Coronavirus prompts collaboration tool makers to offer wares for free  -April 2020

Several vendors, including Microsoft, Google, Slack, Zoom, Cisco And Logmein, Are Making Chat, Videoconferencing and other collaboration services free ss demand for remote working booms. 

Concerns about the COVID-19 virus have led to a worldwide boom in remote working, as organizations encourage or require employees to stay home and cities, states and even some countries go on lockdown.

While many companies have seen their stock prices take a battering due to disruption caused by the virus, some software vendors that enable remote work, such as videoconferencing software provider Zoom, have seen their share value climb dramatically.

Below are just some of the now free software suits:
8x8 - Video Meetings
Atlassian - Wide range of cloud based applications
CafeX - Collaboration software suit
Cisco - many Cisco features are now free
Facebook - Facebook Workplace for Government
Google - Hangouts Video conferencing | Gsuit
GanttPro - Project management software for healthcare,education & charity
GeForce - collaboration software
Igloo - Business Community Bundle
LogMeIn - GoToMeeting VideoConferencing / keynote
Loome - Video messaging platform
LimApps - emergency communications portal
Microsoft - Office365 (extended trial)
RingCentral - unified communications software
Slack - Chat App
Stack Overflow - free Teams for 1 month
StarLeaf - videoconferencing service
Taskade - collaboration and work management platform
Wrike - work management tool
Zoho - Small Business Emergency Subscription Assistance Program
Zoom - videoconferencing

Microsoft to stop serving all        none-security updates to windows

March 2020

Taking effect soon, Microsoft plans to halt the delivery of all non-security updates to Windows, another step in its suspension of non-essential revisions to the OS and other important products.

The optional updates, which Microsoft designates as Windows' C and D updates, are released during the third and fourth week of each month, respectively.

"We have been evaluating the public health situation, and we understand this is impacting our customers," Microsoft said to some understatement in a March 24 post to the Windows 10 messaging center. "In response to these challenges we are prioritizing our focus on security updates."

Wednesday's May shuttering of C and D updates is the latest move by Microsoft to limit update efforts to security fixes or reduce IT overhead while the COVID-19 pandemic upends business, businesses in general and business processes. So far this month, Microsoft has extended support for Windows 10 1709 an additional six months for customers running Windows 10 Enterprise or Education, and curtailed feature upgrades for its Edge browser.

Windows 7 has come to an end!  -Feb 2020

Microsoft is going to stop supporting Windows 7 from Tuesday so that it can focus on "newer technologies". As a result, Windows 7 users will no longer receive the all-important security updates and patches that keep their machines safe. 
One in four Windows users is running Windows 7

What does this all mean?
It means that Microsoft is ending the cat-and-mouse game with hackers seeking to exploit software bugs in the Windows 7 operating system.
If perpetrators find a flaw in Windows 7, Microsoft will not fix it.
Without continued software and security updates, Windows 7 machines are more likely to be infected with viruses and malware, Microsoft wrote on its website. "Running an unpatched machine means that the flaws in the code will never be fixed and as exploits for those flaws become known and widespread, your chances of being successfully attacked grow very rapidly," said Rik Ferguson, vice-president of security research at Trend Micro.

Why not come in and see if your Computer will upgrade to Windows 10 for £35, this is a lot cheaper then buying a new machine.

BAD RABBIT  RANSOMEWARE

26th October 2017

The latest strain of ransomware “Bad Rabbit” began spreading across Russia and Ukraine yesterday, there have also been various reports of “Bad Rabbit” infections in Turkey, Bulgaria, Japan, Germany, Poland, South Korea and the United States.

The Bad Rabbit ransomware enters networks when a user on your network runs a phony Adobe Flash Player installer posted on a hacked website. Once “Bad Rabbit” Ransomware has infected its first machine within a network, it then uses an opensource tool to find any login credentials stored on the machine, so it can spread to other machines.

After the virus has spread as much as it can on the network, BadRabbit encrypts all files and posts a ransom note instructing the victim to pay 0.05 Bitcoin (about €235/$280/£213) to a specific Bitcoin wallet to decrypt the files

MICROSOFT RELEASE XP UPDATE TO WARD OFF NEXT NHS VIRUS ATTACK

Remember the encryption virus called "Wannacry" that hit 75,000 computers and nearly devastated the NHS last month......?  Well there's 3 more on the way, called "EsteemAudit, ExplodingCan, and EnglishmanDentist" which have been released by the same Shadow Brokers hacker group.

Microsoft have released an update to cover a whopping 94 vulnerabilities which includes older software such as Windows XP.  They have said this is an exception and will not be an ongoing thing to update non-supported software.

If you are still running Windows XP, it's time to move up to Windows 10.

At the very least go check your updates and MAKE YOUR BACKUPS NOW.

Airedale Computers presents The Crescent Project with a computer system that will greatly enhance future film nights.

On 12 th March at the Crescent Project Film Club's showing of the movie Absolutely Fabulous came an absolutely fabulous surprise when Keith Sorrell of Airedale Computers presented a computer system to the Crescent Project Film Club. 

Keith Sorrell explained, “Airedale Computers is very happy to support the work of the
Crescent Project and we look forward to the day that the grand old Crescent Cinema on
Ropergate is opened again. We recycle old computers for use by community groups, and sell
computer hardware and software to the public through our shops in Pontefract and Castleford.
All profits made by the company are fed into the HUT Community and Leisure Centre in
Airedale Castleford.”

A very pleased John Tollick of the Crescent Project said, "We are very grateful for the gift of
this computer system from Airedale Computers, that has been specially built for us to run the
software we will need in the future as our film club presentations become more sophisticated.
This hardware will enable us to improve our shows to the public by linking feature films,
trailers, promotional information and eventually advertisements together in a seamless
programme. We want our audiences to enjoy the all round experience of an evening with us,
and thanks to Airedale Computers this package will go a long way to enabling that."
Crescent Project member, Philip Cook added, "The Crescent Project has been set up to
purchase and refurbish the Crescent Cinema as a central venue for entertainment and culture
for Pontefract and the surrounding area. The Film Club is one way in which the project plans
to demonstrate to future funders that there is public support for this venture while providing
an opportunity for the public to be kept informed of developments in a friendly social
atmosphere"
 

John Tollick also added that, " We hope in future to encourage film makers from our
community to showcase their masterpieces as part of our film programmes."
The ever increasing interest in the Crescent Project from local people and businesses takes
the project from strength to strength, and the Crescent Project Film Club is popular and well
attended, with presentations increasing from the original one a month to two a month. The
Film Club looks forward to its next film night on 22 nd March which will be the intriguing
time travel classic Donnie Darko.

Photo courtesy of David Jones Photography.

ALERT: Your Antivirus May Be Letting You Down

The best way to avoid a computer virus is by using common sense, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be safe from attack. Even the most careful user can find themselves infected in an instant and spreading the virus faster than a sneeze in flu season.

It’s why antivirus software is still the first package we install on all systems – because you never know when you’ll be attacked. But should you choose free or paid antivirus?

Advertising: Much like a free app making its fortune with in-app purchases, the free antivirus software will push for payment. Expect popup boxes pestering you to sign up to the paid version at least daily. Some free options will also try to change your browser home page and default search engine, an inconvenience you may be stuck with. Paid options are more respectful and largely invisible unless they’ve detected a problem.

Effectiveness: It’s fair to expect your antivirus to detect malware, and testing showed that in a head-to-head battle free and paid are about equal at catching known infections. And therein lies the kicker: generally speaking, free antivirus needs to have recorded a virus to its library before it can detect it. Paid antivirus is more likely to identify and stop a new virus. It essentially bases the detection on suspicious behavior, source and attributes, a far more effective method of detection.

Features: Free antivirus options are usually created from the paid version, taking out everything except the bare minimum. In your paid version, you can expect advanced features like spam filters, firewalls, parental controls and secure web browsing. Some paid antivirus will also update your other software packages, forming a more secure protection against attacks. For example, you might view a malicious image file that takes advantage of an exploit in your PDF software. Unfortunately, hackers have advanced beyond simple tactics and it’s not just about avoiding email attachments anymore.

Support:  Free antivirus options are the most popular choice because they’re… free. Obviously.  This also means there’s generally no support available. If there’s a problem or conflict with another program, you may find yourself without protection until it can be resolved. Paid antivirus options usually include live support, ready to help with problems ranging from installation to system diagnostics.

Ease of use: Depending on what you use your computer for, this may be an important concern. Free antivirus options are easy to install and use, but are very limited in their flexibility. They come as-is, meaning you can’t pick and choose what it monitors or how it reacts. For example, users occasionally find it necessary to disable ALL protections in order to install a network game. Paid versions are more likely to allow you to adapt the way it runs, switching features on and off as required.

Free antivirus is fine for very basic protection, those on a budget or those with an older PC.

In these cases, something is always better than nothing. But we generally recommend you go with a paid antivirus to defend you from the new attacks that are released daily, and to ensure you’ve got solid protection that will make a real difference to your digital safety.

If you use any form of Online Banking or Purchasing (this includes eBay, PayPal, Supermarkets, clothing, Amazon) we would strongly recommend a Paid for Service.

Pop in to one of our three shops or call us on 01977 736283 to talk to us about upgrading to a paid antivirus. We recommend BULLGUARD which won most of the awards yet again this year.

This article was written by our colleagues at Chips Computers in Chesterfield  www.wefixanycomputer.com/blog

COMPUTERS WILL NEVER AGAIN LOSE DOCUMENTS  - 13^th March 2017

It's obvious to most people that saying they would never lose their documents would be "Fake News". Something that's making headlines a lot these days. However, now that we have your attention, at least once a week we get a business customer and a couple of home users in with a laptop or computer for repair where they have lost all their documents.

"It's probably something simple" they say, "but it contains all my company stuff and all my invoices and banking, so I can't do without it".

When we ask about their backups, we get blank stares. Many times the hard drive has totally failed and has to be replaced. Sometimes it’s the scammers who have encrypted the hard drive.  There are data recovery specialists out there but these could prove very expensive for a small business.

Making backups is a very simple procedure.   IF IT MATTERS - MAKE A COPY

Copy it (don't move it) to a memory stick, cd, dvd, external hard drive, tape drive, to another computer, to the cloud, or anywhere that's not the original. Then if you lose it from one place, you've still got it somewhere else. 

For example, I copy my important documents daily to a memory stick (pendrive) and take it home and copy it to my home computer, so I actually have 2 backups.  Then once a week, when I have finished the weeks business, I copy the entire documents section of the hard drive to an external hard drive and put it in the safe (or off-site in case of fire or burglary).  For a business, that makes sense. 

A home user may just have a few documents and a load of photographs, that can be backed up once or twice and then just added to as needed. You can visit www.airedalecomputers.com or check out our 3 retail computer shops in Pontefract, Castleford and Airedale for free advice on backups.

So, you need to ask yourself, if your computer fails, how much will you miss your data?

#fake #news #backup #computer #laptop #repair #data  

Facebook promotion: March 2017

AIREDALE COMPUTER RECYCLING
Celebrating 15 Years in Social Enterprise
Free collection, recycling and disposal of computers and electronics from businesses anywhere in Yorkshire. Full paperwork trail plus free hard drive sanitising. Hard drive shredding available if required. All profits go to help run THE HUT a sports and community centre in Airedale. Call 01977 736283 or visit our website at www.airedalecomputerrecycling.co.uk

PRODUCT RECALL DUE TO FIRE RISK

HP have just issued a product recall on the batteries of certain laptops purchased between March 2013 and October 2016.

This is further to last years recall and is in response to just a single report of a battery overheating.

If the barcode on your battery starts with 

6BZLU, 6CGFK, 6CGFQ, 6CZMB, 6DEMA, 6DEMH, 6DGAL or 6EBVA 

I suggest checking it with the official HP WEBSITE

AMAZON EMAIL SCAM

If you get an email that says if you didn't place this order on Amazon, you can click here to get your money back - DON'T  It's a scam. They'll ask you to confirm your card details so they can reimburse you, then they will scam your card. Action Fraud have recieved several reports about it.  Read it

FIND OUT WHO GOT THE COMPUTERS

Some of the thousands of computers we collect from businesses for recycling are given free of charge to good causes every year. We just gave away 25 computers for Christmas.

See who got them.

IS YOUR LAPTOP RUNNING SLOW?

Then let our technicians perform the ultimate speed-up. We can remove your laptops slow hard drive and fit it into a caddy, that can then be used as your backup drive, by plugging it into any usb port.  

We can then copy your hard drive onto a new 120Gb superfast HyperX Fury solid state drive.

All this for just £79.99  

(Add £20 if you need a full reinstall)

Just take your laptop into any of our 3 shops.

BENEFITS:

* Increase laptop start up times like witchcraft.

* Superfast data transfer and increased gameplay speeds.

* Runs cooler and silent as there are no moving parts.

* Uses less power, making your battery last longer.

* Turns a sluggish laptop into a flying machine.

* Utilise your old hard drive as an external backup drive

GREAT CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY

We have 25 refurbished computers with monitors, keyboards and mice, loaded with Window7, OpenOffice and one years free Bullguard internet security to give away to good causes, free of charge, before Christmas.

Can you help?  CLICK HERE for more

THE TRINITY MISSION NIGHT SHELTER

This month Airedale Computers donated some computers to the Night Shelter at Trinity Mission in Castleford for their work supporting homeless people to find shelter and work. 

Airedale Computers are Founding Members of the new Approved PC Retail Network

PCRN are a group of local independent PC and Laptop specialists covering the whole of the UK, offering repairs & sales, with services ranging from high end gaming systems builds to virus removals, and data recovery.

If you have a Friend or Family that can not make it to one of Airedale Computers shops, why not send them to www.PCRN.co.uk to find an Approved computer shop near to them.

THE CHALLENGE OF BUILDING A COMPUTER

Once again we had a customer bring in a semi built gaming computer in a very sorry state, with bent pins on the processor and damage to the motherboard, resulting in having to buy a NEW CPU AND MOTHERBOARD, plus the building cost and the installing of windows and configuring the system properly. While we often encourage customers to "have a go" themselves, when it comes to expensive components, saving a few quid can be false economy. 

Our technicians have several computing degrees between them and many years of knowledge and practice building all manner of computer systems INCLUDING THE COMPUTERS THAT DESIGNED THE 2012 OLYMPIC VILLAGE IN LONDON.  It's also a nice feeling to buy one component each payday, but by the time you have bought the last component, the price of the other components have dropped or you could now get a better component at the same price.

Save up your money and when you're ready, talk to one of our techies who can advise on the best components for YOU.  Just because a graphics card has 4Gb of Ram on board does not mean it will run faster than a different one at the same price with 2Gb. There are issues of compatibility and speed and other factors that go into it.  Do you buy MORE ram or FASTER ram?  It depends on the motherboard. How do you configure the BIOS to work at its best with your new components or do you accept the "works with anything" default mode. Installing Windows on your diskdrive is easy. Making it work at its optimum with your new system is the job of a technician. 

If you really want the challenge of building it yourself, then talk to our technician, choose the components and then book a slot to come in and be a part of building it - under supervision.

WE ARE NO LONGER A

POKEMON-GO FREE ZONE

The Pokemon Go entity is taking over. 

There is currently a Pokemon in the

middle of our Pontefract shop.

ITS THE LAST DAY TO GET WINDOWS 10

Microsoft are ceasing their FREE upgrade to Windows 10 on 29th July. TODAY. That means you have just a day left if you are tempted or you'll face paying £100 or so if you decide to upgrade after that. 

Ignore the horror stories about it. 150 Million users have now switched. Even the people who didn't like Windows 10 at the start and posted bad things about it have changed their mind and upgraded. Windows 10 is pretty stable, secure and fast and has many new features. Microsoft are introducing a range of new features soon on the 1 year anniversary next week.

DONATING COMPUTERS TO THE RICHMOND FELLOWSHIP

Gareth Wilson from the Richmond Fellowship (Wakefield branch) called in yesterday to collect a couple of nice refurbished computers that we donated to help them in their work helping people to recover who have suffered mental health problems and trying to get them jobs. We are happy to help.

6 TIPS TO AVOID SCAMS AND FRAUD

According to Financial Fraud Action UK, out of all the £775 Million lost to fraud last year, a whopping £170 Million of it was due to online scams. And according to a Home Office report, the police no longer investigate fraud with a value under £500k. So you need to be vigilant for scams when you are online.

1. Don't give out any details to any business who rings you up, always call them back using the number you looked up yourself.

2. Make sure all your Windows patches, virus, spyware & malware programs are updated as attackers often exploit older versions to launch their exploits and infect your system.

3. When you point at any link, look at the status bar that pops up at the bottom of your screen. You might be pointing at "Barclays Bank login" but the link shows "Nigerian Scam". It's never quite that obvious, but you get the idea, right?

4. When Microsoft Support or some other official phones you and tells you that your computer is running slow, don't follow their instructions on your computer which gives them control, they will lock you out and demand money while fishing for your bank and personal details.

5. Beef up your passwords. "12345" or "password" is not acceptable and bear in mind anyone trying a personal scam will know your children and pets name, your date of birth, place of work etc all from the info you put out on facebook and other social media, 

6.   ...and for goodness sake stop telling the burglars who lurk on facebook, when you are away on holiday or out at a restaurant.

PROTECTING CHILDREN ONLINE

Click below to download "A Parents Guide to Protecting Children Online" from Bullguard  A very informative 15 page guide. Bullguard is the top internet security suite according to "Which" magazine which has given its award to Bullguard several years running and it's the only one we'll sell at Airedale Computers.

The 1 year, 3 PC's protection is just £25 at any of our shops and a FREE 60 day trial is available HERE

VISIT US ON STAND 23

We are exhibiting at the ECO FAIR in Leeds again this year to spread word of our superb free recycling service where all the equipment is used for the benefit of young people in our community and all the profit goes to support THE HUT a sports and community centre in Airedale

HELPING OTHER GOOD CAUSES

David is the new Chairman of the Ex-soldiers charity The Forgotten Heroes. We are proud to help such a worthy charity. Here are two of our apprentices loading up their car.

HELPING OTHER GOOD CAUSES

We are happy to help when people are doing such good work for their communities. Marvina from the charity Angel of Youth came to visit on Tuesday. She does some great work with disadvantaged people across several projects and we are proud to support her with some refurbished computers.

LOCKY RANSOMWARE VIRUS ATTACK

At Airedale Computers, we regularly talk to our customers about backups and it just saved the bacon for one company who was hit on Friday with the Locky ransomware virus. It arrived as an email attachment saying it was an invoice. This encrypted and changed the names on every document and picture on the system.  It then went around the network and started encrypting all the other computers. It even affected their Livedrive and Dropbox. They unplugged their network to try and stop it and it jumped to the wifi instead and continued. The only solution to this appears to be Wipe & Reinstall and reinstate backups. There seems to be no cure and we obviously don't encourage paying the ransome. Even the FBI are asking for help with this one. 

Read in-depth information on this virus  

EASY BACKUP PROCEDURES FOR HOME USERS AND SMALL BUSINESSES

Backup your data now and every time you create or change something of value. This does not mean MOVE it off the computer. It means COPY it.  A second or third copy too if it's important, and don't leave your backup drive permanently connected or that will get infected too. 

A pocket sized 1Tb External Hard Drive (from £50) plugs into the USB port (The blue USB3 runs a lot faster) copy your entire documents and pictures folders to it and then rename them to include the date of the backup. For odd new documents/photos just copy them across to be safe.  After a few days or a week, when you have more data/pictures, copy the entire folders again and rename them with the date again. When the drive gets full, delete the backups with the oldest dates and continue.

For large amounts of backups, a desktop mains powered backup drive (3Tb for £90 or 5Tb at £185) may be needed.

A Pendrive or memory stick (at 16gb for £10) gives enough space for incremental backups or extra copies of your most important documents and photographs. Ideal for the kids homework and for carrying documents and photos with you.

Not forgetting BULLGUARD our preferred internet security package which comes with 5Gb of cloud storage which you can backup to as well.

PCR AWARDS FINALIST  April 2016

Airedale Computers was a finalist in The PCR Awards which recognises the cream of the PC and Tech industry. Hundreds of industry professionals enter these awards each year. We were pleased to be nominated and thrilled to become a Finalist.

REAL WORK EXPERIENCE   March 2016

Airedale Computers provides work experience placements to all our local schools. Jack and Jack came from Kings School recently and were two of the best students we have ever had. Very attentive and learned a lot. They helped prepare refurbished computers for sale in the shop.

WHITE IS THE NEW BLACK      23 March 2016

Have you noticed how computers went from the original sandy beige colour to silver then black?  Well now it seems we are moving to white, following in Apples footsteps. We have a whole array of white computer tech available in white from a very nice quadcore Toshiba laptop at just £325, a new computer case design called Ignition which is a high gloss white with smoked black panel hiding the red LED's, we can make new or recased refurbished systems with this. White speakers, headphones, printers, keyboards and mice all available in white. 

GO TO WHITE PRODUCTS PAGE

INK NOT RECOGNISED   20 March 2016
Are you getting the above message. There is nothing wrong with your inks. It appears that Epson have once again updated the printer firmware for their latest models and in doing so, as often happens, it disables third-party auto-reset chips like the ones on JETPLAY ink cartridges. Although JETPLAY are constantly updating the chips to combat this, it is still recommended that you disable automatic updates of the printer software on your computer.

To disable Epson automatic updates:
• Access the printer's icon on the Windows taskbar.
• Right-click the icon to reveal the menu, then choose Software Update Settings.
• Set all update frequencies to Never.

We only sell Epson printers because we stock JETPLAY ink at £6 for a full set (which on many models includes an extra black) or 2 full sets for just £10. With printers starting at £50 and Printer/Copier/Scanners starting at £65, it's often cheaper to buy a new Epson printer than it is to buy a set of Lexmark, HP or Canon inks.

WANTED FOR BURGLARY  11 March 2016

We had an unwanted visitor at the end of February at our Stansfield Road shop. Cased a good bit of damage. He's a local and prides himself with his high fashion 3-tone hoody jacket and glossy shoes. He's roaming around Castleford now trying to sell the stolen laptops out of the back of his car. They still have our price tags on them. However they have no batteries or chargers OR WARRANTY. Please call 101 or 999 to report him if you recognise him.

LATEST VIRUS THREAT    10 March 2016
If you receive an email, possibly from someone you know and it contains a link, unless you were expecting it, don't open the link.  That is good advice anytime. However, the latest virus called Goner is an email that has "Hi" as the subject line and starts telling you "you'll love this screensaver".  Don't be curious. Don't download it. Delete it immediately. This virus seeks out your anti-virus software and disables it leaving your computer vulnerable to attack.

BANK CARD SCAMS    9 March 2016
Bank card details have been stolen from big name companies like Wetherspoons, Dow Jones, Hilto Hotels, TalkTalk and Vtech recently and many have been in the news. The details stolen are now being used to scam people. If you get a call from someone saying they are from your bank and they have certain details you are sure only your bank would know, be suspicious. Banks rarely telephone customers and NEVER ask for details such as passwords or PIN numbers.

If they tell you to compare the phone number given on your bank card to the one they are calling from and it seems to be the same, STOP! It's a scam. They can clone and pretend to be any number they want.
Call the bank back immediately using a number you know (or can lookup yourself) Do not use one the scammer gives you.
 Inline image

BEST PRACTICE:  If you use a DEBIT card on the internet or even in stores and petrol stations and the card is scammed. The money comes straight out of your bank and you have to prove it was fraud before you get your money back.  If you use a CREDIT card, the card company sends you a bill and you can challenge it without paying it. The money stays in your account.

MIND YOUR ELDERS  8 March 2016
It's been in the news recently that most people who think they are being loyal to their power or comms companies, are being ripped off.
Most people who don't have a computer and the savvy to shop around every year for the best deals are on a STANDARD tarif which is usually a lot more. And it's usually the elderly and poor that this is happening to.  Many people can save £300  or more,  every year, just by switching suppliers. Do it for them or show them how to do it. It's Simples. Go to one of the comparison websites such as the infamous comparethemarket.com and put in a few details from the last gas/electric/phone bill and see how much they can save. You've done it for yourself already haven't you?  Now help your mum. Check out Martin Lewis's website MoneySavingExpert.com for more.