Archive for December, 2006

11
Dec

For Sale: Dell Inspiron 9300

I’m selling my laptop because I’m moving to a desktop system. This Dell Inspiron 9300 is a powerful desktop replacement machine with a great widescreen and the fantasic nVidea GeForce Go 6800 graphics card which runs games like Quake 4, Half-Life 2, CounterStrike and World of Warcraft at high resolutions with no lag.

Dell Inspiron 9300

  • 17″ ULTRASHARP WIDE SCREEN WXGA (1440X900) TFT DISPLAY 60HZ TRUE COLOR (32 BIT)
  • INTEL PENTIUM M PROCESSOR 2.0GHZ
  • 1024MB 533MHZ DDR2 SDRAM (2X512)
  • 80GB (5, 400RPM) IDE HARD DRIVE
  • FIXED INTERNAL 8X DVD +/-RW DRIVE WITH SO
  • 256MB NVIDEA GEFORCE GO 6800
  • DELL WIRELESS 350 BLUETOOTH 2.0 MODULE
  • GENUINE WINDOWS XP HOME SP2
  • INTEL PRO/WIRELESS 2200BG NETWORK CONNECTION
  • 6 X USB PORTS
  • 1 X 1394 FIREWIRE PORT
  • SD CARD READER PORT

System servie tag is 6HKPK1J - I believe it’s possible to look it up on the Dell site somehow and it will confirm as “INSPIRON 9300 - 2GHZ - 80.00GB HD - 0MB”. The “0MB” is incorrect - it’s most certainly got 1024MB (1 gig) of RAM.

I’m looking for 1000 eur ONO. If you are interested, please post a comment below, including a real email address in the appropriate box (you don’t have to put your email address in the comment body). Serious interest only please.

06
Dec

BuyandSell - Buyer fraud?

I’ve currently got my Inspiron 9300 listed on BuyandSell, a free ads paper with an online version. I believe I’ve received a couple of potential fraud inquiries.They mention “the item” I have for sale without mentioning what it is, and talk about PayPal or Moneygram payment. I don’t know precisely how the fraud works, but I imagine it leaves me seriously out of pocket. If you’re familiar with this one, leave a comment below.

Dear BuyandSell customer,

This message was sent by www.buyandsell.ie to you directly on behalf of free-email-address1@gmaildotcom in
response to your adverisement on the BuyandSell WebSite.

Please read the message from the interested buyer below, and if you would like to respond please
use the following email address: free-email-address1@gmaildotcom

Best Regards
The BuyandSell Team.

MESSAGE FROM INTERESTED BUYER: (free-email-address1@gmaildotcom)
——————————————————————————
Hello seller,
i am Mrs Helyn John from New York.i was surfin on the web when i came across your ad and am
very interested in it,but first i will want to know if you are the real owner of the item and what
is it present condition.Moreover i will want to know the total cost of the item and like to let you
know that am paying you thru MONEY GRAM or Paypal ok.so get back to me on my personal email
address at free-email-address2@yahoo.co.uk ok.
thanks await your humble reply soon…………
Helyn John
——————————————————————————

(Sent: December 6, 2006, 11:33am AV: 311)
If you have a question or suggestion please contact our HelpDesk:
http://support.buyandsell.ie/?group=General&_m=tickets&_a=submit

Why I think it is fraud:

  • refers to what I am selling as “the item”
  • uses free email addresses (and 2 different ones at that)
  • mentions MoneyGram and PayPal as payment methods
  • poor spelling and grammar

BuyandSell list a Payment Protection fraud on their Knowledge Base, it’s not the same fraud, but has a couple of similarities.

Update:

BuyandSell responds:

Sorry for the inconvenience & thanks for bringing this to our attention. Please note we would
definitely not advise you to go ahead with this as it looks as one of the current scams listed on our
website. We had to stop the registrations those e-mails were sent from as they did not comply with
with our registration policies.
Thanks & regards.

B&S Support

05
Dec

Securing a new Windows box on the cheap

I had to secure a new Dell laptop (a lovely Inspiron M1210) recently, here’s what I did.

Security updates for operating system

First things, first - update Windows as soon as possible. Use Windows Update at windowsupdate.com.

Alternative to using Windows Update:

In the comments, brucew mentioned AutoPatcher XP. He says “Updated monthly, a single download contains all the patches, plus some other useful things. You launch the installer, tick-off the things you want it to do and walk away. Recommended.”.

Sounds great, because you don’t leave your unpatched machine exposed while you’re downloading updates - which, if you’re on a really slow connetion gives a very strong chance of your machine being compromised before it’s patched. So offline patches are good - and the fire and forget interface is really cool - who wants to click buttons when you can be making a cup of tea?

Free auto-updating anti-virus system

I use Avast Home Edition and register for password.

Free anti-spyware tools

I normally install these two (and immediately use the online updates after install):

Install a secure browser

Get Firefox. After installing the browser, install the Adblock Plus extension and use the filter subscription:

Adblock Plus screenshot: add a filter subscription

Am I missing anything?