Richard Farrar's Blog

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How often have you been browsing the web when you suddenly see a little padlock symbol appear in the corner of your web browser? Well, this symbol indicates that you have entered a secure web page, but how secure is it and how does it all work?

Security is a big issue online. We’re constantly being bombarded by the media about online fraud, spam and all sorts of other nasties that we could encounter while surfing the web, almost to the point of becoming so paranoid that we won’t go online anymore.

However, there are technologies in place to try and make things a little safer. For example, whenever you enter your credit card details online, you have probably entered a special secure type of web page without realising. So what is this special type of web page, how do you know if you’re on one and how secure is it anyway?

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In stumbling around your computer’s operating system, or when setting up an internet router for your broadband access, you may have come across the term MAC address. It’s obviously pretty important for getting things talking on the internet, but what exactly is a MAC address?

Well, in computer terms, a MAC address certainly isn’t the address of your local fast food joint where you can order an oversized cheeseburger and large fries, but it is fundamental to the operation of your computer on a network.

So if you’d like to know a bit more about the ins and outs of a computer’s MAC address, rather than the contents of a McDonald’s deep fat fryer, then scroll down on your McMouse, or tap on your McKeyboard and read all about it.

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If you’ve stumbled around the web for a while, then you’ve probably seen the little pictures that some people use alongside their comments in blog posts,  or on forums. So how do you go about getting your own picture against your blog comments or forum posts?

Not all blogs or forums allow their users to have pictures of themselves next to their comments or posts, but those that do tend to utilise the same easy-to-use system.

If you post questions on forums, or leave comments on blog posts and would like to enhance your comments with your photograph or some graphical icon, then read on, as it’s really not that difficult to achieve.

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