The Best Of South Shields |
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| Well here's our latest update as we swiftly move into 2010 and it's been non stop here for Janet and I as we strive to maintain both our fledgling businesses and continue to plow everything into our new home and do it up as best we can! Janet is now self employed as a cleaner/housekeeper after a major issue late last year made both our minds up to go for it! If you need a trustworthy cleaner to maintain your home whilst you go out to work then look no further! Janet will look after you and I've got 22 years of proof hanging over my pants to prove it , ha ha! Ring Janet on our usual numbers if you need assistance around the house ok? I'm into my third year of "official" business now and it's beginning to sort itself out as we build our client base around the borough and tend to people we like and who like us as well as build upon that too. There's definitely no going back for me now that's for sure as there's too many of you rely upon me to look after you the way I have and it's a good feeling I have to say! I've always got something on the go and web sites seem to have taken off this year as we've got a good few clients with enquiries and repairs etc. but be rest assured that I've now got help with the web-design side of things so can build upon that now too :) I'm busy trying to re-do my outhouse/office for optimum performance and 2010 should see us do a lot better than our "annus horriblus" of 2009 when our world was turned upside down with the house exchange in April! The office/workshop is fully functional and I'm happy with the facilities but I do need more bench space and that'll come soon hopefully? If your stuck with a virus that won't go away & keeps alerting you that you need to buy it etc. don't let the muppets out there wipe all your valuable data off ok? I'll sort it for you without damage and that's MY promise! Give Janet a call to sort it out, especially facebook users ;) Andy |
| Wireless Ready Christmas You've probably been hounded by the kids or been hinted too by your gran' kids for a laptop this christmas? We've had a lot of enquiries this year already and there's more and more every year! What a lot of people don't realise is the fact that these laptops need to connect to the internet via a wireless router for best results ie; kids on laptops in bedrooms out of your way without cables all over the place. A lot of people reading this will be sat there saying things like "I set mine up and it works fine! all secured and great" or others who just plugged things in where they fitted and hoped for the best but unwittingly left their wireless internet insecure which means that any neighbour or passer by can hook up to it and use it (illegally) but we've already heard of a few people who are already with an ISP (Internet Service Provider) who aren't yet wireless who've bought laptops and/or games consoles for their loved ones who won't be able to access the internet when they open it on christmas morning and tell their mates over windows live messenger! :( If your stuck and don't have a clue then give us a ring and I (Andy) will advise you as best I can on your internet options :) If your with an ISP already and know you need a wireless router then we can provide you with one and set it up for you for as little as £60 and for that you'll be set up properly. If you need your XBOX, PS3, WII and other consoles set up and it takes me a while to do I may add £10 extra on for the hour it takes. I'm not greedy, I love to help you out but I do have my own kids to feed and provide for at christmas. If you do want us to set you up so there's no tears or sadness on christmas morning then book me in with the boss (Janet) so you've got no worries :) I hope that helps, merry christmas all Andy |
Home and Office |
| October Update Since we moved into our new home in April this year things have gone totally haywire as we try to get it the way we want. We've just had two excellent plasterers (I'll add them to our "recommended" page asap!) in skimming most of the ground floor and it's looking great but we've still got a lot to do! It's due to this that I haven't been able to update the site as regularly as I used too so apologies for that but I'm sure most of you reading theis will understand :) In the run up to Christmas we're expecting to be busy with enquiries about laptops and consoles as well as wireless setups and repairs as usual. If your planning to get the kids a laptop, Xbox 360, PS3, WII etc. then your going to need it hooked up to the internet. Our 11 (soon to be 12) year old son spends ALL of his free time on his 360 playing bloddy C.OD.4 & 5 with ih mates (I bet there's a few heads nodding to that, LOL ;) ). His "LIVE" was setup by myself so he's got great access and good connection as you'd imagine :) but there's so many of you out there who don't know how to forward router ports or even set a router up properly so if you do want it done PLEASE get it done BEFORE xmas so on the big day they can get straight online and "kick ass" with them horrible zombies ;) Don't leave it until it's too late, get on the phone to your ISP (internet service provider) and see if you can get a wireless router off them? In my experience Netgear routers seem to have problems with VIRGIN Media and XBOX Live (microsoft will confirm issues, google it ;) ). I've got LOADS of wireless experience but don't call myself an expert. I do specialize in it though & love a good challenge so don't be stuck ok? I'd better wish everyone a merry christmas now just in case I don't get back in to edit this, LOL (laugh out loud). Merry Christmas everybody :) |
Face Book |
| Facebook Yes, we've decided to give it a go & let you contact us on FaceBook given the current state of the internet & social networking at the moment. I reckon that around 80% of our clients are now on there and because of this we got involved. Both Janet & I are on there withour personal accounts as some of you are aware but I decided that after learning the ropes it'd be a canny idea for us to communicate as a business via it too. Here's a link to our facebook page. I'll add to it as & when I can. |
Van- dalised! |
| August 3rd '09 Yes the van's clutch went kapput last week at poor Trish's house in low simonside (did SKY sort it Trish?) and we haven't had time to tell you about it as we rallied to fix it ASAP. It's in good hands now and should be with us by the time you read this but it's really knocked us back big style in the money dept. and we've had to borrow to get the van repaired so if you do owe us money we'd really appreciate your act of good will right now :( We're really struggling to cope right now & once the van's back on the road it's going to be full steam ahead so please bear with us as we battle through it. Our thoughts go out to Kerry in Jarrow & Richard of erm sort of Boldon? LOL I'll be with you ASAP guys okay & thanks for keeping faith in us :) I'd like to give a special mention to Chris in Jarrow who sadly lost her beloved dog Andi whilst I was there to sort out her digital keyboard equipment etc. Do get back to us when you feel up to it ok? It had to be done & I don't mind taking the blame if it makes you feel better :) A friend in need is a friend in deed ;) Andy |
New Page Added |
| Seeing as I can't advertise or take too much work on due to the house being revamped by the council right now I thought I'd take the time to write a page and edit the site a little. I've just written a page explaining about rogue antispyware so get the kettle on & have a read of it with a nice cuppa :) Here's the link to it enjoy! |
| Trouble At Home Possible Disruption Having recently moved house to a 3 bedroomed house with a large back garden and in a nice street and to hopefully our final destination (see the contact page for address). The council are planning to revamp the whole house as of next week. On Monday 15th June the re-wire takes place so I won't be able to work as normal for that day therefore any computers I take home/to office won't be worked on until evening or possibly Tuesday morning but I'll see how it goes? If you need our help just ring Janet and we can maybe work around the re-wire issue? It's only one day. |
VIRGIN MEDIA PROBLEMS |
| I've decided to re-post this with all the details I can give you so read on if your having VIRGIN connection issues... The Virgin Media problem seems to be settling down now with a lot less reports of issues and our own connection seems to be fine overall. Our own IP address has settled down now to one regular IP address and our connection has been ok for a couple of weeks with only a couple of incidents. It seems that some people are still recieving the old WAN (wide area network) IP address of 82.39....and others are getting 77.98....and some are getting a leased IP address for 1 hour, some (like us) for two hours and others for the 8 days as normal. One client I worked for got an IP address leased until May 19th 2023, LOL. This is not normal at all and VIRGIN help lines are blaming your router, anti-virus and/or firewall software for the problems as well as virus activity and anything else that passes the blame! Surely we can't ALL have computer related problems and nothing is wrong with VIRGIN's connection? I've heard of clients being advised to format their PC as it's got viruses on, routers being incompatible with VIRGIN, 3rd party routers being unsupported, the list is endless and still we're all having connection issues across South Tyneside! The main network hub for South Tyneside is near the Tyne Tunnel and workers cut through a cable around six weeks ago which knocked all VIRGIN clients off for one whole afternoon and hasn't been right since? Given the two IP addresses that I've seen regularly, this tells me that there's two servers and domains to handle the connections so maybe another has been added? The problems with connection seem to knock off any wireless LAN's (local area networks). If the connection drops out the router has to be reset and all laptops and wireless devices need to be reset too to get it going again. I can't keep coming out to people and doing this work as it costs them and it also makes us look bad when it happens repeatedly! as it looks as though I haven't set it up correctly which would be a first given my experience in the field ;) VIRGIN have admitted via phone that they are aware of XBOX LIVE issues and are working to resolve it. My personal opinion is that maybe they're changing the way they beam out the signal to nobble anyone with a "dodgy or chipped" cable box receiver but I can't confirm this. If they're having issues with XBOX LIVE it can only be Microsoft servers or VIRGIN servers, a cabling issue in between or the signal they're beaming out? If I'm having trouble at home/office with my connection a couple of times a month and am having to reset everything to repair it then there's definitely something wrong! I've been running a daily broadband speed test to monitor the connection and am supposed to be on the 20mb connection but it varied wildly between 2mb & 20mb. Last week I recorded it at 50mb which although I was happy with, it clearly shows there's an amazing amount of fluctuation on the connection which also proves that something is not right? Guess what VIRGIN helpline said? "These online speed tests are inaccurate due to the fluctuation of online users causing it to change all the time". Take what you want from that ok ;) Ring VIRGIN MEDIA prior to calling me out for a connection problem to save you money and both our time. Hang in there, Andy |
| Update: April 4th '09 Carrying on with our "blog" style site, I get too busy to constantly post in the site with updates so will stick to adding more as I find the time rather than dedicated monthly updates. March 09 has been a funny old month, not too busy & odd occasions where I've nearly had no jobs to do at all and have in fact managed to grab some time enjoying my hobby of Kayak Fishing (more info available in my site here... . It's not very often I get time to myself so it was nice to get out for a few hours & chill out!House Move We've received notice that we're moving to a new home and in fact are moving this week! We're not going far though and are only moving a few hundred yards but it's to a much larger house with a lot of potential, especially for me working from home as office :) The official date of the move is the 13th but we've arranged to transfer our stuff over the coming week which should hopefully tie in with our proposed Easter break to Southport. Holiday Notice We love our annual SUN £9.50 holidays as it's the only time apart from our camping trips that we get to spend time together as a family with no interruptions. We're going down to Pontins at Southport for a 4 day stay in a chalet/hotel. So the kids will love it & Janet & I get to wind down a bit. We're leaving on Monday 13th and will be away for a week if the weather is nice as I plan to take the camping gear & Kayak & camp in the Lakes either on the way there or on the way back depending on the move? Contact I've been receiving a few emails for requests of computer assistance lately and feel that I must stress that although I do my best to reply & help, ALL jobs MUST be booked in by ringing Janet. This is so we can keep everything in the correct order otherwise we'll end up with double bookings. If your not happy phoning our mobile then simply ask us to call you back, we really don't mind at all & won't be offended :) Site I'm seriously thinking of opening the site up to registrations with maybe a community forum (message board) so we can all keep in contact with each other & I can maybe help with little niggles you may have by pointing you in the right direction across the net. I'm thinking of creating an email type site update too without spamming you ;) and even thinking of creating a paid up "priority client" type affair where you get full access to all the goodies in my head that I plan to put into the site. Available to members only & priority members only by invitation. There's so many people out there who are in need of someone to guide them that I feel there's something worth doing somewhere along the line :) I've had a couple of instances where I've been called to help people with their iTunes & iPod's. It puts me in a very awkward situation setting up iTunes for people as we all have our own preferences & needs. I've set them up & then the client has still not been able to get to grips with it so it's for this rerason that I'm no longer going to "call out" for iTunes as I feel I'm charging the client for my time when they aren't benefitting from it which can make me look bad :( I will however be adding as much information as possible to the site to make it easy for you to get your iTunes sorted. Right that's me for a while, I'll try & update the site after the house move & holiday so stay safe & feel free to email me with any site suggestions you may think of? Andy |
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