If you have a PC in the UK and wish to take it with you to Spain you'll want to know whether or not it will work. The answer is yes, perfectly but you will have to change the mains plug or get an adapter for it.

If you don't intend to take your computer with you then you'll probably want to know what machines are available in Spain. Almost every computer you can purchase in the UK is available here but the operating system will almost certainly be in Spanish. Further, it is quite difficult to obtain operating systems in English despite the fact that a considerable demand exists for them. It is true that the odd advertisement appears from time to time in the English language press advertising them but generally the advertiser is an individual and as you can imagine, post sale support is often scant or simply not available.

It is far easier to obtain an English operating system for a desktop PC than for a Laptop. If you want a laptop machine its probably better to purchase one in the UK. Not only will you get what you want but you will get it cheaper. By virtue of the fact that laptops are meant to be portable most come with a guarantee which can be used in most countries of the World. You may find it better to buy one which is known to perform well in hot countries. It is not unusual in Spain for some laptops to keep switching themselves off when they get hot. However, in many cases this is often to do with the fact that the grids covering the cooling air inlets become covered in dust which causes the overheating. A soft brush will keep these grids clean.

One of the biggest problems facing internet users in Spain is the amount of spam and viruses floating around on the internet. In the UK, Internet Service Providers (ISP's) are far more aggressive in the protection of their clients than is the case in Spain. As to which of the two evils can be described as the worst is academic because both interfere seriously with the use and enjoyment of owning a computer, especially where the primary reason for its ownership is communication. For the average expatriate living in Spain, e-mail is the primary means of routine communication used to ensure those in the home country that all is well.

Email is simple, cheap and effective and does not require anyone to be available to receive it. It's probably true to say that most ex pats depend upon their PC more than they realise. However, in Spain, its operation is not quite what you may have become used to in the UK. Problems with support, inferior service and language difficulties can present great problems for users. Even setting up the machine can be difficult because of language problems.

As mentioned, spam is a real nuisance, much of it carrying graphic pornography, fraud attempts as well as numerous viruses, trojans and other material which you would be better off without. If you want to be able to use a computer effectively in Spain you need a reliable ISP with support in your own language. You also need to protect yourself from spam and viruses. In the section of this web site dealing with the internet we have suggested that a good Internet Service Provider is Arrakis. Offering British Telecom's internet service in Spain, they also provide support in English.

Spam

For several years and in common with many others we suffered dreadfully with huge quantities of Spam. We tried all sorts of Spam filters but none were 100 per cent reliable and we constantly lost e-mails from clients. Eventually we found ourselves having to go through all emails which had been rejected to ensure that genuine mail had not been junked. Dealing some days with well over 1000 junk emails the situation became more than a nuisance, requiring we spent several hours reading adverts for viagra, mortgages, people who wanted to give us millions, as well as being told several times a day that we had won millions on a lottery we had never entered. Even then, we sometimes deleted a genuine e-mail in error. Filters do not work simply because they make the odd mistake and the only way to combat this is to read all the mail rejected by the filters. Back to square one!

In January of 2003, more by luck than judgment, we came across a new type of filter. Instantly it reduced the amount of Spam we were receiving from well over 1000 (sometimes much more) per day to absolutely nothing. Spam was no longer a problem - the only mail we received was from people we wished to receive it. If you have ever written to SPC you'll have an idea of how it works but we'll briefly explain. Every email received by us is immediately quarantined (we don't see it) and the programme immediately writes to the sender asking them to confirm that they did in fact want contact with us. Simply by returning the verification request, the original email is immediately released for our perusal when we can deal with it immediately. This process needs only to be carried out once because once the senders address is in our address book, mail is immediately delivered as normal.

If as is the usual case with spam, the from address has been forged, then of course the email is not delivered and the original spam not verified. In four days from the day of receipt (or longer if you require) the spam is automatically deleted. To date, the system known as challenge email has proven itself to be foolproof - the only method we have tried and which works perfectly. We don't get spam and importantly, we don't lose mail as used to be the case. We recommend this programme for anyone using a computer in Spain or anywhere else come to that as being the permanent answer to what until now been a problem without solution. You can find CHOICEMAIL on the net using any search engine. For single users the programme is free.

Viruses & Trojans.

Unlike spam, viruses are criminal in their intent and the reasons for their creation many and varied. However, most are delivered by spam. Some viruses are written with the sole intention of overwhelming the internet. They do this in various ways but usually by accessing the address book of the mail programme in use and then sending infected mail to all those it has found within. This creates spam in alarming amounts all of which is or can be dangerous to the recipients. Some viruses are created simply to damage machines which they do in a variety of ways. Other viruses are quite happy to simply delete your operating system and all your files so that "all is lost". It is vital that you have some method of backing up your essential information and discipline yourself to do this at regular intervals. In Spain, if your computer is important to you then back up on a regular basis. A standalone drive is best for this and probably the best backup programme's you can use are either Norton Ghost or Accronis. If your hard drive falls over, then very simply all you do is back up the mirror image from the backup drive and once again, everything in the garden is rosy.

Included within the virus category are Trojans and Phishing. The purpose of these is to gain access to confidential information on your hard drive and forward it to those who then use it illegally. If you use internet banking or are in the habit of paying for items on the net with credit cards, it does not take a genius to realise what the potential problems can be. In Spain you will have little success with your bank claiming that your credit card or bank account has been accessed by fraud. Don't be fooled by thinking you are using a secure service because even though it may be, some programmes sit on your computer recording every key stroke that you make and then send them off to their authors who assemble the information they have sent. Bank accounts, credit card numbers etc are easily recovered. Unlike the UK, if you lose money from your bank account through internet fraud then that is exactly what you have done - lost it. The bank will hold you responsible. Full stop! Never keep bank information such as account numbers and passwords on your machine. It can be lifted without effort by those who know how. Programmes such as Zone Alarm Pro will allow you to keep information of a secret nature on your machine by encrypting it which does make for an easier life but do not use this programme unless you understand how it works.

There are two ways to avoid viruses: the first is not to use the internet, the second is to install an effective anti-virus programme. There are many of these but some are much better than others. We have tried all of the major anti-virus programme's but have settled on one which has proven to be extremely effective. The primary difficulty experienced by most anti-virus programme's is a new virus. Until such time as your computers virus database has been updated your machine is vulnerable. This is quite logical and explains how new viruses seem to explode onto the scene. As databases are updated the virus gradually dies out - losing the means to recreate itself. When a new virus is launched, it is described as being in the wild. One anti-virus programme which is unknown to the majority, has a 100 per cent record of catching viruses in the wild. In other words, it does not require a database in order to detect what it knows or believes to be a virus. We have had several instances where the programme informed us that it had found and quarantined/deleted an unnamed virus which a week or so later has appeared throughout the world.

This programme is NOD32. It is without equal and when used in conjunction with Choicemail and possibly Zone Alarm Pro, provides a secure as can be platform for safe effective use of PC's both for business and home use. However, whichever anti-virus programme you choose, if you are to use a computer in Spain then you certainly need a good one.