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Blog
Nick Spicer

Stay Ahead of the Curve with an IT Lifecycle Plan

All appliances have an effective lifespan. Computers are no different. In some cases, parts physically fail after years of service, in others they simply become too slow and too ineffective to keep doing the job. Hardware failures and IT issues can cost big in productivity losses, urgent fixes, and unintended downtime. Improving productivity and lowering costs are the primary driving factors in why many modern businesses 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 department. This process starts with a thorough plan outlining the demands of the business. By looking at how and

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October 10, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

How Losing a Mobile Device Puts Your Entire Business at Risk

Losing a mobile phone or laptop is an experience that everyone dreads. The expense and inconvenience of buying a new device is unpleasant, but only represents a fraction of the damage done when a device is misplaced. The cost of data contained within every device can add up to many times more than the total value of the device itself. Chances are, you already use automatic login on a large variety of online services. Each of these services are vulnerable to an attacker having possession of your device. Usernames and passwords – An obvious place for an attacker to start is the likely long list of usernames and passwords saved

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October 5, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

How to Tell if You’ve Been Hacked

Being hacked is the single biggest fear of most computer users. Many believe the first sign of strange behavior or errors on their PC is a sign hackers have taken control. But are hackers really inside your machine, stealing your information? Or should we be on the lookout for more subtle signs? What does being hacked really look like? There is an important distinction to make between being hacked by a person and being infected with a virus or malware. Virus software and malware are automated processes designed to damage your system, steal your data, or both. There are of course ways that we can defeat these processes, but what

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October 4, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

Is A Slow Network Getting in The Way of Your Business?

Very few things in life are as intensely frustrating as slow network speeds. Whether accessing a shared database, sharing files between computers, or sending a file to print; waiting for transfers can seem to take an eternity. Worse still, these business breaks can keep both clients and staff waiting and get in the way of the productive business day. Every time you save or retrieve files from another computer or network storage device, file transfers have to be made over the network. Depending on your IT setup files can pour over the network with the ferocity of a fire hose, or trickle between machines as if dripping through a drinking

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September 18, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

Why 2-Factor Authentication is Important

You hear about hacks all the time. The news covers major websites who have had data leaks containing your email and password. Computers get infected and capture your login details for bank accounts and credit cards. In the worst cases, identity theft occurs because it is an easy crime to commit with a high reward. In 2018, the passwords you used to trust to keep the bad guys out of your accounts are not enough anymore. Cyber attackers now use methods such as phishing, pharming, and keylogging to steal your password. Some have the power to test billions of password combinations. If you’re like the majority of people, you use

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September 18, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

Is Your Business Ready for Business-Grade Wi-Fi?

In today’s business world, having great Wi-Fi isn’t a luxury -it’s a necessity. Businesses, with their varying needs, have personal requirements for what constitutes great Wi-Fi. For some small businesses, consumer-grade Wi-Fi may be sufficient, but many find that business-grade Wi-Fi is more appropriate. As companies grow, there becomes a tipping point where business-grade is necessary. So how do you know if your business is ready for business-grade Wi-Fi? Ask yourself the following questions to find out. How many devices use your Wi-Fi? It used to be that only desktop computers connected to your Wi-Fi, but that is no longer the case. With the rise of portable devices such as

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September 13, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

Struggling with Email Overload?

Email has allowed us to send and receive messages more easily than ever before. While this is a good thing, it can lead to problems. You may receive dozens or even hundreds of emails in a day. At this point, it feels like you’re wasting your entire day dealing with those incoming messages. Even worse, it makes it difficult to find important messages in your inbox. You can quickly become overloaded with emails. So how can we deal with this overload? The first step is to reduce the number of emails you receive overall and there are a few ways to do this. Restrict who you give you email address

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September 13, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

Should You Repair, Upgrade, or Replace Your Computer?

Like many valuable things we buy, new computers suffer from wear and tear over time. Our computers are particularly vulnerable as we have placed more and more demands on them every year. New machines have got faster, quieter, more reliable, and more capable over time. At the same time our own computers have begun to slow and sometimes even stop performing altogether. There are many ways to address the problem of a PC which isn’t quite performing up to the task anymore. Whether frustratingly slow or no longer working; we are happy to take a look. When you bring your computer to us we will diagnose the condition and find

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September 11, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

5 Ways to Extend Your Phone’s Battery

Today’s phones can help us do more than ever before. In addition to making phone calls, we use them to send messages, post photos on our favorite apps, watch videos, play games, and endless other activities. Since our phones can accomplish so much, we’re on them often. That means we’re draining a lot of phone battery. In our busy lives, we aren’t always near an outlet and don’t always have a phone charger ready. If our phones die, we risk missing out on important notifications and being unable to easily communicate with others. So what strategies can we use to extend our battery life? Check Apps’ Battery Usage When it

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September 9, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

The Best Way to Buy New Computers

You’ve decided to buy a new computer for your business, perhaps even a whole set of computers. You can almost taste the excitement as you think about those sleek new machines and how much faster your employees will be able to do their work. There’s just one thing left to do: actually choose which ones. That’s where it gets tricky. Most people pop out to their local retail store and look at the display models, then get overwhelmed when the salesperson starts throwing words like CPU and RAM around. Unfortunately, that scenario almost always ends up with your business having the wrong computer. Here’s why, and what you should do

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August 28, 2018
Blog
Nick Spicer

3 Reasons Why All Homes Should Have Office 365

Microsoft Office has been THE office suite for more than a decade, whether it’s for business or students doing their homework. Other applications have come and gone, but it’s expected that most people will be doing their work in Word, Excel or PowerPoint. While you may have an older version of Office that you love, there are three good reasons you should upgrade to Office 365. It’s more accessible: Office 365 operates in the cloud, which means you can use your Word, Excel, Outlook and other office products from anywhere. This means no more forgotten homework, files you can’t access until you get to work or lost documents. The cloud

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August 17, 2018