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Email [email protected]Issue 631 • 11 – 24 May 2022Roberts Stream 94i internet radio
£171 from Amazon http://www.snipca.com/41520Back in Issue 618
(page 29) you gave a
five-star Buy It award to
the Roberts Stream 94i
internet radio. All I can say
is thank you! For a long
time I’d been looking for a
device akin to a portable
radio that would let me listen to my
favourite internet radio stations (and
also access my NAS drives) without
having to download multiple phone
apps or keep a particular website open.
I can do this on the Roberts Radio,
thanks to its Ethernet socket. It also lets
me switch to national DAB stations,and there’s a headphone
socket, so I can plug in a
pair of wired headphones.
It’s bliss. I no longer have
to work out why my
Bluetooth headphones
aren’t syncing at 2am.
I’m grateful to
Computeractive for not only covering
popular devices and software, but
always going the extra mile to find
and explain the hidden extras.
Morvyn Finchmake the bar disappear. Press this
shortcut again to make it reappear.
Stephen Daley
SECURITY
Use KeePass to store a password
database on your PC
I found the password suggestions
in your recent Letters pages
interesting, but they’re of no practical
use to those of us who have multiple
online accounts that process financial
transactions. I have at least 15.
I use the password manager KeePass
(https://keepass.info) to store all my
online account details. I keep its AES256-
bit encrypted database on my computer,
rather than online in the ‘cloud’, which I
don’t trust to be secure.
My database is protected by two-factor
authentication, and I open it using
something I have and something I know.
The ‘something I have’ is a photograph,
held in a virtual file created by VeraCrypt,
which itself is AES256-bit encrypted. To
open this, I type a 17-character password
that includes upper- and lower-case
letters, numbers and symbols. The
‘something I know’ is an eight-character
password that uses a similar mixture of
characters. I have configured KeePass to
require a keyfile (have) and a password
(know) before it will open.
When KeePass loses focus in Windows,
I have to enter a password to reopen it.
This is why I use a short one - the keyfile
is still available in the virtual disk.
I use KeePass’s password generator
(pictured below) to create all my
passwords, and the software can also
enter usernames and passwords to log
into websites automatically. For complete
security, I also keep my website URLs in
KeePass. Keeping them in browser
bookmarks is insecure because they can
be hacked. To open a website, I simply
click an icon, then click to auto-type
my login details. This means I need to
remember only two passwords to access
all my online accounts.
By the way, describing this strategy is
far more tedious than actually using it!
Robert BaldwinWINDOWS
Use Dimensions 4 to get a
more accurate clock
In Issue 629’s Make Windows
Better, you recommend using
alternative timing sources to set your
computer’s clock. I use my PC to control
my amateur radio transceiver, so I can
communicate using data modes such
as FT8. For this purpose, my computer
must be accurate to within a fraction
of a second. To achieve this, I use the
Dimensions 4 time source to sync my
computer clock. Visit http://www.snipca.
com/41654 then click the small
download link at the bottom.
Bruce HepburnSECURITY
Create passwords using
What3words
Regarding the best way to create
strong passwords, you can use
What3words (https://what3words.com,
pictured above right) to help you. This
provides over 90 unique three-wordphrases for my postal address. Add a
divider, a couple of capital letters and
today’s date or time, and I think you’d
have a very strong password.
Pat JamesOFFICE
Use keyboard shortcut to
double-underline words
Hidden in the screenshot for
your tip on creating an overline
in LibreOffice Writer (Issue 630, page 47)
was another feature I often use - adding a
double underline to words. Readers
might know how to do this: just click
Format, Text, then select Double
Underline. But they may not know
the keyboard shortcut that performs
this action. It’s simply Ctrl+D (see
screenshot below).
Warren Carr