Are you 2020-ready?

Is your

ready for 2020?

As we come to a new year, posts are starting to appear online touting a ‘new year, new me’. Resolutions, promises, goals, diets, and all that jazz.

Why should January 1st be any better than any other day to start being the best you?

That’s not the point of this post though. It’s a not a Victor Meldrew-esque rant, but a reminder of some of the other things you may want to ensure are in good shape for the start of a new decade (though I recognise this is also a topic for debate since, if the first year was 1, then the second decade starting in year 11…. follow the logic and the ‘new decade’ starts next year. Procrastinators rejoice! You can be a lazy slob for another year and roll out the new you for the start of the decade in 12 months time – thank me later). I’m not really into the whole new year resolution thing (can you tell?) but maybe if I was, it should be to stay more focussed mid-post. Or even just mid-sentence, or mid- what were we talking about again? 

Is your Computer or Laptop 2020-ready?

They get slower with age. Computers that is. As they accumulate all that data and knowledge that you have gleaned over time, things slow down a little. The little man inside your computer says “ah, he likes this website so I’ll keep some information on here so he can find it easily next time”, which is all well and good but it happens every time. And then there’s the software you no longer use and the bank statement that you downloaded ten times, and the photos you stored in three different places….

You take your car for a service and MOT every year, right? Maybe clear the loft out occasionally (or at least rearrange the Christmas decs when putting them back)? Why not your PC or Laptop? It needs a HealthCheck every so often, removing the rubbish so that there’s more space (and hopefully speed) for the things that matter to you.

The other thing about Computers is that they do stop working one day. It’s inevitable. The hard drive may stop working, or the memory may fail. Prevention is better than cure, so check our tips of 20 things to get your PC 2020-ready.

Is your Website or Web Presence 2020-ready?

More and more people are looking for a website to validate a businesses before using them. Our most popular web service in 2019 was single-page sites that give an opportunity to show what you do, without the cost of a full-blown website. Many of the businesses had no great desire to build a site, or just couldn’t justify the cost at the early stages of the business, but these have been setup to grow with the business, and it’s been exciting to see some of these businesses really take off and want to add in more pages and more information.

Several of the sites are automatically pulling in information from other sources to help keep them fresh. So as customers leave reviews on Google or Facebook, or the business owner adds pictures of their latest work on Facebook, that information is automatically added to their site.

We’ve made some massive improvements to our hosting over the last couple of months: it’s ready to grow with your business throughout 2020, and we’d love to be part of your online journey. You can find out about the updates here.

It’s not all about websites though. Making sure your business, charity or community group has a strong online presence is increasingly important. There are lots of simple things you can do to help ensure that you can be easily found online. Check out our top 20 tips for a 2020-ready online presence, or schedule a call to discuss options.  

Is your Networking 2020-ready?

Do you attend any networking events? Networking can massively help your business, and could be just what you need to make 2020 even more successful. There are lots of different types of networking events out there, and some may suit you more than others. That’s OK. We’re all different, and all like to do things differently. 

This February it will be three years since the Lakeside Lunch networking group launched. I think I’ve missed three of the fortnightly events in that time, but have made friends, found customers and found other local businesses that I can rely upon. I now help run three different networking events locally (Lakeside, Billericay and Ongar) as part of the UK’s only joined-up networking organisation…. which itself celebrates 14 years in February.

There’s no 20 tips for 2020 this time. Instead, look out for a new networking tip every fortnight, or get in touch and we’ll help you find some local opportunities to talk about your business and grow your network.  

20 Tips to get your PC or Laptop 2020-ready

20 Tips to get your PC or Laptop 2020-ready

Is your

ready for 2020?

Is your computer or laptop ready for whatever 2020 will throw at it?

 

Here’s our tp 20 tips to keep it in good shape, but of course we’re here to help any time!

  1. Backup, backup, backup – always have at least one other copy of your data.
  2. Run our Laptop/PC HealthCheck scanning application – 100% safe and free!
  3. Uninstall any software you don’t need or use – some comes pre-installed.
  4. Check Windows Updates are current. Windows 7 is no longer supported.
  5. Check all your software is running the latest version (PatchMyPC is good).
  6. Consider removing any apps that hog resources and slow things down.
  7. Remove temporary files, and temporary internet files. Empty Recycle Bin.
  8. You may benefit from adding more memory (RAM) to your PC or Laptop.
  9. Check the health of your hard drive and consider replacing with an SSD.
  10. If using a laptop, don’t leave it plugged in – batteries last longer if used!
  11. Check what apps are auto-running at startup and disable if not needed.
  12. Remove dust from vents and (if accessible) fans to prevent overheating.
  13. Unlucky for some: Passwords. You may want to use a password manager.
  14. If using public wi-fi, consider using a VPN to keep your data more secure.
  15. Use secure ports for your email if possible (IMAP on 193, SMTP on 465).
  16. Windows built-in security is usually OK for home use, but ensure it is on!
  17. Pay attention when installing software (Unchecky unchecks extra boxes).
  18. If you don’t want to pay for Office 365, download Libre Office instead.
  19. Did we mention backups are important? Ideally one physical, one cloud.
  20. We recommend a HealthCheck every six months. Contact us to book in.
20 Tips to get your PC or Laptop 2020-ready 1

Enter your email address and click the button for your FREE HealthCheck scan.

It will download a small file called ScanCircle4D_en_S6Connect.exe, which you should then open/run to perform the scan. You’ll immediately get your results and any further reccommendations via email.

[scancircle partner=”s6connect” prompt=”Email” validation=”required;email”]
New Year: New…

New Year: New…

Hands up, who went with some “new year new me“-type resolution at the start of the month either for yourself or your business? Kept it up?

Here’s the thing though, do you really need or mean “new”? To throw away all the years of experience and learning that brought you to where you are today?

Take the best things you have already, and improve them. Strip away the things that don’t serve you, and replace them. Refine and reform; grow and move on; but don’t start again completely from scratch.

If your car needs a new tyre, you don’t buy a new car. Though many of us will know that feeling of it costing so much to get a car through its MOT and service that it’s best to give up and buy another.

But what’s all this got to do with IT?

Many of the same questions and analogies apply.

Is your laptop or website ready to handle everything this year will throw at it? That doesn’t necessarily mean scrap what you have and buy new, but build on what you have so that it helps you achieve all that you need it to.

We’ve already been busy adding e-commerce (a shop) to a couple of websites this month, and text messaging options to a couple of systems. We’ve added WhatsApp for Business to the ways in which we can be contacted and posted stories onto various social channels to help people find us.

An area we’ve been particularly busy in this month so far though is computer repairs and new system setup. 

I already mentioned a car MOT/service: something we’re all aware of and – memory permitting – get done every year. Computers and laptops need this just as much though. It’s quite normal for there to be unneeded files taking up space, unused apps and services loading at startup that slow things down, or maybe even a need for additional memory.

Our managedSupport application already automates a lot of this, and our online health scan tool will highlight areas that need attention if you want the self-service route, we still recommend having a proper HealthCheck or tune-up at least once a year.

Our HealthCheck service can be provided in person or remotely, and we’re offering a crazy low price on this if you’re able to leave your laptop with us for a day or two (we can work on two or three at once, enabling us to charge less).

January 20.19 HealthCheck promotion

So here’s the deal…. Our Laptop/PC HealthCheck is usually £45, but if you’re able to drop it off to us and leave it with us for 48-72 hours, we’ll run the full HealthCheck and tune-up service on the device for just £20.19 – we thought it had a certain ring to it!

Text or WhatsApp us on 01268 833345 and we’ll arrange to book you in.

What’s the catch?

There is none. Some of the tune-up service is now automated, and most of it involves a lot of waiting for processes to finish. We can be doing other things in that time, or work on 2-3 laptops at once.

We’ll perform all the checks, tests and optimisations that we do on a full-price HealthCheck, and provide the same level of reporting afterwards. We’ll invite you to have another HealthCheck in six months time, but there is no obligation.

We do recommend having our managedSupport and CryptoPrevent applications installed as well though. These apps provide enhanced security and give you easy access to some common maintenance tasks, help and advice. We’ll install them both half-price alongside the promotion – £7.50 – if you want us to. Again though, no obligation.

Steve Westrop | Director, S6 Connect

IT/Biz Consultant, Disabled Dad, Voice of Reason, Champion of Change,...

Steve has a professional background in Education and Charity Management, having worked with numerous local and national businesses and non-profits, and a micro-multinational, in roles through to Operations Director.

Founding S6 Connect as a Company limited by guarantee in 2010 after parenthood and disability changed life significantly, Steve is passionate about helping people, businesses and communities to get the most from technology, saving them time & money (or gold).

Changes to Cloud Backup (for PC and Laptop)

Changes to Cloud Backup (for PC and Laptop)

We’ve made some changes to the branding of our cloud backup application.
 
This service has been provided through a partnership with LiveDrive for several years, and we had paid for custom branding.
 
To avoid needing to increase the price, this service is no longer branded as “Save Store Share” and you will be prompted to update the app in the next few days, and see it simply as “LiveDrive“. It’s exactly the same service, with the same security and peace of mind, but you will also now receive an updated app to manage the service, with a fresher interface (this was not rolled out to custom branded accounts).
 
The first screen you will see when opening the app is the “Control Centre” which will look similar to this:
Changes to Cloud Backup (for PC and Laptop) 3
 
From here you can change your backup settings, restore deleted files (previously required an additional app) and view files on the web. Your existing settings should transfer across though, so no action is needed.
 
If you are prompted to update/replace the app, go ahead – it’s safe to do so.
 
Once that’s done you can leave it to do its own thing and not think about it again!
Of course, if you’re confused or concerned, or want us to run the update and check the settings for you, just let me know.
 
You can schedule remote support online, or text or WhatsApp on 01268 833 345.
 
Steve Westrop | Director, S6 Connect

IT/Biz Consultant, Disabled Dad, Voice of Reason, Champion of Change,...

Steve has a professional background in Education and Charity Management, having worked with numerous local and national businesses and non-profits, and a micro-multinational, in roles through to Operations Director.

Founding S6 Connect as a Company limited by guarantee in 2010 after parenthood and disability changed life significantly, Steve is passionate about helping people, businesses and communities to get the most from technology, saving them time & money (or gold).

Changes to Remote Support and device management

We’re making some changes to the provision of remote support and remote device management, and currently trialling a new application and platform for this.

We currently use a number of different apps to provide remote support (accessing your computer to resolve an issue, or sharing our screen with you to demonstrate how to do something) depending on needs and availability.

Zoom is usually used for all scheduled meetings, since this provides the ability to talk via the application as well as viewing or sharing screens or webcams during the meeting. It’s easy to use and most customers have been able to access it without any problem. It doesn’t provide any form of ‘unattended access’, and is intended mainly as a way of holding an online meeting and sharing content, though does have the option for us to request to control your mouse and keyboard. We will continue to use Zoom for most of our Consulting Calls.

Our managed Internet security and anti-virus service, provided by Avast  (previously AVG), includes the option for us to connect remotely to any computer that we manage, but this connection can generally only be made from our offices, and is not suitable for ad-hoc remote support. We’ve rarely used it, but will continue to include this option in Avast CloudCare deployments.

Our managedSupport application includes an option to request remote support on-demand, and this is the application that will be changing. Branded as ‘LiveWire screenshare’ this service gave several options and was often used for quick remote support sessions where we needed to troubleshoot an issue on a computer, or when Zoom could not be used for some reason. It also gave us the option of ‘broadcasting’ our screen via a webpage for training purposes. However, this application has provided unreliable lately and for this reason we are replacing it.

This will mean pushing out an update in the settings of our managedSupport application, so that the new app loads on-demand instead. It also provides the option of installing an application to run in the background, enabling us to request access at any time as needed, rather than first having to guide customers through loading the remote support application. Security is always important to us though, so this option is exactly that – an option – and customers would be prompted to allow or reject the access request. We are able to access from any of our devices, including mobile access, and will also be able to provide support for some mobile devices using this application in future.

We’ll be using both the LiveWire and SOS Connect applications through August, and intend to have the migration completed the first week of September.

If you have any questions about this, or want to see a demonstration of how these tools are used to help provide ongoing support, please let us know.