2 Hot desks
The kitchen or dining-room table might be big, but it was never intended to accommodate computers, desk lamps and stacking trays. You will likely have to tidy away the breakfast dishes before you start, and then clear everything away before you sit down to eat in the evening. A well-designed, dedicated work desk is an absolute essential.

3 Light up the place
According to Neville Johnson, you’ll feel more energised in a well-lit, airy space that makes good use of natural light from windows and skylights, and, when that fades, has some ceiling dimmers and well-placed desk lamps.

4 Comfort zone 
Squeezing yourself into a cramped area, perching on a sofa or at a tiny table on a rickety chair will do your body no favours. A comfortable, ergonomically designed space where you can sit for hours is essential, especially if you’re at a computer. 

5 Well equipped 
If you’re working from home, you’ll need essential equipment to hand – wifi booster to strengthen the signal, ergonomic seating, printer/scanners, phone-charging points, smart speakers – and the reassurance that they won’t be damaged or disturbed by young hands or roaming pets. A secure, well-equipped space provides peace of mind and allows you to work efficiently. 

6 A place for everything  
You don’t want your notes mixed up with the kids’ homework or find that key documents have ended up in the recycling or been “tidied” away somewhere. Well-designed storage in the shape of drawers, shelves and cupboards will allow you to organise efficiently.

7 Get the mood right 
Colour and texture play a strong role in setting the tone for your working environment. The right paint or finish can help reflect available light or reduce glare, neutral colours or light woods can feel empowering, and richer textures, such as walnut, will add a more professional feel to your space.  

8 Cable management 
It’s important that there are enough sockets, a dedicated phone line for a desk answerphone, and even a router point to ensure a good signal. What you don’t want is trailing wires from extension cables running everywhere. Health and safety counts in the home office, too.

 9 Personal setting 
It’s your office and it follows that it should feel like your own space. It should be designed to suit your specific job needs but leave room for your personality. Place ornaments on shelves and use spare walls for personal photos, a good picture or a pinboard. 

10 Discipline yourself 
No matter how many of the items on this list you can tick off, none will matter unless you have the self-discipline to work unsupervised. Give yourself a daily work schedule, avoid distractions such as shopping or cleaning, and make your home office a truly productive environment.

YOU Systems can help you with the technical aspects of working from home. So if you want help sourcing your broadband, PC, Laptop, monitor, printer, scanner or telephone system then please give us a call on 01733 563900 and ask for June or Adam. We can also advise on your security and tidy your cabling if required.

The post 10 Tips for creating the perfect office at home first appeared on YOU Systems.

These are the 7 deadliest sins a business owner can commit:
1. Thinking “It will never happen to me!”
2. Failing to carry out daily back-ups. We recommend a 3, 2, 1 approach
3. Not having a paid anti- virus package!
4. Not having a paid anti- malware package!
5. Failing to educate staff on phishing
6. Not ensuring all staff have strong passwords
7. Forgetting to back up all important data

The post Seven Deadly Sins first appeared on YOU Systems.

Last week we had a hacker gain access a customer’s data to encrypt
it and the hacker gain access because of a staff members week password. Please educate yourself and your staff on why it is important to have strong passwords. It doesn’t matter if you have a great antivirus or malware package. Having a week password is like leaving your door unlocked at night. It makes it easy for a burglar!

These are some of the don’ts when thinking of a new password:

Don’t use your username, actual name or business name.
Family members’ or pets’ names.
Your or family birthdays.
Favourite football or F1 team or other words easy to work out with a little background knowledge which can be gained on social media.
The word ‘password’.
Numerical sequences.
A single commonplace dictionary word, which could
be cracked by common hacking programs.
When choosing numerical passcodes or PINs, do not
use ascending or descending numbers (for example 4321 or 12345), duplicated numbers (such as 1111) or easily recognisable keypad patterns (such as 14789 or 2580).
If you are stuck for ideas click on the link below

The post Make sure you lock the door first appeared on YOU Systems.

Top Tips
• If you receive an email from an unknown sender do not open it.
• If you are not expecting an email with an attachment do not open it.
• If you have any suspicions that a website does not look genuine – close it.
• Do not allow anyone to access your computer remotely unless you trust the individual.
• Always have strong unique credentials.

Passwords and Accounts
• Make sure all passwords used are secure. Using numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters. Adding a symbol is also advised. Do not use common words, such as “password” or “welcome”. Use a minimum of 8 characters. Change every 3 months.
• Each user password should be completely different.
• We do not advise you keep passwords stored, but if required please make sure the method you use is secure.
• If a user leaves, make sure the accounts are disabled straight away to prevent unauthorised access.
To change your windows password press ctrl, alt and delete then select change password and follow instructions.
A password policy can be put in place to force the above if required.

Anti-Virus
All devices on your network require an anti-virus solution as a minimum precaution. Please check that an anti-virus software is installed on your device, if you are unsure please ask. If additional anti-virus licenses are required please get in touch.
We recommend not allowing unknown devices to access your network, this may include visitors or home devices.
On top of your anti-virus, we advise an anti-malware solution and a hardware firewall. These can be quoted on request for the number of devices required to be covered.

End of Life Dates

Workstation
Windows XP devices have not received security patches from Microsoft since April 2014.
Windows Vista devices have not received security patches from Microsoft since April 2017.
Windows 7 devices will stop receiving security patches from January 2020
Windows 8 devices are required to be upgraded to Windows 8.1.

Server
Windows SBS 2003 stopped receiving security patches in April 2014.
Windows SBS 2008 will stop receiving security patches January 2020. Exchange stopped receiving security patches in April 2017.
Windows Server 2008 will stop receiving security patches January 2020.
Windows SBS 2011 will stop receiving security patches January 2020.

If Microsoft no longer supports your device this is a vulnerability and means your whole network is unsecure. We advise to cease using these and contact us immediately.
Please bear in mind the end of life dates so that you can make allowances to replace these in plenty of time.

Backups
It is extremely important that you have a current backup solution onsite, be it to recover accidental deleted files, restore from a system failure or restore from a ransomware attack.
If you have a server onsite then documents should be saved onto this and not kept on the local machine.
We advise that you change the backup drive/tape every day, in the morning, unless we have stated otherwise. Ransomware can infect backup drives and we may need to go back to the previous drive. If this is a week old or longer, can your business afford to lose that much data?
You are responsible for all data and backups. Any data loss can be devastating for businesses, 75% of businesses that suffer from data loss fail within 1 year.
As one of our many services, we do offer onsite and online backup solutions. Please enquire for pricing.

If you need any more information regarding any of the above or have any concerns about your site security please contact us.

The post Security recommendations to help prevent ransomware first appeared on YOU Systems.

The post Business Continuity first appeared on YOU Systems.

The post Beware of printer helpline scam first appeared on YOU Systems.

The post End of Life for Microsoft 2007 Exchange & Microsoft Price Hike first appeared on YOU Systems.

Trying to run an office which is as efficient and productive as possible isn’t easy. Many people might think that technology can help us to achieve this, but in the real world, old devices and software that is not user-friendly are forcing people to waste valuable time.

New research from Sharp has uncovered that the average UK office worker wastes at least 21 days each year due to slow or outdated technology, a time-frame which is longer than the paid annual leave of many UK workers.

The survey of over 1,000 office workers in the UK found that this adds up to almost 40 minutes wasted per employee per day, the equivalent of 167 hours or four weeks of dead time every year, costing businesses over £2,100 per employee per year.

The biggest time drain reported was searching for files on a server – 23 minutes per day – thanks to poor search tools. Other routine time wasters include using the printer: seven minutes spent each day waiting for it to warm up; and nearly ten minutes waiting for pages to come out.

This dead time spent using poor office systems and equipment means lost opportunities, lost profits and even lost employees. Almost 80 per cent of respondents said that their workplace is out of date when it comes to technology. And if their office didn’t have such outdated technology, over half of workers (53 per cent) said they would be more productive, and nearly one in seven people (14 per cent) said they would stop looking for another job, suggesting a big opportunity for businesses to improve both output and staff retention.

Contact us for a free survey network survey and let us see if we can boost productivity and moral!

The post Office workers waste more time on slow tech than they spend on holiday first appeared on YOU Systems.

The problems began just before midday, UTC time, with Microsoft warning users on its Azure status page that they might encounter availability issues when trying to use a range of the company’s cloud services, including SQL database and Azure backup. The company cited a spike in networking traffic as the root cause of the problems, which were reportedly resolved around 1pm UTC time.

Microsoft was not the only cloud provider to run into technical difficulties, with Google Apps for Work users across the US and UK unable to use the service for 90 minutes on 14 September.

This highlights why companies cannot afford to overlook the importance of business continuity when shifting workloads to the cloud.

In a cloud-first world, you do need to have a strategy in place for when Azure, Office 365 or another critical cloud service goes offline. You need to have plan in place to keep operating when your cloud provider becomes unavailable.

For advice in solving this potential problem contact june@yousystems.co.uk

The post Downtime hits Microsoft & Google cloud users as the service providers both have technical difficulties first appeared on YOU Systems.

He has been such a great asset to us all!

The post Congratulate Adam on his new role – Technical Director! first appeared on YOU Systems.