What brexit means for UK IT Hardware and Software Costs ?

Brexit has dropped the price of the GBP against the USD to a 31 year low. The United States  is where most hardware and software comes from so this has direct ramifications now on costs in the UK

Time Line 

Dell increases prices by 10% - 6th July

We carefully consider price moves for our customers and partners, and have worked diligently over the past several months to postpone any increases pending the outcome of the EU referendum.”
Our component costs are priced in US dollars and unfortunately, the recent strengthening of the US dollar versus sterling and other currencies in the EMEA region, following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, will have a direct impact on the price we sell to our UK customers and partners.”

ASUS increase prices by 9% - 19th July

“Unfortunately we are unable to continue to sustain the losses caused by a weaker pound any further, and therefore have no choice to but increase the cost of goods to our partners in line with the value of the pound.”
“This will affect majority of goods shipping from our factory for delivery in Q4 2016. We anticipate this impacting end-customers with an increase on the SRP of around nine per cent on our devices from October onwards.”

HP Prices up by 10% - 1st Augusut

"In order to maintain a sustainable and consistent approach to our operation in the UK and Ireland, we have taken the decision to make some adjustments to our channel-supported and directly-contracted end-user pricing strategy.
"Effective from 1 August, we will be implementing an adjustment of circa 10% across HP's Personal Systems portfolio."

Apple increases prices between 11% and 15% - 7th September

"Apple suggests product prices internationally on the basis of several factors, including currency exchange rates, local import laws, business practices, taxes, and the cost of doing business. These factors vary from region to region and over time, such that international prices are not always comparable to US suggested retail prices.”

 

 

Microsoft increase prices up to 22% - 21st October

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/uktechnet/2016/10/21/important-volume-licensing-update/

Effective January 1, 2017, we will be increasing British pound pricing to harmonise prices for enterprise software

 

 

Our recommendation to our new and existing customers would be to make sure they take advantages of the prices before the increase and try and purchase equipment for any supplier who hasn't already increased their prices!

Contact us today here for a same day quote on Hardware and Software!

Failing to connect to your VPN using Virgin Media?

This is a common issue for users of Virgin Media SuperHubs

When setting up a VPN, you can run into quite a few problems like what authentication it needs, which password do you use. If you are using a Virgin Media SuperHub you have the added challenge that by default your speedy SuperHub will block outgoing VPN traffic meaning that with all the correct details it just doesn't work. To fix this, just follow the below steps:

  • Browse to your SuperHub's IP Address (e.g. 192.168.0.1) and log in
  • Select "Advanced Settings" and click "Yes" to confirm you want to view these
  • Select "Firewall" from the list 
  • Tick "IPSec Pass-Through", "PPTP Pass-Through" and "Multicast Pass-Through" at the bottom of the page
  • Click "Yes" to confirm settings change
  • Try to connect your VPN again.

This allows the traffic through for VPN authentication and should now allow your VPN to connect as normal.

 

 

Huge rise in hack attacks as cyber-criminals target small businesses

Cybercrime attacks ALL. It is down to user knowledge to avoid the potholes of dangerous emails, and websites that sometimes appear too good to be true! Downloads, attachments and erroneous surfing all can prove fateful, as in this Case Study, from The Guardian, reports.

Response IT have dealt with over a dozen client instances of cybercrime, and its on the rise. The more data you can move to the cloud, the safer you will be. The alternative being if you have a local server, make sure it is backed up regularly - like nightly! Don't get caught out, as this type of malware will encrypt all your network shared data, quicker than you can detect it!

Please take the time to read this article...written in February this year but still current today.

Article: http://tinyurl.com/hxufszf

 

Could you be sending your firm's cash to fraudsters?

Unfortunately we have seen some of our clients caught out by this scam. A simple email, costing the organisation £1000s, all done in a keystroke.

Please do take a look at this article and instruct your staff to always speak to an email sender, personally, to authenticate the request before making this mistake.

Article: http://tinyurl.com/hltt8jx

Great Feedback from Existing Customers

Here's some feedback some of our customers have emailed through this week out of the blue!

““Thank you for your help. I want to tell you guys how comforting it is to have great support even for the simple questions so I can concentrate on my job vs software.””
““Pleasure to work with as all your guys are and it has been a breeze to get this up and running compared with other companies who have quoted ridiculous sums of money and are hard to work with, so thanks again””

 

We really appreciate the kind words, and of course will keep up the great service!

Be There Routing Issues

Looks like some of our customers on the Be There network are experiencing slow downs due to a routing issue from their network. Some of the websites they have had speed issues with are rightmove.co.uk , natwest.com and other banking websites.

After speaking their technical support department they are aware of the issue and working on a resolution.

**UPDATE 16/02/2012**

Be There are still having Routing Issues and Packet loss leading on from the start of the issues on  Monday this week

Office 365 Migration From BPOS and New Subscribers!

So 2012 has been a great start to the year, with a selection of new customers, and getting our existing customers over to Office 365. Office 365 definitely has some major pluses over BPOS such as

  • No single Sign on Utility needed, it work with Outlook's Auto discovery even Out of Office!
  • Microsoft can now be your DNS host making life easier for DNS Management and the setting up of records for Auto discovery and Lynced
  • IMAP import tool , 365 will import all your old emails and folder structure via IMAP ( if you old provider supports it ) which means the only manual copying that needs to be done is Contacts and Calendars
  • Faster Webmail and a full web based outlook
  • Upgradeable to higher tear plans
  • Minimum Seat Count = 1 ( BPOS was 5! )

A few of our existing BPOS clients have already been migrated by Microsoft and the transition smooth. It was as simple as configuring the correct autodiscover DNS records, getting everyone to change their password to sync with 365 and Outlook does the rest! So far all our transitions have been performed over the weekend, so a email goes out to the Friday before transition with the365 webmail link : http://mail.office365.com

As Microsoft Partners we can help you with the transition , so contact us today!

BT Issue Routing to USA

It looks like some of our customers using BT internet as an ISP are having issues routing to American Sites. UK Sites and Servers seem uneffected, however domains that have their nameservers in the US will also have issues remotely connecting to the office. This can be temporaly fixed by using the direct server IP. This looks to be a local BT issue as other customers on Zen connecting through a BT line are uneffected.

Virgin Media 50MB Service SMTP Timeout's

Recently one of our clients upgraded to Virgins new 50mb Service for there existing ADSL2+ Service. The day of change over we moved IP's and the server started to accept new email from the new IP, accept SMTP transmissions were timing out. We adding a middleman SMTP server inbetween the Spam Filter and the Exchange box with a low MTU connection size 1440 and this fixed the issue temporarily.  After a week plus with Virgin Technical Support, Virgin have found there is a problem with their new 50Mb service. There’s a workaround which is to reduce the MTU to 1460 on the receiving server

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\[ID of interface]\MTU

The virgin router partners Netgear are working on a firmware update for their new superhubs to fix it properly.

A Box You May Want To Uncheck On LinkedIn

Following on from Facebook and Privacy issues, it looks as it LinkedIn has done us the “favour” of having a default setting whereby our names and photos can be used for third-party advertising. 

Completely down to you whether this is of any relevance, but if like me you don't want to participate, here are the quick steps to rectify LinkedIn's devious ploys!

[CLICK DIAGRAM TO RESIZE]

1. Sign into LinkedIn, and click on your name, then choose "Settings".

2. Now click on “Account” (bottom left).

3. In the box to the right click on “Manage Social Advertising” .

4. This opens a new window - now remove the tick from the box next to “LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising” .

All done.

Nearly got us LinkedIn - close escape!

Additionally: If you you may want to have a look at the settings within "Email Preferences" very reminiscent of Facebook! Eg: Check out Turn On/Off Partner InMail (junk mail coming your way!). 

Wanadoo and Orange Email Issues

We have had a few customers contact us with issues trying to email our Microsoft frontbridge systems from Orange or Wanadoo email accounts. We have spoken to Orange Technical Support and they have confirmed this is general fault with their system which they are working to fix!

Google Apps Migration from Yahoo and Gmail

Recently we helped a new customer combine their existing webmail accounts from Yahoo and Gmail into one Free Google Apps Standard account that could send from their domain name. The merger involved transfering 4 Gigabytes of Email and 1700 Contacts from Yahoo and as well another 600mb of Email from their gmail account.

We used the migration tools from https://www.yippiemove.com which copied over the 4 Gigabytes of email via the "cloud" in under 2 hours. We used the export CSV Tool for the contacts and the Gmail Backup and Restore tool to migrate the Gmail Emails. The custuomer has now consolidated all their accounts into a free Google Apps Standard account which is valid for up to 10 users.

Let us know if we can help you out with any cloud migration problems or questions!

Spyware Via Skype!

I reported earlier aboutIndian call centers, calling you up, pretending to be from Microsoft here then using this as a ploy to use teamviewer to login to your machine and install spyware

It seems the latest craze we have just expeirenced is recieving a call from an automated number via skype , telling you there is'System Update Information' for your computer and please go to this address

sosgt.com <- This address goes to the standard Spyware screen displaying the fake information about your machine being comprimised!  Watch out and block these calls from skype and report them as abuse! If you have installed the software we recommend Spybot, Malwarbytes and even System Restore for Removal!

Fibre Optic Broadband Static IP

Welcome to the new generation UK broadband is here which is Fibre Optics! This is provided by FTTC ( Fiber to the Curb ) which means fibre is run from your local telephone exchange to your nearest "BT Cabinet" outside your premise. You may have seen the television adverts, advertising speeds of up to 40mb through BT's infinity service , 40Mb Download , 10 Mb Upload. These are perfect speeds for small to medium business! Main offices can now host their own high speed terminal servers with high speed VPN and file access. However BT unfortunately do not offer static IP address' for such services, and a few customers have also been complaining their upgrade plans via Virgin's fibre network also do not come with a static IP.  This is obviously a way for communication providers to force business' to pay for a leased line ( instead of using existing economical communications ), which for a 10mb Upload/Download can retail at £400/Month plus a high installation fee. We are pleased to announce however, as Response IT is a Zen Certified Partner, we can now supply you with a Fibre Connection ( If your exchange is FTTC Enabled ) with a Static IP address starting at a £55 monthly charge! Check out the crib sheet for more information on the different packages and details on when your exchange is going to be enabled. Zen Fibre Broadband Crib Sheet

If you are already an existing customer you will receive an email when your exchange is going to be enabled and when we can swap you over to the new fast service!

IT support for Schools

Response IT has successfully finished it's first complete refurbishment of a new secondary school in Clapham. The refurbishment tasks included :

1) Upgrading of existing small business server 2003 infrastructure from the primary school to a new virtualised small business 2008 server including the new installation of 2008 R2 Terminal Server

2) Installation of a new Toshiba phone system ( which doubled up as a school intercom system) , utilising IP handsets around the building and SIP Trunk for calls with a backup Analogue lines

3) Provisioning of 2 onsite Internet connections with automatic failover for voicecalls

4) Installation of 20 new slimline desktops and screens mounted to the walls which will rise to 40 after the completion of a new IT Room

5) Working with the building architect to provision and install cabling around the school

6) Provisioning of a Site to Site VPN with the existing Primary school

7) Installation and Setup of 3 Interactive Whiteboards with projectors and training of staff

The schools utilised quite custom app's for development and learning in the classroom,

Thanks to the Microsoft Charity Open License program , we were able to set this up at very little cost to the school , who now run the most up to date Microsoft Server Operating System, Microsoft Desktop Operating System and Office 2010.

The school have outsourced all of their Schools IT Helpdesk to Response-IT which is managed remotely through an online ticketing system for staff as well as remote logins to fix issues without interrupting the classroom.

We completed the project on schedule for their first opening Ofsted inspection, an Engineer was present throughout the day to make sure any technical questions where answered and verified and any issues could resolved straight away.

Let us know if you would like Response IT to guide you through the process of integrating ICT into your school organisation