Microsoft has sent out a bevy of bug fixes in its latest monthly security update. The patches for 25 security holes include a fix for a 17-year-old computer bug in its DOS operating system.

The vulnerability is in almost every version of Windows until now. It was discovered by a Google security researcher last month and involves a utility that allows newer versions of Windows to run very old programs.

Another vulnerability, one in Internet Explorer that allows attackers to view the files held on a Windows computer, will be fixed at a future date, Microsoft says. The company sends out batches of patches to its software on the second Tuesday of every month.

While we are on Microsoft and security, have you used the free Microsoft Security Essentials package? I think most computers loaded with Windows come with the software, but if you do not have it you can download it at www.microsoft.com/security_essentials. The software scans your computer for malware and is regularly updated.

Like the free security scanner offered by AVG Technologies, the Microsoft version is regularly updated. It beats paying for security software. I use both AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials on different computers. So far they have kept me clean.

For those who have one of the older Xbox Live consoles, I feel your pain after Microsoft announced that it will no longer support the original Xbox v1 games with its Xbox LIVE service. Those games are only eight years old.

Microsoft explains the decision on TG Daily as necessary for continuing to "evolve the service with features and experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360". To reach that "aspiration", Microsoft is making changes to Xbox LIVE that are incompatible with the original Xbox v1 games.

Users will be cut off from 15 April this year.

As with various versions of Windows, you do not buy software from Microsoft, you just rent it for a while until they decide you need to rent a different version. It is not just Microsoft that engages in this practice. Perhaps when we pay for our software, such companies should say that the price is a rental fee that lasts for a set amount of years.

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Going back to the previous columns on Internet speed tests, Francis Mussenden, president and CEO of BTC, sent a letter to me in response to a customer in Harrington Sound whose connection speed was below 1 Mb/s and who claimed his complaints were going unheard.

Mussenden notes that BTC makes clear that its DSL products provide speeds "up to" the capacity the company advertises as the "speeds that customers experience depend on a number of legitimate factors", as mentioned in my column.

"Our customer in Harrington Sound, however, falls well below what we would judge to be acceptable service," he writes. "Across our network, about five to six percent of DSL customers live in pockets where DSL speeds are challenged. Those challenges keep our network engineers constantly engaged in upgrading our physical plant."

BTC spends about $7 to 8 million on average a year on network improvements. As to the customer in Harrington Sound he responds: "Any BTC customer who doesn't feel as if their complaint has been resolved after talking to one of our customer service reps about a problem should ask to speak to a supervisor - and escalate that conversation until he or she does get a resolution as we are here to help solve problems."

Mussenden then invited the customer in Harrington Sound to contact him directly. No need. BTC has already responded, according to the customer.

After I sent him an email with Mussenden's contact number and the invitation, the customer responded: "BTC were fantastic and have fixed my speed, so no need to!" He now reports getting a 3.3 Mb/s download and 0.6 Mb/s upload speed.

"They had not upgraded the box closest to me and so moved me to another box," he claims. I do not often say this to telecommunications companies, but kudos to BTC, and especially to Mussenden, for responding.

Quote of the week: "The thing now is to remember that nothing is impossible as long as you have enough RAM memory." - Frank Zappa talking about his Synclavier in an interview published May 1986 in Guitar magazine.