Category Archives: Hardware

Save Time & Money with Proactive IT Services

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Save money and time

IT support services can be one of the largest and most unpredictable expenses within a modern business. Unexpected failures, mandatory upgrades and sudden staff changes can happen quickly and the costs can soon add up.

These factors are a part of the IT world and make IT departments costly, hard to manage, and difficult to budget for.

Switching your business to a proactive IT support provider (or managed service provider – MSP) can lower costs and reduce unpredictable expenses. Making the switch can cut down management overheads and reduce budgets to a fixed monthly cost. Here are some tips on how this can be done:

Reducing Infrastructure

It is common in many firms for tasks to pass through multiple devices before they can be delivered or shipped. Invoices, payroll, and deliverables are particularly the common culprits. When looking to improve efficiency and lower unnecessary costs, this is typically the first place to trim fat.

Instead of adding office clutter with more servers and devices, cloud resources can streamline these processes. Using cloud-based technology to do some of the same tasks as before typically adds more power and improves speed and efficiency.

Cloud-based services are usually faster and available to more users (both internal and external) at once. Files and services are easier to access and less likely to clog up the internal network.

Reducing the overheads associated with running internal servers is commonly a major bonus too. Eliminating associated costs such as ongoing maintenance, security, cooling and upgrades are some of the bonuses many firms receive.

Cloud technology has the power to simplify and speed up your entire work-flow while making large financial savings.

For most businesses, these savings can be put into critical areas of the firm where they can be better used.

Keeping IT costs predictable

In the world of IT, bad news is a fact of life. Systems failures and critical events will always happen eventually, it’s just a question of when. Virus attacks, malware, hackers, and hardware failures occur commonly and can take a single system or the entire network out of operation for days.

Proactive IT services focus on tackling these issues before they happen. Continuous monitoring of the systems can alert us of hardware issues before their symptoms even begin.

Antivirus, firewall, and security systems are also kept up-to-date every night to prevent threats from being exploited and data being stolen or held for ransom.

Reducing Downtime

IT failures that take your systems offline typically cost far more than the total repair bill to fix it as staff are sitting around waiting. Every minute your systems are unavailable is time spent not creating business income or value. The more staff you employ, the more the cost multiplies.

It’s important to consider the value of the business’s reputation on top of just downtime. Not having services available when clients or customers need them most can sour relationships. Your services may be the difference between meeting or missing a critical deadline. If your service isn’t reliable then clients may look at your competitors for a solution.

No Internal IT Hires

As every business owner knows, the cost of staff is far more than just their salary. Holiday pay, retirement, sick leave, training and downtime all must be factored into the total cost. Staff costs are the single biggest bill to pay, even in the smallest IT departments.

Proactive IT reduces staff costs down to a single lower cost bill that includes all your IT needs.

We train and manage our own staff to service and support your firm. By doing so, you get all the advantages of an IT department to meet your business needs without the overheads and management that are not central to your customer demands.

Proactive IT Services for your Firm

While IT and services are complex, expensive, and resource consuming; it doesn’t have to be for your business. Proactive IT services present a simple and cost-effective solution to meet your requirements.

We can slash your downtime, secure your business and keep on top of your infrastructure for one low monthly bill.

If you are in Adelaide South Australia please contact us on 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au  to see if our Proactive IT Services are the right fit for your firm.

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Buying Technology This Christmas

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Christmas TechChristmas will soon be here. The latest devices and gadgets are hitting store shelves just in time to keep up with the rush. Social media, blogs, magazines, television screens and the web are brimming with advertisements and reviews of the latest technology you can buy.

Before you rush out to buy the gadgets you’ve been waiting all year for, consider a few important questions before handing over your hard-earned cash.

What Problem Do I Need Solved?

First, you must ask what problem you are trying to solve with a new piece of technology. The most important thing to consider is how adopting your new device will improve on what you had before.

Also remember that it is all not work and in some cases, a sleek new gadget or device for fun and play is ideal.

When you’ve answered this question, you should consider whether there is other tech or competing devices out there that can perform even better.

Is Being an Early Adopter Good?

Early adopters are people that can’t wait for new tech to be released, they wait in line on release day and pride themselves on having the latest gadgets as soon as they hit the shelves. If you recognise yourself in this description you are likely to snap up the latest devices the day (or very soon after) they are released. This eager anticipation, however, is not always the ideal way to get the best deals or the best gadgets.

Companies often rely on new product hype to give sales an early boost. Waiting a short time for the marketing and hype to subside, can save a lot of money.

As the honeymoon period dies down and initial sales fall, companies often mark down their prices to keep their devices attractive and sales high. As newer, competing devices get released, companies also cut prices to maintain strong sales figures. For the budget smart consumer this is an opportunity for a bargain. A device good enough to buy on launch day is well worth waiting for (especially at a cheaper price!).

Have You Read The Reviews?

With all the information available on the internet we have access to seemingly unlimited amounts of information at our fingertips. Often weeks before a product is released, reviews are written and posted to various websites across the web.

One of the best things you can do when considering a new device is to watch and read a wide variety of product reviews. It also pays to be cautious of reviews that are particularly glowing or too downbeat as they may be a paid for review by the manufacturer. Keep an eye out for middle of the road reviews that fairly weigh the pros and cons of each device.

Have I Found the Best Deal?

There are many ways to keep an eye out to make sure you get the best price on the device. If you can, monitor prices over time to see how they rise and fall to find the best time to purchase.

When purchasing online, many sites include a box to add a coupon code when you are ready to buy. It sometimes pays to jump over to Google and search the website name and ‘coupon’ or ‘voucher’ to see if you can find the coupon code. A quick search can save you as much as 10, 15, or 20 per cent on some purchases.

Sometimes companies send out offers to appeal to groups they want to market to. A companies Facebook page may get different offers or vouchers than its Twitter followers or newsletter for example.

It can pay to search around for offers and vouchers to get money off before you checkout. A quick 5 minutes search can potentially save you a huge amounts of cash.

Speak with a Friend or Colleague

Do you know of someone who has a good grasp on technology? If so ask them about what you are about to buy and what their thoughts are of it. They may even know of a another website or shop to purchase the item from that offers a better price and / or service.

Purchase in Confidence

If you have asked yourself these questions, done all your research, and found the answers you are looking for then you may well be ready to buy.

You can now do so with the confidence that you have done all your research and you are getting the best deal and gadget for your money.

If you are still confused then let us know and we can help take the stress out of purchasing new technology: Give DP Computing a ring on 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au .

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Christmas Holidays Setup & Installation

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Devices

The holiday season is upon us again. Advertisers have released their festive adverts and stores have dusted off their Christmas displays from last year. Most importantly, shopping centres have moved their latest and greatest devices to the front of the store.

There may still be work to do, however, before we can invite round family a little maintenance, updates and set-up goes a long way to ensure the holiday season goes without a hitch.

Sadly, not every device is ready to run straight out the box. Not every device even comes ready to interact with others when it’s first opened. Each new gadget comes with its own setup and new things to learn.

Often today, devices, toys and computers require extensive updates before they are ready to function. This commonly means large downloads and lengthy installation periods.

In previous years devices have been purchased for Christmas, only to be rendered useless waiting for updates while large numbers of requests crash the company servers. This can be highly frustrating and put a real dampener on the holiday spirit.

Here is how DP Computing can help you this season:

Setup New Devices

In the modern day simply purchasing a gadget doesn’t make it ready to use. Often they still need setup, updates, and extra steps to make it safe to access the internet too.

Bring your device to us and we can have it safe and ready to use the second you unbox it. We’ll perform initial setup, get it ready for the network, and install mandatory updates. By the time we’re done, your device will be the first one ready to use. For relevant devices, we can install additional features and software too: line of business software, MS Office suite, antivirus and security features and configure applications like email.

Whatever the device we can configure it to the way you want to use it.

Transfer Data and Retire Old Devices

Getting a brand new device can be fun and exciting. Before getting carried away with the latest technology, we must consider what happens to our old data too. Depending on the device there are any number of dangers and pitfalls to think about.

Replacing an ageing laptop or desktop computer with a brand new model has the inherent danger of what happens to the old data?

These computers typically use hard drive disks to store all their data. When disposed of improperly, hard drives are vulnerable to being removed and taken. These can often be read and copied by thieves looking to steal your data. Old devices containing data need just as much care and attention as new ones fresh out the box.

There are many cases where companies individuals have had important information stolen this way. In some cases the information has been used to access accounts, blackmail, industrial espionage and even identity theft.

Mobile devices typically have some form of data storage too. This may store applications or media that has been bought and paid for; but also data such as records and photographs that hold a great deal of value.

We can help transfer old files and data to your new device and safely dispose of your old one too.

We can ensure that every photograph, video, and bit of data is recovered from your mobile device or laptop so that you never lose a single file. We can securely wipe and even physically destroy old hard drives at your request. We strive to ensure you keep every bit of your old data and not a single byte falls into the wrong hands.

Troubleshooting

It sometimes happens that new technology has moved so fast and changed so much that it doesn’t play well with older devices already installed on your network. Sometimes it seems impossible to even connect certain devices at all.

Often simple configuration changes are all that’s required to introduce two pieces of technology successfully. With the right set of eyes and in knowledgeable hands the most complex of jobs can be turned into a quick fix.

If your goal is for a stress free, fun and relaxing Christmas season and you are in Adelaide South Australia please contact us on 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au and we’ll get you up and running in time.

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Increase Your Productivity with Multiple Monitors

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Dual Monitor SetupConventional wisdom says that messy work spaces lead to a disorganised mind. Mess prevents productivity and begins to hamper your professionalism. Shouldn’t that also apply to the computer desktop?

The easiest way to clean and organise your digital desktop is to add more space and the simplest way to do this is by adding another screen. This doubles the available room and makes organisation a breeze.

Getting work done with a single-monitor involves wasted time switching between windows and distracts from the work being done. Stacking windows together, side-by-side, or top and bottom on a single monitor wastes valuable screen real estate. The resulting clutter of windows also makes it hard to focus on what is important.

While tasks can be tackled feasibly with a single monitor; two or more monitors makes the same tasks faster, simpler, and much more enjoyable.

Two Monitors, Many Uses

Data entry with two monitors is far easier than data entry with one. Having source data on one screen, laid out in large type, and the destination on another makes the job a breeze. By eliminating the need to scroll tiny windows means that the same job can be done in a fraction of the time.

Graphic design, image manipulation, and picture editing are key areas that make the most of a multiple screen setup.

Stacking one image on each screen allows you to make quick comparisons to make sure your work is going in the right direction. Organising your editing space is made simple too. Stacking your tools, menus, and options on one monitor with your image maximised on the other helps to stay focused and finish the task much more easily.

Beyond Just Two

You can have tasks such as those below on a second or third screen, while keeping your main monitor free to focus on your immediate work:

  • A team chat window to keep on top of collaboration
  • Status updates for business-critical services
  • Latest stock prices
  • Emails

It is not uncommon for stock traders or financial analysts to maintain 6 or more screens!
Many uses this to track various stocks or indices so they don’t miss any changes.

Setup How You Like It

Multiple monitors can be arranged in many different configurations. While traditionally positioned in landscape orientation, second, third, or fourth monitors can also be rotated 90 degrees to portrait orientation.

This portrait orientation is commonly used often by software engineers, editors and other users who need to review a large amount of text. The lengthwise orientation allows multiple pages to be read from the screen at any one time.

Multi-screen setups behave the same as if all the monitors were just a single screen, no matter how they are arranged. The mouse moves seamlessly from one monitor to another as if there was no difference between them. From the user’s perspective, there is no difference as to how they interact at all.

A Boost to Productivity

A survey by Jon Peddie research found that adding an extra monitor boosted a user’s output by as much as 20 to 30 percent! A productivity advantage of even 10 percent is prized and very hard to come by in the business world. Receiving a productivity reward of over 20 percent for just the cost of adding a second monitor is something few firms can afford to pass up.

So if you are in Adelaide, South Australia, give us a call to add a second or third monitor to your current setup – 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au.

Is Your Laptop Running Loud and Hot?

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Laptop computers commonly heat up in normal operation. Electronic components, including large capacity batteries, become warm in use but your laptop should never become too hot to handle.

When a laptop turns hot to the touch or starts to sound like a jet engine, it’s likely something is wrong.

Modern laptops use nearly silent fans to cool components and keep the system safe to use. For the majority of users the sound the computer makes is the best tool you have to diagnose its running condition. Excessive heat causes the fans to work harder and faster to help cool the system down. This jet engine sound is one of the first clues you have to indicate all may not be well.

Why So Hot

Due to their compact size and portability, laptop computers are particularly prone to overheating. Their tiny size means electronic parts are closer together and there is less room for cooling vents.

Most laptops have small fans that suck in cool air, passing it over metal fins to exchange heat from the system. The resulting hot air exhaust is expelled through vents back into the room. This helps prevent heat building up inside the machine. The constant air cycle is designed to keep the laptop running cool no matter the workload placed on it.

The process though, can be disrupted by any number of factors during operation. As well as cool air, computer fans also suck in dust, stray hairs and even cigarette smoke. Smoke in particular contains thick tar which coats the fins, fan blades, and internal components.

This foreign debris inside the machine prevents components from working at their best. Tar, dust and hair slows down the internal fan and coats the heat generating components and cooling fins. This coating prevents air exchange and keeps components warm as if they were under a blanket.

Causes of Overheating

Sometimes the way a laptop is used can cause it to overheat. Resting a laptop on thick carpets, blankets, or soft furnishings can block vents, preventing the fans from sucking cold air in or blowing the hot air out.

Leaving the machine running on carpet or furnishings, particularly for extended periods of time causes overheating issues and introduces extra dust into the components too.

The best place for a laptop is on a hard surface such as a desk, table or lap tray. This allows air to access the vents and helps prevent dust and hairs getting inside the machine.

Overheating Result

As the computer starts running hotter, the fan will attempt to compensate by running faster and more often. This results in the “jet engine” noise many users report when their computer is struggling to keep up.

Once dust, hair or tar has found its way into the machine it is notoriously difficult to clean out. The only way to properly clean the system is to disassemble the unit and clean out its components.

Much like a car engine, computer components have a designed temperature range in which they can safely and reliably operate. Extended periods of running above the temperature they are designed for causes damage, sudden failures and drastically reduces the lifespan of the computer.

Unlikely Cause

Often random blue screen computer crashes can be traced back to components that have been overheating inside the computer. As heat builds up, vulnerable components start to fail or behave strangely and can cause a range of issues.

When the systems has cooled down and restarted the issue is seemingly resolved. Back in operation, the computer heats up once more and subsequently crashes again. These irregular crashes are highly inconvenient and can cause data loss.

However, these symptoms are minor compared to a completely dead laptop. For some users, the first sign that the machine is too hot is when the motherboard is burnt out or their data storage has been irreparably lost.

If your laptop is running hot to the touch or has started to make loud sounds, bring it to us for a thorough clean out. You can also call us at 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au.

How Not To Struggle With Data Storage

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Large data

Many businesses have already embraced the benefits of going fully digital and it has saved us time and eliminated the need for stacks of file cabinets in every office.

But the digital boom presents us with a brand new range of issues. By moving all our files into a digital space, the amount of storage we need to maintain has grown larger and larger.

As digital technology has improved, the resolution and thus the size of the digital files we create has exploded. Items such as photographs, which used to be printed on film are now digital files stored and transferred by computers. As a result of the increase in both the number of digital files we use and their ever-growing size, the size of the data we need to store and backup has exploded exponentially.

This blog lists a number of ways in which we can tackle our ever-growing storage problem.

A Local Server or Network Attached Storage (NAS) Device

A local server is a high end computer system machine designed to serve many files to multiple clients at one time from locally held storage.

The advantage that a local network server has is that all your vital data is available to all users in one central location. This means that all employees on the network can access all the resources made available.

These machines can serve files at the speed of the local network, transferring large projects, files, and documents from a central source within the network quickly and with ease.

A Network Attached Storage device (or NAS) has many of the same network properties but in a smaller more compact profile. These can be available in units small enough to fit in a cupboard nook and yet still provide staggering storage capacity on only a small amount of power.

Both of these units can often be expanded with more and more storage, so as an organization grows over time its storage requirements are met.

Cloud Storage

Sometimes the best option for storage is to move your ever-increasing data outside of the business and into the cloud. Offloading the costs of hardware and IT management can work out to be an intelligent business decision and one that provides freedom and flexibility for your data storage needs.

The real advantage of cloud storage comes from the ability to expand and contract your services as needed without the overhead of adding and maintaining new hardware.

By moving storage to the cloud, data can be accessed from anywhere in the world allowing limitless expansion to any number of devices, locations and offices. Being able to access data from many locations at a single time can often provide a valuable boost to productivity that can help to improve productivity.

Some drawbacks of cloud storage come from factors that may be outside of the control of the business. Not all businesses have access to internet connections that are fast enough to handle large amounts of data transfer to and from the cloud.

Local laws and security regulations can prove to be a barrier to enabling storage in the cloud too. Some regulations either prohibit the feature entirely or enable only certain specific types for use.

The Right Choice For You

Both cloud and local storage can provide further benefits to enhance your business. Audit logs, central backups, and version control can all be used to secure the way your firm handles data.

Whatever your situation, whether a small NAS, server or cloud, we can advise on the best choices for your business.

Contact us on 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au to allow us to use our expertise to make the right choice for your data.

Businesses Top 5 IT Security Problems

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Security Problems

In today’s world, companies seem to be having security issues most weeks. These issues relate to 5 main problems. Is your company guilty of any of them?

1. No Backups

A shocking number of businesses do not back up their data properly. According to market research company Clutch, 60 percent of businesses who suffer a data loss shut down within six months.

Even with companies that think they are doing their backups correctly they never regularly test those backups. It is a step that businesses miss surprisingly often\ so don’t be that business that only finds out that their backup isn’t working when it is already too late.

2. Being Reactive and Not Proactive

Technology is changing on a daily basis. Attackers are always working on new ways to break into businesses, hardware is evolving faster than most of us can keep up and old systems fail due to wear and tear. A huge number of businesses wait until these issues impact them directly before they respond. This results in higher costs, longer downtime, and harder hitting impacts.

By responding to hardware warnings before it fails, fixing security holes before they’re exploited and upgrading systems before they are out of date: IT can be done right. Being proactive about your IT needs means systems do not have to break before they are fixed. This results in less downtime, fewer losses and lower IT costs for your business.

3. Poor Passwords

A surprising number of people will use weak passwords to secure their accounts. Even more will write down their passwords on a post-it note right next to the computer. In other cases many people have no passwords at all! Strong passwords act, not only as a barrier to prevent unwanted entry, but as a vital accountability tool too – when system changes are made it is essential to be able to trace back to the account that made that change.

With an weak or insecure password tracking the individual responsible for reports or accountability becomes impossible. This can result in both auditing disasters on top of technical ones.

4. Little or No Staff Training

People are commonly the weakest link when it comes to IT security. Implementing IT security can be a bit like having state-of-the-art locks on a door propped open with a milk crate when staff aren’t trained to use that lock.

Often businesses can justify spending big on security hardware and software but spend zero dollars on training staff to use them. In this instance, a little goes a long way. Security training can help staff to identify a threat, stop it at its entry point and avoid any issues that may have occurred if the staff member hadn’t had any training.

5. Weak Data Controls

Some companies take an ad-hoc, fast and loose approach to data storage. Often crucial  data is spread across many devices, copied needlessly and even left unsecured. Client data can be found regularly on employee laptops, mobile phones and tablet devices. These devices are prone to being misplaced or stolen along with any data they contain.

Most companies focus on the costs of devices and hardware purchased for the business. The reality is that the data held on those devices is always worth many times more than the device that holds it. For many firms, their approach to data hasn’t been changed since when the firm was first founded. Critical data is often held on single machines that hasn’t been updated because they hold that critical data. Such machines are clearly vulnerable, outdated and of course prone to failure.

Common problems with simple solutions

Each of these common issues have simple solutions to secure against IT failure. With a professional eye and expertise in the field, every business should be defended against IT issues that risk the firm.

If you are in South Australia and need help securing your IT system, give DP Computing a call on 08 8326 4364 or at support@dpcomputing.com.au.

Stay Ahead of Your Competitors & Budgets with an IT Lifecycle Plan

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IT Life Cycle

All electrical appliances have an effective lifespan and computers are no different. Computers can expectantly fail after years of service or they may become too slow to keep doing the job. Hardware failures and IT issues can cost big not just in physical costs but also in areas such as productivity losses and unintended downtime.

Improving productivity, avoiding unnecessary downtime and lowering costs are the driving factors in which many modern businesses now choose to adopt IT life cycles.

IT Life Cycle

The IT life cycle aims to make IT budgets predictable, manageable and reduce costs across the business.

The process starts with a thorough plan outlining the demands of the business. By looking at how and where equipment is deployed, we can make the most out of the resources throughout the business. One of the first steps is to reduce equipment duplication and under use within the firm.

With this approach, equipment can be scheduled for upgrade or replacement at predictable intervals based on usage and time frames. With a plan in place, the focus of the life cycle can shift to resource procurement. As equipment approaches the end of its lifespan it can be brought in for replacement, repair and recycling. Old hardware and components can often be reused and recycled in new roles as they are decommissioned from their initial role.

By maintaining as many usable parts as possible we help lower costs of keeping efficient hardware in the front line business environment. This approach helps a huge number of businesses keep modern and up to date hardware in crucial roles where it can serve the biggest impact for the business.

Make the most of resources

Computers in busy business environments will always need replacement over time. It is important to plan and prepare for this time to avoid unplanned downtime, unbudgeted costs and losses in productivity. Doing so, helps to plan a regular, predictable IT budget and you are also less prone to sudden financial spikes.

The IT life cycle additionally allows your business to stay on top of software licensing, upgrades and Operating System changes. By moving old and outdated systems from your network, potential security issues are dramatically reduced.

Additional financial security comes from the manufacturers hardware warranties for businesses that adopt the life cycle. As new equipment is purchased, manufacturer warranties provide guarantees about the handling of any hardware issues. Depending on the length of your life cycle this warranty may cover all, or most of the duration of the equipment’s intended life. The extra coverage provides an extra layer of financial protection from unpredictable IT issues.

In control with information

Tracking the life cycle of your own firm provides invaluable metrics about how equipment use and deployment within your own production environment occurs. Armed with this unique knowledge, better purchasing decisions can be made to equip your business with the best tools needed for your success.

Money can be better implemented by getting the important high-value resources to the places in the businesses that need it most – the ones where they will generate the most value for the firm.

A key factor in getting the most from your firm’s IT is making sure the resources put into the company do not sit idly on a shelf or are not used to their full potential. This insight gained from metrics related to the life cycle ensure that management stay fully informed.

A complete picture puts the business management team back in control of its IT by allowing them to choose the best, most efficient and cost-effective time to replace critical systems. Firms can plan replacements and servicing outside of busy periods so they can operate without interruption and know their IT is fully serviced when they need it most.

Future Planning

With a planned, fully prepared life cycle, IT budgets can be prepared in detail for years to come and everything from computer systems to printers can be upgraded on a tightly controlled schedule.

Businesses all over the world have adopted IT life cycles as a way to eliminate unwanted surprises, lessen productivity losses and make the most out of IT budgets. Implementing your own IT life cycle can greatly improve the way your business operates and provide an advantage over your competitors.

If you are in Adelaide, South Australia, talk to us about how you currently do IT planning and we will see if we can make the life cycle work for you. Give us a call on 08 8326 4364 or via email at support@dpcomputing.com.au.

Are “Speed Up Your Computer” Programs a Good Idea?

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Speed Up Your PC

You probably have been alerted by popup windows while surfing the web. These popups claim your computer has thousands of errors requiring urgent attention. The popups offer a “solution” to cure your computers so called problems.

These advertisements are often described as Speed Booster or Speed Up utilities Reg and will attempt to convince the user they will somehow clean or improve their computer. Within the IT industry these programs are known as “scareware”. They are adverts and software programs specifically designed to convince you that your computer has problems – which it might not have.

Are these popups and utilities trustworthy?

Almost all popups and advertisements that use adverts saying “Fix now for free” or “Speed up your computer” are not trustworthy at all. They are little more than a scam attempting to take your money and / or install malware on your computer. At best these programs claim to scan your computer and show a list of plausible sounding computer problems. Using this, they will ask for payment to “fix” these problems and “speed up” your PC.

Some may even attempt to use these fake warnings and scare tactics to trick you into installing malware on your computers. Once installed, the malware can go many things including stealing files, accounting information, usernames, passwords, emails, and credit card details. Sometimes the first sign a user has that something is wrong is when they check their bank account!

Can software actually speed up my computer?

During normal computer usage you install and uninstall a variety of computer programs and applications may leave temporary files around or entries within the registry. Despite the large amount of “scareware” and fraudulent computer cleanup utilities out there, legitimate applications do exist that are designed to clean your system. This can be something we cover and is often done as a part of a complete computer tune up. The large speed boosts many of the fake utilities to unlock by simply moving files around are almost always false.

Most computer can have a speed boost by more conventional means which include a combination of temporary file removal, registry cleanup, startup file optimization as well as hardware upgrades.

Hardware components such as memory and a SSD upgrades can often be added to boost the speed of even an older PC and give it a new lease of life. Upgrading the computers RAM can double the working memory available to the system. With extra memory, many programs can keep more information available to work with. This upgrade reduces loading times and increases the computers ability to run more programs at once.

Switching from an older style mechanical hard drive to a modern Solid State Disk (SSD) can significantly reduce startup and loading times of any PC as well as speeding up application loading times. Loading data from the hard drive is very often the slowest part of a computer, the bottleneck in an otherwise very fast system. Because an SSD does not use any mechanical components the time to access the disk is nearly instant when compared to older, mechanical hard disks.

These upgrades offer boosts in speed to rival a modern system at only a fraction of the cost originally paid for the new computer. Performing some basic house keeping functions along with upgrading the RAM and swapping to an SSD will provide an instant, dramatic, and safe improvement to the speed of your PC.

If your computer is running slow give us at a call on 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au and arrange a real and professional cleanup of your computer systems.

How Losing a Mobile Device Can Put Your Business at Risk

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Lost device

Losing a mobile phone, tablet or laptop is something that everyone dreads. The expense and inconvenience of buying a new device is unpleasant, but the replacement costs only represents a fraction of the damage done when a device is misplaced. The cost of the data contained within every device can add up to many times more than the total value of the device itself.

Along with any data on the device you may use automatic login to your email and other online services. Each of these services is vulnerable to an attacker having possession of your device.

Saved Usernames and Passwords – Users often click on the link to save the passwords in their browser for sites they regularly visit. While this makes things simpler for the user it also makes it very easy for someone else with access to your device to login to your online accounts.

The problem can multiply where a single password or a combination of similar passwords have been used across several accounts. In these situations an attacker need only gain access to a single one and reuse the same credentials across many sites and services.

Email – Email accounts are a key target for attackers looking for access to your business and / or personal information. It is a service that we all take for granted, setting up the device and using automatic login every time afterwards.

It is a service that also unlocks a great deal more than just the email messages as with email access a malicious user can gain access to many of the most commonly used web services online. Using the “forgot my password” button on many websites triggers an email with a password reset link to the email address registered on file. An attacker may use this feature to reset account passwords. Doing this both grants themselves access to your account and denies you access to it.

Contacts – One of the best features of SMS’s and instant messaging is that your contacts know the message is coming from you. When a message is sent from your device to someone you know it displays along with your name, details and maybe even a photograph.  With contact information already programmed into a device an attacker has an opportunity to impersonate you. Using your identity, an attacker may attempt to steal yet more details about you and your contacts.

Social Media – Your social media accounts can often be the face of your brand and are a primary way to reach out and contact customers. They are also extremely vulnerable to being hijacked from a stolen device. Fraudulent social media access allows attackers to harvest both client and business data. Even without profiting directly, posting information on a social media account can cause irreversible damage to a business.

Protecting your business – Services, accounts, and entire businesses can be put in great danger by something as simple as misplacing an unsecured mobile phone or laptop computer. Remember to always put passwords and security measures on all devices.

We can help you to stay secure and remain in control even when losing a device. Give us a call at 08 8326 4364 or support@dpcomputing.com.au and let us help secure your business.