Outsource The Management of Your Website With Managed IT Services

May 8, 2012

Many businesses and individuals alike are gaining a competitive advantage by hiring a managed IT services company to handle their business technology and website hosting. If you are going to be successful in today’s business climate, it is absolutely vital to have a functioning Web site to make online sales, provide information to customers, and capture customer demographics information.

Managed hosting refers to Web hosting service providers administering plans with various levels of service. If you are interested in a managed hosting service, you can expect to pay around $30 per month for low-end VPS hosting, or well over hundreds per month for dedicated hosting. The difference is that in dedicated hosting, your Web site will be physically located on your provider’s server.

You may have heard hosting service company’s refer to their “fully managed” plans. This can often be pretty relative between providers, but in general, the more you pay the more support and services you have access to. With a fully managed plan, your site can be developed and monitored regularly to ensure functionality. Under “partially-managed” plans, you are still required to perform many of the administrative functions to maintain your site. If you are technologically-savvy, this might be a better choice for you as it gives you full control and access to your site’s server.

For small and midsized businesses, or less computer-fluent entrepreneurs, it can be a great idea to partner with a managed IT services company for Website hosting. You can be free to focus on your core competencies and growing your business, and reduce the stress of educating yourself and managing your own Website.

Anti-Virus Removal Tips for Mac Users

May 2, 2012

Macs are often overlooked when it comes to anti-virus solutions. This is due to the popular misconception that viruses and malware never target Macs. This generality is mostly true, but does have its fair share of exceptions. While Macs are more secure than Windows systems, even Macs can be targeted by phishing, viruses, or other malicious techniques.

In general, viruses will run undetected in the background of your computer. It often corrupts or steals information to benefit its originator, usually in the form of financial gain. Many people believe that a virus can completely destroy their computer, but this isn’t the case. Even if the computer was horribly damaged, it can be repaired and returned to its former glory in some form or another.

Most of the time, a viral infection is brought on by the user. Either the user unwittingly downloads a malicious file, share files with friends who are infected, or opens infected emails. The first tip for anti-virus removal for Macs is to be careful about the files you download, the sites you visit, and any emails sent from unknown parties. Delete or otherwise avoid anything that looks suspicious.

If you notice lots of pop-ups, programs randomly opening and closing, or your computer’s performance becoming sluggish, you may have a virus. In this case, your best option is to perform a virus scan and removal. Though you should already have a security software in place, you can download this type of software online. Immediately after doing so, disconnect your computer from your network so it cannot infect other machines. Once you’ve downloaded the software, allow it to scan and remove any viruses.

This serves as a quick fix for when your Mac becomes infected by a viral attack. While it is possible to perform scans and removals yourself, there’s nothing like the peace of mind that comes from having a certified professional restore your computer to pristine operating condition. Your Cleveland computer repair shop can even access your computer remotely to fix and protect your system.

How Does Anti-Virus Removal Work?

April 30, 2012

Nowadays, everyone is connected to the Internet. We use the Internet to shop, to pay bills, to invest, and to take care of all of the other important facets of our lives. This requires us to transfer a lot of private, personal information and data across the Internet. It is during this transfer that most identity thefts, virus infections, and other malware attacks occur. Hackers can infect your computer to steal your personal information and identity, often resulting in loss of money. Anti-virus software is a vital tool to keep your private data and your computer safe.

Virus removal software protects your computer against malicious attacks. It acts as a shield against viruses and malware to keep the offending program out of your network, where it could potentially wreak havoc on your system and your data. Nowadays there are many different options when it comes to anti-virus removal software, including: email protection, browser and network protection, and upholding activity logs. There are many free options for anti-virus software that offer limited protection, but a paid solution has no restrictions.

One of the most important things you can do to protect your computer is have a solid anti-virus software in place and update it regularly. When you update your anti-virus software you are essentially adding virus signatures to the list of viruses the software scans for. As hackers’ abilities to overcome current security measures improve, your anti-virus software manufacturer keeps track of new viruses and malware, and updates your software to scan for it. However, in order for this to work like it should, you absolutely must keep your software updated. You can set updates to automatic within your software so that it requires as little effort on your part as possible.

Check out your Cleveland PC Repair shop for the best options in anti-virus removal!

PC Repair Blog: 3 Steps To Improve Your PCs Performance

April 23, 2012

There are a few simple things you can do to improve your PCs speed and performance, and help keep it running smoothly for years in the future. The following tips will help you protect your investment in your computer, secure your personal data, and make your machine run faster than ever!

Here are 3 Steps to Improve Your PCs Performance:

1. Remove Spyware, Protect From Viruses
Spyware collects your personal data without your knowledge or permission. It can be downloaded automatically by opening contaminated emails or visiting malicious Web sites. Submit your computer to a free safety scan to help check for and remove viruses and spyware. Have a solid anti-virus solution in place to protect your PC at all times.

2. Free Up Disk Space
PC’s offer the Disk Cleanup application for just this purpose. You can free up space on your hard disk to increase your computer’s speed and performance. It will help you identify which files you can safely delete, or allow you to keep certain files. With more disk space, your computer has greater operating capacity.

3. Speed Access to Data
Your computer does not always store files in one place, instead it often fragments files and stores the various pieces in several places on your system. When this happens it takes longer for the computer to access the file since it has to piece it back together. Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that will help you consolidate files stored on your computer and improve access speed.

By going through these steps once a month, you will ensure your system remains in perfect operating condition and avoid costly PC repair. Make sure that you never have a drop in speed by running anti-virus software in the background of your computer and running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defrag once a month.