Limbtec Technical Blog

Technology & Politics

2009-06-24T11:22:00.004+01:00

So here in Plymouth we have a hot debate going on about the use of Social Media, and directly twitter?

Why should the council block our elected representative from posting their thoughts and ideas, to those of us who voted for them. I read the original comment from the councillor who posted it, and instantly knew something would happen as a result. It was too close to the knuckle! But it was clear what the message really meant.

This week we had an article in the Plymouth Herald from a councillor as why Aussie soaps are bad for teenagers, in glamorising Teen sex and pregnancies. You should read some of the reply messages from the public.

This just goes to show it isn't the delivery media that is to blame, but the elected officials need to learn how to present to the media, and now how to get your point across in only a handful of characters.

Most of the posts from the person who kicked this off, comes from his phone/device, a lot of them when he is travelling, so a global ban isn't going to work. It is about time our Civil Servants and elected officials start to tell us the general public what is going on. And in what ever manor is suitable

Extra Tax to have a phone line

2009-06-17T07:45:00.002+01:00

So the UK Government announced a plan yesterday to charge an extra tax to have a phone line, to help cover the cost of the move over to fibre. This is to enable the 15% of the population who can't get over 2Mbps, and to move us up the League table (we are currently 7th) and to get to the top we need to get 100Mbps to the majority of the population. And simply with this plan it isn't going to happen!

Some of this money is also going to help fund regional news programmes on the Commercial Channel, and to my mind the key word here is Commercial, if it isn't commercially viable then it can't be run as a commercial concern and should be run as not for porfit community interest companies.

For me I will in the coming months look at what we have both personally and commercially in the way of phone lines, and we will reduce these lines by about 50%, I would urge everyone home users. or businesses to consider the line you have, and consider using the very thing that this is designed to improve, your broadband connection and use VoIP (Voice over IP)

Certainly the days of homes getting extra lines installed, just to have more than 1 phone line due to kids usign are gone. And remember this tax will be here to stay.

Personally I would perfer for the backbone to sold off from BT and sold to a commercial company to be run as a commercial concern, this may mean a slight increase in Broadband charges, but then at least those of us who use the net to extremes will be paying for it instead of evreyone paying for it regardless of your internet usage.

I told you so

2009-06-13T15:53:00.002+01:00

I hate to ba an I told you so, but it appears that I was right at the start of the year that a platform that would see a rise in attack profile, would be the Mac.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8096822.stm item about the latest threat.

Don't leave it to chance, if you have a mac you are at risk, get some protection on it, and do it today.

Updates

2009-06-10T16:28:00.002+01:00

Firstly, it seems Microsoft has finally got round to sorting some of their security holes. On Tuesday MS released 10 new security patches for Office, Internet Explorer, and Operating systems.
Whist mentioning Operating Systems, Apple will release it next version (Snow Leopard) in September, the month before Microsoft's release of Windows 7.

We have been busy as well, our hosted email can now be on Exchange 2007, and we can offer a reduction if you already have an Outlook License. We are now also partners of WASP, and can provide a range of systems to scan items including EPOS.

We are also working on a new website for a local Cricket Club, which we hope to have up and running soon.

PC World Update

2009-06-05T08:19:00.002+01:00

Well, after seeking legal advice! I went into the store yesterday and spoke to a Manager, who was really responsive, and should by now have spoken to most members of staff.

I hope this draws a line under the whole episode, and we can move on to it.

I will start to build a new Joomla based site this weekend for a local Cricket Club, so something to look forward too.

Busy couple of weeks

2009-06-03T22:21:00.003+01:00

It's been a few busy couple of weeks.
Been doing data recovery, System repairs, Virus removals, and busy talking to a few businesses about taking out a monitoring and support contract.

The down side has been that PC World are continuing to tell people we are bust and gone. This leaves me with no option but to speak to our solicitor tomorrow, and try and get something sorted to prevent this immediately.

Any other IT providers near a PC World store need to keep an eye out as I believe this may be a way of them to try and get market segment from us smaller guys.

Dirty tricks

2009-05-27T17:28:00.002+01:00

We all know that being in Business at the moment is like riding a roller coaster without the safety harness. But a certain National chain of PC shops, is stooping to an all time low.

Yesterday a friend of mine who runs an IT Company over heard somebody in the Business Centre saying that Limbtec had gone bust, and a lot of our customers had been in their in the last couple of days.

Firstly most of my customers wouldn't be seen dead in this store, but for them to just mention this regardless is just sickening. And until I can identify the person they can't do anything.

Well I can, I can and will, and am going public on this. However for our customers and anyone looking for quality IT in and around Plymouth we are open for business, and are doing OK at the moment, (Looking at having one of our best ever months).

Email

2009-05-15T08:40:00.003+01:00

Email is a critical form of communication for businesses.

However Email is not a guaranteed form of communication!

Just because you send an email and it departs your inbox, it doesn't mean it is going to be delivered to the intended recipient. We are spending ages working for customers who want to make sure the email turns up.

But think about the pat the email takes, it may only take seconds or minutes, but it is a complex path.

You type your email, and hit send
it gets sent to your email server
the server then checks where it has to go and sends it
it wonders through the web to get to the recipients domain server.
the recipients email server then checks who it is for, and sticks it in the correct mailbox

Now where could it go wrong? simply at every stage.

And something we have noticed recently even if the recipient receives the email, it doesn't mean they are going to get it all. We send out all out invoices as PDF's attached to an email.

All our emails are received but a couple of our regular customers either don't receive the PDF or they can't open the PDF. No reason why, but they can't and so for those customers we either have to resend it, separately from the accounts package, or stick the invoice in the post.

A lot of the issues are almost certainly down to packages to try to stop SPAM, finally I will leave you with one piece of advice.

If it is an important email, send it but follow it up with a phone call to make sure it has been received.

Technorati

2009-05-05T09:20:00.001+01:00

Technorati Profile

A Busy Month

2009-05-05T08:55:00.004+01:00

April was a busy month. We were busy with all sorts of issues.
we have been replacing laptop screens at the rate of about 2 a week, and it is amazing what hits these to cause them to break! Our recommendation is if you aren't using your laptop close the lid, and place the laptop out of the reach of Children and animals. This should help you save around £100. Yes it is repairable, and the price comes in around £100 depending on Screen size.

A network install, which still isn't complete. BT are such a pain it is about time that BT Realise how important a Broadband connection is to business. It is no longer a nice to have, in business it is essential.

A high number of Hard Drive failurers, a stunning amount of drive failurers. Whilst these will happen make sure you have your data backed up, being able to restore your data makes the whole process so much less painful.

Twitter & Breaking News

2009-03-30T08:17:00.002+01:00

So I am sat in my office this morning, catching up on my emails, listening to the news. All the news is bad and gloomy, news about the Dunfermline Building Society. The environment agency saying we should all have water meters as there is a shortage of water in the south east.

Checking twitscoop and found out that Sydney has had a big Blackout, and that Zombies had ruled. Always one to check the facts looked at some news sites from Sydney http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25264213-5006784,00.html gave other ways that Twitter was being used in this chaos.

Last time I was impressed by technology being used like this was a device called Blackberry, during the 9/11 attacks. I was still working for an Internet service provider, and we were struggling to keep any bandwidth available as everyone was logging on to find out what was going on. I had several contacts working in and around the World Trade Centre at the time, and afterwards they all reported on this new device that had in most cases continued to work whilst phones were just not able to connect.

Blackberries have obviously become a main stay not only of business but also making inroads into personal use.

Will Twitter be used so widely even in 5 years time? I doubt it but it is a wonderful tool, and one which you need to use to get to grips with.

Mac Security

2009-03-26T10:47:00.002Z

Well, for those who have spoken to me in the last 4 months, I keep stating that the mass of macs out there is leading up to an attack in some way. Normally followed by 'we use a mac we are secure'

Well try reading this blog post

Really, Macs are able to be breached. The time is nigh, honestly soon there will be an attack, or an outbreak that will hit the mac community. The point raised (the reason why Macs haven't been attacked is it just isn't worth it due to market share) in the article above are still valid but only just.

Xobni

2009-02-22T11:56:00.002Z

This is an add-in to Outlook (2003 & 2007) which makes the information within outlook that much more valuable. Even if you use it just to search your emails, you will see that it is faster and more useful (IMHO) than the outlook search.
It also provides a wealth of stats, the website calls it Email analytics giving you graphs, ranking, and statistics detailing how you and your contact use emails.
You can also navigate your email by people, and by doing this you can discover who your contacts know. This is such a useful feature as you can easily find someone who knows a way in to a business you may be trying to target.
You can schedule appointments, by 1 click, and view your emails as a threaded conversation, enabling you to read your emails in context.
You can view the attachments that have been sent. All contact details can be viewed in the side bar, and it also integrates with Linkedin and Facebook. Along with connections to Skype, and Yahoo Mail accounts.
Bill gates said it is the must have add in to outlook, and I say it is the way email should be.
It also connects into your Linkin account and Facebook, as well as Skype and you Yahoo Mail account.
If you want to make sense of your email go to www.xobni.com and download and install this software

EFS

2009-02-14T15:07:00.002Z

Watch out what you do with EFS, we have just completed un-encrypting a small businesses data, after the keys were lost, due to a virus.

Be warned as not every de-cryptions work, we had access to everything we needed, and only failed to decrypt 1 file.

If you do use it, export your keys so you can always use them to recover your data.

BT

2009-02-13T16:37:00.002Z

Why oh Why are BT so useless???

This week our telephone exchange (for our home phone) was upgraded from 20CN to the new 21CN (This is the new backbone of the BT infrastructure). This went really well for most of our customers, but our line took 24 hours to migrate, and then when it was complete our Broadband still didn't work. They (BT) sent out a phone engineer who tested the line, and yes the phone worked. (We knew this) what I wanted was to get my Broadband working. I needed a Broadband Engineer! We phoned up the wholesaler who said they would pass our message on as it was obvious that the splitter at the exchange had failed, it was either that or that our filter had failed in the house (Something we had tested).
Once this was passed on, the fault was fixed, we are now on the new network. Now all I have to do is summons up the courage to move from ADSL to ADSL 2. To see what speed we can get out of the line.

But please BT so often you send out the wrong type of engineer, train up more Broadband engineers.

DO Apple Macs ever need repairing

2009-02-13T16:29:00.003Z

Do Macs ever need repairing? Well with the way Apple patrol Google Adwords, then no they don't. I can't display an ad which states the truth that We repair Mac's.
As our Blog is on Blogger I suspect Google may withdraw this as well. But come on Apple, we look after many Macs, and have a speciality of getting them to work on Windows networks.

We are good at this, we are members of the Mac Technology Association. We care for the use of Mac's.

Why can't I use the term???

It maybe a trade mark, I'm not saying we are mac, or implying anything other than from time to time Mac's may need to be repaired or updated, or maybe just integrated with the windows devices that are around. Let us advertise what we do, and Apple your machines do from time to time need sorting out.

Nasty Worm

2009-01-18T08:56:00.004Z

We have spent the vast majority of the last ten days cleaning up computers, from worm and viruses. Some have been the worm mentioned in the title above, linked from the BBC.

Simple steps to keep your computer secure.

Ensure you patch your software, not only the Microsoft ones, but from any vendor.
Make sure you have security software installed
Make sure this software is up to date
Ensure you carry out a full scan at least once a week
Make sure your firewall is configured correctly and turned on

This will make it harder for any attack, What we find is often these threats come in through a Peer 2 Peer product (such as Limewire).

We are aiming to blog twice a week from now on, hopefully on Wednesday, and Sunday. But then again

A busy November

2008-12-07T14:09:00.002Z

Well, we had a very busy November which is why there hasn't been a post throughout November.

It's a sad fact that a few of the IT companies in Plymouth, have gone to the wall! This has been partly to blame for us being busy as we have gained a number of new customers.
The other part of the equation is that we have been offering a number of other products alongside what used to be our core business (IT Support).

One of the things we have been doing a lot of is System integration, a number of businesses are being sold and brought by others. When this happens you have to act quickly and get the systems integrated.

We have also been installing our last few SBS 2003 systems. All new systems will now be based on either SBS 2008, or SES 2008.

We are looking forward to 2009, which we expect will be busy. We have already had several discussions to install new servers, and carry out network confiuration work in the first part of 2009.

We have also been working on improving the ways customers can pay for their IT.
We used to offer

Cash
Cheque
BACS
Standing Order

We have added to these.

Credit Card/ Debit Card via mobile terminals
Direct Debit

I will blog further throughout Decmeber, Which will be where we announce some new products/services, as we finalise them.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-10-27T20:07:00.004Z

Busy with lots of things.
Data Recovery - lot of these happening. A word of warning do not keep your data, on a removable drive alone. We have had lots of these coming in after being dropped, and 20% or so of these had no data to be recovered. If you are short of drive space, get a bigger or another hard drive put into your computer. Keep the external drive for either transporting the data or to back up your data.

If you have Windows Vista, then it so easy to backup this way.

Rise in Spam, and Viruses

We've seen a rapid rise in the amount of SPAM in recent weeks, mostly phising emails, but also a rise in emails containing viruses. We have also seen a rise in infected Computers. Amazing how many people don't have a proper anti-virus. You really need to make sure your computers are protected.
Also make sure your Firewall is in place and active, block every port you don't need.

People are out there at the moment, and they are trying to make money by accessing peoples data.

Disaster strikes

2008-09-20T07:23:00.003+01:00

Disaster Strikes - It is very important to keep your data safe and secure. We hear endless stories of Government and big Businesses losing data. But it's not just losing data that is a problems for any business. What about losing data due to damaged computers?

Recently a customer of our who keep archived documents on a removal hard drive, the problem is that a big parentage of data recovery jobs are actually for these devices as they get knocked, and dropped they get damaged slightly. The customer was already putting measure's in place to stop this being a major issue.

The other main cause of hard drive failures is when computers are moved, and again due to excessive knocking or bouncing around.

Then the tables were turned as a customer of both of these customers, data was need for a job for us to be completed, the only people who had the data was ourselves.

The reason being is that we have a very robust data security process, so much so we can lose our office and our server etc, and I can be up and working in hours from home.

Don't get caught out, make sure your data is backed up securely and in more than one location. For more details of how we help our customer visit our website http://limbtec.com

Virtualisation

2008-08-23T18:47:00.003+01:00

The Problem - Customers old laptop dies, just as they need it to operate a piece of mobile equipment at a tourist event.

The Laptop ran Windows 98, which is what the adaptor was set for.
So we rushed in, and installed Microsoft Virtual PC, installed Windows 98, set the LPT, and COM port to be used by the virtual PC. And off they went to the event with a PC, running Windows XP to do some stuff, with windows 98 virtualised and controlling a piece of machinery.

The only additional thing we did, was add some more memory, after all it only had 256Mb and also had shared memory for the graphics.

Dell - Love them or hate them

2008-08-20T21:20:00.002+01:00

Well, we have had a large amount of Dell's in recently either because of Hard Drive failures or due to heavy virus infections.

Some times Dell's support of these customers is very good, other times it is very bad.

Still it means more work for us, and of course Customers may well then purchase their next Computer from us.

Still carrying out lots of wireless network set ups. Perhaps the industry needs to make it even easier, this is really something that should now just work.

Security

Going back to Dell items above, if you have a computer which is connected to the Internet then make sure you have Anti-Virus, or even better an Internet Security Package.
Otherwise you may well end up losing your data.

Busy Times

2008-08-17T18:41:00.003+01:00

Well, it has been a month and half since our last post, and lots have happened since then.

Firstly, New Services -
We can now do Mobile Communications and 3G Data Connectivity, along with now doing telecommunications, we can now offer all of your Connectivity, and Communications. Along with your IT infrastructure.

Secondly, New products -
We are now able to offer INVU document management. This is something we have been working on for about 15 months, but have now tied down the right deal.

On top of this we have been carrying a varied range of activities, new Hardware/Software, Networks, both cabled and wireless, in some really strange place and using innovative methods.

Vista,
Read recently Microsoft, asked (Windows XP) customer to take a look at a new Operating System, they were shown how to do some of the every day tasks. And then asked to rate the system, of which a high percentage thought it was great, and a high number about 80% wanted to get hold of it. Then they were asked their views of Vista, many of which were negative.
Then they were told that the new OS they were using was actually Windows Vista.

This confirms our view that there really wasn't anything wrong with Vista, but it is a new interface, and customers need some training on it to get the most out of it.

Newsletter

We have posted two new newsletters, why not subscribe at www.limbtec.co.uk/mailinglist

Well we hope to post more regularly, but for now that is it.

Busy

2008-06-01T18:18:00.003+01:00

Well, we've been busy here, hence the 3 week in between posts.

We will be introducing some new services in the next 3-6 months, I am really excited about it. I haven't been this excited since we started the company 7 years ago.

Details will be available on this blog first, along with our website. We have now got our newsletter distribution set up, and the first edition will be available soon. Once we have the written version I hope to have a podcast version of it shortly afterwards.

We have seen an increase in the amount of repairs, this is probably a sign of the times, and people tyring to get their equipment to last a little longer. Most of these are actually issues with hard drives. So go careful with your data. It can't always be achieved, and losing either valuable memories or valuable business data can be very stressful.

Website Update

2008-05-11T08:07:00.002+01:00

We have been finishing off the new website.

We now have most of the customer support pages completed, and are currently working on the few small pieces of code we haven't finished.

We have also activated the mailing list at last if you want to sign up to our newsletter (published 6 weekly) or to one of our special offer pages then please visit http://limbtec.com/mailinglist