Hello SkyDrive, goodbye Dropbox

Microsoft has caused a bit of a stir this week for two reasons. The first is because it has reduced the free space you get on SkyDrive from 25Gb to 7Gb and the second is the brilliantly simple app that actually makes SkyDrive useful for once.

SkyDrive, of course, is the free online storage space that you get with a Windows Live Mail or Hotmail email account. Your Microsoft ID - a Hotmail email address and password - gets you into the service and you can store any files you like online.

Up until this week you had 25Gb of storage space for free, but now you only get 7Gb. Apparently 99% of users were using less than 7Gb anyway, so it won't affect the vast majority of people. I've had SkyDrive since it launched and have been a Hotmail user since, well, forever - the 1990s I think. So how much space was I using? Less than a gigabyte.

It is hardly surprising that 99% of SkyDrive users are under 7Gb. There's a chart somewhere on a Microsoft blog and it shows that a large number of people are probably using less than 2Gb. That's because it was so hard to use before. You had to upload and download files through a web browser and to make matters worse, there was a small file size limit. You couldn't store large files like videos, backups, and so on. It was tedious to upload more than a handful of small files.

The new 7Gb limit is actually quite generous when you compare the amount of free space you get with other online storage services and it should be more than enough for most people. A bonus for long-time users like me is a free upgrade to 25Gb of storage. Log on to Hotmail, click SkyDrive and follow the instructions. A couple of clicks and you're back up to 25Gb of free space.

I expected it to be a time-limited offer because Those few people that are using more than 7Gb need time to either download their files or upgrade to more storage with a paid account and SkyDrive can't simply delete all files over the new limit. I didn't see any messages about it being time limited though. Maybe I've got 25Gb forever. That would be nice.

The second change this week is the release of Windows and Mac apps that integrate SkyDrive into the desktop. SkyDrive is now a folder on your disk drive. It works just like Dropbox and the question is whether it will hurt Dropbox's business. It may not and it may simply take away people that are using Dropbox for free. You get 2Gb of free storage space with Dropbox, but 7Gb with Microsoft. It's a no brainer. At least for Windows and Mac users - at the moment there isn't a Linux version.

I've only been using the apps a day, but they look good and have worked perfectly so far, just like Dropbox only with more space. Microsoft might therefore pinch some of Dropbox's freeloaders who want online storage space, but don't want to pay for it. That's just good news for Dropbox because supporting lots of people that don't pay is just a cost. If Dropbox can match Microsoft's prices for those people that need large amounts of online storage space then it might not affect Dropbox's business at all.

I've been using Dropbox for years and it has been great. I've almost reached the storage limit for my free account and have been thinking about a paid account for more space. Now that Microsoft has entered the market I'm thinking about switching though.

Dropbox has been too good to abandon straight away for an untested service, so I'm running both SkyDrive and Dropbox apps on my Windows PC and Mac for the moment. At some point I'll choose one or the other. I'm leaning a bit towards Microsoft because it is likely to be an essential part of Windows 8, but it's irritating that I'll only be able to access it through a web browser in Linux.

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Beware anti virus tweets

Malware authors are on the constant lookout for new ways to spread their software and one of these ways is Twitter. According to Kaspersky, hundreds of compromised accounts - hacked or whatever - have been used to send out mass spam tweets on the social networking service. If you see a tweet mentioning an anti virus program, such as "Excellent anti-virus..." or "Proven anti-virus" you should not click the links in them.

One of the ways in which to determine whether a link is safe or not is to look at the URL. Some domains are popular with malware authors and it is always suspicious if a link points to a foreign website. I got a bunch of emails offering various products and services today and all point to a .ru website. They are obviously suspicious and I won't be clicking the links.

The problem with Twitter is that URLs are shortened in order not to waste precious characters that could be used in the tweet itself. So you can't see where URLs actually point to. Think twice before clicking links to anti virus products mentioned in tweets or to products or services that seem too good to be true. They could lead you to a site that peddles malware or rips you off.

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Upgrade your Mac to Snow Leopard free

I know what you are thinking, upgrade to Snow Leopard? Surely you mean Lion? Well, the problem is that OS X Lion is only available as a download from the Mac App Store and that is not available on OS X Leopard. You have to have Snow Leopard, so Apple is giving it away for free to encourage users with Macs running old versions of OS X to upgrade. After installing Snow Leopard you will be able to upgrade to Lion for $29.99 at the Mac App Store.

This isn't actually about Apple getting its users on the latest version of OS X just for the sake of it. The problem is MobileMe. This online service was launched a few years ago, but it was never as successful as Apple would have liked. The company has been trying to move people over to iCloud, the new online service that replaces it.

MobileMe users will have seen messages encouraging them to move everything to iCloud when they log on to MobileMe and if they haven't yet done it, they need to be aware that Apple will be pulling the power plug out in a couple of months time. Then everything will be gone.

The difficulty for some users is that iCloud doesn't work with older versions of OS X, so some people will be without any service at all come June or whenever it finally shuts down. Rather than completely abandon these users, Apple is giving away Snow Leopard free to MobileMe users. I've not been on MobileMe for ages but logging in via this link displayed the free Snow Leopard page.

Do you need Snow Leopard? Do you have old Macs that need upgrading? Are you still using MobileMe? If you do then this is a way to get an upgrade for free.

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Speed up your Mac

I have an old MacBook and I haven't had any serious problems with it, so I'll carry on using it as long as I can. A minor irritation though, is that it is getting slower and slower as it gets older. It is a common problem and old computers, no matter which operating system they are running, never run as fast as they used to when they were new. However, I managed to speed up my Mac and it is now twice as fast at starting up, starting applications and opening files. And it didn't cost me anything.

What I did was to plug in an external USB disk drive and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to make an identical copy of the Mac's internal disk drive on the external one. It's a free utility.

I then booted up from the USB drive (hold down the Option key when starting the Mac to choose the disk drive or partition to boot from). Using Disk Utility I formatted the Mac's internal disk drive and then used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the USB disk back to the Mac's internal drive. After a couple of boots to allow it to settle down the Mac's startup time is now about half what it was. It boots up really quickly and apps start much faster.

So I cloned the internal disk to an external one then cloned it back. Nothing changed, all the files are the same, nothing was deleted, and everything is exactly as it was before. So what is different and how come it is faster?

The answer is fragmentation. File fragmentation is well known on Windows PCs and Windows has a built in disk defragmenter. There are many third party utilities too. If you want to boost the speed of an old Windows PC or keep a new one running smoothly you run the disk defragmenter.

Apple does not provide a disk defragmenter with OS X and the popular view among Mac users is that Mac's don't suffer from fragmentation. Only Windows users suffers from fragmentation, they laugh. Well they couldn't be more wrong. OS X does indeed perform some disk housekeeping tasks to optimise the disk drive (as does Windows), but it is inadequate and file fragmentation builds up over time and it slows down the Mac.

When the disk is cloned to a blank destination disk all the files are written one after the other. A file that is fragmented on the source disk is written to the destination as a contiguous file in one piece with no fragments. This is why copying the disk to a USB drive, formatting and copying it back speeds up the Mac. All the files are defragmented. Try it if you have an old Mac.

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Remove the Flashback Trojan from your Mac

Several weeks ago I wrote about the Flashback Trojan that has been infecting Apple Macs around the world. There are said to be around 600,000 infected Macs and that is actually quite a large proportion of the total Macs in use. Now Kaspersky has produced a free utility that cleans up Flashback infections.

To get the tool, go and download the Flashfake Removal Tool on your Mac. Double click it to unzip it and then double click the app to run it. Scan your Mac and it should tell you whether it was infected or not and clean it up if it is infected.

In cruel twist of fate, the Flashfake removal tool didn't work on my Mac and it stopped with an error message when scanning the system. (You might have more luck.) Fortunately, clicking the More Information link in the app takes you to the flashbackcheck.com website. This is an alternative way to check whether your Mac is or was infected.

According to Kaspersky, Flashback contacts around 30 websites each day and it among the things that it does is to send the infected Mac's UUID. This is like a serial number that identifies each Mac. Kaspersky created their own server that imitates the one Flashback is supposed to connect to and collected all the UUIDs from infected Macs. By entering your Mac's UUID at the flashbackcheck.com website, it can instantly tell you whether your Mac is or was infected by seeing if it is in the database.

(To find your Mac's UUID in Lion, click the Apple menu, About This Mac, More info, System Report. Select Hardware at the top and on the right is Hardware UUID. Copy and paste it into the flashbackcheck website.)

I recommend that you either run Flashfake Removal Tool or use the website to check whether your Mac is infected.

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Mac WiFi connection timeout error

I have just spent around three hours trying to get my MacBook to connect to my home WiFi network. It will not automatically connect when it starts up, so I click the WiFi icon and let it scan for networks. It finds it, I select it, and an error message comes up saying there is a connection timeout error.

The thing is, the MacBook has been happily connecting to this WiFi network for months. Nothing has changed, except now the MacBook has decided it doesn't like the network.

A search for Mac connection timeout errors at Google will produce lots of links and it appears to be a common problem with many threads on support forums, including Apple's. It happens with new Macs running OS X Lion and links go back several years to old Macs running Leopard or Snow Leopard.

There are numerous fixes and what this means is that no-one has a clue and it is something really obscure. A fix that works for one person fails for another, which is very odd.

I'm running OS X Lion and wondered whether it was a software problem, so I booted up from a USB drive running Snow Leopard - a copy of the internal drive I made ages ago. It works fine, or it did the last time I tried it, but now it can't connect to the WiFi.

Removing all the WiFi networks from Networks in System Preferences didn't work, starting with Command+Option+P+R didn't work, deleting all the networks and manually adding it didn't work, getting new DCHP leases didn't work.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I have an iPhone, iPad, Windows PC, and an Android smartphone, which all connect OK.

At last I'm back online and connected to my WiFi, so what worked? I think this has something to do with the wireless router. Switching off and switching on allowed me to connect. Mind you, I had to do it four or five times before the Mac would connect, then bang, straight in no problems. That's weird.

I wonder if this is a channel problem. The router doesn't boot up exactly the same way each time. It is (supposed to be) a clever one that scans the area and attempts to find the best settings and when I couldn't connect it had started on channel 11. Now I'm back online it is using channel 1.

Now this could be coincidence and perhaps I would have connected if I'd changed my socks to a blue pair, but it makes me wonder. It is something I need to monitor. It is strange that every other wireless device in the house works fine on channel 11 though.

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Don't mix and match security software

A problem I sometimes come across is someone that has installed anti virus software, anti spyware software, a firewall, and other security programs on their computer. Why is this a problem? Security companies have been extending the scope of their products over recent years and now it is hard to find a straightforward anti virus program, anti spyware program, firewall and so on. Anti virus programs include anti spyware, firewalls include virus scanning, security suites include anti virus, spyware, firewall, root kit and lots of other things too.

Security software doesn't just do one thing any more, it does several. It runs in the background monitoring every file access, checking every program you run, checking the websites you visit, which programs are accessing the internet, what information is being up or downloaded and so on. The problem is that if multiple programs are constantly checking everything the computer does they can slow it down and even cause errors and weird problems.

You might assume Outpost Pro Firewall was a firewall and it is, but it also includes anti spyware and real-time anti malware protection. So do you need anti virus/spyware software too? Will they work together or clash? PC Tools Spyware Doctor checks websites and displays safety ratings in your search results. Many anti virus programs do that too. Do you need two utilities adding ratings to search results? Will they work or simply clash? SUPERAntiSpyware contains real-time checking of programs you run and it detects Trojans, rootkits, worms and other types of malware, but don't anti virus programs do this anyway?

If you want to run separate security programs then try to avoid overlaps. Don't get a firewall that includes anti spyware if your anti virus software also includes anti spyware. If your security suite includes rootkit protection, don't add another program that also provides rootkit protection. If you already have a program checking websites, don't go and add another one that does the same thing.

It is hard finding separate security programs and one simple solution is to get a security suite that does everything. One package from one company that includes all the security you need - anti virus/spyware, firewall, anti phishing, website checking, and so on.

If you want extra protection, then get a scanner and cleanup tool that doesn't constantly run in the background. SUPERAntiSpyware Portable Scanner is one example. It does not need installing and you just run it when you want to scan the computer. ClamWin Portable is an anti virus program that doesn't need installing and you can just run it when you need it. These two programs won't prevent infections because they don't run on startup and monitor activity, but if you've already got security software doing that, they are useful as a backup in case your main software misses something.

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