Support         

Eurofile also provide a telephone and PC support service aimed at small businesses and individuals whose needs are not really addressed by the major IT consultancies.

This includes PC installation, small-scale wired/wireless networking, one-to-one training and general on-site support in the Greater London/Essex areas, 

Details on www.eurofilesupport.co.uk 

If you run a business, hold down a demanding job or simply lead a busy life, there are huge time-saving benefits to be gained from using the resources available on the internet.

Web-wise people can do their shopping, banking, travel arrangements, theatre booking, hotel booking, betting, dating and a host of other tasks without leaving their desk.

Here are a few useful tips and links from our PC Support service.  

PC-to-landline calls can also be made at extremely competitive rates.

This can be done using the PC speakers and microphone but we generally get better results with a USB headset or USB telephone - which also leave the computer speakers to operate independently in response to Windows and other software audio.

The Skype service has proven to be be very reliable and the cheapest we have used for international PC-to-landline phone calls.

Using a second service (Plusnet) which offers better rates for UK evening/weekend phone calls has not given rise to any practical problems.

Les King     

Although most broadband suppliers offer similar pricing, the real difference here is in the 'extras' which include things like a standby dial-up facility, FAX-to-email, high-quality web space, telephone support at non-premium rates and, most recently, a monthly allocation of free PC-to-landline minutes on their Plustalk internet telephony service.    

They are also pushing-up connection speeds, at no extra charge, as telephone exchanges are upgraded to handle them.

Refreshingly, reductions in price and improvements in service are automatically passed onto existing customers without having to ask.

Les King

For example, you could have email addresses for every member of the family (bill@mydomain.com, sue@mydomain.com, etc) - Mail would be forwarded to each person's own email account and a 'catch-all' address would be used for anything else sent to that domain. 

123-reg also offer a range of web site hosting packages starting (in April 2006) at £1.59 per month or you could simply use web-forwarding to point your domain at a web site hosted elsewhere  - for example, on the free web space provided by most internet service providers.    

Best of all, this stuff is extremely easy to manage with the 123-reg on-line control panel.

Les King

Although the original concept was along the lines of a high-tech car boot sale, eBay now has a lot of serious full-time traders selling high-quality goods at very competitive prices.

Because reputation is everything on eBay and their system of feedback gives a direct indication of customer satisfaction, I generally find that the speed of delivery and after-sales service is better than that of most big-name retailers.

For entrepreneurial types, it is quite easy to launch your own business as an eBay seller.

Les King      

You can search the site by artist, composer, title or anything you like - You can read or contribute reviews of the music and you can even listen to samples before deciding whether to buy.

On your initial visit, you can leave your delivery address, credit card details and a password so that your subsequent purchases can be completed with a single click.

Likely delivery times are always shown for each product and Amazon advise you by email when goods are despatched - You can also look-up the status of your outstanding orders at any time.

Like many people, I was initially concerned about transmitting credit card details over the internet but this has never given me a problem and is a damn sight safer than giving your card to a waiter or providing the details by phone.

Nowadays, I buy most of my music and books from Amazon who also offer keen prices on a range of other goods including software and mobile phones.

Les King

In my experience, they tend to quote a couple of weeks delivery on PCs and Notebooks but usually improve on this - The current status of your order is always available from Dell's web site or through their email 'orderwatch' service.

Dell are also a useful source of printers, scanners and small hardware upgrades such as extra memory and hard-disks.

Les King

If you are a regular player using the same numbers, you can make things even easier by taking out a subscription.

Les King