IT Consultancy

IT Consultancy on November 5th, 2011 Helping you get the most out of IT   Your IT system is at the heart of your organisation. But are you getting the most out of it? At Coverpoint we take great pride in …

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Online Backups

Cloud Backup Services At Coverpoint, we can provide a full Online data backup and storage solution for your business. Whether it’s data held on PC’s and laptops, Macs, servers or complex networked environments. Our Cloud based backup services offer unrivalled …

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IT Support

Support Services   Specialists in providing IT care for your business. Coverpoint Care is the perfect Support Service, whatever your size. We offer four levels of cover all with unlimited remote support as standard. Remote Enhanced remote support for a …

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Outlook Deleted Items Folder renamed

Found a strange one today – a client’s Deleted Items folder in Outlook had managed to rename itself to one of their own contacts! I have no idea how he managed it and you can’t however simply right-click and rename …

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Our Technology Store

Coverpoint Technology Store Please visit our store at http://www.coverpointstore.co.uk – we get the best prices for all your technology needs. We also only choose products we actively use ourselves, so they are all tried and tested. Unlike most online stores, …

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Understanding RAID – Part 2

RAID 0 This configuration is designed for speed and has no disk redundancy, which means that if one drive fails then you have lost your data. For certain business needs this may be preferable in situations where the data is …

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Moving Office?

Moving your business to new premises can be a very stressful time. There are a whole host of things to remember, from diverting your phone numbers, to changing your stationery. This article will hopefully lighten the load and help you to …

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Loss of Trust Relationship in Windows 7

Windows 7 seems to have a fairly frequent error with trust relationships between the workstation and the domain controller. When you attempt to log into your local machine you may get an error that reads: “the trust relationship between this …

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Adding a backup disk to Windows server 2008 backup

Adding a secondary disk to windows server backup is not always as straightforward as it would seem. Quite often you get an error message at the end of the add disk wizard, and will not add the disk to your …

View full post

Understanding RAID – Part 1

For my first blog I was quite uncertain as to what I should write about, working in the IT industry comes with so many different problems that it borders on the ridiculous. I decided to start writing about something that …

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IT ConsultancyOnline BackupsIT SupportOutlook Deleted Items Folder renamedOur Technology StoreUnderstanding RAID – Part 2Moving Office?Loss of Trust Relationship in Windows 7Adding a backup disk to Windows server 2008 backupUnderstanding RAID – Part 1

Jan
10

IT Consultancy

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IT Consultancy

Helping you get the most out of IT

 

Your IT system is at the heart of your organisation. But are you getting the most out of it?

At Coverpoint we take great pride in working with you to create the very best in IT solutions – a system that works for you and your business.

We are independent, so our advice is totally impartial, ensuring you get the system that is absolutely right for you.

With a combined experience of over 50 years in the IT industry, our advice is based on best practice and unrivaled knowledge.

The Consultancy Process

Our down to earth approach and plain speaking is a breath of fresh air in a market often over-complicated with jargon.

Your business may require a traditional Microsoft setup with a Small Business PC Server, or maybe an Apple Mac solution.

We are specialists in both and can advise on the best platform.

Quite simply, we assess your needs via a site visit and operating audit.

We interview your key staff and make  recommendations based on your budget and that it is best for your business.

Our Services

  • File Server Installation
  • PC and Mac Configuration
  • Network Design and Implementation
  • Data Management
  • Data Backup and Recovery
  • Online Backups
  • Firewall and Antivirus
  • Improve or Move

 

Please contact us to arrange an informal chat or an on site appointment.

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Jan
10

Online Backups

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Cloud Backup Services

At Coverpoint, we can provide a full Online data backup and storage solution for your business.

Whether it’s data held on PC’s and laptops, Macs, servers or complex networked environments.
Our Cloud based backup services offer unrivalled levels of security and efficiency and our storage solutions ensure flexible, powerful and total protection against data loss.

Peace of Mind

When disaster strikes, Coverpoint will get you up and running again, quickly and simply.

Equally, the service is designed to meet the needs of data protection in small office/home office environments and especially suitable for businesses with remote, laptop-based employees.

It can allow companies with remote workers to ensure critical data protection by providing internal control over backups and scheduling.

A central server is likely to be the critical hub of a business network; therefore it is essential that your choice of online server backup set up reflects this. Our Cloud backup service includes detailed data backup reporting to provide peace of mind for administrators managing unattended servers and also features system state backup and flexible scheduling.

Our Cloud backup services provide fully encrypted backup, storage and recovery, ensuring the highest levels of data protection for SOHOs, SME’s and enterprises.

The Cloud backup services are fully automated, totally secure and ensure you never have to worry about data loss again.

Contact us now for a quotation on 08445 44 44 45.

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Jan
10

IT Support

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Support Services

 

Specialists in providing IT care for your business.

Coverpoint Care is the perfect Support Service, whatever your size.

We offer four levels of cover all with unlimited remote support as standard.

Remote

      • Enhanced remote support for a fixed monthly cost.
      • Server support for a flat monthly fee.

Onsite

      • Enhanced remote support for a fixed monthly cost.
      • Includes on-site support for a flat monthly fee.
      • An annual system health check is also included.

Server Onsite

      • Enhanced remote support for a fixed monthly cost.
      • Server support for a flat monthly fee.
      • Includes on-site support for a flat monthly fee.
      • An annual system health check is also included.

Platinum

      • Unlimited remote & on-site support for a fixed monthly cost.
      • An annual system health check is also included.

For companies with larger networks and multiple servers, we are also able to provide a tailor-made support package.

Please call us on 08445 44 44 45 for a quotation today.

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Nov
04

Outlook Deleted Items Folder renamed

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Found a strange one today – a client’s Deleted Items folder in Outlook had managed to rename itself to one of their own contacts!

I have no idea how he managed it and you can’t however simply right-click and rename the folder back to Deleted Items. However, it’s easily fixed:

Simply close Outlook and then start up on the command line as follows:

Outlook /resetfoldernames

Would be interested to hear from anyone how he managed to change it in the first place though!

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Oct
07

Our Technology Store

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Coverpoint Technology Store
Coverpoint Technology Store
Please visit our store at http://www.coverpointstore.co.uk – we get the best prices for all your technology needs. We also only choose products we actively use ourselves, so they are all tried and tested.

Unlike most online stores, we are also able to provide pre-sales and after-sales support as well as providing knowledgeable advice on all of our products.

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Oct
07

Understanding RAID – Part 2

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RAID 0

This configuration is designed for speed and has no disk redundancy, which means that if one drive fails then you have lost your data. For certain business needs this may be preferable in situations where the data is not valuable but having it processed as fast as possible is more important.

RAID 0 uses disk striping (See last week’s blog for a definition) which is great for fast disk access as the files are being written across two disks.

PRO’s – fast data reading.

CON’s – no redundancy.

RAID1

This type of raid array is designed solely for redundancy purposes. The data is mirrored across drives so if one drive fails the other drive has identical data on it (See Mirroring in last week’s blog). This is a more common setup as most businesses require redundancy to protect their data. RAID 1 is not designed for speed and is slower than RAID0.

PRO’s – Disk redundancy.

CON’s – Slower reading and writing of data.

RAID5

This setup is designed with redundancy in mind and not speed. It is different to RAID1 in that the data is still striped and not mirrored. However there is one big difference between RAID0 and RAID5 and that is that RAID5 has disk parity.

What is Parity?

Disk parity is constructed by the RAID controller additionally to the user data and is constructed in such a way that if any of the user data is lost the RAID can reconstruct the data. The RAID controller keeps a  value of the all the parts of the data added up.This way if one part is missing it can simply reconstruct that part by looking at the whole and subtracting the parts of the data that are present. The result is the missing data.

 

This means that your data is quite safe and the system also works fast as it uses disk striping and not disk mirroring.

PRO’s – Redundancy.

CON’s – Requires a minimum of 3 disks to setup and RAID 0 is faster.

 

RAID10

RAID10 combines both RAID0 and RAID1 to gain the best out of both configurations. This means that your disk array will have the speed and performance of RAID0 and the redundancy of RAID1. The problem with this configuration is that it requires a minimum of four disks and has no parity. However the fact that the arrays are mirrored means that parity is not required.

 

PRO’s – Excellent performance and redundancy.

CON’s – Expensive and can be complicated to set up if the RAID controller does not support RAID10.

 

There are other RAID setups however these are the most common and the others configurations are generally a combination or minor altering of these configurations.

In conclusion I would like to remind you that RAID setups are there to provide protection against disk failure and are not a substitute for having a backup system in place. Any data that is important needs to be and should be backed up regularly.

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Oct
07

Moving Office?

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Moving your business to new premises can be a very stressful time. There are a whole host of things to remember, from diverting your phone numbers, to changing your stationery.

This article will hopefully lighten the load and help you to focus on what’s important.

You will need to think about such things as:

  • Changing your address and phone details on your stationery, business cards, website and email signatures;
  • Signing up to a new telephone & broadband provider. ISDN30 telephone lines can have up to 45 WORKING DAY lead times, so this needs to be the FIRST thing you plan for. Leased broadband lines can also have similar lead times;
  • Are you able to keep your existing telephone number (unlikely if you are moving to a new Exchange);
  • How many DDIs (direct dial-in numbers) will you need? These come in batches of 10. Order more than you think you’ll need as you won’t be able to go back to BT afterwards for concurrent numbers);
  • Transferring your emails to the new provider (MX record changes) – timing for this is crucial to minimise disruption. Often best to make the changes on a Friday evening, so the DNS propagation can occur over a weekend. Try to avoid a ‘lift and shift’ for your Broadband – ISPs, particularly BT are notorious for making a mess of this, leaving you with no line after moving in. Best to set up a new line independently, get in all up and running, then re-point to the new IP address;
  • Don’t forget the static public IP address(es) when ordering the new Broadband line if using direct SMTP mail;
  • Seating plans, office furniture and network points – be as conservative as possible on network and telephone points;
  • Do you need additional PCs, servers or telephony equipment at the new office?
  • Consider your printing, scanning and consumable requirements;
  • Does the new office have network cabling in place and with enough capacity? We tend to work on a general rule of 3 network points per person – a typical user would need a PC point, a telephone point, and perhaps a point for a network printer or separate laptop;
  • Consider where to situate your wireless devices – will you need wireless repeaters in certain areas?
  • If you have your own server, telephone and network switch, will there be somewhere to house it? Does it need air conditioning / cooling? Will the noise be disruptive in its location? Will it be in a dust-free environment?
  • You will need to inform all your existing contacts that you are moving, either by post or via email (preferably both);
  • Once settled in, inform your clients about the success of your move. You may even wish to arrange an ‘office warming’ party for your clients;
  • Open the Champagne!


We have many years of experience of moving Small Businesses in a stress-free manner.

Please contact us for assistance on 08445 44 44 45.

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Oct
07

Loss of Trust Relationship in Windows 7

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Windows 7 seems to have a fairly frequent error with trust relationships between the workstation and the domain controller. When you attempt to log into your local machine you may get an error that reads:

“the trust relationship between this workstation and primary domain failed”

As such, you are unable to log onto the Domain. Fixing this error is generally not very difficult and is simply a matter of leaving the domain and rejoining the domain. Please note that you will need the log on details for the local machine as well.

To rejoin the domain follow the steps below:

  1. Right-click on Computer and click on Properties…
  2. Under Computer Name, Domain and Workgroup settings click on change settings.
  3. Under the Computer Name tab click on Change…
  4. Click on Workgroup and type in ‘’WORKGROUP’’
  5. Restart your computer.
  6. Follow steps 1 to 3 again and this time select domain and type in your Domain name.
  7. That’s it, just restart your machine and log back into the domain.

The cause of this issue seems to vary from trying different anti-virus software to just not being logged into the local machine for some time, and there doesn’t seem to be a definitive reason for the cause.

For further reading and alternative fixes for this issue please look at the link below:

http://dailytweak.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/the-trust-relationship-between-this-workstation-and-the-primary-domain-failed/

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Oct
07

Adding a backup disk to Windows server 2008 backup

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Adding a secondary disk to windows server backup is not always as straightforward as it would seem. Quite often you get an error message at the end of the add disk wizard, and will not add the disk to your current backup system.

seagate freeagent goflex

Thankfully there is a fairly simple fix that requires that you run a command from command prompt.

  1. Run the following command from command prompt and ensure you are running it as administrator to determine the Disk Identifier of the new disk:
    ‘’wbadmin get disks’’
  2. Using the output as reference, locate the disk that you wish to add into your backup. The output from the previous command should be presented as the following:
    Disk name: xxxxxxxxxxx
    Disk number: x
    Disk identifier: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
    Total space: xxx.xx GB
    Used space : xxx.xx GB
  3. Run the following command to add the disk into your backup.
    WBADMIN ENABLE BACKUP -addtarget:{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
  4. The follow up prompt should be answered with Y for Yes.

This is a really long way to go to accomplish something as simple as adding a backup disk into the mix and really should not require command prompt interaction at all. We should be happy that it is amongst the more simple of fixes out there even though it shouldn’t require it.

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Oct
04

Understanding RAID – Part 1

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For my first blog I was quite uncertain as to what I should write about, working in the IT industry comes with so many different problems that it borders on the ridiculous. I decided to start writing about something that may actually be of interest to small businesses when deciding to upgrade their servers or implement new servers to an existing network. There are many things to consider when this happens but I thought that explaining something that most people would not know or understand seemed as good a starting point as any. This is also quite important to your business for several reasons which I will illustrate further into the article.


RAID Configurations

Doing server installs got me thinking about RAID configurations and the different setups and reasons behind using each different configuration. From a business stand point most companies just trust their IT technicians to use the best suited configuration for their business, without actually understanding the reasoning behind the RAID setup. Sometimes we are given system specs from our clients which include the required RAID setup although having done some of these installs I am still not convinced that they fully understand why the setup has been used.

First off what does RAID stand for? Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks. This is basically a system of using multiple drives to act as one and as such you get several benefits out of them, such as redundancy in case a drive fails or speed for reading files faster and in some configurations you get both. However you do lose disk space for e.g. if you use 2 x 100GB drives in a raid configuration, you will essentially have only 100GB of storage space.


And This Means….

Understanding the use of RAID setups is helpful for when your business needs to upgrade your servers or just change the current setup for something that suits your business better. Budget and downtime constraints are also things that should be considered before making any changes to your currently installed configuration. It’s also useful to note that some setups are more effective while utilising multiple RAID configurations on the same server.


Apples and Oranges or Bananas and Muffins

When data is written to multiple disks it is either striped or mirrored. Some RAID configurations use both methods and some use only one or the other. Further into this article I will explain which configuration uses which method.

So what is the difference between striped and mirrored? Basically striped RAID is used for speed as part of the file is written across two or more drives, however if one of the drives fails you have lost all your data as there is no redundancy with this method.

Mirrored RAID is slower than striped but has the added advantage of redundancy, your data is written twice, once to each drive so if one drive fails you have all your data safely on the second drive. This method is very important if you have sensitive or important data that requires backup. Please note that using a mirrored RAID configuration is no excuse to not have a reliable regular backup system in place !

Next week I will go over the different types of RAID configurations and explain their differences as well as their pros and cons.

 

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