Megaupload Shut Down by Feds! Icefilms massively affected!

by Ian Williams on Jan.19, 2012, under News

Megaupload, one of the world most popular file sharing websites has been taken down by US officials. The co founders of the website have been arrested along with other employees for allegedly costing copyright holders £320,000,000.

Websites such as www.icefilms.info has been massively affected as the vast majority of their content is streamed directly from Megaupload.

This all comes just one day after hundreds or maybe thousands of websites including wikipedia took part in a blackout protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act).

Please head over to BBC News for more information on this story.

Hard Drive Price Boom – Thailand Flooding

by Lee Nicholls on Oct.27, 2011, under News

The hard drive market is reacting to the heavy floods in Thailand.

Prices for hard drives have jumped by as much as 50 percent within one week, market research firm IHS said. About a quarter of all hard drives are manufactured in Thailand and it appears that all major vendors are affected in some way.

Western Digital previously said that it may see a revenue decline of about 60 percent in the current quarter and told German publication Golem.de that it will be able to produce only 22 to 26 million drives this quarter, instead of the planned 58 million units. A spokesperson said that WD “currently waits for the factories to dry” to be able to restart its manufacturing tools. What makes matters worse are the usually thin profit margins in the HDD industry, which means that manufacturers typically have only five to seven days of material supply.

A Seagate manager told CRN India that the company expects and “acute” shortage of drives and that the manufacturer expects prices to increase. However, there was no information how sharp this increase can be. Both WD and Seagate said that the floods in Thailand have created a problem for the industry that will take several quarters to resolve.

Thank you to TomsHardware & Golum.de for this information!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ Oil Slick Problem On Display In PC World!

by Ian Williams on Oct.07, 2011, under News

As we have posted before we have been testing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ for business use.

Annoyingly we have fell victim to the oil slick, newton rings problem.

We have been reading online that you may be able to fix the problem by putting the tab in the fridge for an hour or so. We think this is totally unacceptable! We bought the 16gb WiFi version for £400.00 not something that I fancy having to put in the fridge every now and again. We have also heard that putting a sucker on the screen and gently pulling may also temporarily fix the problem.

We took our tab back to PC World (where we bought it from) on Monday 3rd October. Annoyingly they wouldn’t swap it for a new one as we’ve had it for more than 21 days. So I was told they would get it sent back to Samsung urgently as they “understand my frustrations” and I need it back for work!

I have just been to PC World (Friday 07th Oct) (as they wouldn’t answer their phone) to see how they are getting on with my tab. I was so annoyed to find out that it still has not been sent off to Samsung. The cheeky guy behind the counter even said to me when I handed over my booking form “Oh yeah its the Samsung Galaxy Tab with the broken screen isn’t it?” I said “NO! It’s the stupid manufacturing defect!”

I then went to have a look at some of the other tabs as I want to get myself an Asus EEE Transformer with the dock. I saw their Samsung Galaxy Tab on display and was amazed to see that the one they had on display actually has the same oil slick problem!!!!

So we took a video of the problem which can be viewed by clicking the link below. Please like the video and / or leave a comment if you are also facing the same problem!

Another Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Problem – Freezing!

by Ian Williams on Oct.06, 2011, under News

We mentioned that the Samsung Galaxy Tab is suffering with an “oil slick” problem just a couple of days ago.

Now it would seem that Samsungs nightmare is just beginning. Customers are now complaining about their shiny new tabs freezing on the lock screen.

The tab still responds when you turn it but you cannot press anything on the screen and even the power button / volume buttons don’t do anything. In some cases you cant even get it onto the lock screen without plugging it into the charger and even the hard reset will not work.

It is a mighty shame that Samsung have released this tab with these blatant design flaws as when it is working properly it is great.

We just hope that Samsung admit the problem and replace people’s tabs when they face these problems!

BT’s Birmingham Exchange Causes Massive Broadband Failiure!

by Ian Williams on Oct.03, 2011, under News

One of BT’s largest exchanges in Birmingham has been suffering a loss of power since about 13:00 (GMT) and this has caused huge problems for across the whole uk. Problems connecting to the internet have spread from London to Scotland.

Apparently BT has engineers working in the Birmingham exchange to try to fix the problem.

This problem has apparently been so widespread that customers have been struggling to get through to the BT technical support.

If you are having problems connecting to the internet then there is not a whole lot you can do at the moment except wait for the broadband connection to come back online!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ Oil Slick Screen Issue

by Ian Williams on Oct.03, 2011, under News

Tablets are now getting very popular in the business world. Apples iPad, Motorola’s Xoom and Samsungs Galaxy all seem to be proving very popular.
Our technician has been testing the Samsung Galaxy 10.1″ tab. All has been going well for the last 6 weeks but we discovered a very annoying problem with it.
If you look at the middle of the screen there is a big patch of liquid that spreads around when you use the touch screen. It looks like an oil patch. After the problem was noticed we Googled it and found that there are a lot of people having the same issue!

People are reffering to it as the Newton rings, oil slick, oil blotch and moisture under the screen.

We took our tab back to the retailer and was told that as it was after 21 days we have to send it back to Samsung! The cheeky guy also tried to tell me that I must have got it wet… WE HAVE NOT GOT THIS TAB WET! I then went to look at some of the other tabs on display and funnily enough there was an identical Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ on display with the same problem! We are not impressed!
It must be said that one of the main selling feature of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ is that the screen is very bright, color contrast is amazing and the screen is generally very responsive. It is therefore a huge shame that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ suffers with a problem on their best selling point – the screen!
Apart from this we were very much enjoying the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1″ as it was so thin and light in design.
There have been other problems reported about the Samsung Galaxy Tab where it keeps freezing. This hasn’t happened to us as of yet.
In light of these problems we have decided that we are going to trade in our Samsung Galaxy Tab for the new Asus EEE Pad Transformer. Its the same spec but it has a better camera and can be docked to a keyboard and mouse!

Windows Server 2008 DNS Issues

by Lee Nicholls on Sep.16, 2011, under News

We are certainly not alone with this problem.

We have experienced, multiple times, DNS problems with networks running on Windows Server 2008.
The symptom is that client computers can not access the Internet when using Windows Server 2008 as the DNS (local).

There are a few work arounds and solutions being discussed on the Internet – but we don’t install “bodges” onto our client’s servers.

To resolve this Windows Server 2008 DNS issue, we wrote our own piece of small software which keeps an eye on the status of the DNS and configures it accordingly. We also implement a few changes to settings to give the ideal setup like enabling a third party (fast) DNS service to be used when needed and disabling some unused features which hinder DNS performance.

If you’re having any of these problems it’s worth noting that we resolve problems like this on a daily basis as part of our support services – and on installations we make sure these changes are done from the start.

Get in touch with us for a free no obligation review and advice – call 01902 713137 or visit our contact page here

Microsoft Showing Off Windows 8!

by Ian Williams on Sep.15, 2011, under News

Microsoft has be showing off its latest operating system Windows 8.

Windows 8 can work on desktop computers, laptops & tablets.

It is due for release in 2012 and has been specifically designed to work with ARM processors, which are very power efficient.

This is Microsoft Answer to Googles Android and Apples IOS operating systems.

Unveiling Windows 8 at the Build developers’ conference in California, Windows division president Steven Sinofsky declared: “We re-imagined Windows. From the chipset to the user experience.”

Windows 8 will have two platforms. A standard desktop that we have all become familiar with on older versions of Windows, and a new tablet version, known as Metro.

Metro features controls that are very similar to IOS and Android like big bulky controls – something that was missing from Windows 7. This is seen as the reason why Windows 7 tablets have not sold as well as their rivals.

Microsoft have announced that they will also be releasing Windows store to compete with Apples App Store and Googles Android Market.

Windows 8 has been specifically designed for use with ARM processors and touch screen devices.

Processors based around the ARM architecture typically use very little power, and as a result are found in the vast majority of smartphones and tablets currently available.

ARM processpors are thought to be mainly used on Windows 8 Metro tablets, and will require ARM-specific versions of applications.

Industry experts Gartner has predicted that the world wide market for tablets devices would reach over 70 million this year, and grow to 300 million in 2015.

Sales of desktops and laptops are expected to continue growing, but at a much slower rate than in the past.

Managers Nightmare! Facebook available in Excel spreadsheet!

by Ian Williams on Aug.24, 2011, under News

Stop your staff messing around on the computers!

The slogan: “Beat your boss!” has been widely used!

This is obviously very bad news for employers.

So what can you do to stop this? Easy! Cx IT Support can provide a web content filtering solution on your network. With our web content filtering solution you can block websites on your company network, monitor what websites your staff have been accessing & as an added bonus it also acts as a very secure firewall to help protect your business network from hackers!

Cx IT Support will also provide full support on your web content filtering solution. We will manage what websites can and cant be accessed from which ever user you require.

Our slogan: “Beat the staff that are trying to beat the boss!!!”

If you would like to discuss our web content filter then please give us a call on 01902 711 777.

We are based in Wolverhampton City Center and we provide IT Services all over the West Midlands Staffordshire & Shropshire inc. Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Walsall, Telford, Kidderminster, Shrewsbury, Tamworth, Cannock, Rugeley, Stoke On Trent, Newcastle Under Lyme, Malpas, Newport, Leek, Stafford and more!

File sharing problems in your office?

by Lee Nicholls on Aug.15, 2011, under News

Are you running multiple computers in your office without a server…. but still sharing files?

You may be very familar with file sharing errors, network file share problems, file sharing lock count exceeded messages, Windows file and print problems, windows networking errors and more.

These errors, although each having a specific cause, will ultimately be caused by the fact you’re not using a server to share your files – the lack of a server to share files can have many consequences – from errors to security & data loss.

Using a server on a proper network & domain environment as opposed to standard computers sharing files is much more reliable, much faster and much more secure.

Servers put into place backups to avoid data loss in many different scenarios, firewalls and security to help prevent against hackers and viruses and most of all – they share files properly, only enabling access to those who have been given it.

If you’re having any of the issues mentioned above, or any similar issues then get in touch with us to discuss your problems – we’re happy to help and we don’t waste your time.

Telephone: 01902 711777