Connexion become accredited for the industry leading Disaster Recovery and High Availablity solutions from Doubletake

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Connexion customer I.T.P. will buy back your empty print cartridges, meaning you can get some money back from your printers.

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Microsoft have won a court order to shut down a network of computers that sent out 1.5 billion spam messages.

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Following a legal agreement with the European Competition Commission, Microsoft committed to letting Windows PC users across Europe install the web browser of their choice, rather than having Microsoft IE as a default.

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There are three main options to choose from when it comes to licensing Microsoft Office 2007 for your company. We discuss them here.

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Amid high speculation, Apple have finally announced the release of their tablet computer - the iPad

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The future of IT support is fixing the problem before the user even reports it.

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Many people dislike Facebook because of its probing nature but is it the user that is at fault?

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Thomas Turners website has achieved the status of Kentico Site of the Year 2009 Finalist.

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The new Windows 7 task bar is difficult to use but we have a slight tweak that will make life much easier.

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Read the BBC guide to upgrading your operating system

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Tuesday October 13th will see Microsoft release it's biggest ever security update.

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Previously we showed you how to prevent spammers from getting hold of your email address but what about those that already do?

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The BBC has confirmed reports that business could need a TV licence if they have access to live online broadcasts.

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Orange and Vodafone announce that they will offer the Apple iPhone to customers as the exclusive deal with O2 comes to an end.

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SPAM email is a real nuisance, not only do you pay to download it (through your internet connection), it clogs up your computer, makes it difficult to find emails, wastes your time from having to clear it up and contains potentially malicious attachments. The more you can do to prevent your email address from being spammed the better.

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With A simple piece of Kit, you could experience faster broadband

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Microsoft has announced an October release date for it's new operating system, Windows 7, to the public. However it has been around for many months now for 'beta testing' and we have been trailing it for a while now to see if it is really cracked up to all it is hyped to be.

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Despite the advantages to cloud computing, there are still quite a few shortcomings that you must consider before making the switch.

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The main benefits to the user are clear to see for all. Cloud computing offers great convenience, not only can users access their information from any computer but at the click of a button they can have an new program when needed. However, for a business there are many positives that can be taken from Cloud computing but not all are particularly clear.

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If you haven't heard of cloud computing by now then you soon will as it is a very interesting development within the IT industry. It is likely to change the way that we use our computers and software in the future and appears to be on it's way to the main stream very soon.

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Businesses require a TV licence for their office if employees have access to BBC iPlayer and watch live programmes or face a £1000 fine.

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We consider the cost to you, the client, for placing an IT support call with your support company or IT support team.

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Sometimes it’s easy to lose site of the fact that the value proposition of IT boils down to either time saving or increased productivity. Even though most of the marketing aimed at small and medium sized businesses makes very exciting promises about the time saving and improvements in productivity that their products or services will deliver, the truth is that most of us already have far more technology at our disposal than we know what to do with or that we take full advantage of.

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A common question we get asked about when registering domains for customers is if they should go for a .co.uk or .com domain. The easiest answer is to ask yourself if your site is for a UK audience only. If the answer is yes then it is best to go for the .co.uk. Recently the seven millionth .uk domain name was registered showing that demand for these domains is still high. If companies are still buying .co.uk domain names then it is safe to assume that UK users are still happy to type that into the address bar. Search engines...

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I see many websites that fail to adhere to this very simple rule of thumb and I thought it would be worth explaining the concept of "The Fold" What is The Fold Taken directly from Wikipedia which describes it as follows: "Above the fold" is a graphic design concept that refers to the location of an important news story or a visually appealing photograph on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. Most papers are delivered and displayed to customers folded up, meaning that only the top half of the front page is visible. Thus, an item...

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On July 11th I took the plunge and decided to order one of the new iPhones. Despite the widespread chaos with getting your hands on the phone, I did not suffer one little bit. I simply ordered online at Carphone Warehouse about a week in advance of the launch and picked up the phone in store on the day - no problem at all, unlike many others. Having now owned the phone for a few weeks, I feel like I'm in a position to give a decent review of the iPhone as a business tool. There are so many great...

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I am not sure if it's because we are now well into the annual "Silly Season" or whether its the economic slowdown, but lately the volume of e-mails that I get from recruitment agents informing me about their candidates has escalated to newer and ever more irritating heights. I must get around 10 a day! For me the only good thing about these e-mails is the amusement I get from reading them. It is amazing how creative they are in finding new ways to say the same thing. The only consistent thing is that every candidate they have is "Extremely...

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It is well known that a site using Flash is not good for search engine optimisation because the search engines could not read the content. We always recommended that if flash must be used then it should only be put in non-essential elements such as banners and product demonstrations. We certainly didn't like to put any content in there that may aid search engine optimisation. However it is now reported on TechCrunch that Adobe has created a special Flash player for the search engines that acts like a virtual user going through each application. This means that content can now...

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ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has given the go ahead to relax the rules on "top-level" domains. In short this means that at the moment we have .com, .co.uk, .org and other domains but in the future domains will be able to end in .anythingyoulike. For example it will now be possible to have domains ending in .hotel or .connexion. The bad news is that you can't just go out and buy one of these top level domains. You will need to show a "business plan and technical capacity" plus it will cost a few million...

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A recent survey published in .NET magazine claims that 83% of SME businesses don't improve their websites by acting on information which is readily available to them in the form of their website user statistics. This figure shocked me. I can only assume this is due to SME businesses either not realising how valuable this information is, or perceiving that interpreting it requires in depth technical skills. I guess there is also the possibility that they don't consider their websites to be important enough to warrant the time an effort, but it's hard to believe that the majority of small...

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Our intended audience for our blog are "Business Owners Managers" in Small and Medium sized companies. We recently received a study from Microsoft on "Owners Managers" where they compared the stereotype "Owner Manager" to the character Maximus in the movie "Gladiator" sighting issues such as "IT" "Cash Flow" and "HR" as metaphors for their daily battles. The point they were making was that owner managers don't have time to concern themselves with the nitty gritty of their Technology, ...

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According to new research published by the respected Web Usability expert Jacob Nielsen, we are all becoming more ruthless and selfish in the way we browse the web http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7417496.stm The report reveals that website users are goal driven and are extremely intollerent of rambling copy and websites that dont let them quickly find what they looking for. The report also highlilghts the growing imrportance of the search engines and the need for your site to work effectivly through Google...

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How much time as a company do you think you spend browsing your network file system searching for documents that contain valuable information? How often do you start looking for a document that contains information that will help you to complete a task or complete it better only to give up in frustration? Unless your companies file structure is remarkably well organised and your staff remarkably well trained and well versed in where everything should be kept the answer to these questions will be "a great deal of costly time" Now just think how much would it boost your companys...

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According to a BBC report, hackers are exploiting poorly coded websites using a technique called cross site scripting (XSS). By using XSS, hackers could potentially hack into your site and place malicious code into your pages causing your visitors to become open to attack. If your website uses a login screen then you could be vulnerable and it is worth getting it checked out. You wouldn't want your visitors to get attacked when visiting your very site would you??...

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BBC News this morning has revealed a new look to the site. Many people cite the BBC News site as one that they really like to use so the BBC were taking a big risk by redesigning. However, on closer inspection they haven't changed much which is good to see. The website editor explains more about the refresh in his blog. There are a few things that we can all take from this redesign: The new site is 1024 pixels wide and they estimate that around 95% of visitors have a resolution of this size. Gone are the days of...

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Apple announced yesterday that the highly acclaimed iPhone will shortly include Activesync software enabling it to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange. Most people will be aware of the iPhone, but for the benefit of anyone that has somehow managed to miss it, the iPhone is arguably the best 'fun' phone on the market combining the features of an IPOD and mobile Phone into a incredibly slick little device with a touch screen interface that blows away any of the competition. One of the iPhones most remarkable features is its Web Browser which makes the experience of browsing the Web more akin...

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According to the BBC security firms are reporting an unprecedented high for malicious programs found in 2007. Estimates suggest that there has been a staggering FIVE fold increase in malicious programs in circulation in 2007 compared with 2006 (5.5 million reported up from 972,000). As usual, our advice would be to remain vigilant and now the need to do so is even more important. Please see our guide on the tell tale signs of a virus email. We would also recommend taking the following precautions...

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We have been pitching for a website tender recently and we have come up against the age old argument of where to use Flash. The client want to use flash for the whole site (everything built using Flash including the navigation and content) which we disagree with. As it is fresh in my mind, here are the arguments for and against the use of Flash for web design: The arguments for using Flash According to Adobe the Flash plugin can be found on around 97% of computers worldwide meaning that you can expect it to work on most computers Although...

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This is a question we find we have to answer a lot but the answer is not always that straight forward. The general rule of thumb is that it can take up to six months for brand new websites or sites that have little or no online optimisation. Consider the following points to help you understand how long it is likely to take to rank well within Google (As always I'm using Google as an example but in general these rules apply to all search engines). How competitive are the results? If the search term you are competing for is...

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If I said you may be able to improve your productivity whilst working at your computer by up to 20-30% simply by purchasing a new piece of hardware for only a hundred pounds, you'd probably either think I was talking rubbish, or you'd expect me to start ranting about an innovating new product. Well its true and its actually very simple. Surveys have consistently shown that adding an extra monitor will give your productivity a considerable boost, 20-30% according to a survey by Jon Peddie Research...

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Recently we've been working on the linking strategy on a few of our customers websites and we eventually came to the question of directory submission. Directories are becoming less and less important in your search engine optimisation strategy as the search engines give less importance to the links they give. In most cases it probably isn't even worth the time it takes to submit to a directory and your time would be better spent elsewhere. However in some cases a link from a directory can be very valuable and if you are going to try and get one, it should...

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Last week Apple announced the release of what they are calling the World's thinnest laptop. Measuring just 4mm at it's thinnest point, the laptop is not only ultra portable but also boasts excellent battery life without compromising power. Details of the laptop can be found at http://www.apple.com/uk/macbookair/ This computer is the start of a revolution for the laptop market because it sees the first solid state hard drive to come into public awareness (Although technically Samsung and Lenovo have been shipping them out in their computers for a while)....

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If you run Google Adwords for your website then you will be interested to see that Google are running a series of training "webinars". The webinars are designed to teach you how to manage your AdWords account more effectively by covering topics from best practices on account setup, bidding and campaign management strategies to understanding and using performance reports effectively. All you need is a computer with an internet connection and some headphones. You will need to register with your AdWords account but otherwise they are completely free...

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