By making it touch-based and investing heavily with partners to create new Office-capable Windows 8 tablets and by enabling new features that will definitely appeal to IT professionals, the Redmond-based company shows that it definitely invested a lot of time and energy in this new OS.

Another part of the strategy is to offer Windows 7 users an upgrade to Windows 8 that saves them a lot of money, a lot !

If you buy a computer with Windows 7 between June 2012 and January 2013, you will get a discount of nearly 93% ! Instead of paying the $120 or $200 that you would for Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro respectively, you will pay $15 and get an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro regardless of which edition of Windows 7 you have.

I’d say that’s a pretty good deal. But for those of you who aren’t thinking of buying a new windows-powered computer during the promoted deal, keep in mind that in mid-2009, when Windows 7 was about to be released, Microsoft sold upgrades for 50% – 58% off the original price and then deliverd those orders after the late-October launch of the OS. It will most likely do the same thing with Windows 8, so don’t forget to check our website regularly as we will definitely be keeping you updated on these offers.

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3,000 readers participated in an online speed test over the course of three days and results have shown that customers that pay for 12 Mbps actually get an average of 7Mbps, a 42% difference between the speed promised and the one delivered.

Given that BT has invested a lot of time and money in the new fibre rollout, it seems that maintenance of the current grid has been neglected, with readers complaining of blackspots in city centres and exposed copper lines that fail in bad weather.

For those that already have fibre optic cables brought to their street cabinet, the broadband speed should be up to 76 Mbps, but for properties that are furthest from the telephone exchanges, the service could still be unreliable as they rely on copper wire for the final segment.

As of next year, customers will be able to order an all-fibre line from BT, but only if they are willing to pay the price (around £1000).

Ultimately, the UK is aiming to have the best broadband network in Europe.

If you are having issues with your connection or you are simply unsatisfied with the speed you are getting (compared to what you are paying), you can contact us, we have already dealt with such issues and have always found innovative solutions.

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1. One of the first things you should do is to make sure the distance between your wireless adapter and your router isn’t too important. Just by doubling the distance, you can expect the bandwidth to fall by 1/3. If you feel like your signal isn’t good enough, try using a wireless range extender (£12-£60).

2. Use a mapping tool to find the best spot for your router. This is done by measuring the impact of  distance, frequency changes and building structures on the strength of your signal. If your using Windows, Heatmapper is probably the best one, for Mac user, try NetSpot.

3. Keep in mind that water and metal can act as a signal blocker. Get rid of anything that might slow down your signal (radiators and flower pots included) and watch out for smooth and shiny surfaces, they are excellent at reflecting signals.

4. Make sure your router isn’t set in power saving mode, this setting could significantly reduce bandwidth.

5. One of the easiest and yet often forgotten ways of improving your Wi-Fi is by updating your firmware and drivers. Although it happens that the driver is updated thanks to Windows Update, it isn’t always true. You should therefore take a look at the manufacturer’s support page, and if you don’t find anything, try the chipset maker’s website.

6. Try using InSSIDer to find the best channel (the one with the least competition from other routers) and if your connection speed starts slowing down again, do another sweep as the channel might have gotten crowded again.

7. If your router is “dualband”, you should consider switching to the 5GHz frequency, as it is less crowded (the 2.4GHz is also used by baby monitors, cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.)

8. If none of this works, you can upgrade your router’s antenna. The newer ones are faster and more stable.

Of course, you might not have the time or patience to go through all these tips, well rest assured, we are here to help you. Just contact us and we will be sure to do everything we can to assist you with your IT issues.

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HTTPS is one of them.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with the SSL/TLS protocol. It provides encrypted communication to prevent eavesdropping and secure identification of a network web server to know which web server you are really talking to.

When a user connects to a website via HTTPS, the website encrypts the session with a digital certificate (SSL). A user can tell if they are connected to a secure website if the website URL begins with https:// instead of http://.

When a SSL Digital Certificate is installed on a web site, users can see a padlock icon at the bottom area of the navigator. When an Extended Validation Certificates is installed on a web site, users with the latest versions of their web browser will see the green address bar at the URL area of the navigator.

The main idea of HTTPS is to create a secure channel over an insecure network. This ensures reasonable protection from eavesdroppers and man-in-the-middle attacks.

If you want to know more about secure online browsing, check this website, or simply ask us.

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BT has stated that the rollout is one of the fastest in the world, bringing the Infinity super-fast broadband service with speeds of up to 80Mbps.

It has also stated that year-on-year profit has risen by 42 percent, mostly thanks to cost-cutting and restructuring, despite a loss in revenue. Overall revenue is expected to grow in 2013 and 2014. As for dividends, BT predicts a rise between 10-15 percent for the next three years.

One of BT’s best money-making service is Conferencing which rose by 20 percent.

The positive trend BT is currently experiencing is therefore expected to continue thanks to a business strategy that is based on innovation and the availability of fibre – a game changer with users’ brandwidth demands rising almost exponentially -

If you are one of BT’s clients and would like to share your thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment.

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It’s task is to define how data is sent from one computer to another over packet-switched networks such as the Internet.  It contains addressing and control information to route packets for the next generation Internet.

IPv4 needed an upgrade because its main problem was the exhaustion of addresses to connect computers or host in a packet-switched network. With IPv6, the adress space is increased because it consists of 128 bits (as compared to 32 bits it IPv4).

One important feature of IPv6 is Network-layer security, which implements encryption and authentication via IPsec.

To summarize, the benefits of IPv6 are an increase in address space, more efficient routing, reduced management requirement, improved methods to change ISP, better mobility support, multi-homing (a technique used to increase the reliability of the Internet connection for an IP network) and better security.

If you would like to know more about this new protocol, feel free to contact us.

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Apple had previously reached the throne in 2011 when the iPad sales were being accounted as PC for the first time. Well despite this little “trick” to make Apple the leader, HP was still able to steal the crown. Lenovo is in third place, Acer and Dell are fourth and fifth respectively.

With consumers delaying new PC purchase until the launch of Windows 8 and the new wave of tablets that will be hitting the market, we can expect Apple’s downfall in the computer market to continue and even go faster.

As for smartphones, of the estimated 145 million that were shipped in the first quarter of 2012, 35 million were Apple’s and 47 were Samsung’s.

Samsung has also knocked out the longtime leader in mobile phone sales, Nokia, thus becoming the world’s top mobile phone vendor.

If you are thinking of buying a new computer or smartphone, you might want to think twice before choosing an Apple product.

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The solution that Hitachi offers is virtualisation and dynamic tiering. By using virtualised storage, companies could make the most of their capacity by remapping the necessary space as well as the available one, while pooling the resources, thus making a simple and efficient storage system.

Dynamic tiering is another step in improving efficiency in data storage, because it splits data into four tiers, with the most mission-critical ones stored on the best and safest equipment (the most expensive one) and the least important and less frequently used data stored on the cheapest possible medium.

The best part of using these new technologies is that you won’t have to consume another kilowatt of power or another square metre of floor space because in most cases, you already have all the capacity you need, you just need to use it more efficiently.

If you would like some help or advice on how to set up a system that enables you to virtualise storage and use dynamic tiering, let us know.

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But this time the new product, called Project Octopus Beta, gives companies something they have been asking for: more control over their data. And this could be a potential game-changer as the sync client works on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, IOS and Android operating systems.

The access to documents is given via a native client or a Web client to internal and external users, and the servers supporting the synchronization can log activity in order to track who shared what with whom.

By giving control of the entire infrastructure over to the enterprises, VMware tackles the major issue of cloud-based syncing services, security. Provisioning, authentication and data storage location are all controlled by the IT department.

If you have been thinking of using a cloud-based storage and syncing service but were not ready to trust your data without guarantees, this might be your lucky day.

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Once the favorite phone for business users, the Blackberry went from 13.6% of global smartphone market share last year to only 6.7%, in one year !

The two reasons behind this trend are the touch technology (made popular thanks to the Iphone) and the BYOD (bring your own device) revolution which enabled professionals to use their personal phone at work. Unfortunately, like Nokia, RIM wasn’t able or didn’t consider useful to invest enough in the technology that is necessary to keep up with these new trends.

After Nokia’s Lumia debacle, RIM is now trying to launch its touch-based and app-driven mobile OS, the Blackberry 10.

The new platform was built to facilitate app and content creation, something it had been seriously lacking. And there is a simple reason for this, a survey has showed that only 16% of developpers were interested in creating apps for the BB (Blackberry), compared with 80% for Android and 90 percent for Apple !

Whether the new mobile OS from RIM will change this trend remains to be seen, but if it doesn’t, this could mean the end of the BB.