1. What are the CNET.co.uk Forums?
CNET.co.uk Forums are an interactive message board for discussing issues related to personal technology, consumer electronics, and digital living. They are a place to ask questions of the Edit team and other CNET.co.uk users.

2. How do I start a new discussion?
Make sure you are in the topic where you want to start the discussion. Then click on the "start a discussion" link. If you are not already registered you will be asked to do so before posting your comment.

3. How do I post a response?
To reply, go to the post that you wish to reply to, and click on "post a reply". You will be asked to register if you have not already done so.

4. Can I use HTML in my posts?
No. Any HTML you post will be interpreted as plain text and will be displayed as such.

5. I posted a comment in Talkback and now it has appeared in Forums. What's going on?
Talkback is there so you can post responses to a particular story and debate the story. But it's not always easy to find an existing discussion in Talkback unless you know which story it is attached to. Forums are there for you to raise issues of your own and find existing discussions easily. When you post a Talkback comment to a story, it automatically appears in the Forums. If you post the first Talkback comment to a story, then your comment automatically kicks off a new thread.

6. Does this mean that if I post a comment in Forums it appears in Talkback somewhere?
This will only happen if that forum thread is attached to a story. This means that if someone is reading a particular story they will be able to see all the comments posted to it, regardless of whether they were posted as Talkback or in Forums.

7. Do I have to be registered to use the forums?
If you want to post a comment, you do have to be registered, but registration is not required in order to browse and read the Forums (and Talkback). Registration is quick and easy and free. You can register here.

8. How can I tell if I am signed in?
Your CNET.co.uk alias will appear in the top left of the window.

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You probably have cookies set to "prompt". This problem occurs because the load balancer (see point 9) cannot determine which server you are connected to and tries to find out for each page element (hence the multiple attempts). There are several ways to configure load balancing to achieve this "persistence" (none of which are completely perfect) and we have found this is the best method for us provide access to the more complex areas of the site. A simple solution would be for you to allow cookies just for CNET.co.uk which can be configured in the options in Internet Explorer.

11. So what setting should I use for cookies?
You should set cookies to "on". If you set it to "ignore" then the site will work correctly but you would not be able to log in and use the restricted areas of the site. If you set it to "prompt" then you'll experience the problems in point 10.

12. How do I report a problem or an offensive post?
Email the editors at feedback @ cnet.co.uk