SerendipiTi IT Support Northants

USB flash-drive security risk

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:32:25 0000

If you allow employees to use their own USB flash-drives in your business computers, you could be at risk of a virus attack.

Computer memory upgrade

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:40:22 0000

Reported Issue: Customer experiencing poor performance on PC.

Mandy McKenzie says

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:29:12 0000

"people are keen to criticize and slow in praising when a good service has been offered"

Government tax on broadband

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:27:40 0000

Just as broadband promises to get faster, it could become slightly more expensive too.

Claire Miller says

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:38:02 0000

a speedy, hassle free support service.

Install broadband equipment

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:25:21 0000

Reported Issue: Customer changed broadband provider. Assistance required installing equipment, activating new service and deploying to entire network.

Service of slow computers

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:59:18 0000

Reported Issue: Customer experiencing performance issues with 3 computers on the network.

Swap old laptop for new

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:30:32 0000

Reported Issue: Customer has a new laptop - assistance required setting up new laptop and transferring files from original laptop.

Tim Marlow says

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:23:45 0000

..reliable, knowledgeable and easy to deal with. We will definitely use SerendipiTi again.

Speed up your PC

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:08:28 0000

There are plenty of things that can be done to speed your PC.

How secure is your data

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:07:55 0000

If a laptop belonging to your business was lost or stolen, how much of your data would you lose?

deleteme Fifty-Pence Broadband Tax

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:07:32 0000

Just as broadband promises to get faster, it could become slightly more expensive too.

BT to double business broadband speeds

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:07:09 0000

Businesses are going to get a broadband boost with new plans announced by BT.
It is going to upgrade the broadband speed to more than double that currently advertised for its residential and corporate users.
BT’s decision follows the recent launch of the Digital Britain report. This highlighted the need for faster internet speeds in the UK.
Gavin Patterson is the chief executive officer at BT Retail. He said: “We believe the true value of broadband is in helping customers enjoy the exciting new services that it makes possible.
“In line with the government’s Digital Britain review, we will be making higher speeds more widely available.”
Mr Patterson said that high-speed broadband will bring a faster and more reliable service for businesses.
He believes it will allow people to transform the way they live, work, play and learn.
BT was once known as British Telecom in the UK, and was originally part of the Post Office. It currently gets a third of its revenue from operations in 170 countries around the world.

delme USB flash drive security risk

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:06:46 0000

Make your IT simple to keep computer costs firmly under control

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:06:16 0000

Small businesses make their IT far too complicated, costing them thousands of pounds in money and causing hundreds of hours to be wasted.
That’s the verdict of a software company called OpTier.
It has surveyed a number of small businesses about the technology they put in place to keep staff connected and manage information.
57 per cent of small business respondents admitted they made things too complicated.
Typically, that meant that staff were forced to waste time (costing the business money) trying to work out how to best use the technology.
Ironically, that removed any time gained by introducing new technology or software in the first place.
Motti Tal is the founder and business development manager at OpTier.
He said: “Businesses must remember that complexity costs money.
“Taking a simple view can be the key to not only quick problem resolution but, vitally, to avoiding problem and reducing costs.”
The advice from SerendipITi is to get an IT expert in to look at the problem you are trying to solve.
New ideas crop up every day in IT, and an experienced expert is more likely to find a faster and cheaper solution.
The team at SerendipITi would be delighted to advise on the most cost-effective ways to make your IT work for you. You can book a no obligation free consultation by calling 01933 229133.

BSA starts naming and shaming in London campaign

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 09:37:36 0000

BSA starts naming and shaming in London campaign

By Simon Quicke
3 June 2009

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has started to name and shame those caught using illegal software as part of its its two-month campaign against software piracy in London.

The BSA announced its plans for the London anti-piracy blitz earlier this week and listed naming and shaming as one of the features of the programme, along with customer education and advice about software asset management.

To kick things off the BSA has revealed details of a case taken against architectural and design practice John McAslan & Partners, which was caught using unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Adobe products earlier this year.

The company was forced to pay £10,000 in a settlement as well as forking out a further £18,000 to get the correct licences on around 100 computers.

The BSA managed to run up settlements totalling £400,000 with UK companies last year as it turned the legal screws on those caught with unlicensed software.

15,000 Google searches = one tasty cheeseburger

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:38:09 0000

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about how much carbon dioxide is created by Google and other internet businesses. Because millions of people use Google at the same time, they need things called “server farms”. These are giant warehouses full of computers to run the software.
As you can imagine they use a lot of energy and create a lot of heat. Now Google is claiming that getting a single cheeseburger into the hands of a hungry American gobbles up as much carbon dioxide as 15,000 searches.
It added that the CO2 emissions of creating the average daily newspaper are equivalent to 850 Google searches, and one load in a dishwasher worth 5,100. The company also claims to be at the cutting edge of energy efficiency. Senior vice president of operations Urs Holzle said: “Through efficiency innovations, we have managed to cut energy usage in our data centres by over 50%."

Could a baby monitor slow your Wi-Fi?

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:37:47 0000

If your business is based near a load of houses, or you work from home regularly, your Wi-Fi could be slowed down by baby monitors.
Unlicensed equipment that operates on the same frequency as Wi-Fi is often responsible for slow internet speeds, according to a new report.
It claims that the greatest concentration of different radio types tends to occur in urban areas, so interference tends to increase with population density.
However, interference also occurs in low population density areas.
A single device, such as a baby monitor or analogue video sender, can severely affect Wi-Fi services within a short range.
The report commissioned by telecoms regular Ofcom suggests a scheme and official logo on devices that won’t interfere with Wi-Fi.

10,000 DVDs on one disc

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:36:53 0000

Here’s an exciting technological leap which could happen in the next five years.
Researchers have invented a new type of disc capable of storing 10,000 times more data than a DVD... but it would have the same physical size.
The team from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia has been messing about with nanoparticles, meaning they can effectively stack data on top of other data on a disc.
If this disc can be made commercially, it will store 10 terabytes of data and could trigger another computing revolution.
At home you could keep 300 films or 250,000 songs on one disc.
In your business, it would bring the price of data storage down from “very cheap” to “virtually free”.
And the potential applications are huge.
Researchers have already suggested the discs could be used to store extremely large medical files such as MRIs as well as financial, military and security data that is heavily encrypted.

Speed your network up with a comprehensive summer service

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:36:30 0000

June is here and it’s time you gave your computer network a summer service.
Just like a car, your computer network willl perform better and break down less if you get it serviced regularly.
It can take as little as a few hours to check all your PCs and ensure they are operating as efficiently as possible.
And it could mean you and your staff will be able to work more quickly and efficiently. To get a quote and book your service, give SerendipiTi - your outsourced insider - a call on 01933 229133.

1,000 times faster broadband in your business

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:36:08 0000

If you think your business broadband is fast now, how about if it was 1,000 times faster?
Several research projects are happening right now with that goal in mind.
The plan is to create a European optical broadband network that could be the fastest in the world.
The effect of super fast broadband in your business cannot be over estimated.
Emails would send instantly, no matter how big the attachments in them.
Websites would also appear the millisecond you pressed the button.
Things like video conferencing will be pleasant and easy to do, and working from home but staying genuinely in touch with the office - perhaps by video link - will be commonplace.
It’s also likely that with super fast speeds a new range of software will be developed to connect businesses and customers in ways we can’t even start to think about now.

Bill Gates: Technology will pull us out of recession

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:35:41 0000

Technology is going to help the world pull itself out of recession - according to the man who once had a mission to put a
computer into every home and business.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, told a recent conference that the computer revolution had really “only just started”.
And he believes new technologies are going to make a significant difference to businesses in the years and decades to come.
“The opportunities for innovation are stronger today than ever,” Gates told the conference.
Meantime Steve Ballmer, the man who replaced Gates at the top of Microsoft, believes the internet is the thing that will revolutionise business.
Huge amounts of money are still being poured into research and development, as hi-tech companies battle it out to find the next big internet thing.
Microsoft alone spends a staggering $9 billion a year on research.
That’s great for small businesses here in UK - because we get new efficient ways to speak to our customers and run our businesses more efficiently.

Swine flu = spam

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:53:47 0000

Spammers have been quick to take advantage of fears over the swine flu to try and get your credit card number.
Millions of spam emails are currently flooding the internet, sending people to fake online pharmacies or enticing them to click on links leading to malicious software.
On the first day that news of swine flu went mainstream in the UK - Monday 27th April - anti-virus company McAfee estimated that swine flu spam already made up two per cent of all spam sent.
Security researchers also found that domain registrations of websites that included the word “swine” in their names were significantly up.
These sites could be aimed at people searching for news about swine flu. By landing on the sites and clicking on stories within them, there’s a danger you might be loading viruses onto your computer.

Spammers were shut down but now spam is fully back

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:53:21 0000

If you thought the amount of spam you got went down significantly a few months ago, you were right.
But the bad news is it’s back up to normal levels.
A spam network called McColo was taken down by its Internet Service Provider (ISP) at the end of last year. It was the host for the world’s largest spam gangs.
Google analysed the inboxes of 15 million business users, and found that the amount of spam went down by 40 per cent overnight.
But levels of spam had returned to “normal” by the beginning of last month (April).
Google also says that during the first quarter of this year spam levels grew by 1.2 per cent every day - the highest they’ve been since early 2008.

David Blunkett sends security warning

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:52:52 0000

MP David Blunkett has told businesses to be “scared” about how disruptive cyber attacks could be.
He told the recent Infosecurity conference in London that businesses don’t recognise how much danger they are in from criminals hacking into their systems.
And most businesses don’t rely enough on IT experts enough to protect them.
Former Home Secretary David said: “We’ve got to scare people.
“We need to get across the potential for their business to be disrupted. I would like there to be a person in all companies who has a remit for the security of that company.”
He added: “Hacking is theft, and we need to come down on it like a ton of bricks.”
To get the security of your network checked, call SerendipITi on 01933 229133.