Some helpful tips
I receive quite a lot of emails from users of Hattrick Manager and over time it is easy to see how easily most of the issues may be prevented. Here are some helpful tips that will make your overall computer experience a lot more smooth (and secure).
Quick summary of helpful links:
- Mozy - Free automated 2 GB online backup
- AVG - Free Anti Virus client
- F-Secure Online Virus Scanner - Virus check without installing anything
- F-Secure Online Health Check - Make sure all your programs are up to date
- Gmail - Get a long lasting email address
Backup
More or less every day I receive an email from somone who’s computer harddisk crashes, losing everything from family photos to your Hattrick team data. Make sure to backup your most important data, and make sure it is backed up automatically (otherwise you won’t do it often enough).
I’ve recommended it before and still do, try out Mozy (free 2 GB online remote backup, unlimited for $4.95). I’ve installed it, told it what to backup and now everything is taken care of. Make sure to select the most important stuff to backup (My Documents, Hattrick Manager data, etc) then those free 2 GB goes a long way. Download, install and you’re ready to go. Take 5 minutes to prevent disaster.
Note: The link include my referrral code (EAQV45). What it means is that if you sign up I get some additional extra space for free, nothing else. Once you have your own account you could recommend your friends and get some additional free space yourself.
Anti Virus
Get an antivirus program. AVG is completely free and does a nice job. If you don’t want to permanently install anything, use F-Secure Online Virus Scanner on a regular basis. While you’re at it, us F-Secure Online Health Check to make sure all your installed programs are up to date and doesn’t contain any known security exploits. And of course, make sure your Windows Updates are set to update your computer automatically.
Get a long lasting email address
By far the most common question I receive is that someone cannot retrieve their registration key because they’ve changed email address. Sooner or later you will change your internet service provider, and if you’ve got your email address there you will lose it to.
Solution is as simply as it is self-evident, get yourself a Gmail account. Powerful mail search, everything free, almost 7 GB of storage and most importantly - it will be there wherever you are and you won’t lose it.
If you don’t like using a webbased client, you may use POP or IMAP with Gmail and use your normal mail client as usual (like Thunderbird). If you got yourself your own domain name, you may still use Gmail, it does support that too.

