Oxford IT Solutions’ top five tips for keeping your children safe online.

Social networking sites and communicating via online chat rooms is increasingly becoming part of everyday life for most young people. But how much do parents know about their childrens' online activity and the dangers it can pose? Oxford IT Solutions hopes to raise parents' awareness about five simple steps that they can make to help keep their children safe, whilst still embracing the exciting potential IT can offer.

“Whilst it’s not always possible to keep a watchful eye over what your child might be doing online there are certain things that parents can do to keep their children safe” explains Rob Williams, Co-Director of Oxford IT Solutions.

“The most important thing parents can do to protect their children from the dangers online is to educate themselves about the potential risks so that they are better able to help their children navigate around and use the Internet without coming to harm.”

With Internet safety being part of the secondary ICT curriculum children are learning about the dangers of the Internet.  As part of this they are learning about the existence of CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) where they can get help and report online abuse.  (www.ceop.gov.uk)

“Parents are very much left to educate themselves which is why we feel it is important that parents understand the risks and how they can best prevent them!” says Rob.

 Because of the lack of knowledge parents have, Oxford IT Solutions believe that the following top five tips will help parents understand and keep children safe whilst online;

• Take a keen interest in your child’s Internet habits; what they use it for, what sites they visit and who they might talk to on them.  Not only will this help them stay safe but will let them know that if something isn’t right they can talk to you about it.
• Watch for differences in your child’s behaviour, if they suddenly become secretive for example.  This is a common sign that something is not right.
• Ensure that you have adequate filtering and protection on the computers that your child uses.
• Remind your child not to give out personal information over the Internet to anyone; even to someone that might appear to be a friend, and that once images are sent or uploaded to websites they lose control over them.
• Where possible, allow your child access to the Internet in a communal part of the home, try to avoid allowing your child to shut themselves away when online.

Think you know (www.thinkuknow.co.uk) is a fantastic website packed with information for both parents and children about staying safe online and is well worth spending some time looking through.

If you would like further advice or support with keeping your child safe online then call Oxford IT Solutions on 0845 474 8956 or email info@oxforditsolutions.com

How secure is your wireless network?

Wireless networks are pretty much now seen as the norm for connecting to the internet and are found in virtually every home with a broadband connection, but just how secure are they?

As an experiment I recently pulled up in a street, opened my laptop up and found a non-secured wireless connection. I connected up and had instant internet access. I did a little bit of searching and found files on the network that were on the connection owner's computer! Anyone with basic knowledge of a computer and file sharing would have been able to do this, plus with the correct software I could have also detected what information was being passed between the user's computer and the internet, for example credit card details.

I then tried to connect to the router configuration and because the default passwords for the router had not been changed when it was setup I had full control over the router. The internet connection username contained the home telephone number, so from this I was able to do a search on the internet to find the address of the home the router was in. Once I had the address I knocked on the door and explained what I had been able to do, much to the shock of the home owner! I explained how it should be configured and secured it all down for them.

So, if you have a wireless connection in your home for your broadband I strongly urge you to check;

1. The router default password has been changed
2. The wireless connection is secured with either WPA or WPA2 encryption
3. Ensure that you have a working firewall on your computer
4. Think about whether you really need to have WIFI enabled. If you have just 1 PC and it is right next to the router a cable connection with WIFI disabled on the router would be far more secure.

If you're not sure about the state of your wireless security or would like further details then please contact us on 0845 474 8956 or see www.oxforditsolutions.com.

Three money saving tips!

If like everyone else you are trying to find ways of saving money then the following three tips could save you some each month!

Broadband
People sign up to broadband, the money is taken each month from our bank accounts and that is that. How often do you then check if you are getting the best price?

Recently, whilst having a cup of tea with my parents, my mum happened to mention how much her bill was with Virgin. I was astonished to hear how much they were spending each month. Their broadband was costing £25 a month, and the service was little to be desired. So, I showed them the deals around and suggested changing to O2. We looked at the cost difference and because she has an O2 Mobile phone, they could get broadband for £7.50 a month with the first 3 months free! That is a massive saving of £17.50 a month!

Changing to O2 broadband is really simple, and when it comes to setting it up, you simply plug in the router they send you and that’s it!

If you think your paying to much for broadband, or not getting a good enough service then check out O2. For full details click the banner at the bottom of our website www.oxforditsolutions.com

Anti Virus Products
Many people go into PC World looking for anti virus software and come out having spent £50+ on MacAfee or Norton. Whilst these are reasonable packages, they do slow down your computer and most of all they cost money that you don't need to spend!

There are free anti virus programs available for download on the internet that are used by millions. I use AVG Free which is available at http://free.avg.com and has protected my computer for years now, and not once have I had any problems. I would never swap to a paid for product.

So why not say good bye to your annual security subscription and swap to the free AVG today!

VOIP (Voice over IP) Calling
Do you make long distance calls to friends and family and then get faced with a big phone bill? If the person you are speaking to has a broadband connection why not try Skype. It provides free Skype to Skype calling, allowing you to talk for longer. You can also do video calling if you have a web cam!
The call quality of Skype is excellent and all you need is a microphone headset and a broadband connection to use it.
Why not try out Skype for free today, see www.skype.com for details.

So that's my three tips for now, if you want any help or advice with anything I have talked about, please get in touch - www.oxforditsolutions.com.

Happy saving!

Do you backup you data

Did you know that one in five computers suffer a fatal hard drive crash during their lifetime?

Many people don't like to think about how they might cope if their computer crashed and they were unable to recover their documents, emails, photos, music or videos and even their internet favourites.

Just recently we have seen an increase in computer failures due to viruses and malware and in virtually all cases backups of the personal data had not been performed; luckily for those affected the data was recoverable from the hard drive.

I can't stress enough the importance of backing up your personal data stored on your computer. Around 44% of data loss is caused by mechanical failures and more than 50% of users don't backup at all!

Backing up your data is a simple task that can take only a few minutes each day or week when setup correctly. It can be setup in less than 20 minutes and can be configured to run on a schedule so that it even reminds you to do it!

If you don't currently backup your data, then there is no time like the present to start! 


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