Switch Systems Blog

Anti-Virus and Network Security are important to any computer user; but unfortunately the right choice in software can be a challenge. Today I had to endure a severe problem with Norton Internet Security 2007, which had rendered core Windows Networking software components laid to ruin - which was very frustrating for my customer. Luckily, Windows System Restore went some way to saving the day. 

System Restore lets you roll back your computer settings without affecting your documents, but it doesn't always run successfully. Periodic snapshots are taken and stored on a part of your hard drive. On the first three attempts, my customer was unsuccessful restoring the computer to recent snapshots, but by chance I tried an earlier snapshot from two weeks previous which had restored the networking components into a working state.

I then promptly uninstalled Norton Internet Security 2007 and replaced it with a trial version of AVG for the time being. I'm growing ever more sour of my experience with Norton, for one it is very heavy on any system, and secondly, it has an overly visible presence, distracting users only to inform them that it is there (example, a toolbar in Internet Explorer saying that YOU ARE SECURED, and periodic pop-ups saying STATUS GOOD).

So, credit still due to AVG, who write a great suite of products, all be it not the best looking - I've never had any trouble with it yet.

I'm Ruairi Fullam (call me "Rory", my name is Irish), and I've been an Exeter-based IT Consultant for over five years specialising in roughly the same areas as Kris does. I'm currently now based at the Switch Systems offices working alongside Kris as I anticipate in the near future to merge with Switch Systems to mutually increase the quality of service we both offer, which of course is of great benefit to both of our existing customer bases.

Well, Kris has taught me a number of interesting things that weren't immediately obvious to me, like realtime graphical network monitoring using TheDude, and learning the basics of physical network cabling.

Seeing the potential of this, I advised Kris that it would be great if we wall-mounted his new Thin Client terminal display on the wall between our two desks, so at a glance we can see the status of all our client networks and websites, and also see the identity of incoming callers (thanks to Kris' fantastic CRM integrated caller ID software).

So - for now I'm working through my current workload, but we have some great ideas for the future on how we push Switch Systems further and increase the brand value and market presence. Exciting times to come for sure!