Contact us today!
888.442.4933

Computer Consulting Service Blog

Computer Consulting Service has been serving the Fayettville area since 1993, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Tips to Combat Hallucinations and Boost Accuracy

Tips to Combat Hallucinations and Boost Accuracy

One of the most common criticisms of generative AI tools is that they often “hallucinate,” or make up information, making them somewhat unreliable for certain high-stakes tasks. To help you combat hallucinations, we recommend you try out the following tips in your own use of generative AI. You might find that you get better, more reliable outputs as a result.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Are You Ready for the Things That Go Bump in the Night?

Are You Ready for the Things That Go Bump in the Night?

Happy Halloween! Tonight, ghosties and goblins will roam from door to door, collecting candies along the way. This is to be expected. Less expected are the cyberthreats and attacks that darken the doors of modern businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Let’s talk about the things you need to do to keep your business safe, inside and out, every night of the year.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The Dos and Don’ts of Creating an Effective Business Continuity Plan

The Dos and Don’ts of Creating an Effective Business Continuity Plan

Disruptions, from natural disasters to cyberattacks, can hit any business. A strong business continuity plan (BCP) is essential to protect your company, employees, and customers. It’s an investment that helps you handle the unexpected and get back on your feet quickly.

Here are the key dos and don'ts for building your plan.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Unlock Productivity and Say Goodbye to Business Inefficiencies

Unlock Productivity and Say Goodbye to Business Inefficiencies

Running a business can feel like a constant battle against inefficiency. There are innumerable reasons an organization doesn’t meet productivity standards. Fortunately, however, technology provides powerful tools to identify and eliminate these problems. Here's how you can use technology to find and fix inefficiencies in your business.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Why Overreacting to IT Troubles Makes Them Worse

Why Overreacting to IT Troubles Makes Them Worse

You're in the middle of a crucial presentation, and suddenly, your screen freezes. Or perhaps your customer relationship management (CRM) system goes down during peak sales hours. Your first instinct might be to panic, to hit every button, or to call everyone you know. This month, we talk about how overreacting to your technology troubles can be just as bad as the troubles themselves. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Keep the Bad Guys From Winning

How to Keep the Bad Guys From Winning

There’s a reason why we tend to focus on security, and that’s because it’s not a matter of if you experience a cyberattack, but when. It’s your responsibility to make sure that you’re ready to act in the right way when faced with these attacks. One of the best ways you can be prepared is by working with a managed service provider like us. Today, we have three ways we, as a managed service provider, can help you take the fight to cybersecurity threats.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The Smoke, Mirrors, and Mind Games Behind Cyberscams

The Smoke, Mirrors, and Mind Games Behind Cyberscams

Cyberscams can be incredibly well-crafted and dangerous, and a significant portion of this danger stems from the scammer's ability to effectively utilize the psychological triggers that we all possess to some degree. Modern security training tends to focus on what signs we all need to keep an eye out for—and for good reason—but it does little to explore why modern scams are as effective as they are.

Let’s fix that by taking a moment to examine the tricks the scammers play so you can be that much more prepared to stop them by understanding how they work.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Mastering Modern Data Backup and Recovery

Mastering Modern Data Backup and Recovery

Think of a good data backup system as insurance for your digital assets. You hope you never need it, but you'll be incredibly grateful it's there if something goes wrong. This month, we're going to explore the three key parts of any up-to-date data backup system and how we can use the newest technology to make backing up your data as smooth and easy as possible.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Why “Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?” is a Valuable Question

Why “Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?” is a Valuable Question

We’ve all heard it, perhaps even rolled our eyes at it: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” This seemingly simplistic question has become a running gag in the world of IT support. But beneath the humor lies a fundamental truth: rebooting a device is often the most effective first step in resolving a surprising number of technical glitches.

We understand that, although it might sound elementary, this advice is based on solid technical principles.

0 Comments
Continue reading

3 Costly Mistakes That Can Sink Your Small Business, and How to Avoid Them

3 Costly Mistakes That Can Sink Your Small Business, and How to Avoid Them

Starting a small business is exciting, but keeping it running is the real challenge. Many businesses start with a great idea, a solid customer base, and high hopes, only to crash and burn because of avoidable mistakes. If you’re a small business owner or planning to become one, watch out for these three major pitfalls that can sink your business faster than you can say bankruptcy.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Tracking Your Hardware Reduces Operational Headaches

Tracking Your Hardware Reduces Operational Headaches

If your business owns more than one computer, you’ve got tech to track. Laptops, monitors, printers, routers, projectors, phones; it all adds up fast. If you’re not keeping an eye on it, you could end up with missing gear, surprise inefficiency, or worse, security problems. That’s why tracking your hardware isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a need-to-do.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Keep BYOD from Impacting Security

How to Keep BYOD from Impacting Security

Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, is a common approach for businesses that want to take advantage of mobile technology to kickstart productivity. Instead of supplying each individual employee with company-owned devices, businesses allow employees to use their own devices for work-related purposes. While this is great on the budget, it’s only really effective (and safe) if the employee prioritizes security on their devices; otherwise, it’s a liability.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Learn How to Identify and Avoid Phishing Messages

Learn How to Identify and Avoid Phishing Messages

You open your email and you have a message claiming your bank account has been compromised. You click the link, log in, and, whoops, you just handed your credentials to a cybercriminal. You’ve been a victim of phishing, where scammers bait you with fake messages and reel you in like an unsuspecting fish. You don’t have to be their next catch. Here’s how to recognize and fight back against phishing attempts.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Five Ways to Beat the Scammers

Five Ways to Beat the Scammers

If it feels like scammers are everywhere, it’s largely because they are. Every day, they’re cooking up new ways to trick people into giving up money, data, or access to their accounts. One of the biggest problems we run into is that we’re bombarded with so many scam warnings that we start tuning them out. That’s called threat fatigue, the phenomenon when you get so tired of hearing about security risks that you stop paying attention. That’s exactly what scammers want.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The Importance of Passwords Cannot Be Ignored

The Importance of Passwords Cannot Be Ignored

Passwords protect nearly all of your accounts; or at least you hope that they do. Unfortunately, making a super-secure password that’s easy to remember can be harder than people expect. Oftentimes, it feels like you are constantly solving a puzzle. So then, how do you create passwords that keep hackers out without driving yourself crazy? In this month’s newsletter, we discuss this very problem.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Deal with These Three Issues to Avoid Most Printer Problems

Deal with These Three Issues to Avoid Most Printer Problems

Printers… they’re the tech we love to hate, especially when they just don’t work right. You’d think a device with one main job could handle it! So, why do printers mess up so often? Here’s a look at the main reasons why printers fail. Usually, it’s because of one of these three things: software issues, problems with the paper and ink, or connection issues.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Tip of the Month: Using Email While Prioritizing Safety and Security

Tip of the Month: Using Email While Prioritizing Safety and Security

You probably use your email every day without even thinking about it. Email is, however, one of the main places hackers go when they want to steal personal information. Here are three easy steps you can take to keep your email secure.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Master Your Email with These Tips

Master Your Email with These Tips

For most people, their email inbox can get pretty intimidating. You miss a day of work for personal reasons and you probably need to schedule about double the time getting to all of the updates, responses, and junk that comes in in a short amount of time. In this month’s newsletter we thought we’d go through a few tips that can help anyone better manage their email and keep their accounts secure.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Three Best Practices to Avoid Getting Hacked

Three Best Practices to Avoid Getting Hacked

Data breaches can cripple companies and can come from a lot of different directions. They can be the result of phishing attacks where your staff unwittingly gives hackers access to your business’ resources. It can come from a brute force attack where hackers use innovative tools to break into your network. It can even be the work of disgruntled employees who use their access to steal company data. This month, we want to outline the top three things you can do to keep your business from being hacked. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Social Engineering is Not a Risk to Underestimate

Social Engineering is Not a Risk to Underestimate

Cybercriminals will do anything they can to get what they want. They will lie and cheat to break into an organization’s network and siphon off the data or gain control. One of the most utilized tactics that cybercriminals use today is called social engineering. This month, we will discuss social engineering and how it puts everything you work for in jeopardy. 

0 Comments
Continue reading