Tag Archives: internet

Great ADSL internet plans

Computer Aid Posted on by

This one will only apply to people who live in Australia.

I don’t often advertise goods and services for other companies, but after 7 years with the same ISP, and having helped many people with changing their current plan to a much cheaper one, all without asking for anything in return, I decided to become a TPG reseller.

I’m hoping to generate a small amount of revenue from being a reseller, but my main aim is to let you know that I’m so happy with my own personal experience with TPG over such a long period, that you can genuinely save a lot of money by switching to TPG.

I regularly look around for cheap internet plans, but in the last 7 years, I’m yet to find a company that provides a better value internet service than TPG.

Since I do a lot of my work on the internet, and I also design websites, I find I spend most of my time on the internet… probably more that most people.

Yet it might surprise you to find that I am using TPGs cheapest internet plan at $29.99 per month

For that, I get 50GB per month, which I rarely exceed. And on top of that, the 50GB is actually split into 25GB peak, and 25GB off-peak… So I rarely exceed 25GB per month during normal daily hours.

And the internet is used by 3 active PCs, 2 mobile phones, and a few android tablets.

Now, if you want to check out the details, go to:

Great value internet plans

Please note:

What you pay will be the same, regardless of whether you go to TPG directly, or if you signup via my reseller links, except:

  • with TPG direct, TPG gets to keep all your money
  • with me, you will be helping out a struggling computer repairer (me)

Control Internet Access: help your kids focus on their homework and your employees focus on their job

Computer Aid Posted on by

Computer Aid has now released another great software utility:

Control Internet Access

CIA is a tool for restricting and monitoring internet access on a computer.

Developed by Mike Hansell, it was designed to help parents keep their children focussed on their homework, by restricting internet activities that can cause hours of distraction (eg youtube, various messenger applications like MSN, Facebook, Twitter, as well as websites that contain various taboo/blacklist words (like poker, gambling, etc… the list can be easily altered).

CIA was mainly designed to be as simple to use as possible. You don’t have to be a geek to use it.

Probably the most difficult part of setting up CIA, is picking a password that others cannot guess.

After that, you setup a weekly schedule, by simply pointing and clicking at a visual timetable.

Each 15 minute block, can be configured for:

  • No restriction
  • Homework (restrict time wasting activities including YouTube)
  • Homework (restrict time wasting activities excluding YouTube)
  • High restriction (No web browsing, chatting or messaging)
  • Shutdown PC (PC cannot be used at all)
  • Monitor Only (take regular screen snapshots)

If a parent needs temporary access to the PC while a CIA restriction is in place, then just clicking on the taskbar icon will let you enter your password, and then you can use the PC normally.

Of course, CIA can also be used for the office, where employees can waste many productive hours on the internet. CIA can help reduce these productivity losses.

And don’t forget the advantage of restricting access to sites that could infect a computer. CIA can help increase the effectiveness of your antivirus software.

Download the 10 day trial of CIA, you’ll find that its different from most other parental control software currently available.

Malware cannot be removed without internet access

Computer Aid Posted on by

I just had an interesting experience, where a customer got a malware infection, and shortly before I arrive, their ISP decides to block their internet access.

So I get myself set up, to remove the infection via UBCD4win, and I cannot get spyware signature updates.

So I found myself in the situation where I couldn’t fix the problem without taking the computer back to the office (where I had a working internet connection), in order to remove a malware infection!

But then again, it shouldn’t be a big surprise… the internet is the main vehicle for spreading malware in the first place, so it follows that you need the same internet access to disinfect a PC.