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.

At Flint IT we not only offer IT support for our customer’s existing IT but we also seek to provide them with hardware and software should they want to upgrade their systems. We believe that it is not enough for a small business to have their IT supported, but that they should also have the opportunity to take advantage of the expertise of our team where upgrades are concerned.

No matter how well your IT is supported, monitored and repaired there is always going to come a point where the base technology is too old to meet growing business requirements. For this reason we always aim to provide our customers with advice on when to upgrade their technology, as well as recommendations of what we believe would be best to meet their specific requirements. We then aim to provide them with the required products at very competitive IT support prices.

Flint IT Premium Care:

Our customer care does not stop there, as every product we sell our customers also comes automatically covered with our Flint IT Premium Care package. It is our policy that every product we sell is covered with the protection of this unique care package; the following true customer story illustrates the importance of this computer protection.

The Blue Screen of Death:

A few weeks ago we received a call from Kevin*, a customer who’s PC was blue screening. Known in the IT industry as the ‘blue screen of death’ this usually signals complex software fault or a hardware problem. As expected Kevin was very worried about his PC and concerned that the problem could result in a significant amount of downtime.

Because his PC was supplied by Flint IT it was automatically covered by the Flint IT Premium Care package, and so we collected the PC from his office straight away to begin working on the problem. Our computer technicians quickly diagnosed the fault which was a problem with the computer’s memory module and, working directly with the manufacturer, we secured a replacement part under warranty.

Diagnosing the problem early on meant that we could negotiate with the manufacturer to ensure rapid delivery of the replacement memory module. We received the part, fitted it and returned the PC to Kevin’s office early next morning before he had arrived at work. Our IT technicians had time to set the PC up in the office and run some extra diagnostics to double check that the computer was fine and ready for Kevin to use when he arrived.

Best of all, because Kevin’s PC was covered with Flint IT Premium Care, the repair didn’t cost him anything. He arrived at work to find his computer back in the office, repaired and ready to use, all at no cost to him and with minimal interruption to his working day.

If you are interested in a new level of IT support and computer protection, why not contact Flint IT at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680 to find out how we could meet the specific needs of your business.

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

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

Sage is a piece of computer software which allows small businesses to do a variety of finance tasks all in one place. Your company may use it for salaries and bookkeeping or you may use Act – which is also owned by Sage – to do CRM or SageHR. Many of the companies we interact with on a day to day basis rely heavily on Sage software for a large proportion of their finance and sales tasks.

We are well aware of how vital Sage software is; as well as being essential to your business workings, the information you produce using Sage is likely to be extremely sensitive and confidential. Because of the importance of this software we want to let you in on some useful information which could save your business from major downtime in the event of a disaster.

As well as general backup which you should have in your office, Sage comes with its own unique backup system built in. This is a clever piece of software but it does not quite have the capabilities to backup automatically so you need to make sure you do it, preferably on a monthly basis.

This is easy to forget but is so important; it might be worth setting reminders for yourself on Outlook or an alternate program to make sure you never forget to do your backups.

It may be tempting to back up Sage data and store the backups on your desktop, on a disk or USB device or in a folder on your PC. Whilst this is better than nothing, it is far from a fool-proof solution. If your PC crashes or is damaged all is lost, and disks and USB devices are easy to damage or lose.

A better thing to do is to save backups on your server, which should also have its own backup and disaster recovery plan in place. In this way, your vital business data is doubly backed up and highly unlikely to be lost, corrupted or hacked. 

Keep an eye on upcoming blog posts to read a story about how one of our customers dealt with accidentally deleting Sage from the server.

Contact Flint IT today for disaster recovery in Luton, Milton Keynes, Harpenden and St. Albans

Here at Flint IT we know how important IT is to your business. We know that if your computers and IT systems are slow or regularly experience downtime then your business will suffer. We want to give you the knowledge you need to ensure that you are getting the best out of your IT systems, giving you peace of mind and leaving you with time to get on with what is important – the running of your business.

In order to let your business grow unhampered by IT crashes or failures you need systems which are easy to install and use, and which save time and frustration for your staff. This is what the Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) aims to do, giving small businesses the IT capabilities of larger enterprises but at realistic costs.

Your server is like a ‘filing cabinet’ which holds all the data saved from each PC in your office. You need it to be able to access your email, as well as share files and work collaboratively with your colleagues. Microsoft’s SBS gives you a central and secure area for all your data. Everything you save onto the server gets backed up automatically so there isn’t any chance of losing your vital information. In addition all data is protected with access control; you can limit who has access to the data and prevent anyone outside of the company getting hold of it. Having all your data on one server means that you can also securely access this data with mobile wireless or remote IT, allowing you to work from home or on the move.

If you use several PCs in your office and you need to be able to share diaries, contacts and data then a Small Business Server is probably a good thing to think about getting.

The advantages of a Small Business Server are:

• Keep all your files in a central store , easily accessed and found by all your employees
• Have access to Microsoft’s most advanced database technology
• Coordinate diaries and contacts and better enable teamwork
• Easily upgrade to SBS 2011 Standard Edition which will support up to 75 users as your business grows
• Get access to cloud computing and cloud services  such as Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
• Use cloud-based versions of familiar programs; use the Microsoft Office programs you understand but with increased capabilities
• Regular, reliable computer backup of your essential files and folders which are easy to restore from in the event of a disaster
• Access your database on mobile devices wherever you are

We have recommended Microsoft’s Small Business Server to many of our customers, and now manage hundreds of users. If you have any questions about servers, or are interested in what Flint IT can do to free your business from IT problems, contact us at sales AT flint-it DOT com or call 0845 3309680.

For further details about Microsoft’s SBS click here…

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