Smartphones are fantastic. I can respond to emails from clients, suppliers and partners wherever I am. Using apps like Drive, Dropbox etc we can share important information. But what if I lose that phone - how do I stop people using it, getting access to client information, or otherwise harming my business?

Do you lock the doors of your house when you are not in?  I hope the majority answer to this question is "yes of course I do, this isn't Canada you know!" This leads me to my next question. Are your organisation laptops encrypted? The answer to this question should be the same as the first but I bet it isn't. 

No I don't think you all are spies before you ask, but I do think you should all be at least aware of why laptop encryption is a necessity for EVERY organisation and not just the ones that send their payslips to employees titled agent. 

Let me quickly explain what encryption is and why you need it.

If your business is relying on older wireless infrastructure it is probably time to upgrade. Wireless traffic is only going up, not only is the demand from each device going up, each person typically has more devices - laptop, phone and tablet etc!

On top of that, nearby wireless access points, bluetooth and other wireless peripherals all compete with you for the limited amount of wireless bandwidth.

Enter "5GHz". The "5GHz" band has a lot less devices competing. Typically 5GHz has a smaller range than 2.4GHz, which counter to what you would expect is actually a benefit. It means there are fewer devices competing within an access point’s reach.

Any laptops, phones and tablets replaced within the last few years probably already support the latest wireless protocol 802.11ac which uses the 5GHz band, why not update your wireless infrastructure to support them? Wireless 802.11ac infrastructure is also now quite reasonably priced.

telanova will guide you through the whole process: defining your requirements, choosing a vendor, creating a secure design, implementation, and post installation support. Contact telanova on 01344 989 530 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get started.

For most people, PCs and laptops are too complex, too troublesome and too expensive, especially now you can offload so much to the cloud. Why waste time on antivirus, backup, drivers, service packs, upgrades etc? I've been keeping my eye on Chromebooks since they were launched a couple of years ago. Four weeks ago a new Chromebook came out, the Samsung series 3, and I just had to buy one. I love it: it starts up in just 8 seconds, it's as light as a feather, silent, runs six hours on battery, all for just £200+VAT.

Our helpdesk received a call from Mr. S. Claus, who wanted some help with his important deadline coming up.

His business was manufacturing/direct delivery - all year long he stays at his headquarters, in the Arctic, but once a year he travels all over the world, delivering to his clients.  His old email service, provided by his ISP, was straining under the volume of email from clients (mostly children) with what they wanted in this year.  He needed to change to reliable email system, able to cope with the huge number of emails  and he wanted to change quickly.

Customers and staff expect access to wifi at your premises, for very good reasons. If you simply give them the wireless code for your network, you'll expose your servers to attack from devices you don't control. You may have confidence in your guests' integrity, that they wouldn't deliberately hack into your servers, but malware could be running on their devices without their knowledge. So how can you provide guest wifi whilst also protecting your network?