Your business network is crucial, just think where you would be without your company intranet or the ability to share data with your colleagues. If your company has multiple branches and your work depends on sharing data between sites then considering your networking options is especially important.  Here we will examine two of the best networking solutions; VPN and MPLS, comparing them and listing their pros and cons to allow you to make informed decisions about the future of your business networking.

MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching)

A system linking all your business sites into one private data network managed by a central provider. By linking in this way you create a WAN (Wide Area Network) but MPLS differs from a traditional WAN in several ways. Implementing an MPLS involves setting up a path for the transfer of data packets, each of which is identified by a label. This makes data transfer faster than with a traditional WAN as the label is used to identify the destination, rather than relying on a router to look up the receiving address.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A network which uses the internet to connect nodes and provide access to your business network. Security protocols encrypt data before it is sent and decrypt it at the other end ensuring that, although data is sent using public networks, it is completely secure.  Through a VPN a company can share data and access network resources, printers, databases, websites and anything normally accessed through a server. A VPN can be used to support remote access to a company intranet, or to connect multiple intranets between the same organisation. VPNs can also join networks between two organisations, providing an extranet. We use Draytek routers to create VPNs, find out more about which routers we recommend here.

For more information and advice on choosing the best networking solution for your business contact us at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680.

Managed IT support for small and medium companies in Aylesbury, Stevenage, Biggleswade and Hemel Hempstead.

THE PROBLEM

In our line of work we frequently come across users struggling with slow computers. We know how annoying this can be, especially when you’ve got a big deadline to meet. In the majority of cases this is easily fixed though, so if you are struggling with a slow computer don’t panic.

One of the most common causes we come across is an overfull mailbox. Having massive amounts of email drastically slows down your Outlook, and has a negative effect on your overall PC performance. You may be someone who always moves unwanted emails out of your inbox, but do you regularly empty your ‘Junk Email’ and ‘Deleted Items’ folders? Emails in here take up space in just the same way as those in your inbox, so it is important to do a regular clear up. It’s so easy to do and takes seconds, just follow the steps below.

THE SOLUTION

1. Open your ‘Deleted Items’ folder and quickly scan the contents to check there is nothing you need to keep.
2. Right click on your ‘Deleted Items’ folder and select ‘empty folder’ as shown to the right.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for your ‘Junk Email’ folder.
4. Note that this process permanently deletes mail, so don’t be tempted to skip step 1.

This will clear out all junk mail and leave your Outlook clean and tidy, as well as speeding up your PC.

If you are still having problems with a slow running PC feel free to give us a call. We are currently offering a free 1hour audit of your IT systems. There are no obligations attached and we will give you a free report on the health of your computers, servers and networks.

Related Blog Posts: 20 Tips to Clean-Up and Secure Your Email Inbox
Free I Hour IT Consultation

If you are a small business located in Luton or Milton Keynes, let us look after your IT systems while you get on with running your business.

What Is A Domain Name?

The key part of your website address, for example our web address is www.flint-it.com and so our domain name is flint-it. Your domain name locates your company on the internet, telling a domain name server where to look for your web page.

You may wonder why this is relevant to you, after all you probably have IT support who deal with this kind of thing. However, it is important that you read on as companies who are unaware are commonly caught out by domain name scams.

 Domain Name Renewal Hoaxes

Whoever set up your domain name will have paid for it – you don’t get space on the internet for free unfortunately- and your domain name will need to be renewed every so often.  Hackers and scammers have ways of finding out your renewal date, and send emails pretending to be your domain name provider and asking for a renewal payment.

We all know not to make online payments to vendors we don’t trust, but if you don’t know what a domain name is or who provides yours then it’s easy to be caught out by an official looking email.

Why not find out who in your office deals with domain name renewals and who your official provider is? It only takes a few minutes to find out and will make sure you aren’t susceptible to fraud.

Domain Name Check Hoaxes

Occasionally you may receive emails – usually from abroad – telling you that another company wants to register a similar domain name to yours, and asking for your permission.

Whatever you do don’t waste your valuable time trying to figure out what to do about it. This is usually a scammer trying to gather information about your company so the best thing to do is delete the message and block the sender.

Do You Know Who Controls Your Domain?

 In some companies no one knows anything about the domain, sometimes it turns out that a former employee set it up and then left the company. This becomes an issue if there is a problem with your domain name or you want to switch to a new provider.

Always make sure you know and trust the person managing your domain. Know how to contact them, and have access to your log in details should you need to take over management of your own domain.

Why not take a few minutes now to check who in your company manages your domain?

If you can’t find anyone who knows about your domain and want to know what to do next, or if you have any other questions please contact Flint IT at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680.

Flint IT can provide the backup software you need to keep your business running no matter what.

The Flint IT technicians recently went out to a customer with a slow computer; as she was typing the computer was lagging behind. She thought she needed a new PC and was worried about the expense, but we quickly diagnosed a RAM problem and added an extra memory module to her computer.

This was all she needed to continue working straight away and, because she was on a Flint IT managed contract, we did it all at no extra cost to her.

If you are experiencing similar problems you may need additional memory. However, before you invest why not try out the tips below to make the most of the memory space you already have.

1. ReadyBoost works on Windows 7 or Vista, allowing you to use a USB flash drive or memory card to improve performance. However, if you are using up memory fast this will only act as a temporary solution.
2. Regularly clean up any programs you don’t need, or temporary files which you are no longer using.
3. Click Start and type ‘msconfig’ in the search box. Select the ‘Startup’ tab to see which programs start automatically when you boot up your PC. Remove any you don’t need from the menu.
4. Use a system scanner tool to scan your PC for memory upgrade options which can help you make the most of the space you have.

If none of these work you may need to purchase additional memory modules or upgrade your PC. Click here to read more about how to make the most of your PC’s memory.

Flint IT offers IT support services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Following on from the last post, here is a little more detail.

There are many computer backup solutions available; the one we use at Flint IT is Storage Craft’s Shadow Protect program which we believe ticks all the boxes. The main benefits of Shadow Protect are:

• High quality and extensive database backups which can quickly and easily be transferred onto a new server if your server should fail. Most companies cannot do this currently as Windows server backup will not restore to different hardware
• Easy to install server backup on all your PCs at once and monitor all backup operations from one central computer
• Fast and reliable recovery of your operating systems, applications, configuration and personal settings and data
• Ability to get your servers back online quickly, and your data restored within minutes with minimum downtime and maximum business continuity
• Backed up information is consolidated minimising the disk space required for computer backups
• Database backup images can be replicated to separate media giving you both onsite and offsite copies of your backup
• Near real-time computer backups as often as every 15 minutes are possible.

We believe that investing in Storage Craft backup could guarantee business continuity in the long term, protecting you from disaster and safeguarding the future of your company. For more details or if you have any questions contact us at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680

Give Flint IT a call and let our cutting-edge backup and disaster recovery service give you peace of mind

The Flint IT technicians recently received a call from a customer, Sonia*, who had deleted Sage accountancy software from her company’s server by mistake whilst clearing up some outdated files. Sage is essential to the business operations of her company, and would have caused a massive drop in business continuity if it was permanently lost.

Despite this Sonia wasn’t worried as she knew that we provide computer backup, and that our advanced computer backup solutions can be trusted. Not only do we provide computer backup for our customers, we also use monitoring tools to check the computer backup daily, ensuring that it is backing up correctly and that any problems are fixed as soon as we spot them.

Because of this Sonia had total confidence that we could recover the lost files for her, which we did within minutes from the computer backup which had been created just 2 hours earlier. Sonia and her staff were able to continue working with only a few minutes delay.

All of our customers have this same peace of mind, knowing that our computer backups are secure and that our systems are configured to run a backup every 4 hours. If your company doesn’t have this standard of backup you are at a high risk of losing the data which is essential for the day-to-day running of your business.

You may have a computer backup and disaster recovery solution but is it fool proof? Do you know that it is monitored 24 hours a day and that any problems will be fixed as soon as they are spotted? Have you run a test to check that you can recover from backup quickly and that all your files are being backed up correctly?

If not it is vitally important for the future of your business that you do so. A server crash without a proper backup plan could cost you weeks, and you may never recover all of your data.

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss the Flint IT backup and disaster recovery plan, please contact us at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680.

*A false name has been used to protect the customer’s identity.