If you buy a new PC then it will almost always be supplied with a new “Flat Panel” display. Many users are doing “dual display” in order to extend their PC Desktop across two displays or simply replacing a bulky old monitor for a slimmer display to save desk space. Choosing the most appropriate display for your needs is important and there are many considerations to be born in mind:
We all receive irritating spam emails but did you know that there are billions of spam emails sent every day? Not only are they irritating but they also potentially carry damaging attachments that can cause problems for your business.
There is also another aspect that’s an issue for small businesses and that’s the amount of time wasted dealing with spam. Have you ever considered how the minutes add up and cost your business?
By way of an example we were talking to one client about the amount of spam they received. When the client had considered the interruption time, opening the email, briefly reading it, deleting the email and moving on to the next one they estimated that on average an employee spent 15 minutes spread throughout the day dealing with spam emails.
By Derek Rogers
The benefits of completing a network audit on your computer network are numerous. Not only does it help keep your computer network at optimal condition through analyzing power consumption, needed equipment upgrades or security issues, but can help establish an asset base and future cash flow needs for equipment and office space planning.
Typically, the benefits can keep you informed of versions of software and licenses to help detect shortages or plan mass upgrades. Network audits can locate hard drives, network adapters, CPU details, motherboard specifications and peripherals and detect security issues, such as where antivirus or firewalls need to be installed.
Another one of the main benefits is to give you a comprehensive, no-hassle network inventory database that is extremely helpful in determining future needs when it comes to hardware and software. Another benefit of a network audit, is analyzing security needs, which is especially important to keep from costly downtime, or complete data loss, especially on large and scattered out networks.
Like spam, viruses are a problem which affect all computer users, choosing the right anti virus product means that you are getting the best protection for your money while also minimising the performance impact the software has on your PC.
It’s all too common to find people with reasonable spec PCs that are being bogged down by their antivirus software. How many times have you wondered why your relatively new PC is running slowly? There is a good chance that if you’re using one of the more ‘famous’ brands that this is killing your PCs performance!
Don’t be put off by the unusual term ‘Firewall’ or it sounding like Geek Speak!
The job of a firewall is to stop unwanted intruders from getting access to your PC, data and network. It works by sitting between your internet connection and your PC or server. Then using some really clever stuff it analyses the data request that’s leaving and entering your network. If it’s worked out that either event is not what it expects then it’ll block the request.
Without getting too complicated it also allows ‘authorised’ users to have access to your PC and network – I’ll come on to this a little later.
A firewall comes in two forms – hardware and software. Let’s take a look at a hardware firewall first.
David Thomas Firstly, what is an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)? It’s nothing more than a battery back-up combined with some clever software that can provide emergency power when your normal power supply has failed.
So how does it benefit a small business? If you’re running a server without a UPS and the power goes off, the server will suddenly stop working which can cause a variety of problems such as a hard-disk crash. A hard-disk crash could be very severe and result in your server not working or the loss of your business data.
When a computer problem occurs why do a lot of companies who provide IT support fail to focus on the impact to their client’s business rather than simply on the computer problem?
Computers are now an integral element of every business throughout the land and sadly they occasionally go wrong! So it’s obvious that computer problems can result in serious problems and hardship for a business.
As a business owner and/or PC user, you can often be left feeling frustrated and lonely when you encounter a problem. In fact I know that’s how I felt when my original consultancy business had problems and I was left in a vacuum by those who supported me not understanding the impact on my business.
This problem is further compounded by the findings in a recent article that stated 22% of SMEs believe that when they take into account lost time and productivity that they’d lost £5,000 worth of business per annum. Oh that’s OK because the cost of IT support will be far greater than the £5,000 lost! Not so. For the majority of SMEs the cost of IT support is significantly less than £5,000.
Tom Lord