An unstable power souce can cause big problems with computers, more so than regular electronics. The power flowing into a computer must be strictly regulated or you may begin to see strange side effects - more so than simply not being able to turn the computer on. This is mostly a concern in houses with older wiring or homes in the county, but it’s also true of any residence. While a power bar with surge protection is a good start, a better solutions is a UPS, or Uninterruptible Power Supply, also known as a battery backup. These devices have come down in price recently and are now very affordable, even for home users. A UPS will act as a regulator, ensuring that the flow of power to your system never dips, surges or fluctuates. In the event of a power outage, a UPS is even able to send a signal to the computer telling it to shut down after a short period, normally between 5 and 10 minutes. For more information on UPS’, contact AlphaKOR.

Plenty of people use laptops these days when travelling, and sometimes clients ask us about sending and receiving e-mail from hotels or wireless hotspots. Wherever possible, try to use webmail (i.e. read and send e-mail through a web browser) which will be constant no matter where you are. If this is not possible, bear in mind that in most cases you will be able to receive mail but not necessarily send mail. When sending e-mail the default settings are to use your Internet Service Providers settings which will not work anywhere but the location where your internet connection runs from. AlphaKOR now provides a service which will enable you to send and receive e-mail from any location without the need to change settings. Contact us for more info!

For those who have upgraded to Windows Vista, this is a handy tip to help organize your open documents and applications. Look for the ‘Windows’ key on your keyboard (normally between the Control and Alt keys). Hold it down and tap the Tab key (normally to the left side of the keyboard, above the Caps Lock key). On screen you should see a 3D slideshow of all open documents, giving you a simple way to jump between applications!