| Slow PC | | | | - Try a different router. Because we all have 5 |
| The bane of the computer user and IT support | | | | spare lying around. |
| professional alike. You hate it because you spend | | | | - Replace all our microfilters. |
| your day clicking through treacle. We hate it | | | | - Try plugging direct into the Master socket. This |
| because "my computer's slow" is the vaguest, | | | | literally involves unscrewing every socket you |
| and yet one of the most common issues we | | | | have until you find the one that's secreting the |
| have to face. Best of all, when you finally do get | | | | mythical 'Master socket'. |
| someone to look at your PC, nine times out of | | | | Were you to actually do all the above, in 9 out of |
| ten it's running just fine. | | | | 10 cases, you will see no improvement. What you |
| Here's a few of the most common causes: | | | | have done is buy both BT and your provider |
| - Too many startup programs running. Many, if | | | | some extra time to twiddle their fingers. |
| not most programs have the audacity to install | | | | My advice? As you are logging the fault, announce |
| either themselves, or some (un)helpful little widget | | | | to the operator that you have "tried your other |
| as a startup item. Disable as many of these as | | | | router, replaced the microfilters and are plugged |
| you possibly can. | | | | into the master socket" to save yourself some |
| - Automatic Updates can get its knickers in a | | | | time and get the ball rolling. Ultimately ADSL is a |
| twist and hog the CPU without you knowing it. If | | | | lottery. The winners enjoy a fast, stable Internet |
| this happens consider doing manual updates | | | | connection while the losers spend more time |
| instead. | | | | speaking to India than they do their mothers. This |
| - Speaking of CPU hogs, virtually any program can | | | | is the lie of the land until BT managed to roll out a |
| become one. Word or Outlook might not close | | | | country-wide FTTP (100MB fibre) to replace |
| properly, leaving nothing on screen but the | | | | ADSL. |
| process running in the background, eating CPU | | | | Wireless, Data-less |
| cycles. Open Task Manager and find out what's | | | | The number of current wireless network issues in |
| going on. | | | | the world is roughly approximate to the number |
| - If Task Manager reports a generic process like | | | | of wireless networks in the world. More so than |
| 'svchost' is the culprit, download Process Explorer | | | | even ADSL, you can consider yourself extremely |
| and find out what's running within that process. | | | | lucky if you have a consistently working wireless |
| - Do you have enough memory? 512MB for XP | | | | network. In my position I've seen Zyxels that |
| and 1GB for Vista should be considered the bare | | | | don't like Macs, Linksys that don't like Vista, |
| minimum. Double those amounts if you want any | | | | Airports that don't like PCs, and almost every |
| hope of decent performance. | | | | combination thereof. It's perfectly normal to have |
| Slow Outlook | | | | a wireless network that works happily with almost |
| As the single most relied-upon application on most | | | | any machine you bring into your home except |
| PCs, Outlook has a host of unique potential issues | | | | one. Usually the one you use the most. Likewise |
| that can quash performance. | | | | you may find that to be the one network your |
| Firstly understand how Outlook works in an | | | | PC ever has trouble connecting to. |
| Exchange environment. It takes and maintains a | | | | What can you do? Update the firmware on your |
| complete copy of your Exchange mailbox, | | | | access point. Update the firmware and drivers on |
| attempting to keep this file in sync. This file can | | | | your wireless card. Beyond that, and ensuring |
| become corrupted and fragmented, and the larger | | | | your OS is up to date, there's not much you can |
| your mailbox the greater the chance of this | | | | do if you get stuck other than change one or the |
| happening. | | | | other. |
| Solution? Delete the file, forcing Outlook to | | | | Aside from these irritating issues, its not |
| recreate it. Search your PC for files with the | | | | uncommon to find a wireless network simply |
| extension 'OST' to find it. | | | | stops working one day. It could be because a |
| On the topic of mailbox size, you should not only | | | | neighbour has gone and set up their own wireless |
| be mindful of the overall size, but also the number | | | | network operating on the same channel. Certainly |
| of items in each folder. Microsoft recommends no | | | | our collective airwaves are becoming more and |
| more than 5000 items per folder for the sake of | | | | more flooded, and so long as it's not a nearby |
| performance. I've frequently seen mailboxes with | | | | microwave or hoover that's causing the problem, |
| 50,000-plus sent items and while Outlook is still | | | | you should be able to change the channel on your |
| usable, culling that number tenfold will often bring | | | | access point to bring it back. |
| an equivalent increase in speed. | | | | Bottom line - wireless isn't there yet. If you want |
| Outlook is beholden to its plugins. Generally | | | | to decrease the number of variables in your IT |
| speaking, the more you have the slower Outlook | | | | setup, use a cable. It won't let you down. |
| runs. You know that neat little tool that lets you | | | | When Blackberries Go Rotten |
| view attachments in a slide-show? How about the | | | | In truth, Blackberries are robust little devices that |
| one that makes mail merging slightly less of a | | | | generally do what you want them to. However |
| hassle? If you need them use them, but if | | | | both BIS and BES devices can inexplicably stop |
| something saves you two minutes every month | | | | receiving email. BIS accounts tend to stop |
| at the cost of making Outlook slower and less | | | | checking your email if the email server is |
| stable it isn't really fulfilling its purpose. | | | | unavailable for any length of time. In that case |
| My last tip on this is that Outlook is reliant on | | | | you simply need to re-validate the account by |
| Word for editing emails. If Word misbehaves then | | | | logging in to your portal (i.e. |
| Outlook is left out to sea. Check whether | | | | mobileemail.vodafone.net for Vodafone) and click |
| WINWORD.exe is running if Outlook inexplicably | | | | 'validate'. |
| locks up and you can sometimes bring it back to | | | | But first of all - what coverage do you have? |
| life by killing Word. | | | | Look in the top-right of the home screen. |
| Internet (Dis)Connectivity | | | | Anything other than 3G, GPRS or EDGE (in caps) |
| ADSL is both brilliant and awful. It's made | | | | means you won't receive email. |
| broadband financially viable for the masses and | | | | If it's a BES device you can spend hours |
| out of it has grown the streaming, media-rich | | | | troubleshooting or do what most administrators |
| Internet of today. The downside is it's built on a | | | | do and try wiping then re-activating the device. |
| telecoms infrastructure that's very, very old. | | | | This goes for any other issues you may have |
| Meaning a lot of the cabling is very old, and | | | | such as read/unread status not syncing etc. |
| ill-equipped to reliably carry a high-frequency | | | | Wiping and re-activating is more effective if you |
| broadband signal. | | | | also delete and then re-add the BES user before |
| The result? Massively variable speeds and | | | | you do so. |
| frequent dropouts. | | | | Problems activating a new BES BB? Check and |
| Most frustrating is the glacial response of virtually | | | | then double-check that the network has correctly |
| all broadband providers when you report such a | | | | provisioned the device for BES. Many, many times |
| fault. Typically, the provider relies on BT and BT | | | | I've encountered problems caused by Vodafone |
| have a series of hoops to jump through before | | | | O2/whoever sending out a shiny new BB with the |
| allowing a fault to be raised. Some of these are | | | | wrong APNs applied. |
| extremely unreasonable: | | | | |