Fellow Earthlings - it has been a while since I opened this page up to answer your questions directly, and there has been a small build-up of questions that need to be dealt with, so here goes...

Question: Of all of the specification measures related to a computer (ie hard-drive size, processor speed, memory size, DVD reader or burner etc., etc.), what is the most important? DD, Warwick

Answer: Wow..What a great question...Unfortunately the answer will seem a little wishy-washy. It really does depend on your requirements. If you have acres and acres and masses and masses of photographs, then, clearly hard-drive size is a key requirement; If you use graphically intensive applications like games or computer aided design packages, memory and good video rendering capabilities are the most important. This list goes on...The best advice I can give is to start with a blank sheet of paper and think not in terms of gigabytes and mega hertz, but in terms of what you want your computer to DO for you, the response time you require, the speed at which you want it to do things for you....When you frame your requirements like that, any IT retail outlet should be able to assist you into converting your requirements into gigs and bytes (and ALL the computer outlets here are good at it). Hope that helps, happy computing!

Question: For some reason, when I connect to certain websites on my laptop, it won't display anything. When I connect using someone else's laptop, it displays it correctly... Why? JS, Warwick

Answer: There could be several reasons for this, but the most common is that you have the site on your 'blocked-list' or else a 'plug-in' is required to view the material - lets deal with each separately. All web-browsers allow you to restrict access to certain sites, and it is possible for you to add a particular site inadvertently. To see your blocked-site list, for example, from Internet Explorer, Select "Tools" > "Internet Options" > "Security" > "Restricted Sites" - you can add and remove sites here simply by typing the site address in - but be sure to spell it correctly! As for the missing 'plug-in' possibility, the requires a little more explanation: web browsers are clever enough these days to be able to call-on other programs that do not usually form part of the browser software suite, in order to render the appropriate information you require - for example, Acrobat-Reader, which is used to read files of '*.pdf' type can now be called on by a web-browser to use its functionality to display a pdf file in a web-browser instead of you or I having to download it first and then open it separately in acrobat-reader. Thus, its a one-time action for you and I now. So, supposed you DID NOT have the Acrobat-Reader programme installed - what would happen then? Likelihood is that you would still be prompted to download the file, however, the website page would remain blank -you would see nothing on your web-browser. In this case, then, the acrobat-reader, is missing its 'plug-in' to allow Internet Explorer to automatically open the pdf file. I hope this explains it.

Question: What does WEP mean when it comes to my wireless access at home? ES, Devonshire

Answer: At its very basic explanation, WEP - which stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy - is a password or PIN on your wireless network that stops other people from 'piggy-backing' and gaining access to the internet via your paid service without contribution. Moreover, should THEY access inappropriate and possibly illegal material, it will be registered to YOUR address - this is the MAIN reason you should consider some form of password protection. WEP works simply by holding a password or PIN on the wireless router. When your laptop or PC attempts to access the router it will challenge your PC for the WEP password.

Before my fellow geeks point out the relative insecurity of WEP versus WPA or WPA2 I want to point out that for MOST home implementations, WEP - even with its relative insecurity - is more than adequate to protect against opportunity association by someone nearby with a wireless connection.

Next time I am going to answer ONE big question that has been put to me about 'email disclaimers' - I felt it warranted a full answer, so will be going into that next time...

Bob Mellor is a senior business technologist with more than 20 years experience in the IT industry. He is accredited by the British Computer Society as a Chartered IT Professional, and currently Technology Consulting Manager at Bermuda Microsystems Group. He can be contacted on bob@bmg.bm