Client Advice Line

On this blog page I will be outlining some of the issues that clients have when they ring me up for advice over the phone, so that others can have an indication of what types of issues people have and how best to deal with them.  Tonight a client had three areas of concern.  The first part was about anti-virus software on a newly bought Net book, which I also previously gave advice about.  The client did not wish to buy any software but wished just to have a go at some of the free software on offer.  The three free products I would tend to lean to are AVG Anti Virus, Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials.  My personal preference would be Avast.  In my experience not only does Avast do it's job without much fuss, but it is light on resources and updates nicely.

The second point was in reference to any backing up.  There are online backup suites, external drives and suites that backup to either different areas of the hard drive or different folders apart from the obvious My Documents folder etc.  My preference is the plain and simple Flash Drive.  The client wanted something light, quite cheap and something that could be easily transported from location to location.

The third area of concern was in relation to whether or not he would have to completely set up his wireless network when going away and coming back.  His home network is configured using a BT Home Hub, but if he signed up to the BT Open service, he could pick up a wireless signal provided he was within range of the BT Open facility.

I am aiming to keep these advice snippets as straight forward and simple as possible.  A lot of my clients are asking for plain talk and so often I will try not to get tangled up in the jargon that accompanies computer problem solving.