Services:

Software / Hardware problems

We have years of experience in diagnosing and resolving software and hardware issues, which allows us to quickly and efficiently find a solution to your problems.

Virus & Spyware removal

Computer viruses have been around for a few decades now, and they can potentially cause devastating damage to your computer system, and your business. One of the key defining characteristics of a virus is its ability to replicate, and spread to other computer systems.

Nowadays viruses are mostly made for financial gain, so the focus has changed from programs that cause some sort of damage to the computer system, to programs that quietly gather whatever information that the programmer wants to obtain. Some viruses are benign, and were designed as a proof of concept, but most have a purpose, and it's rarely something that would be beneficial to you.

The term spyware was first coined in 2000, and is basically a program that installs itself onto a computer, without the user's knowledge. These programs are nearly always developed for financial gain, and most do this through some sort of directed advertisement, with information it has gained from spying on what you are doing.

We can check for, and remove, these unwanted programs from your computer system, or network, and also advise you on the best ways to protect yourself.

Internet / Network security

It is important to know what measures you can take to protect yourself from the many malicious programs, and people, that are trying to gain access to your computer systems. Sophos completed a study in 2005, and this study showed that a computer system, if left unpatched and without a firewall, could be compromised within 12 minutes. This basically means, without adequate security, your computer systems are being left open to attack.

Luckily, since the release of Service Pack 2 (for Windows XP), your computer should at least have a firewall, and the built-in security centre should warn you if you do not have an antivirus program, and if you have, if it is in date or not. This has helped prevent a lot of attacks succeeding, but there is also a requirement for the end user to be diligent in the way they use their systems.

We can setup security measures on your local computers, and networks, to minimise your exposure to potential threats. We can also advise you on the best ways to ensure that these security measures are not compromised.

PC Upgrades

It is sometimes necessary to upgrade your computer system, or network, to support new software, or hardware. We can analyse your current system, and advise you on any suitable upgrade paths.

New installations

We are able to offer competitive solutions to your needs, whether it's a new computer system, or a complete network setup for your office or home.

Broadband set up

Whether it is a new installation, or you feel you are not getting the best speeds from your broadband, we can help you.

Wired & Wireless network set up

If you have more than one computer in your office or home, then it is usually a good idea to have these computers networked in some way, so data can be transmitted, or resources like a Printer/Internet can be shared. There are two main ways that we achieve this, and that is with either cables or wireless. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Cabled networks are currently best for speed and reliability. The technology tends to offer higher throughputs, so this is useful for transferring large files or backing up over a network. The disadvantages associated with cabled networks are expandability and mobility, so it is necessary to plan ahead, with the layout of the network.

Wireless connections are useful for mobility, but do suffer from large decreases in connection speed the further you move away from the access point. There is also an issue with security, because wireless signals can travel great distances, and it is possible for these to be intercepted from outside the building.

We can setup a network based on your requirements, or advise you on what we feel would be the best setup, based on your current and future needs.

Onsite / Offsite & remote support

We can offer you different levels of support, depending on your needs; from telephone support, to onsite support within an agreed timeframe. As and where necessary, we can setup remote support, so this allows us to quickly resolve most problems, with minimal interruption to your schedule.

Custom built PC's & supplies

We can offer you competitive prices on whatever specifications you need for the task.

Backup solutions

Hard drive failures are not that uncommon. All hard drives will fail; it's simply a matter of time. Most manufacturers will have information somewhere that will tell you what the MTBF (mean time between failures) are, and this will allow you to judge, roughly, the quality of the hardware. Typically, a desktop hard drive will last, on average, one million hours (so they say) which means they should last about 114 years.

A lot of people in the IT industry believe this is a little on the optimistic side. Some large scale IT installations have clusters that are approaching one million hard drives. This means they should expect an annual failure rate of 8800 hard drives (0.88%), but what has been observed are failure rates that are far higher than this, and in some cases approaching 13% annually.

The point to this is, you cannot expect hardware, especially hard drives, to last as long as they should theoretically last. If the data is critical, then the data should be backed up in real time, and also backed up offsite on a daily basis.

We can setup systems that will allow you to backup your data in real time, and advise you on the best practices to ensure the integrity of your data. We can also offer you offsite backup over the Internet.

Data Recovery

Should the worst happen, we can offer you a few different solutions to your problems. Accidental deletion of data is usually the easiest to recover, due to the fact that the data is not deleted, but just the reference to its location.

If you have deleted your data accidentally, then you must stop using the computer the data was deleted on immediately, as using it will potentially overwrite the deleted data.

If you have suffered a hard disk failure, then it might be necessary to send the disk
off to a specialist company, who can replace key components on the hard drive, and
recover the data.

If you have deleted data, and overwritten with new data, it might be prohibitively
expensive to recover the data that was overwritten.

Whatever the problem is, we can advise you on the best course of action, and in a
lot of cases recover the data onsite.