Redback

Don’t Panic – if you collect money from cards?

Stewart — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:24:54 +0000

If you collect money from Debit or Credit Cards you may be panicked into jumping through all sorts of hoops. There are companies out there who would just love to panic you and get you to sign up to one of their audits and take your money. Scam might be too strong a word but there are people jumping onto the bandwagon and scaring small businesses.

Well rightly there are standards and you need to keep within them and they have recently been upgraded. Take your time, speak to your bank and look at the questionnaire on the PCI Standards website. PCI = (Payment Card Industry). Speak to other companies with caution – there is what I’d call fast practice. So don’t panic.

Save Power

Stewart — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:57:11 +0000

I’m all for saving power and saving the planet but let’s get some perspective. The Sony TV illustrated uses 0.3Watts on Standby and so that is 9 years on standby will use £0.15 worth of energy. There are better ways of saving energy than turning your TV off at the socket.

Selecting a Printer for a Small Business

Stewart — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:18:38 +0000

If you need a new printer make sure it suits your needs. If you are in the Tunbridge Wells area I’d gladly go over the pros and cons with you, but if you want to do it yourself have a read of this helpful guide by How-to-Geek. http://bit.ly/xHq0aY

Speed-up your Computer – add RAM

Stewart — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:20:55 +0000

A quick and inexpensive way to speed up your PC or Mac is add more RAM. RAM is less expensive than it used to be and its easy to fit so you could fit it yourself. Here’s the instructions but if you get into trouble you can always contact me.

http://bit.ly/ugQO3b

Gmail – more than one account?

Stewart — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:29:19 +0000

Yes you can see more than one at a time!

Very Simple Method – download another browser – Chrome is good – and open the other account in that.

Classy Method – you need to use Google Chrome as your browser for this solution. Click on the spanner symbol (top right) and go to Options > Personal Stuff. Sign in as another user then switch between users. I’ve not tried this so let me know.

By the way export your contacts from one account and then import them into the other and you can keep them in sync that way. If you have a premium account they are kept in sync anyway.

Wireless Encryption Key

Stewart — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:46:11 +0000

Choose a simple one. Security is not a big issue here because even if its cracked its still going to be very difficult to get at your banking details. All we are trying to do is make it difficult for somebody to use your network. Secondly smart phone users have poor keyboards so its difficult enough to enter a key if its a mix of letters and numbers. Stick to something simple like a few letters followed by a few numbers. Even abcde12345 will be enough to dissuade the casual free loader and its straight list of letters and numbers are easy for the smart phone friend or relative to enter.

By the way it’s encryption not just a password. So its not just a means of entry but every bit of data you send is scrabbled by the encryption key – very difficult to make sense of, so use one and feel safe.

NB For owners of cafes providing free WiFi,

you should speak to me – your requirement is different.

Wireless Encryption

Stewart — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:24:44 +0000

If you have a wireless network you should turn on encryption.

Why, because some perve may be using your network to download or upload stuff that is not very nice and if its traced you’ll have to answer a few questions.

Now of course it all starts getting confusing because there are so many different types. Below are just a few popular ones, but don’t worry, here is my advice. Don’t use WEP its now outdated and some modern gear can’t use it. Use WPA2, nearly everything can use it and its good enough.

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)—The old, original, now discredited wireless security standard. Easily cracked.

WEP 40/128-bit key, WEP 128-bit Passphrase—See WEP. The user key for WEP is generally either 40- or 128-bit, and generally has to be supplied as a hexadecimal string.

WPA, WPA1—Wi-Fi Protected Access. The initial version of WPA, sometimes called WPA1, is essentially a brand name for TKIP. TKIP was chosen as an interim standard because it could be implemented on WEP hardware with just a firmware upgrade.

WPA2—The trade name for an implementation of the 802.11i standard, including AES and CCMP.

TKIP—Temporal Key Integrity Protocol. The replacement encryption system for WEP. Several features were added to make keys more secure than they were under WEP.

AES—Advanced Encryption Standard. This is now the preferred encryption method, replacing the old TKIP. AES is implemented in WPA2/802.11i.

WPA-PSK, WPA-Preshared Key—Use of a shared key, meaning one manually set and manually managed. Does not scale with a large network either for manageability or security, but needs no external key management system.

Microsoft Office Tip

Stewart — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:14:11 +0000

As Microsoft Office 2007 becomes more common, the likelihood that you will receive a document saved in the more modern format grows.

That’s pain if you can’t open it – but you can!

The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats makes it possible for users of Office 2003 applications to open and edit Office 2007 documents.

The latest version of the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats can be downloaded for free from Microsoft.

Tunbridge Wells Small Business Support

Stewart — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:43:30 +0000

You can’t have all the expertise in-house, and if you try and do it yourself it will cost you grief and money. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a team you could trust and draw on their expertise when you need it.

Well you can. Here is a loosely affiliated group of highly regarded people who I’d recommend:

Myself – Small scale IT and anything technical
Keith Wilcox – Phones, broadband and utilities
Martin Webber – Graphic Design
Robin Booth – recycled plant and office equipment
Ruth Weaver – Stationary
Paul Jenkins – Business bank manager
Brian Hynes – Accountant
Caroline Taylor- Web designer
Hanna Szurkowska – Cleaner
Ian Andrew – Insurance broker
Jonathan Howard – Corporate IT

Metropolitan Police Virus

Stewart — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:39:41 +0000

It may look official but it’s a scam. It completely locks your computer and disables Task Manager and Safe Mode or any of the other ways of getting into your computer to fix it. Don’t pay the “fine” but ring me or any other computer professional you know. Its a difficult one but it can be fixed. If you pay the fine by credit card they will have your details and relentlessly take money from your account every month.