Free advice and answers for frequently asked questions:

Vista or XP?:

Vista is getting better, but in all honesty, it's still got a long way to go before it's as stable as XP is right now. Home users will struggle to find a PC without Vista pre-loaded now, so there's little choice there, but HP along with other manufacturers still offer business PCs and laptops with an XP option. XP is the clear choice for business due to its stability and maturity.

Internet providers:

If you're looking for a great provider at a decent price, go to have a look at PlusNet . We've dealt with them for ages, and had consistently good service and reliability. The call centre is in the UK and very easy to deal with, which is a lot more than can be said for much of the competition.

Slow PC : Just because your computer is slow, doesn't necessarily mean you need a new one. Programs that start when Windows boots, lack of RAM (PC manufacturers are often rather stingy in this area, particularly for Vista), driver problems or even programs going haywire can all slow you PC down. All of this is easily fixable, and even a memory upgrade is usually under £50. It might not sound like much, but it can make a massive difference to how you computer performs. Vista needs at least 2 gigabytes to work best, while XP will work well on 1 gigabyte.

Anti Virus :

For small businesses that don't have a server, AVG is a worthy investment. For those that do (Windows Server, SBS etc.), Sophos is user friendly and very effective. The SBS version is very well priced and comes with Puremessage for Exchange which is very good at catching spam and email viruses. McAfee and Norton, while better known, tend to be rather cumbersome on older machines and over complicated.

For home users the free version of AVG is our recommended choice. It's slick, easy to use, and won't pop up with a million messages you don't understand!

PC brands:

For business HP is the clear choice. Their business desktops are rock solid and still available with Windows XP as an option. For something a little cheaper, ACER are currently making really good notebooks, and Packard Bell is always a sensible choice if you're looking on the high street. Dell do make reasonable machines, but be wary of their lower priced offerings. Sadly, their after sales service can be less than gratifying.

Spam!:

If you're having problems try Spamfigher! It's one of the best and easiest to use. Many internet providers are offering spam protection now, and most webmail systems like googlemail, yahoo, or hotmail have spam protection options.

Office suites:

You don't have to pay out for Microsoft office if you don't want to. The home and student version is very well priced, but there's a really good free alternative: Openoffice is free to download and use, and will open and even save in MS office document formats. It's definitely worth a go.