When it comes to selling or disposing of an old computer (desktop or laptop), it isn’t always easy to be sure that your data cannot be recovered by the new owner. I’ve spent my career working in the IT industry, so this is my guide on how to securely wipe a computer that is running […]

How to extract a previously saved Wi-Fi password from Windows Wi-Fi settings. You just need to have administrator rights on the device.

It used to be the case that I, like many others, would snap up any offer of free cloud storage, as digital photography and general data hoarding created a seemingly endless need for data storage. Fast-forward to today, and data breaches are something you don’t have to work in technology to recognise are a very […]

Having struggled to find one myself, this is a genuine review from a real Hostinger customer. As at 17th November 2019, BeachyUK.com is now on the Hostinger Premium Web Hosting package. In November 2019, I decided BeachyUK.com needed to move off free/near-free web hosting. Site performance had been slow, and free hosts kept disabling the […]

This week I found myself looking into a phone line issue. I used to deal with a lot of these. This post aims to provide a reminder of useful numbers to use when diagnosing a UK phone line issue. For these events, I always try to have a small analogue phone handy to test the […]

I got an “Unauthorized Request” error when trying to download the VirtualBox 6.0.6 ExtPack (Extension Pack). There appears to be lots of people seeing the issue, but no published solution, so I thought I’d post my solution. Quite simply: replace the domain name “VirtualBox.org” with “Oracle.com”. The reason for this is that VirtualBox is owned […]

Fix for using an Atheros network adaptor when running Linux, if you have found that Wake on LAN (WOL) doesn’t work.

I recently borrowed a Kärcher K5 Premium Full Control Plus pressure washer, to clean some granite paving blocks. I was super impressed, so wanted to share my experience, along with a video of before, during and after washing, for anyone who is considering purchasing the Kärcher K5 pressure washer. I tested the pressure washer cleaning […]

Workaround for the current Filezilla error: “GnuTLS error -50 in gnutls_priority_set_direct: The request is invalid.
Error: Failed to initialize TLS.”.

This error appears in Ubuntu due to a GnuTLS in the current Ubuntu repository version of Filezilla.

Whether you have a blog, business card or e-commerce website, getting the basics right can make sure your site is secure, functional and search engines friendly. This ensures you get a natural flow of traffic, with minimal effort and cost. Whilst this article is focused on cost-free security and search engine optimisation tips, it would […]