 |
q+a I am planning to take a BSNL broadband connection that offers 512 kbps up to 4GB and 256 kbps after the 4GB limit is reached. Is 256 kbps good enough to download movies? The BSNL landline service is good in our area.
Goutamsaran Das
There is a big difference between a good landline phone connection and Internet connectivity. BSNL cannot deliver a stable Internet connection because its servers and distribution points are rarely maintained. If you want to download movies take a 2 mbps connection. Your choice of 512 kbps is not good enough. If you can find an Internet provider other than BSNL you will be better off.
Updating Chrome
q+a I am not able to update my Chrome browser. Whenever I type chrome://chrome on the address bar I get an error message saying, ‘update failed’. I use Windows 7.
Latika Chowdhury
On your computer go to Start and type taskmgr in the search box. Kill all instances of GoogleUpdate .exe by selecting it and clicking on the End Process button. Please verify that all instances of this process have been stopped otherwise Chrome will not update. Now close Chrome and restart the browser. Go to Settings by click on the top right of the browser and selecting About Google Chrome or by simply typing chrome://chrome in the address bar. Now the browser should begin to update after a while. The latest version is 38.0.2125.104 m.
Defend Windows
q+a I have a Lenovo G580 laptop with Windows 8.1. Which anti-virus software will be best for my computer?
Shashank Tripathy, Debasis Sircar and others
Windows Defender, which replaced Microsoft Security Essentials of earlier Windows versions, is built into Windows 8.1. It can protect you from viruses and other malicious software. It updates itself regularly and is quite easy to maintain.
If you are still concerned, I would recommend either AVG AntiVirus Free 2015 from www.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download or Panda Free Antivirus from www.cloudantivirus. com/en/. Use one of these in conjunction with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from www.malwarebytes.org.
Log in problem
q+a I bought a 13-inch Macbook Air running on OS X Mavericks 10.9.5. I am not able to log in to my iMessage and FaceTime with my Apple ID. It is already logged in on my iPad Mini but on my Mac it just keeps on loading.
Rishav Singh
Connect your devices to the same WiFi network and in the preferences put the date and time to set automatically. On your Mac System Preferences go to Time and Date and click the checkbox for ‘Set Time and Date automatically’. On your iPad got to Settings —General — Time and Date. Shut down and restart both the devices. Update the software on your iPad mini to iOS 8.1 and sign in with your Apple ID. Next update your MacBook Air to OS X Yosemite. Make sure you use the same Apple ID across your devices.
Sound solution
q+a There is a sound problem on my assembled desktop computer. Whenever I plug my headphone into the front jack, the sound is distorted and in the rear jack the output is very low. The headphone works fine in other laptops and mobiles. Please help.
Saikat Biswas
The jack on the front panel of the computer needs to be an output port for the headphones to work properly. The input port is for playing music from an external source. Ask the person who assembled the PC to check the motherboard manual so that the connections are done properly. He should also verify that the sound is clear from audio jacks to desktop speakers. In the BIOS settings, onboard sound should be enabled. You can get to the BIOS settings by pressing either F1, F2, DEL, ESC or F10 depending on the motherboard you use.
Now right click on audio icon on the bottom right of your computer screen and select Playback devices. Set your preferred device to default. Ensure that proper Windows drivers are installed for your sound card.
Send in your computer- related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com with bits&bytes in the subject line
