5 Things To Do BEFORE You Lose Your Gadget

Tablet-style computers and smartphones provide convenient access to your information and to the internet, from wherever you are.   Unfortunately, the downside to their portable nature is that they don’t stay within the secure confines of your office.  They can be easily left at another location by mistake or even stolen.  So, this month we look at the 5 things that you should do before you lose your gadget.

1. Add Identification - If you found someone’s tablet or phone, you’d look for any identification that told you whose it was, so you could return it. Just as parents label their children’s clothing, add some form of identification to your device. This could consist of a business card in your tablet case, a power-on message with your contact phone number or even engraving your phone number or business name on the device. 2. Password Protect – Most portable devices allow you to set a password or number that must be entered when the device is turned on.  This will help prevent a stranger from gaining access to the information you have stored on it. You may also be able to set a ‘time out period’, which will automatically lock your device with the password after a period of time of inactivity. 3. Sync – Most tablets and smartphones copy (or ‘synchronize’) their information to another computer or to an internet-based service.  Check that your synchronization is configured and working correctly, with no errors. Then if you do lose your device, you’ll have somewhere else where you can log in and access a copy of your information. 4. Backup – Not everything on your tablet or smartphone may ‘sync’ to another location. A great example of this is contact information that is only stored on your phone’s SIM card, or information that you have entered into an application that only exists on your portable device (such as notes).  Make sure you have a plan for regularly taking a snapshot of this information too and storing it in a secure place, just as you should for your office-bound computers. 5. Add Remote Control & Tracking – For tablets and smartphones that have a GPS function, applications have been developed that will show you where your device is located, based on its GPS data.  Most of these applications need to be installed or configured before you lose your device.  In addition to locating your device, some services will allow you to remotely lock your device or even remotely wipe all of the information on it.  Check out Find my iPhone, Find my iPad, Where’s My Droid and Samsung’s DIVE.  Security software manufacturers are also starting to release anti-virus software for portable devices with remote locate and remote wipe features.

Talk to your local Computer Troubleshooter about the best protection mechanisms for your portable devices, or about any of your technology needs … before it’s too late!

]]> http://ctskildareeast.com/blog/2011/09/05/5-things-to-do-before-you-lose-your-gadget/feed/ 0 http://ctskildareeast.com/blog/2011/08/12/495/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://ctskildareeast.com/blog/2011/08/12/495/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:54:38 +0000 ctskildareeast http://ctskildareeast.technology-solved.ie/?p=495 Continue reading →]]> RESPECT

Everyone (customers, suppliers and colleagues) will be treated with dignity & respect at all times.

ETHICS

Everything is done honestly and ethically, including complying with software licence agreements.

ON TIME OR CALL

Your Computer Troubleshooter will arrive at your service call on time or you’ll receive a phone call if they are unavoidably delayed.

PROFESSIONAL

Your Computer Troubleshooter will dress professionally, act professionally and communicate professionally at all times.

EFFICIENCY

Your Computer Troubleshooter will use the technology tools available to them (e.g. remote support) to deliver
your service as efficiently as possible, whenever possible.

RESEARCH

Your Computer Troubleshooter will check our extensive global knowledgebase to see if a resolution has been recorded for a problem similar to yours. If it hasn’t, they may share your problem (without acknowledging your personal details) with our group of over 1,000 technicians, to see if anyone has a suggestion. They may also share any resolution details so the answer is available for the next Computer Troubleshooters client.

FOLLOW-UP

You will receive a call after your service to confirm that everything is still working correctly.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Your privacy will be respected and your files will only be reviewed if they are necessary to completing your service. However, your Computer Troubleshooter is obliged to report any issues that may show evidence of a crime.

EDUCATION

Your Computer Troubleshooter will tell you your options for resolving your problem or for improving your technology. This won’t be a pushy sales pitch, but if they don’t tell you then you won’t know what’s possible.

REVIEW TO IMPROVE

Your service call will be reviewed by your Computer Troubleshooter and analysed if it could have been resolved more efficiently.

Let’s talk about those three types.

Computer Repair Tech 1: The “Quickie” Techs

First there are what I would call the “quickie” techs. These are usually (but not always) the computer repair services you find inside large stores. In many cases these are salespeople who have been trained to perform a handful of rudimentary technical tasks, including “wiping” a machine (removing all software, including the operating system) and reloading it from scratch. Hopefully if they are doing things correctly they remember to back up your data before they do this, but we do hear horror stories way too often from when they skip this step and critical files, photos, and data is lost forever.

The truth is that there is some merit in the “quickie” approach to computer repair. It’s easy – you don’t need an expensive, highly experienced technician to do it, so in theory your costs should be lower (though judging by what most big stores charge for computer repair you would not think this was the case). It’s also predictable – the outcome is the same every time. This is the one method that is pretty much guaranteed to solve all virus, spyware, data corruption, and other software-based issues. The downside is that someone (often the customer) must reinstall all their applications again, hope their data was backed up properly, and generally spend way too much time trying to get things back to the way they were before the repair. But being easy and predictable you can understand why many large department stores choose to go this way.

Computer Repair Tech 2: The “Stumblers”

The second type are what I will call the “stumblers”. These are the computer repair technicians who have some IT experience, but not as much as they should if they’re going to market themselves as a professional computer service. There is a big market out there for Stumblers because the truth is that about half of what we do is relatively easy and often the same: run a virus scan, remove what you find, reboot, test, move on. Stumblers are like advanced computer users really, they know some parts of the computer inside and out but usually have some gaps in their knowledge – like maybe they’re great with software, not so good with hardware, or maybe they understand networks just fine but aren’t very comfortable with servers.

I call them Stumblers because they can generally stumble through most computer repair situations and get a satisfactory result – eventually. It may take them 8 hours of work to accomplish what could be done in 2, or they may wind up with a really complicated work-around because they didn’t really understand something the server is doing. Stumblers are also likely to suffer from what we call “Nice Guy Syndrome” – that’s when they spend 2 days working on a solution then only charge you for 2 hours, because they know they should have known how to fix it faster.

Computer Repair Tech 3: The Professionals

The third category is a rare breed we call the Professionals. As you might expect, this is the category of computer repair services which Computer Troubleshooters fits into, as well as a relatively small group of other providers. How can you tell if you have a Professional Computer Repair partner? Here are some easy clues:
• Professionals show up when they promise
• Professionals fix the problem right the first time, most of the time
• Professionals recognise that no one knows everything about technology, so they work with a team of IT specialists so that every possible situation is handled as optimally as possible.
• Professionals don’t just fix problems, they suggest new ways to use technology to improve your business. In other words, a Professional moves beyond computer repair and into being a true IT Department for your business.
• Professionals take proactive steps to keep other problems from occurring. Today this often means using a low-cost monitoring service, similar to what you’d have monitoring your home security system, to watch for signs of impending computer repair issues. Overheating, hard drive errors, virus infections, security updates missing… these are things that any Professional computer repair partner should be able to monitor for on a low-cost managed services plan (like our BEST Lite plans), to keep big problems from happening in the first place.

So, which are you using? If your business isn’t using a Professional computer repair partner, then you need to change TODAY. In today’s competitive business environment you need all the help you can get.

And if you ARE a Professional, then we want you on OUR team. Computer Troubleshooters is expanding, across Ireland and around the world.

1. Find immediate areas for improvement – If you’re thinking of replacing your computer, an audit may reveal that upgrading the memory would give you a significant performance boost. It could also highlight incorrect system settings or poor security configurations that could easily be fixed. With a clear picture of what technology you have, it might be easy to find some quick, inexpensive areas for improvement.

2. Budget for longer-term areas of improvement – An audit may reveal out-dated hardware that should be replaced with newer, faster components. It could also highlight disks that are close to their capacity, but still have some spare space. You can then plan and budget to address these areas in the future, instead of having to react tomorrow to an unforeseen full disk.

3. Know what software is on your computers – If your employees are able to install software onto your computers, do you know what they have been installing? An audit will reveal if your computers have illegal file sharing software or other programmes that may be relevant to their hobbies, not their work (e.g. share trading).

4. Know you have the correct software licences – In some cases, it is a software manufacturer’s right to randomly audit your business and check that you have the correct licence number and the right kind of licence for their software. If you’ve taken on more staff since you started, or you’ve had employees installing software on your computers, an audit can reveal where your software licensing might need some attention.

5. Compile an asset register – Your business will have certain assets listed for accounting purposes. That audit may not include many of your IT devices that are under a certain monetary value. If a theft or natural disaster hit your business, wouldn’t it be great to have a full list of all of your technology components? Ask your I.T. guy to store a copy of your audit results, off site, in case you need to refer to that asset list to make an insurance claim.
The outcomes of your audit should be a comprehensive list of your I.T. assets and recommendations for improvement that fit in with your business plans (both short and long term). If your I.T. guy uses your audit as an opportunity to sell as much of his products and services as he can, call Computer Troubleshooters for an independent trusted second opinion.

Looking for networking tips, how to solve connectivity problems? Or even some more basic tips on how to use Excel or Powerpoint? We’ll be posting tips, suggestions and valuable resource material for your convenience.

We might even blog a little about what’s happening inside Computer Troubleshooters, so check back often.

And while you’re at it, feel free to contact us with your own tips and suggestions on what you would like to read on our new Computer Troubleshooters Blog.