Filmon are now only able to offer live UK TV in the UK. This is probably down to licencing regulations and the fact that to receive licenced UK TV broadcasts, you should be paying for a licence.

This issue does NOT affect any of our Satellite Internet clients as they all have a UK Internet address.

Currently, anyone residing outside the UK should not be able to watch live UK TV. Scream and shout as much as you like, that is how it is. So why can other nationalities get away with it then - you ask. Well, that's because they don't have the same licencing regulations as the UK so as to provide you with honest and impartial reporting of world events (for most of the time, that is).

So, you don't live in the UK BUT, you want to watch live UK TV (shame on you ;-) ). How do you go about it?

You can always fork out for a satellite dish and receiver and buy a forged sky card, you can pay for an illegal card sharing setup, you can pay one of the many illegal re-broadcasters who pop up all over the place - and disappear just as quickly with your money or you can watch live UK TV through the Internet, either directly from the broadcasters website or from an aggregators website such as www.myiplayer.com.

When I try to watch TV on the broadcasters website, it tells me it's not available in my region. Of course it does, because it's illegal to watch it outside the UK - because it's licenced for the UK only! Please pay attention, I'm getting to that.

OK smart a**e, how's it done? I'll tell you. You use something called a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that fools the website into believing you are in the UK.

How can I get one? There are many free one available along with some relatively cheap ones (5.00 GBP a month). I have personally used a 5GBP one from www.my-private-network.co.uk and it works fine, and they give you a full setup guide with pictures. We have also used the free "Best UK VPN Service" and find that works very well also.

What I do find a lot of - and have to uninstall a lot of - is Expat Shield. Whilst Expat Shield may be free, it's backed by advertisers, it also installs a 'handy' toolbar. Anybody who knows me knows how I feel about third party 'handy' toolbars. They're very handy at breaking things (as many of my clients can testify) and should be banned.

To get the "Best UK VPN Service", it is available from the myiplater.com website on the "catchup" page.

In my opinion, the only thing handy about Expat Shield is the ability to click a few buttons and it installs itself, along with the c**p it comes with. I used it for a couple of days then got rid of it and it will never darken my PC again. Not to be totally negative about this product, I do have customers who think it's marvelous, brilliant and all sorts of other positive adjectives.

Oh, I forgot to mention this option - Slingbox. An ideal option for those with relatives in the UK with a Sky/Cable subscription.

How does that work then? Well, it's intended for people on holiday who would normally be paying for their UK licence but they're not currently using it because they're on holiday and no one is in the house watching TV. That way, you're not breaking your licence agreement and it's legal.

It works by connecting a Slingbox to a Sky/Cable TV box in the UK. You then connect the Slingbox to your internet router. Whilst you're (ahem) 'away', you can watch your Sky/Cable package on your laptop or you would take something with you called a Sling Catcher. Sling Catcher is like a set top box that plugs into the Internet and the TV you're going to be watching. It then transports all your programs from the UK to where you are.

If that all sounds like black magic then when you've got the kit from Currys/PC World, just drop Sling Media support a line from their website and they'll set it all up for you. So that's the Slingbox in the UK, and SlingCatcher over here.

If you would like any more info, please feel free to drop us a line or comment below.

I have no connection to any of the products mentioned in this article.

All brand names and registered trade marks belong to their respective owners - not me.

You've just bought a wonderful brand new computer with the latest offering from Mr Bill Gates' company - Windows 8 - and found that you now wish you'd never seen it. You're not on your own so don't think it's just you. Many tech guys hate it just as much because it is so unproductive in a business environment (see previous Windows 8 entry).

How can you get rid of that awful Operating System the guy in the shop said was so wonderful (did you know he gets paid to tell you that). Well, it is possible but such a great pain in the proverbial so we're not going to bother in this article, maybe later. Apart from being a big pain, removing that awful mishmash of an OS will also invalidate your warranty, so what we're going to do is make this awful system a bit more manageable. It will still be Windows 8 with all the 'wonderful' gadgets it has but you will be able to actually use it on your Laptop and Desktop machine without all the cursing and swearing. That's nice then.

OK, how do we go about it then? Well, when we start our computer, or should that be wake it up (Windows 8 doesn't actually turn off the computer - that's why it starts so fast) the Modern UI (or Metro as it was) is wonderful for touch screen devices but useless if you're using a mouse and keyboard so we need to bypass that and go straight to the desktop that we're all familiar with. To do this, you can download a little free utility called WinAero that will do just that. There are probably other downloads that will do the same thing but this is the one that I used and so far, no complaints.

WinAero will take you straight to the classic desktop, bypassing the Modern UI allowing us to get on with being productive in a way that works - almost. There is something very important missing from the desktop - access to your program list - the Start button! With WinAero, you can disable the hotspot corners rather than just hiding them, including that silly little start screen.

But if I don't have a start button or start screen, how do I access my programs. Have you tried accessing you programs from the desktop in Windows 8 - you can't - so this needs a little fix as well.

To resolve the problem of accessing programs, I used a little utility called Classic Shell. Classic Shell gives us the the 'missing' start button back with a few general improvements into the bargain. It even allows us to choose what style of start menu to have from the classic style of Win98/2000/ME or WinXP or Win7 - witwoo.

There we have it. A way to 'tame' that Windows 8 machine of yours without breaking the bank, without losing your warranty and without losing your sanity. I would rate this task somewhere between easy and moderate. I know some people who will faint at the prospect of doing something for themselves and class this as hard but it isn't if you can follow instructions.

Both of these handy utilities are free at the time of writing and instructions on how to instal them is available on the respective owners/websites and elsewhere on the internet. I have no connection whatsoever with any of the programs mentioned in this article and can accept no responsibility if anything goes wrong if you try this yourself. I am simply providing a solution to a problem that was brought to me by one of my clients. You can try this yourself or call me and I'll do it for you at my normal rates.

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