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Category: Hints and tips for you

IT 101

We all joke about the things you should do when you are having IT issues but so often, they are the things that we forget.

The constant joke made about the request of have you turned it off and back on again may seem like a simple solution but on so many occasions it can save hours of frustration trying to get a machine to work.

This also holds true for situations where your internet is not working, often turning the router off and then counting to 10, then powering it back on will resolve the issue.

After all the first thing your Internet provider will ask you to do when you contact them is to restart the router.

Quick note: restarting and resetting the router are two different things, to restart your turn the power off and back on again, to reset the router you clear all the settings usually by holding in a small button and waiting for the lights to flash, this is usually the last resort as if there are any account details in your router for your internet connection they will be lost.

Another common one is my internet and applications are not working, my PC is fine it was working yesterday but nothing is working now, it’s turned on ok!

Check that your WiFi is connected or if you have a network cable that this is plugged in, so often you find a cable has become unplugged.

My password doesn’t work, I’m sure I have it right it’s the same one I have been using for years.

So have you checked that you don’t have Caps Lock on? Does it have numbers in it and are you using the Number Pad, if so, is that turned on?

So often these simple checks will resolve this one, it is so easy to catch the Caps Lock key without realizing it especially when you are typing your password.

Of course, we keep the best to last, nothing works! No power!

Have you checked that the power is turned on, or is the power cord plugged in?

I know it sounds silly, but you would not be the first person to have this happen to you, I have been out to the site with a client and they were convinced that the PC was dead only to find the plug was not in the power socket. A very expensive mistake.

June 22, 2022
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Cyber Security – Your next security breach

Now here is a hot topic and I honestly don’t see it changing any time soon, if ever.

The biggest threat to your business is the threat of a cyberattack, every business is a target and with organized crime organisations driving the increasing events of cyber-attack it is not going to go away.

In a recent ACSC Survey, it is estimated that over $300 million is lost to cybercrime every year, the true figure is likely to be much higher as many crimes are not reported.

Someone is a victim of Cybercrime at least every 10 minutes.

So, who are these victims?

In the survey, it covers sole traders to businesses that employ up to 200 people, the attacks are across the board, and no one is too small or too big to be targeted, don’t think that we don’t turn over enough to be a target, regardless of your business income whether it is less than $50k a year or several million dollars you are still on the radar to be attacked.

That the facts and figures but it’s ok it won’t happen to me, sorry but if that is how you think it’s time to wake up.

Here are some common fallacies:

We have a good firewall, no one can get into our systems

It’s ok, all my programs are in the cloud I don’t have to worry

We don’t need to worry we are too small

My anti-virus will stop it

To these I would say, firewalls are great, but most cyberattacks are made against people, not systems (firewalls), the attackers know that firewalls are almost impossible to get through, but people are easy to trick and will often give access to systems without realizing the threat.

If all your programs are in the cloud all an attacker needs to get is your username and password, I know you are careful but again the person is the weakest link.

No one is too small, just look at the statistics, if you have something of value you are a target.

Your antivirus will not stop you from inadvertently giving away your details, email phishing attacks are used, and unfortunately, they work far too often.

Be aware that we are constantly being tested or attacked with phishing emails, these are trying to get you to give a threat agent your user name and password, so any email that you receive that is asking you to enter your user details needs to be treated with care if you don’t know the sender I would just delete it if it’s genuine the sender will be back in touch (so far this has never happened for me). Also, consider two-factor authentication for your emails, it just gives another layer of security.

Oh, and it’s not just the phishing emails, it’s the constant bombardment of phone calls, you know the ones “I’m ringing from Microsoft, there is a problem with your computer give me access to fix it” NO STOP, do not let them in, Microsoft will not call you unless you have called them first.

Yes, you have backups, but they are only useful if you can restore from them, if you back up to a drive connected to your computer this is there only to make you feel good, in reality, if your computer gets infected with a ransomware attack it will encrypt the backup drive too. Backups that are either on a network file store that requires authentication or some form of off-site solution are better.

The real secret is to trust no one, if you have an issue with your computers, you choose who helps you to fix the problem, make sure it is someone that you trust and has your best interests at heart.

Most businesses have little or no budget for Cyber Security, yet it is most probably the biggest threat to the future of your business. Make sure you are getting the correct advice on what you should be doing to protect your business, don’t just do what “old mate” at the pub reckons you should do.

If you suffer a cyberattack the likelihood, is you will suffer a financial loss that could end your business, if you survive the attack and can continue to trade you may have lost both business reputation and standing. You are also five times more likely to suffer another cyber-attack after you have suffered one.

May 30, 2022
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Tired of waiting for your internet to be connected?

In my travels while talking to business owners, I am constantly surprised that they have been waiting for months for their internet to be connected. 

Without decent internet, the efficiency of your business is held hostage.  Even if they supply a nighthawk to tide you over, the speed is painfully slow and can cause unnecessary frustration.

Even phone systems are held to ransom as all phone lines are now VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol).  Gone are the days of copper wires connecting everyone.  Even if you do have copper, it’s purpose it to connect you to the internet which then provides your phone service.

I visited a business who complained bitterly that she’d been waiting 4 months for Telstra to connect her phones and internet.  I confidently told her we could help.  Unfortunately, she thought Telstra owned the lines and were the only provider she should trust.

It took a while to convince her that NBN was responsible for the lines and Telstra was just another wholesaler.  After 3 visits, she finally agreed to listen to what we had to offer.

When she realized we knew what we were talking about, she asked what she needed to do to have it all connected.  Since we never insist on contracts, we quoted an upfront investment in hardware and labour and, as a challenge, the boss told her it could be completed that day.

It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon.  It was all systems go!  Our technicians were on the move to organize the internet and configure her new phones.  By 5.30 that afternoon, she had fully functional phones and internet.

Don’t believe it?  Go talk to Tasha at Port City Roofing.

The big telcos are too cumbersome with so many departments, they don’t have the agility we have to make things happen quickly.

We have no obligation to any wholesaler leaving us free to use whoever will do the best job for our clients.  This means that rather than coming to see you with an agenda to sell a particular product, we come with the agenda to solve your phone and internet problems.

We’ll ask lots of questions and make suggestions to determine the best solution to your problem.

Once you’ve agreed to what we have to offer, it’s up to us to make IT happen.  The main hold up we experience is waiting for numbers to be ported from previous providers.  This can take anything from 2 weeks to 3 months.  As I said before, the big telcos can be slow on the uptake.

After we’ve taken over your phone carriage service, your bills will be coming directly from us.  And if you have a problem, you call us.  No waiting on hold for hours on end trying to find a real human being to talk to.

A perfect example of our after sales service is Townsville Gearbox and Reconditioning.  The called at 8.30 in the morning, frantic as they had no internet.  Jordon left immediately with a 4G failover to tide them over till we could figure out the problem.  Since we are such a big client of our wholesaler, their issue was immediately escalated so an NBN technician was onsite that day.  They’d discovered that a rat had chewed through the fiber.  Their internet was reconnected by 2 o’clock that afternoon.  Try and get that fast service from one of the big telcos!

We’re not perfect, no one is, but we’re very quick to attend to our clients if they ever have a problem.

Being a small business in town, we have to offer good service or we’d be out of business in no time.

May 10, 2022
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Why Sign it?

So you are starting out in business, you have had your business logo designed you start to brand your business, signage on your shopfront if you have one, you have your vehicle sign written, some nice workwear with your logo on, now you are looking very sharp.

Then you have spent money on a domain name to improve the look of your business, yes it looks very professional, well done.

So what have you done about your email signature?

This is one of those things that is often overlooked, let’s take that lovely branding that you have created and add it to your emails.

But why you ask?

Here are a few reasons that you should have an email signature:

Email signatures look professional, as opposed to an email signed off with just a name one with a signature including your business logo and your contact information, and all matching your branding gives a much better impression.

The information in the signature makes it so much easier for people to contact you, make sure you have included your telephone number, email address, street address, and website details.

You can also add links to your social media if you wish, the whole idea is to make it easy for someone to contact you, this could be an opportunity to gain extra followers on your social channels.

They are a good way to promote your brand, emails are often one of the first ways we contact people, having all your business information in one place not only makes it easy for the potential client to get back in touch with you but also helps them to identify with your brand.

Email signatures are to all intents and purposes digital business cards, they allow you to show some personality, you have the ability to design the signature however you want to allow your Business and Logo to stand out, some people like to have a headshot in the signature to help make it memorable.

The most important thing is to be creative with your signature but be consistent, when you settle on your design, apply it across all email accounts so you are giving a consistent message in all your digital communications.

In reality, email signatures are an easy addition to improving the professional look of your business, they also make it really easy for you to share your contact information in a way that most people will never loose, unlike a business card most people don’t throw out emails.

If you need help designing an email signature we are here to help, we can help with the design and show you how to add them to your mail program so whenever you send an email or reply to one your signature is included.

May 3, 2022
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So why do we do updates?

The question we often get is why should we do updates? it’s either that or we have that client that says I never do updates my machine works fine….

So those updates on your computer are usually either “Patches” or “Service Packs” to address issues with your software, sometimes they may be updated versions of your software.

So I know they always want to be installed at the most inconvenient time, but there is good reasoning behind the necessity for them.

So here are four reasons to run updates

Help to Reduce Vulnerabilities.

This is most probably the most important one, security updates are critical to reducing the risk of cyberattacks, the updates are there to protect against known vulnerabilities and malicious attacks that have been identified by your software vendor, they want you to have the best experience using their software possible and therefore want to protect you.

Using your computer without applying these patches is a bit like leaving the front door open and your keys wallet on the table, it’s almost like giving an open invitation to the criminals to come and take your sensitive data or hold it for ransom.

Fix bugs in software.

Things that make your software crash or other glitches that can be frustrating and time-consuming, software providers recognize this and release these updates to get you on the most stable and current version of their software, they are also aware that if they look after you by doing this you will be a more loyal customer so for them it is also about giving you the best user experience.

Often it is where the software developers have uncovered issues with their software often from user reports or due to common issues, never be afraid to contact your software provider if you are having a problem with their product, they may have the solution.

Ensure compatibility

I heard this described as not being like a dinosaur in the technology age.

With the never-ending improvements in technology, we need to try and keep current so our systems are compatible with the organisations, businesses, and other individuals we interact with.

Keep the playing field level don’t insist on using an old, slow, and outdated computer that is struggling to perform the tasks you have to do, look at the benefits of upgrading.

Stay ahead of the Competition

Ok, so you are happy with all of the above, what else?

How about just staying ahead of the game (or the competition), why not be the innovator or market leader by keeping your systems at the top of their game, making your business the most efficient to deal with by leveraging the most up to date technology and systems.

So, updates are there for a reason, I know they can be a pain when there are installed and it’s true they can sometimes, very rarely break your system, but if they do there is always an easy fix.

The best advice we can give is Update, Update, Update, there is always a good reason.

April 11, 2022
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The Art of Listening

I remember when I used to train the new recruits in my previous occupation, I would tell them the 3 most important rules in sales.

  1. Listen
  2. Listen
  3. (you guessed it) Listen

Whenever we’re engaged in a conversation with a client or even a colleague, we’re frequently thinking about what we want to say rather than listening to what the other person is trying to say.  This is especially true with technology. 

All too often I see eyes glaze over when trying to explain systems and processes whether it be for how phone systems operate or repairs to a computer.

I’m fond of making the joke that I wasn’t hired for my technical skills but I do know how to communicate and that skill has proved invaluable to our team.

To understand the needs of our customers, we must first listen to find out the extent of their understanding and what they consider important.  Even those who claim to be technically challenged should never be considered inept in any way.

They can be much more clever in other ways we can’t imagine.  They just need the facts explained in layman’s terms.

Studies show that the customer should be talking 68% of the time.  We try  not to use “I, Me, My or Mine” as they make us appear as if we’re more important.  Since we all work as a team, we like to use “Us, Our and We” instead.

The best way to be sure we understand what someone is saying and show that we are listening is to repeat in our own words what they have just said.

There’s nothing worse than not being heard or spoken to in a condescending tone.

Our whole aim is to find out exactly what the problem is and then custom design a solution to not only solve the problem but provide a better solutions to improve efficiency  while often reducing operating costs.

We try being interested rather than interesting.

Verbal communications is always open to interpretation so while it’s important to have a conversation to determine the needs of our customer, our next step is to put it in writing in order to have a quotation for future reference for our clients and between our technicians.

We try to resist the temptation to write in tedious detail all the ins and outs as most of our clients really aren’t interested.  They just want everything to work.

At a recent meeting we had with a potential customer, we were shown a 34 page document with lots of pretty pictures and mind numbing detail.  He was nonplussed.  No one had bothered to talk to him to find out what his needs were.

We asked lots of questions and made various suggestions on how he could set up the foundations of his business in order to grow in the future.  We took the time to listen before presenting him with  6 page document detailing everything he needed to start his new business.

After the job is done, it is then my responsibility to call in and make sure our clients are happy with the service provided.  Fortunately, our technicians are really good at what they do so it’s very rare for me to encounter any issues.

We’re not perfect by any means but we do care for our clients and are very quick at admit if we’ve made a mistake and are happy to remedy the situation.

April 4, 2022
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What’s in a name (Domain Name)?

I am constantly amazed by the number of businesses that do not have their own domain name, they trade on free email accounts and have no real website, ok they may have a Facebook page but not much else.

So why should you have a domain name, what does it do for your business?

For years I have been working with small business owners helping them with their technology solutions so they can present a professional front for their business, one of the first things I always suggest is to register a domain for your business, it makes you look like a much bigger business than you may actually be and it does not cost a fortune. Using your Bigpond, Hotmail or Gmail email address just makes you look cheap, as a potential client I would be questioning how committed you are as a business owner.

To put it into perspective a domain name costs around $50.00 per year with maybe $150.00 a year for email hosting, ok you may have to pay someone to set it up for you so maybe another $200.00, so for around $400.00 a year you can go from that bloke down the road that’s doing things on the cheap to someone that looks professional and gives the impression of being a big business.

Take it a stage further add a simple website that shows what you do and you can add some testimonials from clients that you have carried out work for and you suddenly look like a big business, again the cost of this is not massive, $150.00 a year for website hosting, and for a simple Website a one of cost around $1000.00-$2000.00.

For a relatively small investment, you have now in your client’s eyes become a much bigger business, you will be viewed in a different light by your competitors and other people in your industry.

The most common objection to registering and using a domain name for emails is “I have been using this one for years and everyone knows it”, ok so you redirect the emails to the new account and send an email out to everyone to let them know about your new address, you could also announce your new website and maybe even include some other marketing to promote your business. I know you are already so busy you don’t need any more work, but it’s always good to reconnect with your old clients.

The other good thing about registering your domain name using the .com.au or the new .au domains is it identifies you as an Australian business and if you have a web page it will help you rank higher in web searches.

So I would urge you to think about registering a domain for your business, rob@robthetradie.com.au or rob@robthetradie.au look so much better than robthetradie@outlook.com

If you would like to discuss your options we are happy to sit down with you and look at how we can help, our aim is to help you be the best business you can be.

April 1, 2022
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What’s in a password ?

I was chatting to a friend, and they were talking about how their email password for work had to be changed every 28 days and this was causing some of their colleague’s issues as they were shift workers and sometimes their shift pattern may mean they did not work for up to a two week period. The two issues were they may have forgotten the password because they had to change it so often or because they had been away for so long they were not able to reset the password when they logged in as there was a small window to do this and so had to contact IT support for a password change (sounded like a long call and wait)
Whilst I understand that some businesses like to have users change passwords on a regular basis and conform to a set of paraments like minimum length, a combination of upper case and lower case letters, numbers, symbols, and not repeating the last number of passwords used I wonder if this is the best path to take.

Having worked in this sort of environment you get used to people needing password resets as they cannot remember the last password after a weekend (must have been a good one). This in turn reduces productivity. It also encourages people to write their passwords down, often in the back of their desk diary or on sticky notes on their desk, where is the security there, I can remember having to look at a user’s PC and not knowing the password but being able to access by just checking around their desk or even under their keyboard in some cases.

For several years now, the big players in the market have been recommending that we create secure strong passwords for each account and not change them unless we think that they have been compromised.

The reason for this is they have recognized that users suffer from password fatigue, changing your password every 28 or even 60 days becomes an issue when you have to conform to rules like no repeat of the last six passwords, minimum of eight characters, etc.

So, if you make passwords strong, increase the time period between changes, or better still do not require the password to be changed unless it is believed to be compromised, add multi-factor authentication to the account, encourage people to use unique passwords for each website or service, using a password manager can help with this.

So what would I recommend?

A password of 12 characters long but longer is better

A mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols

Different from your other passwords

Something easy to remember whilst still being difficult for someone else to guess, a good way is to use a memorable phrase but adapt to suit the password requirements like “M4ryH4daL!ttleLam8”

Remember an eight-character password in lower case will be broken by a computer instantly, add an upper case and a number and it takes 1 hour, make it then characters and add a symbol and it will take 5 years

Makes you think !

March 8, 2022
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It’s a long story or… follow my file path

So, you know when you have been working on that file and you go save and put it in your company folders on a server or storage drive and it takes the first line of text as the file name….

Then later you go back and look for that file or try to move it and you get some sort of error, something to do with file path or length!!!

Well, here is an explanation of what is happening from our Mr. Whiffin:

Hi Bob,

I have mentioned this in the past but most likely not directly to yourself.  Windows and many devices do have a limitation to the number of characters in filenames/paths.  Just in case anyone doesn’t understand what a path is, it is referring to the location that a particular file is in.  Let’s say for example that you have a file inside of the documents folder called “Word Document 1.docx” on your local workstation and your windows username is just “user”.  The filename in this case is called “Word Document 1.docx” and is only 20 characters but the file path is referring to the entire location of this file which in this example would be “C:\Users\User\Documents\Word Document 1.docx” and the length of this is 44 characters.

The reason that you are experiencing the error above is because of the length of folder/file names that are being used by staff initially on the NAS.  For example, if someone decides to make a folder under live projects, business name, followed by an address for example this path is going to reach this limit very quickly.  Then when a new word document is created to save into this folder, word has this habit of choosing its own name based off the first sentence of the document and people just accept it.  For example, say I am the customer at The Computer Workshop Group and I’m wanting to save a document under our address in your live projects where the document starts with “Hi David, the guys can start working on your job in one months’ time and the cost is going to be X amount of dollars.  If you need further information about this, please let us know.”  In this example if I am to use the default filename that word generates the full path here will be “S:\Live Projects\The Computer Workshop Group\361 Bayswater Road, Garbutt\Hi David, the guys can start working on your job in one months’ time and the cost is going to be X amount of dollars.docx” and the path length is 194 characters.

If you’re experiencing these issues then the solution is that folder paths, filenames need to be reduced or abbreviated.  Unfortunately, there is no easy workaround to this and it’s just something that everyone needs to be aware of.  It’s most likely that there are many folders that are nested deep within each other and likely long folder names.

Hope this makes sense.  You should be able to resolve the problem by renaming some of the folders/files beneath the file you were trying to open but WARNING be careful what folders you are renaming because if you went and renamed the Live Projects folder to just LP for example then everything inside of this folder needs to be uploaded to OneDrive again which is a huge amount of data and also if someone tries to open a file from their recently opened files or shortcuts from their desktop to the NAS they will be trying to access the old folder name.

Just try to understand the above and then maybe give us a call before you change anything.

Kind Regards,

David Whiffin | Senior Technician

Hope this helps if not please feel free to give us a call

February 28, 2022
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I don’t like to go Phishing

I am normally pretty switched on when I receive emails and can spot the span and malicious ones but every now and again there is one that almost gets through, those phishing emails are getting better (or worse) in their attempts to gain access to your personal data.

Just to make it clear phishing as we view it is the practice of sending fraudulent emails that are made to look legitimate in an attempt to steal your data, this could be your username and password for your email account, your credit card details, your bank details or anything else that gives the attacker access to your identity.

How does this work?

You receive an email that looks like it must have come from a business or service provider that you use, this could be your bank or a service provider like Microsoft or PayPal, a shopping site that you may use like Amazon. They are made to look just like a legitimate email from these companies, at a quick glance all is good, they will normally require you to click on a link to log into your account, this is the bit where they capture your account details, this could be an email address or username and password.

An alternative approach would be offering you a prize for completing a survey, of you will need to complete

Of course, these scams are not limited to emails, you may receive SMS Text messages with links to sites that require you to log in, again an opportunity to harvest your details and even social media is not exempt, you will often see quizzes and questionnaires that look fun to complete but these again are ways of harvesting your data.

When you enter your details you are providing the scammer ways to access things like your emails and bank account, to all intents and purposes you are giving full access to your life and possessions.

Sometimes these scams are given different names that may refer to specific methods like:

Whaling or Spear Phishing, is typically an attack on a business using targeted data like the recipient’s name and job title to add a degree of legitimacy to the contact.

Pharming, redirecting you to a fake version of a website that you are trying to visit in an attempt to gain your personal data.

What to watch out for?

Emails that ask you to verify or reset your personal data like username and password when you have not requested the reset.

Check that email addresses are correct, there are no spelling mistakes and the displayed name and email address match, you will often find the detail after the @ is not consistent with the sender.

The message comes from a business or organisation you don’t normally receive emails from.

If it is about a delivery you were not expecting asking you to log in to a web page.

How to protect yourself

Generally, unless you were expecting the email with a link to click through just delete it.

Don’t enter personal details or credit card information into any site that is not secure (padlock in the address bar) and only if you are happy to do so.

Let’s make sure that those phishing are not catching you.

February 7, 2022
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