Martin Ford, the MD of ForData took part in a sponsored walk on the 9th July 2011. He chose to run it to make more money for the charity. We've asked him to write a piece about the run and his reasons for doing it, so here it is in all it's glory!!

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Avebury ROCKS!

I’m Martin Ford. 44 years old, 6’8” tall and a little too rotund for my liking. By the time you read this I’ll have run a 20 mile off road course from Avebury to Marlborough, up to Barbury Castle, and back down the Ridgeway to Avebury. A number of residents from the Take 5 area have been kind enough to sponsor me, so I thought it would be worthwhile giving an account of what, how and why I’ve done it.

For a reason that will become obvious, the story starts just before Christmas last year…

On the 12^th December 2010, I’d just picked up a rather fine Christmas tree. I’d gone through the somewhat ritualistic attempt at getting it into the Christmas tree holder (a process that involves shaving off bits of the stump of the tree for what seems like hours, in the rain) to allow the family to begin to task of ‘dressing’ the tree.

Now, I’m not sure if it’s just me, but it seems that this task is best left to the lady of the household, and the kids. If a man goes near the tree with anything remotely ‘dangly’ to hang on it, he will be berated by the lady of the house… “You’re not going to put that THERE, are you???”

Therefore, being fully aware that this would happen, I decided to break open the Christmas spirit in the form of a fine malt whisky.

Having sat and watched the ornament adorning ceremony for five minutes or so, guilt crept over me as I was doing nothing, so I offered to get a nice fire going to help set the festive scene a little more.

Immediately, I came across a problem – no kindling. So off I trot to the garage to turn a few logs into kindling with a hand axe.

During the winter this happens every few days, so it’s nothing out of the ordinary. I selected a suitable log, knelt down in front of it (remember, at 6’8” I’m quite a way from the floor!) and cleaved it neatly in two. I then selected one of the two pieces that I had just created, and did the same again. Only this time I found there was a knot in it - the force wasn’t great enough, so I was left with a hand axe firmly stuck in the log.

Again, there’s nothing new there. I suspect everyone that has a real wood fire is very used to this. The course of action is to raise the axe (with the wood still clamped over the blade), into the air – and then swing it down with as much gusto as you can.

This is what I did. It was travelling at full pelt… when the wood fell off. I had tried to loosen it, before this swing, and must have been more successful than I thought.

Now, this course of events makes way for something rather interesting: until now, the axe head with the wood was probably just over a foot in length… and now without the wood, it was probably a little under 6 inches – meaning that the whole thing is around 6 inches too short – well, too short to connect with the floor.

So, the axe is heading down as fast as possible, and all of a sudden, it’s going to miss the floor… luckily there was something in the way to stop the blade… unfortunately, that was my knee.

It is very surprising how little pain an axe going into your body actually generates. Clearly, I dropped the axe, clamped my hand on my knee, and screwed up my eyes… waiting for the rush of pain that comes when you stub your toe – but it never came. There was only the dull sort of pain you would get if you banged your knee on a doorframe, so I surmised that maybe it had somehow not actually broken the skin, and must have glanced off. I opened my eyes and looked down. Axe on the floor, hand on my knee – no blood. Whoop whoop.

I lifted my hand. Ah – not so good then. A great big hole in my new jeans, and a lot of dark red stuff flowing out of it. I had missed my kneecap by around a quarter of an inch – and the femoral artery by only a couple of inches. One would have been devastating, and the other potentially fatal.

So I hobbled onto my undamaged leg and hopped to the kitchen where I call my good lady wife – who (being in the medical game, is used to all this sort of drama) – calmly told me off for wrecking my jeans.

To be fair, she was a saint, and she bundled me into the car and whisked me off to A & E. They sorted me out, but not before the orderly asked me if I was allergic to anything – he didn’t see the funny side when I explained that I have a rather odd reaction to axes.

So there’s the scene set. I was barely able to walk for the rest of December – certainly not without a stick. I’d been told that I wouldn’t be able to exercise at all for a couple of months….I hated this newfound immobility, and vowed that I would do something to get fit.

Having heaved myself onto the scales on new year’s day, I was aghast to see that I was over 18 ½ stone, and I couldn’t do any exercise other than a very slow walk along the road to start reducing this. When you are someone who is, to all intents and purposes, naturally fit... and that fitness is suddenly taken away from you, it is a very hard thing psychologically to adjust to. I hope that above anything, anyone reading this takes heed of this, and does what they can to enjoy every second they are in good shape.

So every day I went out – as the scar tissue had by this time formed and bonded, and was tough enough for me to start bending the knee more than just a few millimetres. Within another week I went for a run.

I imagine that first run was a very comical sight; thank goodness we live where we do with no-one to see the spectacle of a 6’8” idiot running on one leg, but trying to keep the other one straight. The ministry of silly walks had nothing on this!

It was too early – no more damage, no splitting of the scar, but the pain in my leg was unimaginable. I managed probably a quarter of a mile, and hobbled back home.

However, a couple of days later, I put myself through it again.

I continued this, and watched what I was eating and drinking, until one day I was chatting to another resident of Mountain Bower – Pete Bucknell, about a musician we both rather like.

This musician is a brilliant guitarist, and is the son of the famous Folk / Rock guitarist Roy Harper (worked with bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc).

Pete told me that Nick was organising a Sponsored walk around Avebury, and it would be a great day to go along, meet the man, raise some money for a charity, and get a free gig as a thankyou in the evening.

I immediately thought of my leg – I was able to run a couple of miles by this point (VERY slowly, mind you), but when I heard the event wasn’t until July, I was up for it.

I asked about the charity, it’s an organisation called “Love, Hope, Strength”. This organisation was originally formed by Mike Peters of the Alarm, and Big Country. Mike has suffered cancer twice, and knew that Nick’s mother had died from the disease – accordingly he asked Nick if he would join in, and Nick leaped at the chance.

To raise funds for local cancer hospices all over the globe, they have done some remarkable gigs; At Machu Picchu (bear in mind it takes 5 days to walk there, and the same to walk back), At the summit of a number of mountains (including Kilimanjaro, and Fuji)…. And most of all, the highest Gig ever – at Everest Base Camp. So a 20 mile walk around Avebury doesn’t seem that much in comparison – but it is in aid of the Prospect Hospice, the Hospice that cared for Nick’s Mother – so it is clearly very important to him.

My mother also passed away following a five year battle, and I have lost so many friends, and know of so many others with the disease, that there was no way I would not take part.

 

Those people that know me, know that I do frequently take part in charity events – including the three peaks, running various half marathons, and a cross channel swim, to name a few. Therefore I was concerned that people wouldn’t put their hands so deep into their pocket, for a simple 20 mile walk. Even in the knowledge that I was recovering from the accident.

So, in a fit of idiocy – I emailed the organisers, and asked if I could possibly run the route to raise a little more. This was daft for every reason I could imagine; I’ve barely become mobile after ramming an axe into my knee, it would be the middle of summer, I weighed 18 ½ stone, and I could spend a DAY chatting to one of my musical idols – but instead I’ll be out front, on my own, while the likes of Pete Bucknell will have a great day with him.

But deep down I knew it was the right thing to do. Moreover, once I had made a commitment, I had to stick to it – so I would either get fit, or end up in a wheelchair trying.

I got the reply – the organisers had said yes to me – so I really needed to start getting going.

Therefore since it was all agreed way back in March, I’ve been training – pushing myself, and my leg to the limits, to get fit enough to be able to do this. By April the memory of the axe induced injury was fading, and I was getting fitter. I have managed to lose over a stone and a half, and feel better than I have done in years.

I’m writing this on the evening of the 8^th July. The run is tomorrow. I am a complete bag of nerves, but the work has paid dividends. They had asked that every member raises at least £50.00 for the cause – I passed £500.00 this morning. I’m still hoping to get that up to at least £1,000 and hopefully the run tomorrow, and the automated Facebook updates, and Twitter tweets will convince a few more people to sponsor me.

I will update this after the run, so you can see what has happened – but in the short term, if you would like to help out and sponsor me, please go to www.justgiving.com/martin-ford and click the Donate button. Do it for someone you love that has been affected by this awful disease.

 

Thanks a million.

 

Martin Ford

 

 

The run

… On Saturday 9^th July I rose at 05:00  - and I had a cold. Wonderful. All this time, getting fitter and fitter, and today of all days I rise with a ‘bit of a head’. Still, nothing’s going to stop me – so I get up, and make sure I’m prepared.

Pete Bucknell picks me up at bang on 06:00 – and we arrive at the Avebury Cricket Pavilion with plenty of time of the 06:45 registration. I am ‘walker’ number 34, and Pete is 44.

In all we estimate around 150 people turned up – all to raise money for this charity. We meet with the marshals, and Nick Harper, who seems really pleased with the amount of people that have turned up. After an hour or so we have to walk to the stone circle, where Nick sings a song he has written specifically for the event, to get us motivated.

I look around me, and see that of the 150 other people there, it seems (certainly from the clothing and footwear), that I am the only one that will be running it. With a certain amount of butterflies in my stomach, we all set off over to the mound that is on the outer edge of the ditch that surrounds Avebury, and then stop on this ridge for photographs.

Then, with little warning, it seems we are off. I am stood still, waiting for movement, and fiddling with my phone. This device not only keeps me in touch with the world, but it monitors my location, updates my runs to the Internet, and plays me music so I don’t have to hear myself huffing and puffing away.

I realise that we have started – get the music going and the running software working, and I am away.

By the time I get past the walkers I am about a quarter of a mile into the run – this is great – I’ve only got 19 ¾ left now!!

The course took me along the Herepath, which is the pathway from Avebury, up to the ridgeway, and across to the Valley of the Stones. It is from here that the Avebury Stones were taken. From the Valley of the stones there is a very simple trail known as the Gallops, which leads all the way to Marlborough Golf Course.

Cutting across the top of the golf course, I couldn’t believe how good I was feeling. Now in retrospect, I can see the elevation information from the run (also from the software on my phone), and I can see that at this point I’d effectively been running downhill for five miles! Unfortunately, as the start and finish were at the same point, that fact meant I’d got a lot of uphill to come, somewhere along the route.

I was concerned about the next bit, as I don’t know this area at all, but I knew that it was meant to be straightforward. Nick had told me to “simply follow the old railway track north, that runs parallel to the A346, until you reach Ogbourne St Something, then  go under the A346 and get onto the ridgeway – from there it’s plain sailing”… I hasten to add, he gave me the full name for Ogbourne St Something, but my mind only picked up on the Ogbourne bit. After all, surely that’s the only bit you’d need to remember…

So I’m confidently striding out along the track, which all of a sudden ends in someone’s drive. A little surprised I jog down to the road, and look around. In front of me is Ogbourne St Andrew. Aha! I’m here.

Can’t see what he means about ‘go under the road’ so I decided to cross here, anyway. When I got across, nothing looked like the blurred photocopy of a map that I have. I realised things may not be right and managed to stop a builder – I ask if he knew the area, and he says he didn’t – however, as he was the only person around, I wasn’t going to let him off just because he didn’t know the area either - so I ignore his protests and try to get some directions out of him.

Thankfully for the builder, and me, one of the marshals just happened to be driving past, and saw me. It turns out that I cross the road at Ogbourne St George, not Andrew – I was two miles short.

So I went back to the house that had a drive in the way of the railway track – and found where it continued on. It wasn’t hard to see – in fact it was very obvious – I guess I may have just been getting a little tired.

Continuing along the railway track for the next two miles, I quickly found the right route, and worked my way onto the ridgeway.

The gizmo in my phone that works out where I was, also told me how far I’d run… I was expecting it to say I’d run about 6 miles by this point, but instead the voice said 10… I’d clearly missed a few announcements (very easy, when you are also listening to music). I was halfway there!!! I felt on top of the world – I knew I had a blister, but other than that I was feeling fantastic – lots of energy, and only a 10 mile run in front of me – every step now was closer to the end than the beginning.

Unfortunately, for the next SEVEN miles, I found I was running practically all uphill. This was the payback for the 5 mile descent. Having said that, it was only at worst a gentle hill – never anything too bad – but I think on balance, I’d have preferred it to be flat, or maybe a gentle downhill all the way!!! At the 14 mile mark I reached Barbury Castle, a fantastic Iron Age hill fort. It is huge, and I was the only person there. I stopped for a few minutes to text a couple of people, and listen to the wind – it was a very special place to be. The solitude, the silence, and the break from running bringing all the hustle to an immediate, and beautiful halt.

However, I didn’t want to stop for long, I had just 6 miles to go, and there was a pub at the finish line!

I crossed the rest of Barbury Castle, and then dropped back onto the Ridgeway, following the trail past the burial mounds and the white horse. This was weird – I know this section of the ridgeway better than any, and as such I was convinced it would be plain sailing, but it was heavily rutted by the 4x4’s and motorbikes that frequent it, so it was actually the hardest part of the route.

I finally reached the Herepath again, and dropped down from the Ridgeway towards Avebury. This last two mile section seemed to go on forever, but I finally appeared there, to a welcoming committee of my wife and one of her best friends – and with them they had my new best friend…. A pint of ale.

 All in all I felt remarkably good having run this distance. I knew I had one small blister on my foot, but this was down to the fact the shoes are about 10 years old, and have now retired. There was no padding left on the back of either shoe – just a hard white curve of plastic. Therefore I should have been in a much worse situation, so it seems the training was worth it.

I sit here now, writing this account, and realise that I need to find some other challenge to keep me going – my knee is fine now, and I certainly don’t want to take my health for granted ever again – so I’m off to get new shoes, and to sign up for the next adventure.

The only disappointment in it all, is that I am still £390.00 short of my target of £1,000.00

The donations website is still open, so if reading this has made you think of people that have been affected by cancer, or if it’s inspired you to go out and get some exercise, then please visit www.justgiving.com/martin-ford - these smaller charities need SO much more help than the larger ones, and they do make such a difference.

 

Many thanks for your time

 

Martin Ford.

 

 

 

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ForData Spring Newsletter 2011

A HUGE amount has been going on behind the scenes at ForData. We've got new starters, new phone numbers, ways to get our unbeatable service at a lower cost, and loads of fantastically useful information that should help you get the absolute best out of your contracted support. If you don't have contracted support, then read on, and see what you are missing!!

James - on Board in April

ForData are very pleased to welcome on board our newest member of staff. James Robinson.

James will be joining us in April, bringing with him no less than 22 years' worth of experience in the IT industry, specifically based around looking after SME's and the issues they run into.

So when you next call the office and find yourself speaking to James, please welcome him, and be gentle with him!!!

Reducing your contract costs

So, you are part of the ForData family of supported customers. Hopefully you are enjoying a warm feeling of being virtually hugged by us to keep you and your systems working well. But… how would completely free support strike you? Nice? Well it's not impossible. A growing number of our customers have exactly that - and even more have substantially reduced their outlay. So how can you do it???
Effectively, it's done as a way of thanking you for finding us more business…

1. You have to be a full contracted customer.
2. You introduce a business customer to ForData.
3. We start supporting that customer.
4. IF the customer then signs up onto one of our full contracts, then you will get THREE times their monthly spend, taken off your next year's contract costs.

To make this clearer:

Company A is signed up on a full contract with ForData, spending £500.00 per month. They introduce us to company B, who then sign up onto a full contract with ForData. The contracted fee for company B is also £500 per month. We immediately notify Company A that when their contract is up for renewal, they will have £500.00 x 3 = £1,500.00 off the total for their next contract. This would mean they would only have to pay £375.00 per month for the following year's support.

The best bit? This offer is cumulative!! So if you gave us leads into 3 or 4 companies that signed up…. Then you could be facing completely free computer support for your entire organisation!!!

The ONLY conditions are:

1. Your company is on a FULL contract with ForData.
2. We are supporting at least 3 computers in your organisation.
3. You agree to sign up for another full year on contract with ForData.
4. Once you have reduced your monthly charge to zero…. I'm sorry, but we don't start paying you for the privelidge!! - nor do we roll the savings on to the following year.

Number trial

The best way for you to get in touch, and guarantee a quick response, is to log a call, or use the chat function in our customer Portal (see 'logging a call, below').

However, we know that sometimes you will want to talk directly to someone. One of the issues we find that we are running into frequently is our availability to you on the phone... When you have an issue, you want to get someone on it straight away. Well, by having James on board, this should now be far easier, but additionally, we are trialling a system where you should be able to contact someone, 95% of the time (never say 100% - but that IS the intention).

Now, as I say, this is a TRIAL - but it makes it cheaper for you too, as we have invested in a freephone, 0800 number. This number will do it's best to track down the engineer or manager that you need, when you need them.

From your point of view, it's simple: simply call 0800 098 8145 - this will get you to our switchboard, where you can choose who you need to talk to. Please give it a go, and also, please give us feedback on what you do / don't like about the new service.

Logging a call

As mentioned above - if you can log the call, it is far better for you, and for us. It means you get the information to us that you need to, and you KNOW it's already in the database we use to deal with all customer issues. Moreover, you get a service request number, which means our work is far more traceable.

To log a call is simplicity itself. You should have a username and password set up on our system (if not, let us know). Simply go to our helpdesk (easiest to go to our website www.fordata.co.uk, and then into the 'customer portal'). Log on in, and "Submit a service request". Write a brief description of the issue, and you are done. It's as simple as that. We will be notified that you've entered the service request - we get the information via a pop up window, via email, and via our phones so we can leap on it straight away.

Worldwide Shortage of Electronic components

Are you considering a purchase of any new electronic kit? If so, it may be worthwhile getting it sooner, rather than later.

As everyone knows, Japan has had the very worst time imaginable over the past couple of weeks. Japan is the source for most of the electronic gadgetry that you use.

The factories that produce all the stuff that goes into the phones, games consoles, computers, cars, and everything you use have either been damaged by the Earthquake and Tsunami, or are undergoing frequent power outages as the country tries to keep going with the limited power supplies caused by the failure of the Power Station.

What does this mean to you? Prices will be going up, quite quickly, as soon as the supply chain starts running dry. Therefore, consider purchasing sooner, rather than later.

Avebury Rocks!

Following a bit of a nasty incident with an axe and his leg in December, Martin Ford, ForData's Director decided he needed to exercise his hacked apart pegleg a little, and once the wound healed he started running to get the muscle back into shape.
He's now signed up with a fantastic Cancer charity called Love, Hope, Strength - and has offered to join "Avebury Rocks!" - a 20 mile sponsored walk around Avebury, Marlborough, and Barbury Castle in Wiltshire. However, rather than walking it, and raising just a few quid, he's offered to run it. Now with his injury, and the fact it's in the middle of summer, along the dusty and unforgiving Ridgeway - it's no mean feat.

Therefore, we're asking you to help him raise £1,000 for the charity, by going to http://www.justgiving.com/martin-ford - you can read far more about it there, and why it's going to be a real psychological trauma for him too!!

Best practices for a healthy pc

So, you're on one of our fantastic proactive support contracts. Hopefully you will agree that the number of problems you have are relatively few, in comparison to what it was like before you joined the fasted growing IT firm in the area….

But to make things even better there are a number of simple tasks you can do to keep your machines tip top…

• Don't store documents folders on your desktop. This actually slows your machine down a lot, and can end up confusing and messy. The best place to stick them is in 'my documents' and put a shortcut on the desktop to the folders you need.
• Empty the recycle bin regularly. People forget about this, and it can fill up a lot of your hard disk, very quickly.
• Reduce the resolution of your background wallpaper. Modern cameras take huge photos. When you set one of these as your wallpaper, it has to squeeze it down to fit it onto the screen. The problem is, this entire picture is constantly in memory, and being repainted every time you move a window around. Reducing the resolution (most image applications with do this) will make a noticeable difference in the speed of your system.
• Install Windows Updates. When you get that little notice saying updates are available, install 'em!! These are normally bug fixes etc to stop your systems from having problems. The sooner you put them onto your system, the better.
• Change your password - Frequently! If you don't - it is only a matter of time before its hacked. Especially if you use the same password everywhere. Hacking isn't just a spotty oik sitting in his bedroom trying to cause a nuclear war…. It is a lot more accessible now, and people are being hacked by neighbours, by people in the street with smartphones, in all sorts of ways. The first line of defence is a strong password. Try not to make it 'password', your dog's name, your favourite football team, or your favourite band.
• Defrag, defrag, defrag! A defrag tidies up the file system on your computer, making the files easier for the system to find, and sometimes hundreds of times faster to open. In Windows Vista and 7 you are OK, you can normally relax as the system should be doing it automatically. Windows XP users…. Think again! You need to manually go to start, all programs, accessories, system tool, Disk Defragmenter. Go in there, click on the Hard disk you want to defrag, and click the Analyse button. If it says you need to defrag the drive, DO IT!. Please bear in mind, this will take a LONG time, so leave it until the evening, when you've finished with the machine. Doing this once a month = faster machine.
• Don't play music / videos over the internet. Although this is good at home, it can be crippling for business systems. Running a video over the network takes a lot of 'bandwith' - basically it'll stop the other things you need to do for work, from getting done. Music is less bandwidth hungry, but it still is a good way of slowing things down.
• Be wary about emails. If you've got an email telling you you've won the euromillions… think to yourself if you've ever done the euromillions. Even if you have, do you remember giving up your email address. If not, you are probably being scammed. With ALL emails, think if it is likely to be a scam.
• Do you REALLY have all those viruses? The most frequent problem we have to deal with at the moment are fake anti virus warnings. These come from websites that you visit, that have been hacked. Once you've been hit, you'll notice the internet browser will stick for a minute or so, and then you'll get messages all over your system telling you that you're infected.

You aren't, and what's more, these applications try to take your money, and then will open up back doors on your system to allow much worse applications in. Now, there is a problem, that if you take the time to try to call us, or log the issue in the helpdesk system, you may be allowing it to take over. So, if you have these symptoms, do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. Save your work if you can.
2. Press and hold the power button until the machine turns off.
3. Turn the machine back on, and wait until it beeps.
4. Start tapping the f8 key repeatedly.
5. You should be presented with a menu (if the window's logo appears, you've gone too far - go back to point 2 and start again!).
6. Using the keyboard arrows, Select 'Safe Mode with networking'. Press enter.
7. Ignore all the stuff that comes up on screen. Let the machine do it's thing for a while and you'll finally be at the desktop, or able to log in. If you have to log in, do so.
8. I know the desktop's a mess. Never mind, this is only a short term thing to fix the bug.
9. Close the Safe mode warning.
10. Now, click on start, all programs, accessories, system tools, system restore.
11. You will get a number of boxes that come up, taking you through a system restore. (Make sure you choose the option to restore your system to an earlier point in time).
12. At the calendar box, choose a bold date from a few days ago.
13. Keep clicking next, and then finish.
14. The machine will go through the restore, and restart itself…. At this point you should have sorted the problem. If not, turn the machine off, and get in touch with us.

Best practices for a healthy server

Servers are a bit more technical than a PC, and therefore there are only a few best practices we'd like to list…

• Don't use the server as a computer. Servers are for 'serving' information to other computers. If you let someone log into it and start using it as theirs, then they can start causing all the above problems (and a lot more) on the server, which will in turn negatively affect your whole organisation.
• If you know what you are doing - be careful! Do you really know what you are doing on a server? A little knowledge can cause a great deal of harm when it comes to a server. Please leave it to us if you are even mildly uncertain.
• DON'T PANIC! Servers are great at informing you of different things that are happening with them - in the daily or weekly reports you may see, there may well be a number of errors. If this is the case, and you are concerned, bring it to our attention, but frequently the errors are not really errors at all. We will look into anything you bring to our attention, and let you know if you need to worry.

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"Small Business Server" is a product sold by Microsoft that combines the latest server technologies together in one box, specifically for small businesses. It's designed for Small businesses, and as such has all the features that they will need.

Small Business Server 2003 has really had it's day now - the technologies have changed, the functionality has been superseded and the machines running 2003 are really now starting to get a little old.

Moreover, files are getting larger, and the servers that were built to hold data back in the days of 2003 - well, they're all filling up quickly with documents, images and media files.

The problem is - Small Business Server is the at the very centre of a small business.... If it's not running - you'll have trouble even logging in to your computer.... and rather awkwardly, Microsoft have set these machines to shut down if they detect another Small Business Server on the network.

This means that if someone decides they want to move from one version to the other, then they are facing massive problems. There is a Migration Path that can be taken, but it's definitely NOT straightforward.

However.... ForData are specialists in this Migration. We have installed countless Small Business Servers, of both the 2003 and the 2008 varieties. We have also migrated from one to the other - indeed, we've recently completed one such migration, and we will be performing another in the next couple of weeks.

If you know of someone looking to migrate from 2003 to 2008, or someone that wants to know what Small Business Server can do for their organisation, then simple call us on 01225 892577 and we'll go into greater depth for you - it's far better that you use a trusted, reliable and friendly firm to help you out, than try it yourself, or get someone will little or no experience to do the same.

Zeus, a virus that steals online banking details from infected computer users, is more powerful than ever, warns a web security company.

Have a look at the BBC report here....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8634356.stm

It's definitely worthwhile making sure your Anti Virus, Anti Malware, and Banking protection software is up to date!.

Thanks John, for the title of my first blog.

I'm sat here, contemplating just which task to do next, but am acutely aware that I promised myself the need to start creating a blog to go onto this shiny new website. So I've chosen to do this instead.... because I can.

So,   here's a question: in what two ways can computer support (or any form of support, for that matter) be handled?

Answer:

Support can be proactive. Or

Support can be reactive.

The difference is much, MUCH bigger than you may think. We feel proactivity is by far the best....

The work here   is coming in thick and fast. Not through problems (although there will always be a few), but through our Healthchecks - where we check the health of each of our customers machines, using monitoring software, and a HANDS ON approach, so we can see, identify, react to, and resolve issues.... before our customers are aware they have them.

Why do we spend SO much of our time doing this? Simple. I hate the phone ringing. I don't like the unexpected, and so if   we can resolve the issues before the customer notices them, then we don't get hassled. This gives us the time to focus on the work we want to do, rather than simply fire fighting the calls in a reactive way.

It's a much nicer way to work, and our customers keep telling us so too - so we must be doing something right.

So for any support firm, you can either thrive on the success of being one step ahead of your work, or just maybe survive, by constantly running around trying to react to the issues that are one step ahead of you.

If you want proactive support - look no further. 01225 892577