Now of course the more technically savvy amongst us know immediately that this is a scam and hang up abruptly or, if in a playful mood, even have a bit of fun at the scammer’s expense as demonstrated in these videos;

However, there are still a large number of people who fall for this scam. They duly go to their computer as instructed, painstakingly follow the directions of the scammer, and before they know it they have given remote access to their system, had malware installed, and provided access to a variety of personal info including banking details, credit cards, email addresses etc. This is when the havoc begins. In some cases people have even been directed to pay £180 or so for the privilege of this remote support!

Variations of this scam have been around since 2009 with the scam calls predominantly coming from call centres in India. Funnily enough the scammers are pretty adept with Microsoft training and you can’t help thinking that these people could be holding down better paid, LEGAL jobs rather than trying to scam their way up the career ladder !

Unfortunately these scams are becoming a bit more sophisticated and there was a case recently where a woman in the UK contacted her phone provider about a problem she had with her line, was put through to an Indian call centre, and when they rang her back they went through the exercise of asking her to go to her computer and follow their instructions because they had spotted a problem with her broadband that was causing issues on her phone line. This turned out to be an inside-job where somebody at the call centre clearly had links to a less reputable organisation and the scam was initiated. The woman was in her mid 70s but thankfully she did not get caught out. As soon as they started asking for money she hung up because she sensed it was not legitimate.

This case is clearly more alarming because it was not a cold call. Anybody would have expected the call back to be genuine and not some scam artist trying to fleece you.

So, in summary, if you ever get a cold call or even a returned phone call that informs you that there is a problem on your computer and asking you to follow their instructions then HANG UP IMMEDIATELY. IT IS A SCAM !

I also encourage you to ensure that all your desktop security programmes are up to date so that you are completely protected. This is just good general practice.

As an IT Support company we generally use Trend Micro Anti Virus for all our clients. We can supply a licence for your computer from £22 + VAT per year.

Also make sure all your data is fully backed up and secure with our £5 a month unlimited data backup service – click here!

For any advice about GENUINE IT SUPPORT please contact us on 0800 107 7782 or email sales@colins-it.co.uk

I still like to think he would get more followers than Justin Bieber though!  And what about the great industrialists of the time? Isambard Kingdom Brunel might have tweeted something like “just finished designing the Clifton Suspension Bridge, please like my page.”  It amuses me to think how historical figures may have used social media but just how important is social media to your business?

It wasn’t so long ago that it didn’t even exist and businesses still managed to trade with each other so what’s the big fuss? That’s true, but the mere fact that it exists means that there are now extra channels available that you can use to promote your business and if you don’t do it, you can be pretty sure that your competitors will be.

The word social suggests that these are tools for building relationships and keeping your friends/colleagues/associates aware of what you have been up to. All of this is true but don’t under estimate the power that social relationships can have with helping to build and grow your business.

This doesn’t mean that you cynically litter your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts with promotional messages. People will soon get tired of that and before you know it you will find yourself unfriended!! There is a balance to strike here and how your business manages its social media output is important in terms of the image that you want to convey to both your friends and your customers.

Like it or not (see what I did there!) social media is here to stay and everybody from big businesses to small business owners are using social media as part of their marketing strategy. So what are the benefits? Here are a few for you to think about;

• Through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc you can start to differentiate yourself from your competitors through your profile and the type of posts that you make
• You can share content through blog posts, articles and videos which help demonstrate your expertise in the field that you are in and make you the go-to person for that product or service
• You can connect with people across the world sharing your ideas, building friendships and creating trust so that people will want to do business with you
• Through the creation of fan pages you can showcase your business and target your audience effectively

All very good I hear you mutter but when am I going to find the time to do all this? This is a problem that most businesses face and this is where Colins-IT can help you.

Ever since the launch of social media Colins-IT has been monitoring its trends, understanding its impact and measuring what works and what doesn’t. We have helped several businesses by managing their social media so that they can concentrate on what they do best…running their business.

We have helped businesses grow their numbers of followers, showcase their products and services, and helped them generate more traffic to their websites and get new sales leads. Don’t just take our word for it. Here is what one of our customers has said about our social media management service;

“Colins-it has been managing my social media for a few weeks now and I have seen my numbers of followers on Twitter increase dramatically over this time. Having Colins-it manage your social media for you is a massive time saver and the articles that they source and post for you definitely add to your credibility and show you as an influencer in your field. I would recommend this cost effective service to anyone who wants to use social media effectively as part of their marketing strategy.”

We can manage your social media for as little as £58 +VAT so call us now on 0800 107 7782 and, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, get to understand ‘The Importance of Being….Social’

Click here for more info - http://www.colins-it.co.uk/Social-Media-Management.html

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Cloud computing, in its simplest terms, enables you to store files and software remotely rather than on a hard drive or server in the office. You may not know it but you are probably using the cloud everyday in your life. Services such as Gmail, Hotmail, Skype, YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud all operate in the Cloud.

So if all these services are using the Cloud it should be safe shouldn’t it? OK, it’s nearly time for that list. It’s now possible for businesses to have their own private cloud which incorporates specific services and is only accessible to selected people. Sounds good doesn’t it?  Let’s look at the Pros of Cloud Computing:

• Employees can access data and files they need even when they are working remotely or outside of office hours.

• Assuming they can get onto the internet employees can access information from home, in the car, from customer’s offices, and from their smart phone.

• Employees can work collaboratively on files and documents even when they are not together. Documents can be viewed and edited at the same time from different locations.

• Setting up cloud computing can be very quick and easy. If you think about how easy it is to set up a Gmail or Hotmail account and be up and running in comparison to installing software which can be time consuming.

• Cloud computing can be cheaper – you don’t have to buy and install software because it’s already installed online remotely.

• You don’t need loads of disk space. With cloud computing you subscribe to the software rather than own it which means it works a bit like pay as you go. You only pay for what you use and you can scale this up and down depending on your requirements.

• Cloud computing can offer unlimited data storage because it is online. It is not restricted by server and hard drive limits and there are no issues with server upgrades etc. If you need more data you just up your subscription fee.

Sounds like a no-brainer so far doesn’t it?  With all of the above benefits why wouldn’t I embrace the Cloud?  Let’s have a look at some of the Cons of Cloud Computing. After all, every silver lining has a Cloud, if you pardon the pun!

• With the Cloud you do not physically possess storage of your own data, leaving the control and responsibility of your data storage with your Cloud provider. So it could be seen that this is a leap of faith.

• You could become completely dependent upon your cloud computing provider taking away your freedom to some extent.

• Your business continuity and disaster recovery are in the hands of your provider. Do you trust them enough?

• What happens with data migration issues should you want to change provider?

• What happens if your cloud provider goes out of business?

• Can your Cloud provider guarantee the security of your data?

• Cloud servers can go down just like normal servers so how do I access my data if this happens?

• Cloud computing is only as robust as your internet connection. If you are experiencing internet issues you won’t be able to access your data.

Hmmm, not so sure now. However, it’s still early days for Cloud Computing and as time progresses then some of these issues will get ironed out. The comedian Peter Kay once famously said about Garlic Bread…..it’s the future!

The same can be said aboutCloud Computing. It’s here to stay, it is the future and whatever size your business is, it’s time to start thinking if Cloud Computing is going to be the most cost effective and flexible solution for your future data needs.

If you are interested in finding out more about how Cloud Computing can help your business, please get in touch with us - http://www.colins-it.com/Contact-us.html

Phone – 0800 10 777 82

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Our daily workload is increasingly reliant on IT so it makes sense to make sure that your computers, servers and network are all working correctly and are ready to face the challenges of 2012.

Many IT problems can lie dormant on your network for months and then suddenly the worst happens, your network goes down, your staff can’t work and your business could start to suffer. Computers that do not have a regular health check tend to cost between 50% and 250% more to fix than if they had received a regular health check. This is because they require more investigation and sometimes even need to be fully restored. When you add in the cost of business downtime to this equation then it starts to become very costly. However, there is help at hand, Colins-IT can rescue you from this potentially damaging issue and bring your network back to health.

There are numerous issues that could be lurking in the background of your network waiting to make a nuisance of themselves. These include disk space issues, domain name problems and conflicting IP addresses. Having a full IT system check up will flush these issues out.

Starting from as little as £150 our IT Technical Specialists will come out to your business and run a full system check on all your servers. We will check areas such as security performance, backups, disaster recovery and give you a full confidential report indicating any potential or current issues on your network/servers and provide a solution on how to fix them. Contact Colins-IT now on 0800 107 7782 and speak to one of our specialists to arrange an appointment.

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Here are some awesome tips for staying productive

Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. Writing “launch company website” at the top of your to-do list is a sure way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list.

Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women).

Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and focus on completing one task.

Schedule your email. Pick two or three times during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your productivity.

Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead.

Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day.

Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours.

The Small Business Server 2011 is a great option for a small business whether you are looking to have your first server or if you are looking to have an upgrade. Small Business Server 2011 will help protect your business, enable on-site or cloud expansion and enable you and your staff to work better together.

Here are some of the benefits that our clients in Leamington Spa and Nuneaton will receive by installing Small Business Server 2011;

1. It is a comprehensive all-in-one solution that is designed for small businesses and is introduced at a price point which is attractive to smaller businesses.

2. It will simplify IT management by managing common IT tasks and deal with technical issues before they happen by having a single view of the health and security of their computers and servers from one administrative console.

3. They can stay connected to their business by having constant access to email, voicemail, instant messaging etc

4. They can get 24/7 access to their files, calendars, tasks and contacts from virtually anywhere.

5. They can easily migrate their business information to Small Business Server 2011 because of its enhanced migration tools, comprehensive pre-migration checks and easy to follow guidance.

6. They can backup their data very easily through automatic backups and recover accidently deleted files. With easy to use interfaces and backup capabilities they will have greater control of their data, PCs and network, especially in the event of a disaster.

7. They can keep their network healthy and up to date by producing “green check” reports that give a quick view of PC and Server status, anti virus status, Microsoft software updates and backup progress etc.

If you are a small business and are looking to install your first server or upgrade to a new server then Small Business Server 2011 could be the simplest, most cost effective solution for you. There are options for up to 25 users and up to 75 users. To find out more about having a server installed or upgraded then please contact 0800 107 7782 or email sales@colins-it.co.uk

However, what was more worrying was that i could not actually restore the data from within dropbox. It wasn’t under deleted items (in Dropbox) and i could not restore it using the windows feature of restore previous versions. Which, by the way you need to do pretty quickly because i noticed that the old copies don’t hang around for very long.

I did find all my files in the Dropbox cache folder but I got a whole lot of access denied messages when I tried to restore these or at least copy them to a different location. In addition, it was just one long list of files rather than in each specific folder as they are currently set out.

What did save the day was that I had actually backed up the Dropbox folder using our remote backup software that we sell on to end users. I need to download a restore utility and then just show the deleted files and folders, right click them and click on restore. I have to do each folder once at a time and then wait for it to download so depending on the file / folder size, the time varies but at least I can restore my lost files.

So, while this is no advert for our backup service, it has certainly saved my bacon and I can genuinely recommend it as well as warn people that if everything is saved in Dropbox, it is not as safe as you may think. I have emailed Dropbox for support but so far there has been deafening silence from their end…

If you are interested in our backup offering at only £5 per month for unlimited data, then you can purchase below.

“Its a no brainer at only £5 per month”

Western Digital, who is the largest hard drive vendor in Thailand, has had to stop production completely and even companies with the pedigree of Apple have had to issue a warning to its investors. The prices of many of the hard drives have increased by as much as 200% in some cases and the situation is set to get worse as the Christmas season approaches.

Market Analysts are predicting that over the next 6 months there will be 50 million less hard drives. This will have a big impact on the internet and companies that provide Cloud computing services. This includes major players like Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook. We have come to rely on Cloud computing and everything we store in it – emails, photos, videos, documents, blogs, music etc. A world without enough hard drives to store everything is going to be interesting……

Protecting what’s on your hard drive is of paramount importance given these circumstances and this is where we can help you. For as little as £5 per month we can provide you with Online Cloud Backup. Backup will protect your precious files by keeping a copy safe online. It’s simple to install, you don’t need any technical know how, it’s completely secure and it backs up all your files – no matter how many you have got. It  can used on PCs and Macs and once you have done a backup you can view your files from anywhere.

You can purchase Online Cloud Backup at
http://www.colins-it.com/Online-Backup.html

Safeguard your files for only £5 per month and have complete peace of mind that all your files are secure.

1) The cost of downtime!

a. Considering that generally an employee will cost your business £20 per hour.     For every hour that they cannot access the system, costs your business £20 x no. of employees.

b. If your system is down, can you customers still place orders? What value does loss of orders have to your business?

c. General process disruption and playing catch up. If your email goes down, you could face a load of important email coming in and have to find the time to go through and respond to customer queries etc.

d. You will also need the time to catch up on client work, orders etc. This all has a knock on effect to the whole business and ultimately cash flow.

e. This doesn’t even take into account if you actually lose valuable data (a day, a week, a month?) Customer orders? Accounts? Invoices?

2) This can translate to either one member of staff that can’t do their job or the whole office. How useful would it be for an engineer to logon to your user’s computer remotely and fix the problem for them? Saves time, saves money.

3) Why do computers crash?

a. Memory and other components get hot and act erratically

b. Programming errors cause Window’s crashes (i.e. 3rd party software)

c. Problems with actual Windows itself as well as constant security updates can sometimes cause unexpected errors

d. Drivers for printers and add on cards usually are the biggest culprit. Printers and other components are made by thousands of different companies all over the world and can have all sorts of varying results / problems.

e. Hard drives have moving parts which get worn out or damage / lose data if they get jarred or shutdown in the middle of high activity.

f. 3rd party software can lock the computers resources, causing it to go into a loop called thrashing. The computer will then be very slow and un-responsive.

g. A virus infecting the system can also cause file corruption.

h. Finally, an OS can crash if information it needs is corrupted on disk

4) Are your backup’s monitored and tested? Is your critical data backed up remotely / off site? How critical is your data to your business? How many days of lost customer orders, project work, invoices, other accounts data, email and documents can you afford to lose?

5) Viruses cause downtime as well as data and Windows corruption. Is your protection up to date, do you have a strategy to deal with an outbreak? Are you using good virus protection software or something free?

6) Internet access – what is the result to your business if you lose internet access? How long can you be without internet and email for? Do you have a plan in place to deal with this?

7) Peace of mind. Your IT company should be pro-actively monitoring your systems logs and systems and dealing with small issues before they turn into large issues.