There has been a rise in cold call scammers trying to sell fake anti-virus software which itself is malware.

Charging over £70, they will request access to your PC to install the software. They might tell you that your computer has been infected by viruses and is now infecting others.

If you do get a call, just hang up – ensure that the only remote access request you approve is via poynter.net

I had all of the PCs in our ICT suite in action today, each accessing over 36 separate video clips from our server and editing the clips on the individual PCs.

The edited clips were then saved as project files in the individual My Documents/My Videos folder without any incidents of hanging or any appreciable downtime while clips were rendered.  This is quite amazing.  Completed projects were then shared on our big screen for others to share.

Last year before the network was installed we could not have dreamed of trying to do this much work on our network, let alone manage to do it simultaneously as a class.

Many thanks for your support.

Traditionally, business customers have waited until the release of SP1 before upgrading to a new Operating System. Announcing the content months before the release, Microsoft are hoping to continue the momentum Windows 7 has already achieved.

If you are looking at upgrading to Windows 7 please contact the helpdesk

Poynter Professional Services has achieved its 10^th consecutive year as a Microsoft Certified Partner.

Poynter has worked hard over the past year, achieving Small Business Specialist status,  becoming an Authorised Educational Reseller and investing in our staff for them to become Certified Microsoft Professionals.

We are already planning to extend our work with Microsoft over the next year, in the run-up to October when the programme changes to the Partner Network.

Students at Beeston Primary are now able to utilise the School’s high-speed broadband connection after Poynter installed a brand new ICT Suite.

The School is the only place in the village with broadband; Poynter installed 10 desktops, 20 netbooks, a large-format screen and a new server.

Headteacher Chris Perry said “the facilities helped to put the village on the map and ensure the school can maintain enough pupils to run three different class age groups”.

There are pictures of the suite on Beeston’s website more information on our service to Schools can be found here.

This allows us to offer Schools the best licensing option for their situation, including:

• School Agreement – licences to cover the Schools desktops and servers. This also includes Home Use options for Teachers and Students.
• Academic Open – purchase of a minimum of 5 licences to start an agreement, which can be added to within 2 years.
• Full Packaged Products – one-off licences to be purchased when required.

Click here if you would like to talk to us about licencing or support options.

All new desktops and laptops that we supply come with Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows 7 pre-installed.

We will be ensuring that any remaining customers still using Service Pack 2 will be updated to ensure continued support from Microsoft.

Users of Vista will need to update to Service Pack 2 by the 13th April 2010.

Support for Windows 2000 Server will finish on the 13th July 2010,  please contact the helpdesk for assistance with planning your migration to Server 2003/2008.

The exploit used against Google in China that affects Internet Explorer has now been made public.

IE 6, 7 & 8 are affected, however IE8 does offer limited protection.

We are advising all our customers to ensure they are running IE8 or better still, an alternative browser such as firefox until a fix is released.

More about the story can be found on this BBC News article.

With Adam successfully completing his first Microsoft exam in Small Business Server 2008, we have gained the Small Business Specialist competency.

This enhances our current offerings to small businesses, with additional training, resources and support from Microsoft; allowing us to continue advising, planning, installing and supporting the latest and most appropriate technology for your small business.

The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) has launched the first Online Safety Strategy for children. The basis of the campaign will encourage children to:

Zip: not share personal, intimate details with strangers they have met online, while at the same time closing off some parts of the web to children by using security PINs or other parental controls.

Block: Block emails or any other contact from people or companies they do not know and block children from accessing certain sites.

Flag: Highlight any suspicious individuals, activities or websites to the relevant authority, including site admins, teachers or even police.

44 million people in the UK have access to the Internet, including 99% of 8–17 year olds

School’s already have sophisticated firewalls and filters in place to protect children. So even with online safety becoming a compulsory lesson for PSHE, it will still be down to parents to ensure their children are safe online at home.

I’m eleven years old and I am the one who updates the anti‑virus at home!

You can read the full report here and visit thinkuknow.co.uk for information on online safety.