The process of installing broadband has been designed for the computer novice and following the instructions is usually straightforward. However, if you do not want the hassle of setting up your cable or telephone broadband service and would rather have somebody tell you the difference between ADSL and cable Modems, let you know why you may want a Router or a Wireless Router and what ADSL Micro filters are used for then please contact us.
Aquarius I. S. Consultancy will not install then say 'goodbye' but will ensure that you know how to log onto your internet service, and can access your e-mail's etc.
For wireless broadband read Computer Networks, below.
If you opt for a broadband router then you have already purchased a device that enables you to set up a home or business network, known as a Local Area Network or LAN. Not only can all PC's connected to the network access the internet but they can be set-up to share files and printers between each other. A useful side effect of sharing files is that it is very easy to make copies of important documents and pictures to other computers within the household or company.
The ability of Windows Computers to share files and printers between each other is quite secure, for example you cannot just open documents on somebody else's computer unless you have been given permission to do so. Also, most internet security suite software prevents access to any locally connected computer with the built in Firewall. The Firewall is doing what it is designed to: Prevent unauthorised access, so it will need to be configured to authorise the local computers you want to communicate with each other.
Wireless Security: Some router manufacturers supply their routers with wireless security disabled and some supply their routers with weak wireless security called WEP. Most modern routers and wireless computers support a much more secure security option called WPA. I have read that WEP security can be compromised within 20 seconds whereas if you use a long enough password using non-dictionary words or phrases it would take longer than the universe has existed to crack WPA security. Aquarius I. S. Consultancy will ensure that the wireless service has the appropriate security to prevent unauthorised access.
If your computer is not running at full speed any more then it could be that some of the newer software you have installed has been designed for faster computers or computers with more memory (called RAM or Random Access Memory). Problems like this can easily be identified and fixed.
You may want to install a new camera, printer or scanner, but before calling us to help, have a go yourself, the instructions are nearly always easy to follow and doing it yourself is much cheaper than using us!
From time to time components within a computer may fail, the failing component is usually easy to identify and replace. Aquarius I. S. Consultancy can diagnose computer hardware problems and make any necessary repairs. If you suspect that the component that holds all your documents and pictures etc, called the hard drive or hard disk, or simply disk, and you do not have a backup try and copy off all the important information to another disk, CD or DVD immediately. Prolonged use of a faulty disk usually makes matters worse, however, there are companies that specialise in data recovery from dead disks.
Aquarius I. S. Consultancy can help you set-up your e-mail accounts and show you different e-mail delivery methods, e.g. computer based or internet based e-mail.
Web based e-mail systems are accessible from anywhere in the world, whereas once computer based e-mails have been downloaded to your computer they are removed from the internet (however this action is usually configurable). An example of an internet e-mail system is hotmail.co.uk.
Your internet service provider will usually supply you with one or more e-mail address and today these can usually be configured as both web based and / or PC based. However, if at some time you leave your internet service provider you may lose your e-mail address. There are web based options available to enable you to setup an independent e-mail system using your own domain name (www.mywebsite.co.uk) so that your e--mail address can be susan@mywebsite.co.uk rather than susan12547@awellknownisp.co.uk. Services like this cost less than £10 per year plus the cost of the .co.uk address (from about £2.99 per year, minimum 2 years). If you decide to change the e-mail service provider they are required to allow you to move the .co.uk address to another service provider so you do not have to re-print your business cards.
One of the most common software faults on PC's is the intrusion of unwanted viruses, adware, spyware and other malicious software. Anti-virus software does a pretty good job of minimising the risk of such intrusion but is not and cannot be 100% effective. One of the common ways for such intrusion is opening e-mail attachments from unsolicited e-mail and the acceptance of a message such as: To see this video a new codec must be installed. The problem is deciding which software is legitimate (e.g. Adobe's Flash) and bad, after all malicious software pretends it is good and required software. One of the first symptoms of such bad software may be messages like "your computer is infected by a virus, click here to buy my-extortion-ware anti-virus package. Some problems like this are difficult for a PC novice to remove and you may spend several hours trawling the internet for a solution.
Aquarius I. S. Consultancy is usually able to remove and repair any damage to the software structure of the PC, very rarely we have to re-set the computer back to factory settings (as you first received it), however, in all cases we take 100% backup of the PC prior to attempting a fix, this way you will not lose any important data, documents, pictures etc. Some of our customers have told us that they took their computer to have viruses removed, they did remove the viruses and removed all the important music, pictures and documents too! After we have repaired the PC we take another backup so that you have a before and after copy of what is on your PC.
Computers have come down in price considerably over the years, you can even get a bargain on the high street today! One of the ways computers can be produced at such a low cost is that they contain trial software from some of the most well known software vendors, the hope is you will go ahead and purchase this software when the trial period expires. Even though you are not going to be guided into purchasing bad software there may be cheaper and better alternatives available, e.g. some of the most popular internet security software may not be best of breed or the cheapest in independent comparative reviews (magazine and internet reviews).
Many new PC's also come with set-up programs for a number of internet service providers (ISP), you may already have an ISP - and some ISP's include internet security software as part of the package price. The trouble is it may not be obvious to a computer novice what software to remove and how to remove the extra 'goodies'; Aquarius I. S. Consultancy can help you with this.
Aquarius I. S. Consultancy will also transfer any information from your previous PC, install your printer, network, additional software and internet if required.
Ask yourself the question "If I could never access the information on my PC ever again would I be a little annoyed?" If the answer is Yes then you need some way of backing up your important information and perhaps even better the whole contents of the hard disk drive.
The hard disk drive stores the permanent information of your PC and is a mechanical device spinning at between 5400 and 7200 RPM. Hard disks are very reliable but can, like all mechanical devices, fail. Even if you disk does fail there are specialists that can recover the information, but this may cost quite a lot of money.
A solution to this potential problem is to make a copy of the information to another storage device, e.g. another hard disk, a USB flash drive or an optical DVD or CD. At the very least you should consider making regular copies of your important data to, for example, a low cost USB Flash drive, by dragging and dropping the files to the device using Windows Explorer. An alternative is to obtain a bespoke software package designed for backing up and restoring information, one such package called AISBackup which can be found on our sister site www.aiscl.co.uk, here. AISBackup can be used to backup data, the whole PC and optionally synchronise the latest files between the PC and a USB drive or another computer. Residents of Cardiff and surrounding area have the added advantage in that we can come and set this up for you, whereas the rest of the world has to work from the supplied help files and online support forum.
Over time PC's may appear to be not performing at the same speed as when you purchased it, this is often a result of new software been developed for the latest, state of the art, computers. Normally a simple upgrade such as increasing the amount of Random Access Memory (RAM) may be enough. There are other solutions such as removing software packages that are no longer needed. Some popular Anti-virus and internet security packages can slow down a PC's performance and swapping this to a more old computer friendly anti-virus package. Not all performance increases are as dramatic as this, but one memory and anti-virus package upgrade on a PC that previously took 20 minutes to boot (20 minutes before you could use it) is now ready in 45 seconds.
Aquarius I. S. Consultancy can help you with the use of office software packages, for example creating a mail merge to send a letter to all of your customers. We can also write bespoke software to your own specification, and we often do this to facilitate easy update of web-sites from a local PC.
Aquarius I. S. Consultancy can also repair problems with software packages that we have no prior knowledge of - this may require us contacting third party software vendors who you may be reluctant to talk to yourself if your understanding of computers is generally non-technical.