There are quite literally a million problems you may encounter when using a computer.  Take a look at these easy troubleshooting tips to remedy your computer woes, and learn when to ask for help.

Start with the obvious. Sometimes computer problems are caused by excessive clicking or accidentally entered commands. Have you ever had text in a Word document disappear, or a formula in an Excel spreadsheet go missing? Try using “Ctrl + Z” or select “Undo” from the “Edit” menu to recover lost data. This will reverse the most recent action. Some programs will even allow you to undo a series of actions if necessary.

Movin’ on up! If you are surfing the Internet and you receive an error message that states, “404 Not Found” or “Page cannot be displayed,” try selecting the next best Web site address. For example, if you are viewing the page www.weather.com/outlook/travel and you receive an error message, try entering www.weather.com/outlook instead and see if that page works.

Think of the Internet like an encyclopedia: If you don’t know the page where the information is located, you can always look through all of the pages with the first few letters of the word you want to find.

When all else fails, reboot. Some issues just can’t be resolved with a magical series of key strokes or clever data entry. For example, what if you can’t get a program to open at all, or your computer freezes up? Take a deep breath and select “Ctrl+ Alt+ Delete”.  When the menu appears, click on the power option in the lower right hand corner, then click “Shut Down”. Wait until you hear the fan go off and see the light (s) go dark.  You want to be sure the computer is completely off. If “Ctrl+ Alt+ Delete” does nothing, try a cold start. Hold in the power button on your computer until it shuts down. Then…

Take a break! That’s right, walk away. Do a few jumping jacks, harass a co-worker or refill your coffee mug. Don’t worry, your computer won’t mind and certainly won’t restart without you.

After your breather, press the power button on your computer to get it started again. When the login screen comes up, enter your information and wait for your settings to load. Then open the program or document you want to work with and see if an error message appears or if the computer freezes again.

More often than not… a simple restart will cure program stalls, network delays
and printer hiccups.  Honestly,  there is no mystery to a reboot. This action simply prompts your computer to check itself, recover from errors and reinitialize drivers or hardware.

Still no light at the end of the tunnel? It might be time to get some help from a professional.  Many issues can be addressed right over the phone or through remote assistance.

How can you tell if your computer issues are serious? If you have tried everything you can think of or your computer is shinning with the blue screen of death, you may need an expert to look deeper. Here are a few additional scenarios you may need an expert to resolve:

If your computer will not turn on at all… call a professioanl.

If you had a problem with Internet Explorer and closed the program completely, but now you have a new wallpaper that says you have a virus accompanied by relentless pop-ups… call a professional.

If your monitor stops displaying the normal colors and you are now viewing a
discouraging show of the aurora borealis on your screen instead of getting your work done… well, you know what to do.

Telecommuting is a great way to lessen your hours in the office and lower your costs for commuting. However, there are clear advantages and risks too.

What is Telecommuting? Telecommuting is when an arrangement is made between an employee and employer to work flexible hours in an alternate work location. These days, many people work from home as a part of their regular work week. For example three days in the office and two at home.

Great advantages for employees. For many career focused, family oriented folks, working at home offers flexible scheduling so, parents don’t miss mid-day events for their children or brunches with aging parents.  Other advantages include, full-time employment opportunities with lowered cost for caregivers or child care. This type of work at home schedule also reduces your carbon footprint, saving the community, and yourself, the headache of traffic, risks of accidents and other transportation issues.

Advantages for companies, a telecommuter can help reduce the spread of illness, costs of daily operations, and in turn these things can increase productivity. In addition, giving employees the option to work at home while they are ill or recovering form a life changing event (a new baby or surgery) can keep your company on track without costly cross training efforts and sometimes even turnover. These great benefits can increase morale for all your workers.

Dangers and risks to consider! As you can see, telecommuting has many great advantages for employees and employers alike. However, there are many dangers to consider, mainly network security and data security.

Is your network secure when accessed from outside the office? Accessing a network remotely is a wonderful way to gather all the information you need to work at home. How you obtain the information and where it is stored is the biggest risk for telecommuters.

We strongly recommend using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to securely access your company resources. A VPN is literally what it sounds like, a connection to your network at work that is virtual and private just for you; much like a pneumatic tube system often used in hospitals or banks. VPN’s provide access for approved users only, like employees.

Watch out for viruses and malware! To keep your network safe, we recommend having a technician review any computers a telecommuter or off-site employee (sales staff or managers) may use to connect to your company. That way, you can rest assured your company will not be overwhelmed with a virus or malware that can bring business to a halt.

Never, never, never… use a public computer to access your company files or computer. While it is convenient to hop online at your local library or use a school computer to check in at work, these types of public computers may have infections you don’t know about. For example, Keylogger viruses can record keystrokes, sites visited, passwords, and transmit all the information to another location without you even knowing.  You could end up giving prying eyes all your company data in just a few short minutes online.

Keep your company data safe. All companies considering telecommuting arrangements or remote opportunities for special occasions, should also look at data security. A technician should review the security measures in place on any computer used for work information. Think about it, what if a hacker stole all of your sensitive client information or made off with your company financials?

Discover the major causes of slow connectivity and policies to combat the issues.

The bulk of businesses do not have fast Internet. As a matter of fact, the Internet in your office may be slower than what you have at home. If your office is paying for multiple Internet lines, cable, or even a T1 and everyone is still complaining about the speed — take a look at these major causes of slow connections.

First, evaluate what you have. The Internet speed coming into your office
is a reflection of the maximum capability of the connection. For example, let’s
say you have a T1 line coming into your office and you have 10 computers using
the Internet at the same time throughout the day. Your Internet connection
speed for the office as a whole may be 1500 Kilobits Per Second (KbPS), but for
each user this means only about 150 KbPS per person.

What does this mean, in plain English? Basically, if you have two users who are playing games online, listening to Internet radio, and surfing their favorite social networking sites while working, they are literally gobbling up your Internet connection. These two users, with multiple resource hogging programs open, could be sucking up enough bandwidth for four or more workers in your office. This type of activity may slow your Internet speed to a crawl.

How often does this really happen? Too often! In fact, the American
Management Associate (AMA) published findings from the 2009 Electronic Business Communication Policies & Procedures Survey this year that revealed 26% of bosses have fired workers for violating Internet policy.

Take a look at these shocking statistics from ConnectWorld.net:

• 80% of companies report that employees have abused Internet privileges.
• 77% of weekly online listening to Internet radio takes place between 5am and 5pm.
• 70% of explicit content is downloaded between 9am and 5pm.
• 33% or more of time spent online at work is non-work-related.

With numbers like these, you can’t ignore the need for an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that explains the expected procedures for your company.

The true focus on an AUP shouldn’t be banning employees from specific things, but on clearly defining their responsibilities when using work resources. An AUP will serve as a legal document between employer and employee. Remember to include a clause that leaves room for modifications, because obviously every circumstance cannot be included and the document may need to be updated over time. In addition, it is always helpful to include a description of the philosophies, strategies, and goals of your company to ensure your purpose is clear.

Things to include. While many of the things included in an AUP are self-explanatory, let’s review to be sure you cover all the bases. An AUP should cover the following primary topics: equipment, intranet, and Internet usage as well as communication and software procedures. Not only are these areas the most abused, but they are generally the source of infections and attacks that could damage your company.

Be sure to outline a clear code of conduct to govern behavior and the consequences for violating the AUP. Don’t be afraid to go into detail with statements like, “E-mail is intended to be used for company business only. Confidential company documents must not be shared with outside sources including family and friends.”

Explain your expectations and monitoring strategy. Let your employees know exactly what is expected of them. Spell out procedures completely and give scenarios that employees can relate to in real life. Keep in mind that your company owns every file, program, and communication that cycles through the company equipment. Feel free to monitor everything! As a matter of fact, an increasing number of businesses today do monitor their computer networks for unacceptable use with the assistance of filtering software that blocks specific websites on the Internet, e-mail scanning that tracks incoming and outgoing messages, or even disk space quotas so each user is allotted the same amount on the server.