Munich  - In the best-case scenario, people just have to deal with their internet routers twice - when buying and when installing them.

But routers, which connect computers to the wider internet, sending messages and downloading data packages, come in all shapes and sizes nowadays, so check the selection before making a purchase.

There are two important considerations when purchasing a router. Is it pre-packed with a modem? And is it WLAN-capable or able to access the internet wirelessly? Price differences between WLAN and non-WLAN capable routers are minimal, says Johannes Endres of the Hanover-based c't computer magazine.

Bonn, Germany  - Windows users should use th

Munich  - Criminals wasted no time in integrating Barack Obama's inauguration into the latest wave of spam mail seeking to lure hapless surfers.

The latest scam e-mail messages claim ostensibly to bear news of Obama's surprise resignation. But the messages are, in fact, intended solely to lure users to websites infected with malware, warns antivirus laboratory Sophos. Under no circumstances should you click on any link in such a message.

Bonn, Germany  - The latest major threat to computing safety, the Conficker worm, is spreading rapidly throughout the internet. The worm represents less of a risk to home PCs than networked computers at corporations and institutions, but that does not mean that stand- alone computers are immune to the threat, says Katrin Alberts from the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn.

The first crucial step for all users is to install the Microsoft patch (MS08-067) designed to close the security gap in Windows. A virus scanner with current virus definitions is also a must for identifying and removing the ill-intentioned program.

Washington  - Experiencing Windows Explorer crashes in Vista? The answer may be to install a third-party replacement for the Windows file manager. Directory Opus, from Australian software maker GPSoft (http://www.gpsoft.com.au), can do everything that Windows Explorer can do - and much more. It can even act as a complete replacement for Windows Explorer, responding to the WinKey-E shortcut just like Windows' file manager does.

Hanover  - Technology that once seemed best suited for unintentional comedy is now ready for practical application. Software for text and speech recognition is now sufficiently mature to be considered for general office use, say the editors of the Hanover- based iX magazine.

Text recognition or optical character recognition (OCR), requires just a standard multi-functional scanner with 300 dpi performance or better to produce decent results. None of the programs tested by the magazine showed any glaring weaknesses.

The results do depend primarily on the quality of the original. Laser printouts in standard fonts are almost all read perfectly. Not surprisingly, poor photocopies of exotic typefaces tend to produce more errors.