We have recently heard that the supplier of the BT PC Backup service have gone into administration, affecting 3 of BT’s online backup services, which include BT PC Backup, BT Business Protect and PC Business Protect Multi. BT have emailed all their PC Backup customers explaining what actions are needed to protect their data.

The PC Backup services are currently running normally, and customers are being informed to retrieve their data as soon as possible. Full information may be found on their website http://business.bt.com/it-support-and-security/pc-backup/

What you need to do if you use the following backup services:

• BT PC Backup
• BT Business Protect
• BT Business Protect Multi

All customers are advised to backup their data to an external hard disk, USB drive or move to another online data backup service. Feel free to check our Data Backup Services web page, or telephone 0843 2893818 to speak to one of the team.

With prices starting at £5+VAT per month for 10GB of secure online data storage, our data backup service provides:

• UK Data Centres
• All files encrypted
• Backups only the data that has changed
• Stored in bunker conditions

According to research data recently published by Symantec Shows that almost a quarter of any businesses data is stored in the cloud.

The IT security firm claims 23% of all business information globally is held in a mixture of public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure.

The IT security firm said it expected IT departments to shift workloads from on premise to off premise clouds in order to reap the benefits such as cost saving,  better data protection than on site data and easily accessible data while on the move or from home.

Get ahead of the curve by allowing Mad Computer Solutions Ltd to meet all your cloud storage and online business needs.

Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 is a cloud based service which is hosted by Microsoft. Office 365 is designed so that once you are signed up you will be able to work online from any device and from any location. Office 365 includes the standard Office applications, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint all provided as a simple monthly payment .

There are several different packages to choose from for your Office 365 subscription. These packages are designed to fit any size of business, whether you are a one man band, small business or corporate organisation. MAD Computers are able to help with advice to companies in Birmingham and the west Midlands, including choosing the correct package, configuration and training.

Starting from as little as £2.60 per user .

Secure Online Data Backup

Whatever the size of your company, imagine the cost of a loss of some or even all of your data. According to the Department of Trade and Industry, 70% of businesses that suffer a major data loss are out of business within 18 months. Offsite backup protects your vital information from all eventualities. A hosted backup solution removes these risks and brings your business complete peace of mind. Your business data is safe, secure and accessible, whenever you need it.

Your data is stored in UK based Data Centres which are geographically dispersed, to store your business information securely. The Data Centres replicate the services provided, holding identical copies of your data backups. Our backup solution uses advanced technology to replicate company data, ensuring that only new files and the changes made to old files are replicated, making your backup process incredibly efficient. The frequency is up to you.

With prices starting at £5 per month for 10GB of secure UK based storage could you afford not to?

An ambitious plan to update classic space trading game Elite has hit its funding target. Some of you may remember the old Elite game from back in the mid 80’s as being one of the first open world 3D space adventure games on the BBC Micro.

David Braben, one of the game’s original creators, sought £1.25m via crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter to fund the 21st century update of the 1984 classic. A last minute surge of pledges helped it reach its goal less than 24 hours before the funding deadline ran out.

Funding squeeze
Elite: Dangerous debuted on Kickstarter on 5 November and set itself 60 days to raise £1.25m. In November, Mr Braben said Elite was a game he had wanted to come back to for a “long, long time”.

Although some early work on the multiplayer title had been done at Mr Braben’s game studio Frontier Developments, but needed the cash to turn the code into a finished playable product. If the game did not hit its funding target then development work would stop.

Getting the cash via Kickstarter was preferable to using an established publisher because it gave Frontier and those who backed it total control over how the final game would turn out, said Mr Braben,

The finished game, he said, would keep the central trading, travel and spaceship combat elements of the original but add far better graphics, physics and feature a much larger chunk of the universe for people to play in.

Fund tracking site Kicktraq showed that after an initial surge the number of people backing the project tailed off dramatically. On its second day on Kickstarter raised more than £271,000. However, soon after pledge totals rarely got over £10,000.

A surge of pledges came forward in the closing few days of Elite’s fund-raising drive thanks to an appearance on social news site Reddit by Mr Braben and with the help of comedian Dara O Briain who urged his 1.2 million Twitter followers to back it.

When the funding target was passed, Mr Braben thanked all the backers via a message on Twitter.

“It is truly exciting, touching, and really wonderful,” he said.

Writing a blog isn’t as scary as you think – everyone can do it. A blog is like a conversation with a friend where you impart knowledge and share ideas as well as thoughts. A well-written blog will drive traffic to your website and hopefully people will stay long enough to buy the product or service that you are selling or they will tell their friends about your blog especially if they feel they can learn something from it.

Some blogs can be very boring because they just concentrate on one product or service and how to sell it and those tend not to keep your attention and you feel less inclined to linger. Ideally, you need to add pictures to break up the page a little and make it more interesting. Talking about other things too such as associated products or services, for example, if you are a wedding photographer try talking about venues, stationery, the latest trends and maybe include tips on how to choose a photographer. People love free things so tips are a great way of imparting knowledge and keeping people interested.

You may be wondering how you can drive traffic to your website via a blog and again this is not as difficult as you may think. Some of the best websites have a blog incorporated into them and this is easily done by using WordPress because your site can then be themed to your business brand. Each time you update your blog tweet about it and include a link to your blog that way people will go and read it, you can also use RSS feeds on your blog too so that when people subscribe to your blog they receive notification that you have posted something new. Adding tags to your blog will also help because people tend to search the internet for snippets of information and by using words that appear in your blog as tags then these make your blog more searchable. Remember too that if you comment on another person’s blog then add a link back to your own blog so that they can then follow you.

Top Tips for your Blog

1. Make the blog interesting by adding photographs to break up the text
2. Add RSS Feeds and Share buttons so that you can ping out to other search engines and your subscribers
3. Add tags as these will help your SEO and make your blog more searchable.
4. Ask questions of your readers – this will make them think and they will come back for more.
5. Share your knowledge to demonstrate that you are an expert in your field.
6. Be conversational
7. Add links to other webpages that you may own
8. Allow comments – that way you can build up a regular readership
9. Offer to write a guest blog for someone and return the favour by letting someone write for you, that way you get some blogging experience whilst at the same time putting a different perspective on things and offering your own readers something a little different.
10. Try and blog regularly.

Now it’s your turn..it really is that easy.

Computer Help and Advice

10 Tips to protect your PC and data.

Every computer attached to the internet is open to attack from a virus, spyware, hoax emails and phishing. These attacks may damage or delete your important data, or install malicious software which may steal your passwords, credit card details or use your PC to attack other systems over the internet. According to Symantec, an unprotected, unpatched computer system is attacked within 20 minutes of connecting to the internet. The following 10 tips below will assist in protecting a Windows XP computer from such attacks, and help to protect your important data.

1. Administrator Account. DO NOT use an account with administrator privileges for everyday use, as this could allow viruses and spyware the ability to self install on your PC. Always create a limited account for everyday use. If you need to install anything you can login as administrator or use Run As (shift and right click the file) to install without logging off.To create a limited account:
   Start>Settings>Control Panel>User Accounts
   Select Create a new account, give it a name, and select Limited as the account type.
2. Security Updates. Always ensure that all critical security updates are installed on your computer. These are released by Microsoft each month, and fix known security issues that have been discovered.
3. Passwords. Always use a password; the longer the better. Make sure it is not something that someone could easily guess i.e. a child’s name. Use a mixture of numbers, upper-case and lower-case letters, and symbols. Do not write the password down, or let others know what it is.
4. Firewalls. Microsoft Windows XP Service pack 2 provides you with a free personal firewall. Make sure that it is activated by going to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Windows Firewall.
   Alternatively you can download ZoneAlarm, a free personal firewall for individual use from www.zonelabs.com.If you have a broadband router with built in firewall, ensure that it is active. Details will be in the manual supplied with the router. Only install one software, and one hardware firewall, or you may not be able to connect to the internet.
5. Anti-virus Software. To protect yourself from viruses, you will need to install an anti-virus software package. There are many commercial packages available, offering complete protection, including firewall, spyware protection, and spam filtering for your email. These packages provided by suppliers such as Mcafee and Symantec will normally have a yearly subscription charge and provide updates for your software as new threats appear. For those on a tight budget there are a many free anti-virus products available, such as Antivir (www.free-av.com), Avast! (www.avast.com) and AVG (www.free.grisoft.com).As mentioned, updates are released for these packages frequently, so you will need to check the settings of your installed anti-virus software to ensure that it is scheduled to automatically install new updates. It is also advisable to set a scheduled time for the software to check your files automatically.
6. Anti-spyware & Malware. Spyware and Malware are programs that once installed onto your PC will collect personal information, install other programs and take over your web browser. They will redirect you to other malicious web sites, pop up offensive or irritating advertisements, and also slow down your computer.There are many anti-spyware packages available, including many that are free. Free anti-spyware packages include Microsoft Defender (www.microsoft.com), though the most popular is Ad-aware (www.lavasoft.com), and Search & Destroy (www.spybot.com). Remember to install any updates to ensure full protection from the latest threats.
7. Install the Latest Web Browser. Install Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 from (www.microsoft.com) or Firefox from (www.mozilla.com). The latest browsers will provide increased security against phishing (Spoof websites that steal account details). The recent updates will also give you enhancements, such as tabbed browsing, live web feeds (RSS) and pop-up blocking.
8. Shared Files and Folders. Check that your important files and folders are not shared. Click on ‘My Computer’, right click your ‘C: Drive’ and select ‘Properties’. Select the ‘Sharing Tab’ and select ‘Do not share this folder’. Click ‘OK’
9. Backing up Your Files. Always prepare for the worst. A virus could infect your computer, or a component such as the hard disk may fail. keeping a recent copy of your files and storing them elsewhere could save you hours of work in an emergency. Start getting into the habit of routinely saving all your important files to either a CD, USB flash or external drive. Alternatively back up those files to an online data storage website such as www.humyo.com. It is free to use, has unlimited storage space, and is flexible enough to allow you to share files with friends, and access your data on your mobile phone.
10. User Awareness. The final and most important security tip is user awareness. All the extra protection installed will be useless if you install software that has Malware built in. Many file sharing software packages are guilty of this.Do not open email attachments from someone you do not know, or with a suspicious subject. If you need to view them, save the attachment first and check it with your virus software. Do not pass on chain e-mails as these are considered spam.If you have children, make sure that you can see which sites they visit, and make sure they are logged in with a limited account. Install content software similar to net nanny which will restrict malicious or adult web sites.

Welcome to the MAD world of computer support.
For both small business and home computer users, finding reliable support for your computer problems is time consuming and often expensive. Many local stores will require you to take your computer to their workshops for repair, leaving you without a computer for days, sometimes weeks.

With our Remote computer support subscription MAD computers help you with your everyday PC problems from virus and spyware removal, to friendly help and advice about your IT systems. 90% of computer problems are able to be resolved remotely, with no visit to your home or office required.

Telephone our Remote Computer Support helpdesk today on 0843 2893818 to find out how MAD Computer Solutions may help you.