Computer repairs Auckland and computer Services Auckland Blog

Computer Repairs made easy with Team Viewer www.teamviewer.com 22/2/2010

I've been trialing this software and to say that I'm impressed would be an under statement. Connecting computers has never been so easy.

I've been looking hi and low for a piece of software to that I can use to give a better computer service in my home city of Auckland. Since I don't have to be physically at the persons workstation this:

1. Saves me having to walk/drive to service their computer
2. Means I can service their computer now rather than in 1 - 2 hours ect.
3. Means I am not limited to area codes. I recently provided computer service for a friend in the South Island (Wanaka) in New Zealand

This is not a new thing having the convenience of being able to remotely give computer services. Other software can do this. BUT the simplicity of using this tool is what makes it magnificent.

What makes it special:

1. It weaves through firewalls / routers / networks with ease! Amazing! No more having to tell your remote management software how to navigate.
2. If I need to give computer services now all the remote person needs to do is go to the TeamViewer website, download and run the session tool (about 1 megabyte). Again simplicity personified.

A few uses for this software:

1. Connect to your home computer from work - there may not be facebook at work but there always is at home :).
2. Provide computer repairs to your clients (you will have to pay for this version of course).
3. Online collaboration.

http://forums.seochat.com 24/02/2010

If you are interested in getting your rankings up in search engines for example google try this website. They have specific threads to optimising for google for example. I am using this and together with software to get my ratings up using specific keywords. For example computer repairs Auckland.

Slow printing from pdf 16/03/2010

Experienced slow printing from pdf for users in a 80 user environment. Turns out a few printers were decommissioned. Seems as though when someone wanted to print from Adobe Acrobat was having issues populating the printer list some of the printers did not exist! Solution here is to remove the printers from the logon script for the network and removed printers from individual workstations. I have not found a way of removing these by batch unfortunately so a bit of manual labour! You may find its just one offending printer causing this but is good to have a cleanout aye?!

Dealing with clients requiring computer repairs 17/03/2010

Dealing with clients requiring requiring computer repair in Auckland can be testing. I of all people know the frustrations of working with pc’s as it is my profession. Sometimes I describe my work as if you’ve had the worst day with your computer – try having to deal with this day after day as I do! Of course I enjoy the challenge and I know how frustrating it is when computer repair is required that is why I can handle customers so well when their computer needs service.

Security and Antivirus 25/03/2010

Last night a friend of mine asked if a computer needs antivirus. The short answer I wouldn't risk being without it. It doesn't have to cost so it's a bit of a why not.

Virus’s and malware are everywhere they can be picked up through even the most trusted of websites they also change daily. Therefore a good Antivirus program that is updated every day is pretty much essential. Because virus's mutate or get created every day your antivirus software needs to be updated daily - makes sense doesn't it? Otherwise if you continue to neglect this vital piece of security you may find your self needing computer repairs.

The only time when antivirus is not needed is if your computer is isolated from all forms of incoming and outgoing data ie. No internet, email, usb sticks, ect. Since almost every computer is connected to another data source you should always have antivirus product installed.

How to quantify productivity with SEO 5/04/2010

Using Google Analytics I go to traffic sources then keywords

I toggle paid visits and unpaid visits. It says here
Search sent 143 paid visits via 17 keywords
Search sent 284 non-paid visits via 121 keywords

We can assume that a very small proportion of the traffic is from “other” sources with most from Google.

As we see here the majority are from non-paid visits free traffic!? Well almost. There is someone being paid to get these stats up there. It’s much easier to quantify where the paid visits are coming from – just log onto Google Adwords and check how much each click costs (cost per click anyone?).

I toggle on unpaid visits and put in exceptions such as the company name and any misspellings. I am not getting paid for the company name so I exclude these. The graph should show an upward trend.

Network Monitoring 22/4/10

In setting up network monitoring  systems for a company you may require several pieces of software to satisfy all areas of your monitoring needs. Since the massive diversity of different hardware out there it will be very rare that one piece of software will have all the sensors available.

For a one company I use 3 primary pieces of software PRTG network monitor,  sysaid (which is primarily a helpdesk ticket logging system) and windows monitoring tools. Each have their strengths and limitations. Sysaid for example does not at the time of writing support SNMP.

I used Sysaid to ensure services are up and running and to monitor disk usage. PRTG was used to monitor devices like routers and websites. PRTG is also good for hardware component monitoring though windows monitoring is better as it is completely real-time.

You will have software products that can be used to keep you up to date for example backup program such as backup exec which can email you when a backup completes. I trailed a program hound dog which could also send alerts for backups but a bit expensive when backup exec can do this and comes with the software.

The reason for having several pieces of software is to do with the limitations of the software and budget constraints (your client saying do it cheaper for example!). Sysaid is good price wise as you can have as many sensors for each server but for monitoring our websites and routers it wasn’t able to do. I use PRTG which comes with 10 free sensors which can be enough to cover what sysaid cannot do for example cover you routers and external links into network.