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If you’re in charge of a small business and would prefer to look after your own IT services rather than pay for a company from outside to oversee them, help is at hand. Many companies would rather not go to the trouble of calling their IT maintenance provider every time they have an issue with a computer. There are many things you can do to minimise the number of problems coming to the surface.
Back Up Your Data
One of the most important things to do if you’re a small business or sole trader is to make sure that important work is backed up in numerous locations. This means that even if a drive does crash, you can still retrieve it and avoid your operations being compromised. Many companies have faced problems after simply hoping for the best, so if you do have important data to preserve, don’t put it at risk by not backing it up.
You can protect yourself from this for very little money compared what you could lose if you are not protected. Allteks offer a disaster recovery service which means they have an entire back up of your computer system so they can be quickly restored if they are damaged, down or hacked. This could be vital if you’re an online business and are reliant of this for your work.
Is it Safe to Open?
Businesses often face IT problems after downloading attachments from e-mails. You should only open an attachment if it has been sent by someone that you trust. If something looks suspicious, chances are it is. You shouldn’t open an attachment you weren’t expecting either. Don’t take any chances when it comes to viruses. You should also be careful when accepting files and disks from others. You shouldn’t reuse disks that have been in other computers or download files from sites if you’re not completely sure that you can trust them.
Do You Know the Sender?
Even if you do know the person that sends you an attachment, you should be cautious as they may have been hacked. Take a look at the content. Does it look like the kind of thing they would write or does it look like spam? If you suspect it is spam, delete it straight away – and inform others not to open the e-mail either if you think they might receive it. Don’t download attachments with strange-looking extensions that you’re not familiar with.
Anti-Virus Programmes
Anti-virus programmes can be indispensable, but make sure you’re using software from trusted brands. Before you buy anti-virus software, you should look online to see how highly it is rated. An anti-virus programme should tell you whether sites are safe to visit, help you share data more confidently and know when it is and isn’t safe to open attachments. Always make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date too. With new viruses being created all the time, it’s important that your software is able to deal with it. Even if the software can’t delete a virus, it may at least be able to tell you whether you have one or not.
Looking for Answers
Google can help you if you are facing computer problems but don’t know for certain what the issue is. Make sure that you’re obtaining information from reputable sites, or if you’re looking on an answer site, only pay attention to advice that has been rated highly. If your software does find a virus and claims to have deleted it, run another scan to check.
Calling for Help
There is nothing wrong with calling for help if you do need it. Just make sure you have used every other resource you have available. When it come to some issues, it can be something that the experts will need to fix. When you do choose to go outside of the company, don’t just use the first person you find. Do your research. Do they have reviews, do you know anyone who has used them before, do they seem legit, is their price reasonable, and do you trust them? Ideally you want to build a relationship, so if you have issues again, they will already have an idea of your system and set-up. You may even get a returning customer incentive if they become your “go to” IT service for emergencies.
