Time's not up
When will computers and/or the internet become consumer products and Inside IT and Online become relegated to trade magazines? I am sending this query so that, just this once, there will be something I understand! John Gilder

Jack Schofield replies: For the past 50 years, computers have kept getting both cheaper and more powerful. This has had three dramatic effects. First, computers have been used to do more and more things. The computer field is no longer restricted to stock control, payroll etc, but now takes in games, graphics, photography, music, movies and many other things. Multi-function tools that can take thousands of peripherals and run tens of thousands of programs are always going to be much more complicated than dedicated appliances such as washing machines or even word processors.

Second, the arrival of entertainment PCs and internet connectivity in amazingly cheap PCs has led to a huge expansion in the number of users. Computing is no longer restricted to a few people in large companies and universities: it is open to everybody. That means there are a lot more inexperienced users who need a helping hand. Third, expensive mechanical devices such as VCRs, cassette players and turntables (and tills, cash machines, and one-armed bandits) are being replaced by cheap digital ones. Your TiVo or other set-top box, for example, is just a dedicated computer. All these changes, and the consequences, need explaining, and this is still a growing, not a diminishing, problem. Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ computer language, said: "There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone."

Under attack?
My firewall (Sygate) registers incidents of port scanning on a daily basis. My ISP, Blueyonder, is not interested if the abuse does not stem from another source using Blueyonder. Is there anything the normal user can do about port scanning? And, crucially, does it really matter? Alan Cornell

JS: A computer on the internet has 65,536 (ie 64K) "ports" that are used for communications, some of them "listening" for inputs, and the internet would not work at all if computers could not find and talk to other computers. Therefore, there is always going to be a sort of "background noise" that can be ignored. More persistent probing is more worrying, but is more likely to be the result of a worm or other virus than a person; if it is a person, it may well be a teenager playing with a port scanner. They all do it. Of course, real hackers may be trying to break into your computer, but don't take it personally. They like to have PCs they can use as intermediaries to hide their own machines, to mount denial of service (DoS) attacks and so on, but they are looking for easy targets - especially PCs that have already been compromised by a Trojan. They are like petty thieves trying doors: if yours is locked, they will just move on to the next one. Persistent port scanning is impolite and probably against the ISP's terms of service, so if you can find a culprit inept or naïve enough not to cover his tracks properly, you may get his internet account closed. However, no one is likely to take much action unless a serious crime is committed. For a great but brain-sapping account of what firewall logs can tell you, see www.robertgraham.com/pubs/firewall-seen.html.

Way out
I saved a message to the Drafts folder in Outlook Express 6.0: now there seems to be no way to send it! The "Move to folder" command does not permit sending it to the Outbox. Can this be correct? Dave Null

JS: If you have drafted an email, then presumably it isn't finished. You must therefore double-click it to open it, then hit Send to save it in the Outbox, and it will be sent. If you have to open the email to send it, there is less chance of you sending something unfinished or that you will regret.

Backchat

· Last week, Thomas Haworth complained about being automatically diverted to the wrong national version of the Google search engine. Philip Endean points out that if he installed the Google Toolbar, "the Options button would enable him to specify whichever national Google site he wanted". I've been using the Google Toolbar since it came out, and it's the first item in Options, so I can't explain how I've managed to miss this.

· An anonymous reader was hit by a dialler that was downloaded in the background, dropped the internet connection and dialled an expensive number. Mike McCracken from MMTel, in "a blatant attempt to promote our product", says Modem Blocker "fits between your modem and the telephone line, watches the numbers your modem dials and stops any to premium or International High rate calls (there are a lot of scams that dial these)". See www.callprotector.co.uk