 Top 10 Misconceptions about I.T.
1. Email is a guaranteed service with instant delivery.
If only this was true! Emails, whilst mostly reliable, are never guaranteed to arrive at the other end. Delays happen, email servers go down and sometimes your email can disappear into the ether.
2. If you have a wireless connection you should be able to get onto the internet.
Even if you have a connection to the wireless router this doesn’t necessarily mean you have a connection out onto the internet. If you’re having trouble, check the lights on your router, or you might need to speak to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to see if they are having problems.
3. ADSL Broadband Speeds – Exactly what they say on the tin!
Unfortunately, If your ISP offers you an 8mb connection, this does always mean you get 8MB. Look for a contention rate - if its 50/1 this means you could be sharing your connection between 50 people! You could always test your speed by going to a broadband speed test site.
4. Computers are all basically the same - so why can’t my I.T. guy/girl fix them easily?
Every PC is different; different drivers, software and hardware can be installed by the user and sometimes these conflict with one another. When you add in spyware, viruses, malware and bots it’s not always easy to instantly see what’s wrong.
5. Just having Anti-Virus software your PC means you’re protected.
All Anti-Virus software is different but you need to make sure it’s on and up to date to give yourself the best chance of avoiding viruses. However it does rely on the anti-virus software provider picking up and updating their software against the latest viruses, so it’s inevitable that some get through. You should also do a full system scan on a regular basis.
6. Logging off or restarting your PC is the same as shutting it down.
Logging off just closes the software you were using on the system. Restarting clears down everything but is still not as effective as a full shutdown. When you shutdown the PC and allow it to sit for 30 second you clear all the electrical current out of the machine. If you’re having problems make sure you do a full shutdown.
7. You need a good video card to play DVD’s and edit photos and images.
This really isn’t true. Most people can use a basic 64mb imbedded graphics card; you only need to upgrade if you are playing graphical games, rendering video or animation or doing CAD or CAM work.
8. Remote Desktop Protocol is unsecure.
Most people know this as the software used in terminal services and many companies use this to provide remote access onto a system. The fact is that this software uses encryption to make sure the connection on is secure, so no need to worry.
9. Unprotected wireless connections are OK to use.
Definitely Not! It is illegal to use someone else’s wireless internet connection even if they have left the security off.
10. Broadband speed is the same when uploading as downloading.
Unfortunately as it stands at the moment most broadband connections have a lower upload speed, sometimes as little as 512KB, which again can be contended between 50 people. So check your connection.
| 