Newsletter Produced monthly for businesses and schools in the Thames Valley. Issue 50, November 2013 It’s the time of year when the leaves have turned brown and the first frosts and fogs have appeared, when we plan Christmas festivities with the family and plan holidays to a warm clime next year. At Cybersupport, we have had a really busy autumn period and we can see that things are running down to Christmas, yet we are still very busy quoting for new work. With the economy starting to pick up, business confidence is growing and investment in IT will continue to grow. IT is so critical to everything we do now, that we see investment growing year on year. Our portfolio of products and experience in those products grows each week; there is always something new coming out. Look at our article below for ideas for presents for the IT geeks in your school, business or at home. Use these ideas for your Christmas shopping; not many shopping days now till Christmas!! RBWM Schools Contact us if you need prices or advice on renewing your Broadband connection or replacing any computer service. Let us guide you through the transition for FREE. Ask us for details. Best wishes from the Cybersupport Team Happy Windows Birthday Microsoft Windows turned 30 this month. Whether you love it or hate it, it has become the main operating system for billions of users around the world, and the operating system’s software has become so important to us all. Microsoft’s vision of one computer per desk seemed like a far off vision twenty to thirty years ago. Perhaps we are not there yet, maybe we are? The evolution has maybe gone further with almost everyone having a computer with them at all times in the form of a phone – maybe we really have passed one computer per desk already! Take out a school broadband contract with us and get free line rental on all VoIP phone lines through Cybersupport. Ideas for Christmas Presents Here are the Cybersupport top Christmas ideas to help you with your Christmas shopping. Choose the right present for the recipient – that might sound obvious, but choosing based on price or after watching an advert may not always be the best idea. Timing – The best offers are available when a manufacturer brings out a new model. Do you need the latest, fastest, sleekest model? If not, there are often bargains to be had when a new model is launched or about to be launched. Find the best price – with the wonder of search engines and price comparison sites, it is normally fairly easy to compare prices of products. It is always a balance as to whether you buy online or to buy locally where you are likely to get personal service and it is easier to return the goods if faulty, or they are not quite what you expect. Haggle – if you go into your local store or buy over the phone, remember that prices are not fixed, and you may be able to squeeze a lower price or more accessories for the same price. Warranty – always consider the cost of a warranty against the chance of failure. It is a bit of a gamble, but most electrical items have a very low failure rate and most electronics if they are going to fail will fail in the first year, when they are normally covered by a manufacturer warranty. Even after that, the Sale of Goods and Services Act 1982 may still apply. Goods must be of satisfactory quality. Two FREE hours of ICT support For all new customers and also for you if you recommend us. If you know of a colleague, business or school who might benefit from our service, please let us know and we’ll send them our information pack and a coupon. So what should you give the geeks in your life? Tablet - our advice is always to keep taking the tablets!! Seriously, there are many tablets and operating systems around, and it depends on what you want to do with it and how much you want to spend our recommendation would be the Apple iPad (of which there are many versions). The Amazon Kindle Fire is good value at around a third of the price of an iPad and Tesco has just launched it own tablet, the Hudl. Laptop - good if you need a ‘proper’ computer, but have little desk space and need it to be portable - there are hundreds of different laptops on the market at the moment and it is difficult to determine the best. Our preference at the moment in terms of build quality, performance and price is the HP 250. We find HP good and reliable. We also recommend Samsung laptops. Mobile phone - the distinction between a mobile phone, digital camera and computer is getting more blurred every day. The days of using a phone just to make calls have long gone. There are many things to consider when purchasing a phone, such as which operating system, which mobile phone network and which tarrif, but you also need to consider what applications (apps) you want to use. Recommendations are very difficult, but our own geeks are happiest (and calmest) with an iPhone4 or 5 or a Samsung GalaxyS2 or S3 in their hands. You can tell when they’re happy as they smile!! TV - It has to be a flat screen (although you can now get a curved flat screen). It all comes down to size (how big measured diagonally), whether it is plasma, LCD or LED and how much. Recommended brands are Samsung and Panasonic; you can’t go wrong with any of those. Also consider whether you need a network connection near to your TV for catch-up services (see below) Catch up TV - It depends on whether you have Sky, Virgin or Freeview, but with everyone offering catch-up TV, it allows you watch the Queen’s Speech at a time to suit you, rather than during Christmas dinner. Camera - everyone has a camera with their phone, often offering very high resolution photos, some even able to photograph in poor light, but to take really good photos or to enlargen the photos you need a decent digital SLR camera - we recommend either a Canon EOS series camera or a Nikon, depending on how much you want to spend. CYBERSUPPORT HELPDESK For all your computer problems, phone our dedicated number 01628 933 440 or email: [email protected] Phone and online support from an expert 8:30 to 12:30 every weekday Backing up is a pain Let us relieve your pain Backup online !! If you would be interested in being more efficient and saving Sat Nav - again, some phones have a map function within them, but to be safe driving with a sat nav, you need a ‘proper’ one. The main choices are between Garmin and TomTom. See what they look like as the maps and descriptions are different, but our preference is for Garmin. Look out for models with lifetime updates of maps and/or traffic. E-Book Reader - have you seen the adverts on TV recently? If you like the idea of keeping all your books in one easy to handle gadget, go for a Kindle. If you like picking up books at the charity shop or swapping books with friends, it’s not for you. Coffee Maker - after all the Christmas shopping, you’ll need a coffee. Try the Krups Nespresso. It makes good coffee and is highly recommended. For more information or advice on anything to do with IT, do call us on 01628 559 746 or email [email protected] money please send an email to: [email protected] We specialise in Ruckus wireless systems Contact us for our latest competitive prices Beware of the PayPal Scam A number of sellers on the eBay auction site who accepted payment via payPal have lost money because of a little known scam that uses the small print in PayPal’s Seller Protection Scheme. Even though the goods are received and signed for, Paypal can accept a chargeback to the seller if the buyer claims the caredit card used had been stolen or compromised, or their PayPal account had been hacked. Almost all of these transactions are perfectly safe and reliable, but on occasions they are subject to scams. To make sure you can safely sell via eBay and PayPal, you need to ensure you qualify for seller protecion by making sure you adhere to the criteria listed at www.paypal.com/uk/sellerprotection. Beware the Bogus Computer Support Scam Last month we warned you about bogus calls you may receive from someone claiming to be from Microsoft. The scam has evolved; we have since heard that bogus callers have claimed to be from BT or Cybersupport. Last week someone phoned us from Denmark to check if it was really us on the phone to them offering to fix a computer fault - it wasn’t. As these calls are so prevalent at the moment, we are repeating the article from last month’s issue below. Please warn all of your friends about it. Typically the scam works by receiving a call from a company saying they have noticed a fault with your computer. They point you to some harmless code or information on your computer and tell you your machine is infected. They will offer to clean up your machine remotely for a fee. They may install malicious software or steal personal details, but you will lose your money, possibly lots of it the average loss is over £500. If you, or someone you know, gets such a call: Hang up. Legitimate companies never call customers offering to fix computers remotely. If they say your computer is running slowly and has reported the issue - hang up. Data sent out from your computer to an organisation like Microsoft is sent anonymously. If they say your computer has a virus - hang up. Check this yourself with up to date, quality anti-virus software. If they ask for remote access to your computer - hang up. Never allow a cold caller access to your computer. If you phone Cybersupport with a problem, we may ask you to allow remote access, but never give access to someone you don’t know. For more information, or advice on staying safe, do call us on 01628 559 746 or email [email protected] Cybersupport Top Tip Number 48 Making the Most of 4G With sales of mobile phones hitting about 1.75 billion worldwide in 2012, it’s a fair bet that most people you know will have one, however 4G, the latest standard of mobile phone network, is still in its infancy with only a small number of people in UK on a 4G contract. 4G is essentially the upgrade from 3G. 3G was launched in the UK in November 2004, only nine years ago and it is gradually being superseded. The key offering from 4G is the speed of data transfer available and the ability to make and receive high definition (HD) calls. It is all possible by using a different bandwidth from the traditional 3G networks which in turn, gives better signal range and coverage, the ability to transmit data through walls and the suchlike with speeds of up to 60 Mbps (Megabits per second) compared with an average in the UK of around 2Mbps on 3G. These benefits give a few useful, everyday advantages: Faster web browsing. It’s an obvious one but, with websites getting more complex and using more complex content, the browsing experience on 4G is vastly improved. Work away from the office. With the speed of connection often faster than a traditional home broadband connection, working away from the office doesn’t need to be confined to the home anymore. Share your 4G. There are parts of the UK, Slough Trading Estate being one of them, which can get good 4G signals but not very good broadband connections. This means that 4G is a great alternative to provide internet access for small offices etc. NOTE! BT telephone call and line rental prices went up in January! Ours did not: Call us today to find out more on 01628 559 746 Download attachments on the move. With people sending bigger and more complex attachments through email, downloading attachments is easier and smoother with 4G. HD video conferencing. If both sides of the connection are on 4G or higher, then HD calls and video conferencing is now a viable option to improve communication and avoid those calls cutting out. It’s worth noting that 4G is not available in all parts of the UK yet but, with more mobile networks rolling out 4G right now, it won’t be long until everyone is talking about 4G like it’s been around for years in the same way we presently think about 3G. Getting More for Less It is coming up to Christmas, so get a bit more spending money. With a competitive marketplace and companies falling over themselves to keep or get your mobile phone business, make sure you haggle with your mobile phone company. Most people can get cheaper deals, new phones, more minutes or a larger data allowance. Just phone your mobile phone company and persuade them to give you more. And when you come to sell your own phone, where best to sell it? We reckon you will get more for it on eBay than anywhere else. For more information on anything to do with IT, call us on 01628 559 746 or email [email protected] Finally: Why not find us on Facebook and see what we have been up to recently! Go to http://www.facebook.com/cybersupport We hope you’ve found Cybersupport News an informative and interesting read – if you would like to request a copy for a colleague, please call us or email [email protected]. Watch this space for more tales of innovation, ideas and money-saving tips. Copyright 2013 Cybersupport Ltd Tel: 01628 559 746 Fax: 0872 115 4763 Email: [email protected] If you really wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter, click here