Paul – was referred to us with email issues after other support he had received had failed to fix the problem. Our initial step was to correct the immediate problems, but the problem reoccurred after 1 month. Digging deeper, we were able to identify that the issue was being caused by his antivirus software. We changed the antivirus software and his email has run for many months without incident.

Margaret – an existing client, was concerned with the amount she was paying for her home phone and internet services. After understanding her needs, we provided her with a list of options, costs, and relative benefits of each option, and a recommendation. Following her decision, we were able to help her complete the transfer, and make sure everything was working well with her new provider. She is now saving more than $50 every month over her previous provider.

Chris – wanted a hand with purchasing a new laptop, cleaning up his previous laptop for his wife to make use of, and transferring the files, software, and settings, between laptops and from an old desktop to the laptops. Because he used his laptop for work, we ensured his new laptop was set up and running well before we cleaned up the previous laptop. Finally with both laptops set for their new ‘owners’, we moved the files from the old desktop to the respective laptops. Whilst completing the changeover, we were able to help Chris and his wife better organise their files with local and cloud storage, and work and personal information more segregated. We also ensured their cloud backup solution was reconfigured for their new circumstances.

Richard – came to us with a laptop which had become painfully slow to use but needed to be kept to run a few PC specific applications. We did an extensive ‘cleanup’, removing unnecessary applications and bloatware, particularly those placing a heavy load on the laptop, and running the usual assortment of checks and cleanup tools. Richard was more than happy with the result and, at last report, continues to happily use the machine.

Belinda – had a laptop that had been infected with CryptoWall 3, ransomware requiring a ‘fee’ to be paid to get back access to her documents and pictures. Whilst it is straightforward to remove the malware, because the software uses encryption to lock the files, we advised that we would do our best to recover some files but could make no guarantees, and indeed it was quite possible we would get no files back. However, after some investigation, we were able to find the particular malware used on this occasion had not been quite as clever as its author had hoped, and we were able to recover almost all of the files that had been attacked. The machine showed various other software problems, possibly as a result of other past virus infections, so we recommended a clean installation of Windows. With Belinda happy for this to happen, the job was done and she received her laptop back, virus free, with photos and documents intact and probably working as well as it did when it originally left the shop. (And we marked up an ‘achievement’ with our first CryptoWall infection recovery!).

Barbara – was referred to us by an existing client with internet problems after her local PC shop had said they couldn’t find any problems. After some checks at her home, we took the laptop away to discover intermittent issues with the built in WiFi on her laptop. Rather than a costly repair of the laptop, we recommended to use a new USB wireless adapter. An easy fix, and Barbara remains very happy with her email and web access working reliably.