One of the most annoying and possibly threatening issues are unusual popups. One wrong click on an unsolicited popup and you can open up your computer to a whole host of problems. These can be anything from a “Slowing PC” to almost a complete shutdown.

Our first indication was that this is not an official popup and it should be ingnored at all costs. The reasoning for this was the fact that because I have AVG installed, why was I not notified via the Tray Icon? The same way it notifies me of a virus definition update. This would seem an more trusted and logical way of notifying people (Unless of course you do not have AVG installed)

Through further investigation though all indications point to the fact that this is a legitimate popup and can be followed with confidence.

If you do click the “Download Now” link then you are taken to the avg.com site. What we see now make everything a little more clear. You will see the advertisement for the AVG Internet Security currently priced at £39.14. At the bottom of the page is the link to the FREE version which is used by millions of users. If you would like to download the new verion, please click here

We would recommend that your Virus software and definitions are ALWAYS up to date and regular checks be done. If you do notice popups that are not relevent to you, or have just appeared right out of the blue, close them down immediately.

Emails are being sent out with the subject line “Domain Dispute and Registration”. These people introduce themselves as a domain registration service in Asia (A Chinese Phone Number is given). The email message states that they’ve received a formal application from someone who wants to use a “domain name” relevant to you.

It reads (for example)… “Last week we received a formal application submitted by Mr. George Zjou who wanted to use the keyword “hodgsonsinternet” to register the Internet Brand and with suffix such as .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia/ domain names.”

It says that after their initial examination they’ve found that the domain name applied for is “…the same as your domain name and trademark….” and that because this may produce a possible dispute they’ve put the registration on hold. They go on to say you have five days to reply or they will approve the application.

It’s yet another scam to try and get to your hard-earned cash. The premise being that you’ll pay them for those domains rather than letting someone else register them. This term is know as Cybersquatting — registering a domain name, then offering to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark for an inflated price.

Anybody can register a domain name but in this instance we believe it is worth staying well away from companies like this. Please circulate this knowledge to anyone you feel its relevant.

The GMail service appeared to go offline at around 0930 GMT and was unavailable for approximately two and a half hours, Google claimed. Some users claimed to be off for about four hours. POP/IMAP Email and the web application were unavailable although, strangely I could still access email using my iPhone!

In a statement released on the official google blog it said: “We’re really sorry about this, and we did do everything to restore access as soon as we could.”

Engineers were still investigating the cause of the problem and it is yet to be determined whether the problem was a system malfunction, human error or even and attack.

Google is the third most popular web email service with 113 million users, behind Hotmail (283 million) and Yahoo (274 million).

Only last week, google announced it’s Offline feature which allows users to store a portion of their emails locally. For those that had this feature installed, they were still able to view old emails as well as create new ones. New emails were sent out when the service resumed.

To set up Offline Gmail all you need to do it the following:-

• Click Settings from your GMail Web Application
• Click the “Labs” tab
• At the top of the List should be the Offline GMail Feature, Enable it here and click Save at the bottom of the page
• When the page reloads, click the small icon in the top right corner to begin the installation of Google Gears. Follow through the installation and your all set !