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ESP Projects
Last week ESP Projects were at SheffEx, Sheffield’s annual business exhibition held at Pond’s Forge. We have visited before, but this was our first time to exhibit. It was definitely a positive experience but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. What was interesting speaking with other stall-holders at SheffEx is that, for many of them, the main benefit of attending these events is not to make sales to visitors, but to swap notes and ideas (and possibly do business) with the other companies and organisations in attendance. It was really interesting to meet people from other businesses in the region and it is striking how much potential there is for these local companies to support one another.
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ESP Projects
Whilst ESP has very little to do with Talk Talk at a business level, we are providing this information for the many concerned home users. Potentially ALL Talk Talk users data may have been breached.
Talk Talk has announced that potentially all of their user’s data has been breached following a DDoS attack (allegedly by a ‘Russian Jihadi group’) that took the Talk Talk website down on Wednesday. There is a chance that the following customer data, not all of which was encrypted, has been accessed:
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ESP Projects
Microsoft Edge is the new browser coming bundled with Windows 10, being very similar to internet explorer but with new and improved features. Microsoft Edge now uses an extension system, much like rival Internet browsers Firefox and Chrome. It is now streamlined to be much faster than internet explorer.
Because this new browser has been completely rebuilt in a new engine, this browser no longer supports plug-ins such as active x. Internet Explorer is not being gotten rid of entirely. It will still exist as there will be a need for compatibility with older technology.
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ESP Projects
All the former Charms functions are contained in a new Notifications panel, called Action Center. When you launch Action Center, a full-height bar appears on the right of the screen – it’s designed to match the Notifications setup in Windows Phone. Most of these functions are standard to us from iOS and Android; features such as toggling Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Location on and off, but it’s great to have.
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ESP Projects
Cortana is your clever new personal assistant. Cortana will help you find things on your PC, manage your calendar, track packages, find files, chat with you and tell jokes. The more you use it, the more personalised your experience will be. To get started, type a question in the search box on the taskbar. Or select the microphone icon and talk. (Typing works for all types of PCs, but you need a mic to talk.)
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ESP Projects
For years, Microsoft has put the Windows name on phones because it’s a familiar brand, but with Windows 10, it’s also the name of the operating system you get on the phone. Most of the time it doesn’t look like Windows 10, because the interface that looks right on a notebook or large tablet is hard to see on a small screen.
But because Windows 10 for Phones is the same operating system core (Microsoft even calls it OneCore), you can plug in a keyboard or a mouse and even a screen to your phone – and when you do, the same Continuum experience that switches a notebook into tablet mode switches the phone into PC mode.
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Donna Aplin
Why use hosted backup?
Backup is one of the most important elements of any IT network and ensuring that this procedure is completed regularly, reliably and securely is constantly under review.
In many situations, swapping hard drives or simply remembering to complete this process on a daily basis is not feasible, i.e. access to the comms room is not readily accessible, staff are not in on certain days etc.
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Jason Francis
ESP Projects has always provided IT support for small businesses, but has never been involved in repairing home PCs and laptops. This all changed recently. We are now in a position where we can repair home PCs & laptops in our workshop via our sister company – ESP At Home Limited. If you are interested in this service, contact our sales team on 08454657229 option 1 or sales@espathome.co.uk
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Jason Francis
We all know that feeling of opening your favourite most used program only to be presented with the dreaded spinning circle advising us to ‘please wait’. Even trying to open just a couple of your most needed applications only for your computer to be brought to its knees doing so. It’s infuriating, especially when there’s no indication of anything actually happening other than said circle mocking you as it whizzes around happily.
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ESP Projects
Windows Server 2003 is due to reach the end of its life in July 2015, meaning that Microsoft will no longer support the software with further patches or security updates. This end of life includes all versions of Windows Server 2003 and all the sub-editions of the product: the Itanium x64 editions, the Compute Cluster Edition, the Datacenter Edition, the Web Edition and the Enterprise Edition.
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ESP Projects
Here at ESP Projects, we are often asked about responsive web design; what it is, how it works, and why it’s something that we think is crucial to the success of a new website amongst its visitors.
Traditionally websites have been viewed on a PC (or Laptop) with the aid of a mouse for navigation. But nowadays more and more people are using a variety of devices such as smartphones and tablets, and using their fingers or perhaps a stylus to navigate instead. This change means that the way the website displays its content has to be thought about from a multi-device perspective. There are two approaches to displaying websites on ‘non-standard’ screens, having a mobile site or a responsive web design.
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ESP Projects
As you may be aware from the previous articles, Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft from Tuesday 8th April 2014.
What does this actually mean to your business and are there any risks to your network?
The simple answer is yes, the end of Windows XP support from Microsoft opens the door to major security risks to your network.
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ESP Projects
We have been looking to offer a fully-fledged Phone System to our clients for quite some time now, and after testing many of the different systems out there we’ve finally settled on one which we believe offers the best feature set and provides good value for money.
Based on the common “Asterisk” Phone System, “Kerio Operator” is very flexible; it can be used in conjunction with regular ISDN telephone lines, or can also facilitate calls over the internet (VOIP). An outline of some of the features of this phone system is included below:
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ESP Projects
During October, Microsoft released the greatly anticipated Windows 8.1 update for its Windows 8 operating system
Here at ESP Projects we have been testing the Windows 8.1 release since it was made available via Microsoft’s beta programme. 2 of our tech support engineers installed the final version and have been using it as their sole operating system to gauge how the update has changed the feel of the system
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ESP Projects
In an unexpected but welcome development, Microsoft has recently announced that they are allowing Charities of all sizes to benefit from their Premier Office 365 cloud offering for FREE! The additional features offered as part of this service include:
- Hosted Exchange – Allow Microsoft to host your emails, and take advantage of unlimited shared contacts, calendars and mailboxes
- Skydrive Pro – A central place to access and edit documents and business information from virtually anywhere
- Office Web Apps – Access Word, PowerPoint and Excel with an internet browser to allow you to work across multiple devices (including smartphones).
- Lync – Save travel costs by using Microsoft Lync Online to conduct online meetings, including audio, HD video, and web conferencing
More Inside ...
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ESP Projects
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will end support for the decade-old Windows XP Operating System.
What this means for our clients is that any PC or Laptop with Windows XP will no longer receive updates, including security updates, from Microsoft. Support of Microsoft Office 2003, by Microsoft, will also be ending on the same date.The security and privacy implications of this event could have significant impacts on your business, so if you’re running either of these products you should plan to take action soon. Some of the concerns are detailed below;
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ESP Projects
ESP Projects’ web development team has been really busy in recent months and I’m delighted to share with you some examples of recently launched sites.
Sheffield Cubed
Launch date: 1st October 2013
Sheffield Cubed is a third sector membership organisation designed to seek out and win contract and funding opportunities which enable our members to meet the needs of local people through the provision of high-quality effective client centred services. The live site can be seen here www.sheffieldcubed.co.uk
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ESP Projects
Google for Nonprofits was launched recently in the UK (England and Wales only, apparently). The programme gives Registered Charities free access to 4 Google services:
- Google Grants: Free AdWords advertising to promote your website on Google through keyword targeting.
- YouTube for Nonprofits: Premium branding capabilities on YouTube channels, increased uploading capacity and more.
- Google Earth Outreach Grants: Free licensing for Google Earth Pro and Maps API for Business.
- Google Apps for Nonprofits: Free version of Google Apps for Nonprofits
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ESP Projects
You may have heard the news this week regarding the uncertain future of the Digital Region network. Digital Region is a scheme to roll out superfast fibre broadband to homes and businesses across the South Yorkshire region, backed by the four councils. This is a project that began in 2010 and has been slowly working its way through the postcodes in the region, to enable businesses and consumers alike to benefit from Superfast Fibre Broadband. ESP Projects has referred several of our clients to this service, and indeed use Digital Region at our own office.
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ESP Projects
Many people contact us about iPhone, HTC, Android and other mobile phones. For some, they are thinking of buying a mobile deal for business, for others they have already bought them, but need them to be configured with the relevant settings for their email and calendars. We’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about these smartphones and what ESP Projects can do for you on this subject.
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