How To Protect Your Children While They’re Online These Holidays

With school holidays starting soon, children have all the time in the world to spend with their best "friends" the computer, tablet, smart phone and gaming console.

Waking up early to sneak in a couple hours of Minecraft, Roblox, YouTube or Xbox…grabbing their ‘educational’ iPad and Facetiming a friend…sending emails and texts…it can be open season in some households during school holidays! Not just the younger children but the older teenagers too.

To be honest we really have no idea what’s cool or what they’ve been introduced to at school. They are digital natives and use technology in ways we would never dream of.

All we know is that they’re going to using their devices and we won’t be able to watch them every second of the day. Plus of course, no matter how many Cyber-Safety talks they’ve had they are children and they don’t always stop to think.

• They don’t realize certain search terms might not be such a great idea
• They trust they are messaging other children
• And they would rather not limit themselves to 2 hours per day

Protect your Children with Parental Control Software

A Parental Control Software (PCS) package is essentially an internet filter for children. It takes all the icky, inappropriate things online and blocks your child from accessing them, seeing them or even knowing they exist.

Adults can override and disable the software easily, so their own experience is unchanged and unmonitored.
As an added bonus, Parental Control Software can also be used to put time limits on internet usage, or even log all online activity. While you may not feel the need to review the logs on a daily basis, they can be vital in identifying cyber bullying, sexting, or inappropriate relationships. Parents around the world credit these logs with saving their child’s mental health, and occasionally, their life.

The best time to install Parental Control Software is now, before your children become comfortable with unrestricted access, and before they see things they shouldn’t.

Check out our other blog articles at:
  www.dpcomputing.com.au/blog

11 Reasons To Upgrade to Office 365 Today

With Office 365, Microsoft are giving business the changes they actually want. It’s still Office, and your staff will still know exactly how to work it, but they’ll get so much more done.

1. The whole Mac/Windows drama is over
Office 365 brings with it a stack of benefits, but perhaps the most relieving is the in-built file compatibility across all platforms. No more converting (or corrupting) files back and forth, productivity black holes have essentially been eliminated.

2. It’s always ready to go
Microsoft are so confident in their cloud-based software and data storage; they’re giving a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If needed tech support from Microsoft is available. Work online, offline or mobile – the choice is yours.

3. Security is built in
A large part of Microsoft’s uptime certainty comes from their extremely robust security protocols. Office 365 offers enterprise-grade admin controls at your end, as well as government-grade security at their end.

4. Generous data allowances
Each user gets 1TB of cloud space for file storage, which can be shared at folder or file level.

5. Work anywhere, anytime
Previously, staff needed to establish a VPN or manage security concerns which made working off-site difficult and cumbersome. Office 365 has solved that problem and working from anywhere is now easy.

6. Integrated across devices
Calendar, email and contacts are all synced and updated across multiple devices: Laptop, desktop & mobile.

7. Yours for no upfront costs
Once upon a time, updating your Office version meant paying a small fortune and half a day downtime. Office 365 changes that, with no upfront cost or installation delay.

8. Mailbox storage through the roof
Forget the days of ‘user mailbox is full’ – each user is given a whopping 50GB in a gorgeous, easy-to-use mailbox.

9. Built in malware and spam protection
Data security doesn’t stop at file storage: email is scanned for malware and spam, protecting your business from all manner of attacks before they happen.

10. Collaboration tools and virtual meeting
Cancel your 3rd party services and bring all your collaborations into the one platform.

11. Integrated Team planning
Schedule tasks, meetings and track allocations from a top-down level to know exactly how projects are progressing.

We can help you with your Office 365 or any other cloud based migration. Check out out website at www.dpcomputing.com.au.

Should You REALLY Click That Popup?

That pop up has been hounding you to upgrade your software and clearly, it has zero intention of giving you a moments rest. That software wants to be upgraded and it wants it now.

With a sigh, you click and let it upgrade in the background - maybe now it will let you get some work done. Instead of grabbing a competitive advantage by having the latest and greatest edition, you quickly discover it's given you the exact opposite. Your essential hardware no longer works, you've got errors all over the place, and that application no longer runs at all.

Your urgent upgrade was more of an instant downgrade.

Before you click that nagging upgrade button, consider the following:

Is the popup for legit software?

Do you have that software already installed on your machine? Does the popup look dodgy with poor spelling or grammar? If so it may be a virus or piece of malware trying to install on your machine.

Is the upgrade going to work with your current systems?

If your project management software no longer talks to your scheduling software, you've got a problem. It's reasonable to expect the upgrade to have gone through robust testing and bug fixes, but even the mega corporations are caught out in an instant.

Is your current solution still an option?

Developers cease support of older software versions after a certain date. In these cases, continuing to use an outdated version leaves your system vulnerable, without patches and security updates. If your software is at the end of its cycle, you'll need to upgrade regardless. This, however, gives you the perfect opportunity to revise your selection and make some experienced decisions - upgrade or replace.

Will this upgrade benefit your business?

Some upgrades are purely cosmetic. They look great and the developers pitch them as the latest and greatest, but without additional innovation on offer, you're better to wait.

On the other hand, if the upgrade is going to have a positive effect on productivity, efficiency or customer satisfaction, definitely put it on your to-do list. Hold off for just a few moments though, while your IT technicians research any conflicts that might arise.

Being an early adopter isn't always the best idea. Sometimes you need to let your other software packages catch up, and compatibility issues will always be relevant. It's more important than ever before to take your time and research the upgrade to see how others have fared - before things come crashing down.

Call us for a quick compatibility check before you click on an unknown pop up.