Listed below are 22 of the best Christmas wallpapers we have found around the internet to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to your desktop. To set one as your background simply click the one you like to enlarge it, then right click on that image and select “Set as Background” or “Set as Desktop Background”. Please note that these will work best if you have a widescreen monitor at 1440×900 resolution.

If you can’t decide which one to have, why not have them all! Click here to download all images in one zip file.

Better yet, with the help of a free bit of software you could have them randomly rotated. Just keep reading past all the thumbnails below for instructions.

So from us all at Vella Technology, have a very happy Christmas!

So what about showing them all randomly? Well, if you use Windows XP or Vista there is a bit of software that can help called “Wallpaper Slideshow LT”, and can be downloaded for free from www.gphotoshow.com/wallpaperss.htm (download links are on the right).

Simply install the software, and point it to a folder on your PC where all the christmas wallpapers are stored. For more detailed instructions on how to use the software, visit www.gphotoshow.com/wps_tutorial/wallpaperss-tutorial.htm

Using Windows 7? Then you already have the random wallpaper feature built in to Windows.  A nice tutorial on how to set this up can be found by clicking here.

Disclaimer: All wallpapers are the property of their respected owners. Vella Technology do not own any of these images and are made available for entertainment purposes only. All wallpapers were found from the following websites: www.wallpapersphere.com www.fanpop.com www.kerniecamproductions.com www.vladstudio.com www.wallpaperstock.net www.blogwaw.com www.adobetutorialz.com www.1stwebdesigner.com www.manywallpapers.com www.christmas-wallpapers.co.uk

We recently started to invite customers to leave feedback on our services and today we have officially launched a new page on our website showing all reviews we receive, good or bad! We made sure that an external and reliable company handled all our reviews so that you could be sure that they are unedited and unbiased.

Reviews are important to us. Not only do they give you, the customer, the reassurance you need that Vella Technology is a reliable company to deal with, but it also allows us to make sure we are delivering the best possible service at all times.

Click here to view the reviews we have received so far, or if you are an previous customer of Vella Technology and would like to leave a review of us then please click here.

Being the sceptic I am, I was a little suspicious that your excellent value callout charge would possibly be reflected by the standard of service given. Having experienced for myself your services today in helping to resolve a challenging software corruption issue, I just had to register my appreciation.

Your engineer Richard was absolutely fantastic. Firstly, he arrived five minutes ahead of the promised response time of just over an hour. Secondly, he immediately busied himself at tackling the task in hand, which was a truly challenging one, and two hours and twenty minutes later all was well.

Thirdly, he gave my PC a full health check and left two quality bits of software to help offer further protection, all this for £35 inclusive of a thirty day guarantee if the problem occurs again!

His customer service skills were excellent throughout. As a result I cannot praise your company enough for doing exactly what it says on the tin and more!
I will certainly be recommending you to others and wish you every success for the future. How refreshing it is to receive such service these days, Well done and many thanks.

This customer used our computer repair service, which is still at its amazing value price of just £35 – fixed fee! Book on-line now, or give us a call to get the same great service.

It shows an undercover operation by Sky News when they took a number of faulty laptops into various repair shops. One in particular is highlighted as they are clearly shown browsing through personal files, stealing personal details and then overcharging their customers!

Don’t forget, Vella Technology does everything in your own home, and we’re more than happy for you to be there the whole time; we even encourage it! And that’s not even taking into consideration our amazing fixed fee prices.

So as they say (or used to say) on a popular BBC TV Program, don’t have nightmares, and do sleep well

P.S Our homepage has had a little revamp! Feel free to check it out.

It could be anything, from getting infected with a virus, or Windows might be going abnormally slow or throwing up loads of error messages.

The first thing that enters our mind is “great, now I’ll have to get it fixed”. You’ll then start going through names of friends and family that might have a bit of technical knowledge in the hope they can help you out.

Sometimes you’ll get lucky, there will be someone that takes a look and manages to get it working again. It might not get done in the most elegant way, but it seems to work and that will be all that matters.

But, allow us to introduce an alternative

By getting a professional computer technician to diagnose and solve your computer issues, it could save you time and hassle in the future! Although having a friend or family member solve your computer problems might keep you happy in the short term, if they don’t know exactly what they are doing, it could lead to problems popping up further down the line.

Now, being a Technology company that provides a computer repair service, we know it’s not going to be a massive shock to you that that we would recommend this.

The fact of the matter is however, thanks to our fantastic pricing policy it’s never been cheaper to get a professional technician to fix your problems, or remove that nasty virus. It’s just £35! Nothing else. That’s no call out charge, no hourly rate, just one simple fee to get the job done professionally. Even if it takes us 5 hours, we’ll still only charge £35.

So why is a better to use a professional service? Well here’s a few reasons:

• Professional technicians have experience. They can get the job done quickly and correctly.
• They can find out how the problem started and prevent it from happening again.
• As part of the service, you’re entire computer can be checked over to find any other problems that might pop up soon
• They’re experts and speeding up slow computers. Not only will you be left with a fully working computer, but there’s a good chance it’ll be running a lot faster too.

If you live in within a 30 mile radius of Colchester, we will personally come to your own home at a time to suit you and get the whole thing done there and then. So this means we can repair your PC if you live in places like Colchester, Chelmsford, Clacton and even Ipswich. Evening and weekends are included at no extra cost!

And what if we can’t fix the problem you’re having? We’ll you don’t need to worry about that either. We only charge for fixing problems, not for simply looking at it and calling it unfixable. So if we can’t fix your problem we won’t charge a penny, not even a call out fee.

If we’ve managed to convince you that “professional” is the way to go, we’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for you to get in contact with us. All our contact details can be found at our website, or if you’d like to just get straight to the point we have an on-line booking request form that you can fill in.

As a final note, Vella Technology is a relatively new company, and so understandably you might be a little worried about “the unknown!”. Hopefully our pricing and no fix no fee policy helps to give you confidence in our services, but we thought we’d share an email we got from a recent customer to help guide you:

“Just wanted to say thank you again for your prompt assistance last night, our laptop seems to be working much quicker now. We found Richard extremely professional, helpful and polite – I only wish there were more businesses like you around.
I really hope your new business succeeds and we shall certainly be recommending you.
Many thanks again.”

Until next time, happy computing!

Firefox Logo

One thing you probably never think about is what browser you are using to view web pages. In fact, the vast majority of you reading this right now will be using Internet Explorer and you’ll be quite happy with that. And, as long as you’re using the latest version, there’s nothing wrong with that.

You might like to know however that there are others. A popular alternative is one called Firefox, which amoungst other features is supposed to be faster and more secure than Internet Explorer.

At Vella Technology some people use Internet Explorer, but some prefer Firefox. Reasons for using Internet Explorer range from “It’s there, and it works” right up to “I don’t want to install more programs”. But people that use Firefox will say “It’s faster than Internet Explorer” and that “there are thousands of add-ons you can download to make it better”.

One thing for certain is that it wont harm if you give it a go, and now is a great time to start as they have just released a new “faster” version.

So if you’re feeling adventurous and want to give it a go, click here to download Firefox now.

Being a company that offers a Virus Removal service, we see our fair share of nasty viruses running wild on people’s computers. They aren’t nice things to have, and if we’re honest some are a real pain to remove!

Of course, once we remove the virus our customers naturally ask us how they can stay safe online and you would be surprised at how simple it is!

Our customers are genuinely surprised that they could have installed a virus, as most of the time they are running virus software which is of course meant to prevent such a thing from happening.

Unfortunately though they can only do so much, so you need to follow a few simple rules in order to stay super safe on the net! And that’s exactly what we’re about to guide you through in this blog post.

Please Note: This is a guide to stay safe on the internet. If you already have a virus this guide isn’t going to help you much until you get it removed. As long as you are within 30 miles of Colchester Essex, we can come and remove it for a fixed fee of just £35. Click for more details…

Step 1: Virus protection!

Quite an obvious step you would assume, but so many people either have out of date virus protection, or worst of all no virus protection at all! With extremely good free antivirus software out there you really don’t have any excuse not to be protected.

Don’t have any virus protection?

No problem! Walk into any major PC retailer and you’ll be thrown in the direction of all the products offered by Norton or McAfee, which both are very successful at removing viruses and keeping your system clean, something we certainly don’t dispute.

What these stores won’t tell you however is that there are a number of free alternatives out there that perform just as well as the paid alternatives! If you happen to mention this to the sales staff, they will generally laugh it off and say you need Norton or McAfee, but of course they would, they are trying to make a sale after all.

Two excellent pieces of antivirus software come from AVG and Avast. The best thing about these two is that for home users they are absolutely free, and free for life! Avast usually comes out slightly better at fighting against attacks than AVG, but it does require you to register your details with the company (it is still free however). If you don’t want to do that, then AVG is a very acceptable alternative.

Click here to be taken to the download page for AVG Free

(The link to the free download is on the left, just click the “Download Now” button)

- Or -

Click here to be taken to the download page for the free version of Avast!

Once you have done this and installed the software, view the section below titled “How to check that your virus scanner is running and up to date” to make sure everything is running how it should.

Already have virus protection?

So many times we see that a lot of people do have virus protection, but it’s either disabled or out of date. So the solution?

Check that it’s running, enabled and up to date!

How? Well it’s pretty simple actually. Depending on the antivirus software you are running, you can usually check by loading up the actual software and looking at what it says. Most antivirus software will give a summary of how it’s running, for example, it will use words such as “Up to date” or “Active” to say that it’s running all fine.

If you see any words like “Update failed”, “Disabled” or “Not protecting” then it’s usually not a good sign. Of course this is only what to generally look for, but there is another way to check your antivirus protection thanks to a nifty little thing in Windows called “Security Centre” as explained in the next section.

How to check that your virus scanner is running and up to date

Windows Vista Users:

1. First of all click on the Windows Start button, then from the start menu select “Control Panel”

   

2. Next, under the heading “Security” click on the link that reads “Check this computer’s security status”.

   

3. Windows Security Centre will now open, and in an ideal world should look like this:

   

What if it doesn’t?

If antivirus protection is disabled on your system or out of date, you will get something that looks similar to this:

This clearly shows that antivirus software is turned off, which is obviously not what we want! Other error messages here would state that the software is out of date, but in any case, a red bar instead of a standard green bar on this screen means something isn’t good and needs to be fixed.

Because of the amount of different antivirus packages out there, it would be quite a task for us to tell you how to check every software available, so unfortunately we can only give you general guidance.

If the problem is that the software is turned off, load up your antivirus software and look for options on turning real time protection on. In most cases it will be in the options of the software you are using.

If the problem is that the software is out of date, again load up the antivirus software and manually run an update from within the software. You will then want to check within the options that automatic updates are turned on.

If you still have problems past this point it would probably be wise to request a PC Health Check from Vella Technology. We will come and make sure everything is running how it should, as well as giving your PC a bit of a speed boost. For £35 it’s not a bad deal!

Step 2: Antispyware Protection

Some of you right now might be sitting there saying “anti-what now?” or something similar, generally because this is often overlooked.

Spyware is not usually as damaging as a virus, but it can be far more annoying and sometimes just as invasive. Its sole purpose once it gets installed is usually to display adverts on your PC, and to collect as much personal information as possible about you before sending it off to whoever it likes.

As you can imagine this isn’t exactly what you want to happen, so antispyware software helps to prevent such nasty software from being installed.

What can I do to stay protected?

Although antivirus software will these days detect a lot of spyware, it’s still probably best to have additional protection from software dedicated to solely tackling spyware. Windows Vista users will be pleased to hear that Microsoft pre-installs a bit of software with every copy of Windows called Windows Defender, which should run in the background and keep itself up to date automatically. In most cases this software does a perfectly adequate job of protecting you, and mixed with antivirus software, should keep you protected.

Don’t run Windows Vista? Windows XP users can also get a copy of Windows Defender absolutely free from Microsoft. Simply download the software from their website and install.

How do I know I’m protected?

Just like we did when checking our virus protection, the Windows Security Centre will tell us if spyware protection is on and up to date.

Simply click on the down arrow on the bar titled “Malware protection” and check the status of spyware software from there. If the Malware protection bar is green, then this will indicate that both your antivirus and antispyware protection is turned on and up to date. Great!

Step 3: Firewall

No, having a smoke alarm in your house isn’t really what we’re talking about here (although if you don’t have one you should get one! – end of fire safety announcement), what we are talking about is in fact making sure that your PC isn’t wide open to anyone that wants to try and hack into your PC.

What exactly is a Firewall?

Putting it simply, a firewall acts a barrier between your PC and the whole world. With a firewall turned on the outside has very restricted access to your PC, but with a firewall turned off your PC is subject to a number of hacking attempts.

When you connect to the internet you are allocated a completely unique set of numbers called an IP address, and with this address anyone in the world can see your PC. Sounds scary? We’ll it’s not really, everyone on the internet has an IP address so it’s not a security risk, but for the sake of explaining what a firewall is you need to know this bit first.

Now, say for example a security vulnerability appears on the internet for Windows, or a piece of software that you downloaded and are running on your PC. Now let’s also assume that your PC is NOT protected by any type of firewall.

If a hacker does a random scan of the internet and picks up on your IP address, because it would be wide open there is a high chance that they will then start to attempt to get into your computer.

If however you were behind a firewall, in most cases your computer would remain invisible to most of the internet! If a hacker looked up a well protected PC behind a firewall, that PC would simply not respond giving the impression that it’s not even connected to the internet. The hacker would then move on to the next person leaving you safe and happy.

Ok enough explaining. How do I get a firewall?

Just like the antispyware software, Microsoft is feeling quite generous these days and offers a basic firewall for free, and is preinstalled with all copies of Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) and Windows Vista, so as long as it’s turned on you’re protected!

Only basic protection? What if I want more?

Although we use the term basic protection, in most cases the software which Microsoft supplies is a perfectly acceptable application for most situations.

There is however an alternative you can use, free of course, called Zone Alarm. It offers almost the same amount of features as the Windows Firewall, but certain features are easier to get to and you get a lot more control over what can and can’t access the internet.

Feel free to install the software if you wish, but in our experience the Windows Firewall provides enough protection.

How do I know if my Firewall is turned on?

Just like with the virus protection and spyware protection, it’s time to go back to the Windows Security Centre!

Look for the bar called “Firewall” and check the colour. If it’s green then everything is fine, firewall protection is on. You can also click on the down arrow on the same bar to get written confirmation of this.

What if Firewall protection is turned off?

If the Firewall bar within Windows Security Centre is red, this would indicate that firewall protection is turned off.

In most cases you will be presented with a button with the text “Turn on now” as soon on the following screen shot:

By clicking this button, windows will automatically turn your firewall on and the bar should turn from red to green.

If this doesn’t happen after pressing the button, this would usually indicate that you have firewall software installed from another supplier other than Microsoft which is ignoring the request for the firewall to be switched on. To fix this, look at all the security software you have running, for example McAfee or Norton and check the settings within that application.

If you still have a problem we would recommend calling out a Vella Technology technician to look into the problem as part of our £35 PC Health Check service.

One more thing to note – You might be protected even without software!

If you connect to the internet via a router, either wirelessly or wired, then routers themselves act as a firewall!

We won’t get into all the technical details of why this is, but we thought it is worth a mention as if you do also have a router, it’s nice to know you have two layers of protection. That’s right, two layers! In other words, keep the software firewall installed even if you are behind a router, just in case

Step 4: Windows Updates and Service Packs

A happy Windows is an up to date Windows! And the best thing about keeping Windows up to date is that you don’t really need to do anything.

Why do I need to install updates for Windows? I’m happy with how it is!

Well unfortunately no one in this world is perfect, including the developers at Microsoft. Because of this every now and then security holes are discovered in certain parts of Windows that makes your PC subject to attacks and other such nasty things.

The good news however is that in most cases these security holes are usually patched (in other words fixed) before they get exploited by websites and hackers. All you have to do is allow Windows to install all the updates it wants and you can then be sure you’re protected.

How do I go about turning automatic updates on?

We tend to find in most cases automatic updates are switched on, but it’s always good to check! Just follow these simple steps to check:

1. First of all click on the Windows Start button, then from the start menu select “Control Panel”

   

2. Once the Control Panel has loaded, click on “Check for updates”.

   

3. This will now show you the “Windows Update” panel, which gives you a quick summary of any updates you have to install, and how updates are configured.If you have updates outstanding to install, you will see a window that looks a bit like this:

   

   This states that we have 17 updates to install, and 2 optional updates. Optional updates are not critical so for the sake of this guide we will ignore them for now.Clicking on the “Install updates” button at this point will start downloading all the updates (if they are not downloaded already) and then install them. If however you left this screen but had automatic updates switched on, these updates would eventually get installed automatically.Once all updates have been installed (excluding the optional updates) our Windows Update panel will look like this:

   

4. Going back on topic now, how do we know that automatic updates are enabled? Well, you can check by looking on the summary. Just below the main box that tells us Windows is up to date is a section titled “You have Windows set to”. This then reads “Automatically install new updates every day at 03:00 (recommended)” which is exactly the setting we want for the best protection.

   

5. If it doesn’t say this, or if you want to change the settings, click on “Change settings” which is found on the left hand side of the Windows Update window.

   

6. You will now be presented with the Windows Update Settings panel, allowing you to customise how updates are downloaded and installed on your PC.

   The recommended option as we have mentioned before is to have updates installed automatically. This way you won’t have to worry about manually updating and everything will be done for you in the background. You may occasionally be informed that you need to restart your PC for updates to finish installing, but this doesn’t happen very often.Although this is great for convenience, some people on dial up or broadband with a very low usage limit might not want Windows randomly using their connection, which is perfectly understandable. In cases like this it is recommended to change the setting to “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”.

   This will then notify you when updates are available and then you can pick the best time to download and install them. Maybe you get cheaper internet at a certain time if on dial up, or you might get “free” periods on broadband that will not affect your usage if used at off peak times.

   Just remember that no matter what you change this setting to, it is vital that updates are installed as quickly as possible. The longer you leave it the longer your PC is unsecured.

7. If you made any changes at all, remember to click “OK” to confirm those changes.

Step 5: Phishing protection

Not to be confused with fishing (although it still doesn’t stop the jokes!), phishing is the term used when someone tries to trick you into handing over personal details about yourself, be it credit card details, bank details, or even just your address.

There are many ways they can do this, but in the online world it usually starts from emails and instant messages which direct you to a fake website made to look like the real thing.

How would I know if I’m being tricked?

The easiest way to stay safe and to not get tricked is to simply ignore any emails that ask for any of your personal details.

Your bank will never send you an email or instant message asking you to click a link to fill in any information, and if they ever did send you an email asking you to visit their website you should never click a link within the email itself.

Online shops may very well send you emails asking to activate your account by clicking a link, or to track your order, but these are emails you would usually expect. If you are not expecting an email from them, stay safe and don’t click any links. If you want to go to their website, manually type the website address into your web browser and at least then you will know you are on the correct website.

I’m not so sure I’m going to be able to tell if an email is legitimate or not! Help!

As long as you follow the rules set out above you shouldn’t have to worry. But there is a way to test your phishing checking abilities with a couple of online tests!

Visitors from the UK can click here to try a slightly outdated but still useful online phishing test. It will show you some examples of emails (by clicking on the name of the email) and all you have to do is click Legitimate or Phishing. At the end of the test it will show you the results, and explain in detail why each of the emails are either legitimate or fake.

Visitors from the US have a slightly more up to date version of the test available here, which uses pretty much the same method of testing as the UK one.

Is there any software I can get that will also help?

Well of course, I’m glad you asked.

As long as you have one of the following web browsers installed (with their default settings) then you will already have phishing protection! These browsers are:

• Internet Explorer 7 and above
• Firefox 2 and above
• Opera 9.1 and above
• Safari 3.2 and above
• Chrome (all versions)

It’s never good however to just assume these features are turned on, so we’ll now guide you through how to check the settings on the two most popular browsers, Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Checking Phishing protection is enabled in Internet Explorer

1. First of all we need to load up Internet Explorer. Once this is done, look over to the top right of the browser and click on the “Safety” button, then move your mouse down to “SmartScreen Filter”.You will then see a sub menu with 3 options, and the one we are interested in is the middle one. If it says “Turn Off SmartScreen Filter” (as shown below) then this means it’s already on and you are protected.

   If however it is turned off then it will read “Turn On SmartScreen Filter”.

2. To turn it on, simply click on this link to open up the following window.
3. Click on the option as highlighted in the screen shot to turn on the filter, thus enabling protection.
4. Click on Ok to confirm and you’re done!

Checking Phishing protection is enabled in Firefox

1. To get started, open up a copy of Firefox. Once it’s open click on “Tools” from the top menu, and then select “Options”.

   

2. On the window that pops up, click on the “Security” icon at the top.
3. Now all you need to do is make sure two check boxes are ticked, one against “Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected attack site” and another against “Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected forgery”. It will then look like this:

   

4. Click on “OK” to confirm changes.

Step 6: Trust no one and stay alert

It’s not exactly the nicest way to think, but unfortunately when you’re on the internet it’s very difficult to be able to trust everything you see.

First of all, we aren’t for one second saying everyone in the world is evil and that no one ever tells the truth. This isn’t about what people are like, but what these people might have on their computers acting on their behalf!

Let’s look at this in a bit more detail.

Emails and Instant Messages

Something we all have to unfortunately put up with on the internet is unsolicited mail, or spam, as it is better known as.

Thankfully a lot of companies that provide free email services provide a filter that manages to catch most spam, however it’s not perfect and sometimes various junk emails will get missed, or a genuine email from someone you know might inadvertently get marked as junk.

So what advice can we give about spam? Well our first tip is, ignore any emails from someone you don’t know, or someone trying to sell you something.

There are exceptions to the rule, but in most cases you would be able to use your own intelligence on filtering the genuine emails from the junk.

For example, if you have ever shopped on Amazon and you receive an email from Amazon trying to sell you other products, it’s unlikely to be a malicious attempt at trying to take over your computer. As long as you follow the tips we explained in the phishing section of this article you should feel safe opening it.

Ok so any emails I get from friends and family are safe?

Ah if only life was that simple.

Unfortunately if a family member or a friend gets infected with a virus/spyware/malware then their computer could start sending emails and instant messages without them knowing. You’ll naturally think it’s all good as it has come from someone you know so you’ll open it and before you know it you’ll be infected too.

The best way to deal with this is to just be cautious when reading any emails or clicking on links. If the email has any attachments just think to yourself, are you expecting what your friend has attached? If you are unsure just give them a good old fashioned phone call and ask. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

The same logic applies to instant messages. Don’t just click on any old link that your friend might send you, ask them first about the link to establish if it really was them sending it.

Browsing the internet safely

Most of the time you will have a trouble free time with the internet, but it’s likely there will always be that rare occasion when you might come across something that could harm your computer if you don’t act the right way.

Follow our tips below on safe surfing, and you’ll have a much better chance at staying safe!

1. Online Adverts
   Be very cautious of adverts, remember if something is too good to be true it probably is.
2. Fake virus alerts
   Ignore any messages from websites claiming that you are be infected with a virus. These messages are fake and are simply an attempt to get you to actually install a virus itself! Here is an example of a message you should ignore, or cancel immediately.

   

3. Downloading software
   Only download files from websites you know are safe. If you want to download software, be cautious about who it’s coming from and always scan it for viruses before running it.
4. Secure connections
   If you are on a website which requires you to enter personal details, look out for the padlock symbol to make sure the connection from your computer to the website you are visiting is secure.

If you are only entering basic information like your name and email address, it’s not usually as important. If you need to enter payment details however you should never do so without a secure connection in place.

On Internet Explorer 7 and above, the padlock symbol can be found on the right of the address bar (where the website address is displayed) as shown here:


And on Firefox, the padlock can be found at the bottom right hand side of the browser:

On a side note, any page on the Vella Technology website which requires you to enter any of your details will be protected in this way.

Step 7: And finally…

As the world is constantly changing, so are computers and the security threats they face. So you’ll want to keep up to date with the latest security advice just in case something nasty hits the internet.

There are a number of ways of doing this, but one way we would like to mention is to simply keep checking back on this blog. We’ll keep it up to date from now on with the latest security advice and tips to help keep you safe.

Checking back all the time however could get annoying, so a simpler way would be to become a fan of ours on Facebook and you’ll get notified on your news feed when we update the blog (don’t worry, it won’t be that often). Or if you are up to speed with RSS feeds, you can subscribe to our feed here.

So there we are! All done.

There is just one more thing we want to say, and that is enjoy yourself! After reading all this you might be sitting there afraid to carry on using your computer, or maybe now even the thought of using your credit card online is terrifying.

But it shouldn’t be. The fact that you have now read this guide means you’re prepared! You know what to expect and what to ignore, so as long as you keep it in mind you will find the internet is a lovely and safe place after all.

We hope you found this guide helpful and we would like to encourage you to pass it on to anyone who you think might find it useful as well.

Why did we provide this guide?

Obviously as an IT support company it would make sense for us not to tell people how to stay safe, as then its more work for us! But we don’t think like that.

We like to think of ourselves as a friendly company willing to help whenever possible, and in return all we hope is that should you ever need any IT help or advice, you will simply consider using our services.

I don’t have time to check my PC, can you do it?

We certainly can! Our PC Health Check service is performed in your own home (as long as you live within 30 miles of Colchester, Essex) and is a fixed fee of just £35. For this we will make sure your PC is completely secure and do our best to speed it up at the same time.

Just give us a call or use our booking page (click on the book a call button) to arrange a call.

There are many things that you need to do in order to start a business that has any chance of success in today’s current financial climate.  There are significant start-up costs and detailed systems must be put in place for keeping records of every transaction.  The whole thing is a rewarding adventure from having a business plan approved and opening a business bank account to satisfying your first paying customer.  However, even with the most perfect set-up there is a determining factor that will contribute largely to whether a business will succeed or fail.  This factor is something that is developed before opening a business banking account is even thought of,  but what could it be that is so important and developed so early?  What I am talking about is of course a concept, an idea, a belief.

Vella Technology (before any name was given to it) was created at idea level in partnership between two people who like computers.  Computers are our hobbies.  It is not as if we have had nothing to do with them in our spare time and then have chose to embrace them due to some kind of business potential.  Instead quite the opposite is true.  Over a number of years we have built our own computers, built them for friends and helped rectify a number of computing solutions.  Along the way it has come to our attention just how much the large popular computing businesses take advantage of their customers.

High street shops are over-charging customers for mass produced computers with poor components and little room to upgrade the computer at a later date.  It is unfortunately the nature of computing technology that things move quickly.  Depending on what you use your PC for it is quite normal that a top of the range PC today may be mid-range in a year’s time and low range in two years time.  This is a problem that hits PC gamers particularly hard, but affect all PC users.  High-street stores are aware of this and they operate on the basis that a customer may well replace their entire PC system when it becomes low-range and has fallen behind the times.  Essentially this means a customer may be looking at purchasing a machine for £700 and then buying a completely new one in 2-3 years time.  It is a situation that the user is forced into buy the retailer due to the fact that a PC should be “upgradeable” and yet the high street machines are usually not.  If a PC is built correctly then as technology advances and newer/better PC’s are created and sold, the old PC should be able to be “upgraded” with additional hardware in order to make it as good as the newer PC’s.  The cost of doing this is far less than buying a new system as it is likely that not all of the components within the PC are going to be replaced, just a selected couple (wherever the market has advanced).

A PC user should be able to pay £700 for a new PC and then spend £150 in a couple of years rather than buy a new system and spend £700 again.  PC manufacturers are selling PC’s that are purposefully difficult and costly to upgrade in order to force the customer to purchase an entirely new system when thier old system no longer suites there requirements.  As PC enthusiasts this upsets us.  A further thing that upsets us is the quality of components that are usually used within the mass produced machines that high street stores sell.  When buying a PC all that the customer is presented with is the specifications list.  There can be a great deal of difference between components of different quality despite appearing to have the same specification.  A prime example of this is usually found with RAM (memory).   The quality of RAM on a mass produced machine from a high street store will not be good.  They use the cheapest components they can source and even though the specification of 2GB may be the same with higher quality components the lower quality RAM will have greater failure rates as well as running at lower speeds ultimately effecting both the performance  and reliability of the PC.  This is an attitude taken by most mass manufacturers and retailers and is something we find upsetting as we believe all PC’s should use quality components to ensure that they are running at their optimum.

As you can see, in terms of raw PC sales there are many areas where customers are taken for granted by popular retailers, but this is not where the exploitation ends.  Most retailers offer certain post-sale services for astronomical prices.  Many new PC owners would be unsure as to how to set up their new PC or how to get online.  Asking high-street retailers about a set up and delivery service is in many cases a bit like asking just exactly how much they are willing to take for doing very little.  An unsure customer should be provided with reassurance, advice and if required a cheap method for delivery and set up of their new PC so that they are raring to go.  It seems unreasonable to take advantage of a novice PC buyer in this situation, especially as they have just parted with a large amount of money for the system itself.

Leading on from the astronomical cost of getting somebody into the customer’s home to help with set-up with a new PC is the price of actually managing to get any kind of support with a computing problem.  Obviously if the problem is hardware based then it is possible that any damage or fault may be covered by warranty or insurance.  The problem is that many computing issues are not hardware related.  The charge of getting an “IT expert” to listen to or look at any issue you may be having seems unreasonable all round.  Many “IT experts” offer a call-out service, but the customer can then be expected to pay a call out fee plus a high hourly rate.  This is something else that upsets us and appears exploitive of the customer.  Why should the customer be forced to pay an hourly rate to somebody who is doing a job that could take any amount of time? In this situation the customer has no way of checking if the serviceman is performing efficiently or drawing the process out in order to get an extra hours pay.  We don’t believe it is a position that anybody with a Computing issue should be put in.

Vella Technology was created as an alternative to everything we felt was wrong in the market.  As computing enthusiasts we wanted to build the business that we would have liked to have dealt with, offering low prices, high quality and a good relationship with its customers across the board.  As a result we aim to maintain a number of key principles:

• To sell PC’s that use high-quality components and are not mass-produced.
• To sell PC’s at reasonable prices despite the high quality.
• To offer free delivery and set-up within the Essex area and affordable alternatives to those further away.
• To offer cheap call-out services at low fixed prices so that the customer knows the final cost prior to agreeing to any work.
• To adopt a friendly and helpful attitude towards customers.
• To respond to any contact from customers promptly and efficiently.