How to Choose a Reputable, Dependable Computer Repair Shop

Your computer network and the critical data it holds - is not totally secured as you think it is. Because there are no actual standards for technicians, in spite of vendor certifications, that there is a real chance that you will face incompetence and irresponsibility. You may wish to read any technical journal to validate that 98% of the computer networks have faulty or missing backups, security loopholes, poor reporting, and defective systems that simply cost more to maintain and do not align with the operations of the business. One major example to this plight that happens all the time is receiving a letter from your bank, credit card Company, or some other business pointing out that they had been hacked and you needed to change your financial information.

It is really unfortunate that most business owners who are faced with a major computer disaster do not realize that it probably COULD have been prevented. Many businesses do pay for substandard computer support most likely because they do not know how to truly verify their network IS secure and end up having to take someone at their word.

Business owners need to EDUCATE themselves about what to look for in an IT consultant. Quite honestly, you might be shocked at the oversights and slackness of most self-proclaimed "experts". Below you will find some questions you can use to determine whether or not your network IS really being supported properly.

If your technician does not score a "yes" on every point, you could be paying for substandard support AND be wide open to a very expensive, very frustrating computer disaster:

• Do they answer their phones "live" and respond to support issues immediately in 1 hour or less?
• Are they remotely monitoring your network 24-7-365 to keep critical security settings, virus definitions, and security patches up to date?
• Do they INSIST on monitoring an off-site as well as on-site backup, or are they letting you rely on outdated tape backups?
• Do they INSIST on doing periodic test restores of your backups to make sure the data is not corrupt and could be restored in the event of a disaster?
• Have they provided you with written, network documentation detailing what software licenses you have, critical network passwords, and hardware information, or are they the only person with the "keys to the kingdom?"
• Do they constantly (and proactively) offer new ways to improve your network performance, or just wait until you have a problem to make recommendations?
• Do they provide detailed invoices that clearly explain what you are paying for?
• Do they explain what they are doing and answer your questions in terms that you can understand (not highly technical)?
• Do they complete projects on time and within the budget, or does every project end up taking longer and costing more than you expected?
• Do they offer any guarantees on their services?
• Do they arrive on time and dress professionally?
• Do they have other technicians on staffs that are familiar with your network in case your regular technician goes on vacation or gets sick?
• Do their technicians maintain current vendor certifications and participate in ongoing training, or do you feel as though they are learning on your dime?
• Do they take calls from other clients while working on your network (and on your dime)?
• Do you have to manage their progress on projects, or do they provide frequent updates, status reports, and follow-up calls and e-mails?
• Do they offer flat-rate or fixed-fee project quotes, or do they give themselves a wide open playing field with "time and materials?
Now, it’s for you to decide on how many not affirmative answers you are willing to accept. It is frustrating as a vendor to come in behind a brother-in-law who is a self-proclaimed "computer guy" to fix their mistakes and then getting in a, sometimes intense, discussion with the business owner over the price.

With any luck, these questions will help you think twice about getting a professionally trained, reputable vendor to look after your computers and network instead of gambling with your business and data.

Increase Cable Modem Speed With Tech Support

There are number of factors to determine the speed of the Internet connection. A few to name among the indefinite number of factors responsible for slowing down the Internet speed are connection problem, routers, computer network traffic, software and hardware issues, and faulty modems. Detecting the root cause of a slow connection is difficult but tech support guys suggest that you can diagnose the real problem and can try to speed up your online connection.

To be able to diagnose the real cause, first you need to determine the issue. If your computer is running at its normal speed and you want to run it faster than the usual speed then this case is totally different from the one wherein there are some artificial mechanism that affects your Internet connection to slow down from its normal speed. Detect the speed by running an online speed test on your computer. There are some online speed test sites that you can run a free speed test on your computer. If you see the download and upload speed of your computer is more or less the same as your Internet Service Provider promises to be, this sounds ok. But if not contented and want more speed to your online connection, you can contact your service provider to upgrade your Internet connection. On the other hand, if you see your online connection is much lesser than speed guaranteed by your Internet service provider, you need to look for the reason that is causing the retard.

Check whether any network devices between the computer and the modem are causing the slowdown. These devices can slow down the online connection even if they are working properly such as wired or wireless router, hub or any other network devices. What to do? You should remove it to make sure that your computer is directly connected to the cable modem. After removing, you need to run the speed test once again and determine if the speed improves. Then, contact your service provider to troubleshoot the device that causing the slow down. If in case you notice no changes in the connection there may be some other reasons causing the slowdown.

Tech support experts suggest you to reboot your computer. Booting the computer turns off the software for background application that can cause the slowdown of the online connection. To run it in safe mode you will need to press F8 key repeatedly when rebooting the computer. Make sure that you have hold and released the key properly. This will bring the screen 'Windows Advanced Boot Options' from where you will need to choose 'Safe Mode with Networking' and need to hit the key 'enter.' Now you are on a safe mode boot and you can run the speed test again. If in case this is still no workable, suggest you need to contact your nearest tech support expert for further troubleshooting.

If you see that your Internet connection is closer to the speed you are paying for, you will notice that your software is conflicting with your system and the result, slowing down the Internet speed. In such case, you can contact your service provider's online tech support team for a solution. If speed is still low, some modem or cable signal issues can be the cause. At this point, you need to contact your ISP technical support team to solve the problem.

Tech Support For Vista Solution

Who wants to squeeze optimum functionality from Vista? You are not only the one. There is probably no more resounding criticism of Vista than its sluggish performance. Vista is often accused of being the most bloated operating system with various functional bugs. There are many things to do to make your Vista fly, even tech support professionals talk about some specialized tools to work on Vista. Here are the simpler and easier things to do.

First, check your computer memory status. Microsoft stated the minimum RAM capacity is 1GB but in real, Vista needs at least 2 GB for optimum performance. You need to increase your RAM memory if it's not adequate. You don't have to be a techno geek to perform the task. Online tech support companies can help you upgrade the RAM with step by step instructions. Yet, before upgrading your RAM, you need to free up some space to change your virtual memory settings. The system operating system for Vista monitors virtual memory by default. But you can fiddle with the settings to see if your computer performance boosts.

How to alter the virtual memory settings? First you need to open the control panel and click on System and Maintenance. In System, you will get a task panel where you need to click on Advanced System Settings. Now go to Performance section and click on the “Advanced” tab. On “Settings” you need to look for Virtual Memory and hit the Change. Now you need to uncheck the box stated "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives". Open the drive that contains the file you want to change and set your desired size by clicking on "Custom size".

Some bugging errors might be running inside if you computer still keeps freezing. In most cases, as tech support professionals diagnose, the problem can be related to your Windows registry system. Over time, as you go on installing and uninstalling various program files onto your Vista operating system, it happens that few of the programs don't get installed properly and corrupts parts of your registry in turn. Vista does not come up with registry cleaner application inbuilt, thus, you need to get one from outside. Free registry cleaners are available online that you can download and install in your computer. Paid and registered versions can also be purchased which are mostly recommended for assured performance. It is always advisable that you perform the registry cleaning task under supervision of an expert since even a little error can cause serious consequences.

There is a schedule periodic computer maintenance task that online tech support professionals can help you like disk clean-up, defragmentation, system scanning etc. Some of the popular remote computer support companies offer complete computer health check up and computer tune-up support service which includes the above maintenance tasks. Either subscribe with the remote computer repair service package or get specific service as it needed. Go over the Internet and get an effective solution to your Vista issues.