Ahead4 Ltd - Computer & Web Services

Always nice to see your logo being worn by the local football team, and even better when you have friends and family playing for that team! Good luck this year to all players! From Ahead4

Ahead4 is closed over the Summer Bank Holiday

Closing 17.30 Friday 23-08-2024

Re-opening 09.00 Tuesday 27-08-2024

If you have an emergency in the meantime please call 01245 426163 and follow the instructions to leave a message for the Emergency Engineer who shall be monitoring this during the closure.

You can also email [email protected]

Many thanks
Ahead4

We have had many calls this morning re Barclays Online Banking being inaccessible, please see the official link confirming its status: https://status.uk.barclays/ so nothing you may be attempting including rebooting PCs Routers etc would make any improvements at this time.

System monitor and service status | Barclays Check this page for service status updates. If our services aren’t working as they should be, we’ll report it straight away (planned or otherwise).

Happy 24th Birthday to us (Ahead4 Ltd).. we took the opportunity trial our first AI social media post, not too bad for it's first attempt, lets see how much this evolves in the next 24 years!..

🎉 Happy 24th Birthday to Ahead4 Ltd! 🎉

As we 'log in' to celebrate 24 years of innovation, we're 'wired' with excitement for what the future holds. Our journey has been nothing short of 'epic'—filled with 'bytes' of progress and 'memory' that will last a lifetime.

We're 'upgrading' to another year with gratitude for the 'hardware' work of our team and the 'software' support from our customers. Let's 'input' our best efforts for an even brighter future and 'output' the same passion that has driven us for nearly a quarter of a century.

Share your most 'user-friendly' Ahead4 moments with the hashtag Ahead4 and let's 'network' our joy across the social media 'mainframe'.

This special post was generated by Microsoft 365 Copilot, showcasing the innovative ways we're embracing AI to enhance our communications. If you're interested in learning more about Copilot for 365 and how it can revolutionize your workflow, don't hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for helping us 'compute' 24 years of success. Here's to many more 'gigabytes' of shared achievements! 🥳🎈

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽

If we can all try and not break any computers today from 5pm for at least 90 minutes that would be great – any guesses to why!
If you are working still, no problem at all as we do still have most of the team on standby throughout the England game- don’t forget to turn it off and on first 😊

Good luck England!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽

Thanks to one of our customers for a great review, permission was granted before sharing.

Ahead4 would like to welcome our newest member of staff to the team Luke!

Luke will be joining the department and will assist the growing repair side division.

We will also be taking on another new member later in the month!

Ahead4 is closed over the Early May Bank Holiday

Closing 17.30 Friday 03-05-2024

Re-opening 09.00 Tuesday 07-05-2024

If you have an emergency in the meantime please call 01245 426 163 and follow the instructions to leave a message for the Emergency Engineer who shall be monitoring this during the closure.

You can also email [email protected]

Many thanks

Ahead4

Please Note:

Ahead4 is closed over the Easter Holidays.

Closing 17.30 Thursday 28-03-2024

Re-opening 09.00 Tuesday 02-04-2024

If you have an emergency in the meantime please call 01245 426 163 and follow the instructions to leave a message for the Emergency Engineer who shall be monitoring this during the closure.

You can also email [email protected]

Many thanks and have an excellent Easter.

Ahead4

Great news- Ahead4 Ltd are recruiting for multiple roles within the business for an immediate start!
Vacancies range from Workshop engineers/ remote and on-site engineers as well as options for mixed roles depending on candidates and experience.

We are also interested in hearing from any applicants without experience but with the right attitude and interest as we can provide training with our experienced team.
Please forward all CVs to [email protected]

You may have already heard that the Windows 10’s end of life is coming in October 2025.

What this means is that if Microsoft doesn’t decide to delay it they will be stopping any further updates from then onwards.

There are rumours that there may be some options to buy the ongoing updates for a further period but obviously most people will look into Windows 11 at this point.

We are getting asked many times a day what will be the issues with the updates stopping especially if you are using your own virus checker. It is never recommended to run an operating system (Windows) without regular updates as although a third party virus checker may help, over the years it’s been proven that security flaws have been found deep inside the operating system which create weaknesses that even the virus checker will struggle to protect against. This is as well as other known updates or quirks found throughout the year.

We are also being asked whether the machines can handle Windows 11 and can confirm that Microsoft have set the bar that the specification of your machine must be Intel generation 8 or newer. We are aware that other Companies have been advising that they can still install Windows 11 on these machines that fall below this spec and although true and we can do the same the question is whether you should. The reason is that the changes they make to force Windows 11 to un incompatible machine could become undone in the future by further updates and then the business could be left with machines- following another update -that no longer function correctly.
You should also bear in mind that the level that they set to the spec runs at a good standards and therefore a spec below this may run a lot slower then needed.
The other things to bear in mind if you are putting Windows 11 on an older spec machine - that Microsoft have excluded- is that you may be breaking software agreements especially If you are using the free upgrade from 10 option as this may now be classed as an illegal copy.

Therefore, we recommend when purchasing or upgrading in the near future that you bear in mind the age of the machine as many Companies will now be pushing to sell older spec stock.

Of course there will be businesses that need to continue to run Windows 10 for a period of time due to having legacy programs or certain hardware such as CNC Machines that are not compatible or not been tested yet with Windows 11. Currently we have seen the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 to be much smoother compared to the previous Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 update from several years ago.

Please note you may have a compatible CPU that can meet Windows 11 requirements, yet your computer may inform you inside the Windows Updates section that your machine does not meet the requirements for Windows 11, this is often a matter of required changes outside of the operating system most commonly a simple BIOS setting change other tweaks may be required on an individual computer basis.

Please see Microsoft list of supported processors for Windows 11 below.

AMD Processors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors

Intel Processors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

Thanks
Ahead4 Team

The sleigh will be starting its tour tonight at Collinwood School at 5pm. If you wish to donate whilst on its route one can do so with cash or scan the QR code displayed on the sleigh. See below picture of the route for Wednesday. Also many thanks to Ahead 4 as one of our sponsors. If you wish to track where the sleigh you can do so by using the the following link. https://TrakLink.trutrakpro.co.uk?Token=C309DB4B-E8FB-4A46-A381-CFF872096DAA

Looking for a Custom Made Gaming PC for Christmas? Get in contact for a quotation.

PLEASE NOTE: As of 1st December 2023, Ahead4 will unfortunately have no choice but to increase some of our labour charges for the first time.
Due to an increase in many overheads as experienced by all our new workshop and remote hourly rate will be charged at £30 plus VAT per hour and our new onsite hourly rate will be charged at £40 plus VAT per hour .
If you have any questions or queries, please contact our office on 01245 426163

Ahead4 is closed over the bank holiday.

Closing 17.30 Friday 25-08-2023

Re-opening 09.00 Tuesday 29-08-2023

If you have an emergency in the meantime please call
01245 426 163 and follow the instructions to leave a message
for the Emergency Engineer who shall be monitoring this during the closure.

You can also email [email protected]

Many thanks - and have a good Bank Holiday.

Due to a very long and large area power cut in South Woodham last night we have already received many calls. Please make sure that all equipment is turned back on or if you still have problems do a full restart (turn on and off) before calling for support as this may resolve the problem before needing to make the call.

Thanks Ahead4 Team

Please Note:
Ahead4 is closed over the Easter Holidays.

Closing 17.30 Thursday 06-04-2023
Re-opening 09.00 Tuesday 11-04-2023
If you have an emergency in the meantime please call
01245 426 163 and follow the instructions to leave a message
for the Emergency Engineer who shall be monitoring this during the closure.
You can also email [email protected]
Many thanks, and have a good Easter.

Ahead4

Virgin Internet went down overnight and should be back for most locations, to see your Virgin Service Status you can visit:

Check Service Status | Broadband, Landline & TV | Virgin Media Experiencing connection issues or faults? Check your Virgin Media service status here. Learn whether it’s issues in your area or faults with your services.

Please note: We are unable to offer our usual Mobile Phone Repair Service due to our full time in store mobile engineer being on holiday, returning Tuesday April 11th. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Wow!! This has come around fast: The 19th SWF Swimming Charity Event is back on this weekend, good luck to all of the teams this year, from Ahead4 Ltd

Please note: Anyone wishing to visit Ahead4's Shop the road is Closed at the Albert Road end, but we are accessible by road from the Train Station/Spar end of Hullbridge Road just past South Woodham Motor Spares and Cycles, we are open today until 17.30

Happy New Year to all our old and new customers.

We will be back on the 3rd,

Hope to see you all soon.

Out Of Office / Auto Reply Assistance

Please note if you require assistance configuring Out Of Office Auto Replies or changes to your Phone System ahead of the Holiday period closure please contact Ahead4 on 01245 426163

We hope and believe that most companies would not even notice or be aware that BT are planning to strike on both Thursday 20-10-22 as well as Monday 24-10-22.

Please note if you require BT engineers either booked or by Emergency on the above dates, there may be delays or cancellations if you experience problems please contact Ahead4 on 01245 426163

As a mark of respect for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we will be closed on Monday 19th September and will open as normal on Tuesday 20th September.
We will only be able to respond to emergency callouts at this time.

Thank you
From the Ahead4 Team.

Please note: Ahead4 are closing for the Bank Holiday Weekend from 17.30 Friday 26-08-22 - Re-Opening Tuesday 30-08-22 at 09.00

We can be contacted on our usual number 01245 426163 for emergencies only during this period, please note: charges may apply.

Thanks

Ahead4 Team

Attention: Apple security vulnerabilities
It appears from multiple sources online in the last 24 hours there is a security issue with Apple devices, we recommend to upgrade the software to the latest version as soon as possible if the device supports updates still.

Software versions affected
• iPadOS prior to 15.6.1
• iOS prior to 15.6.1
• macOS Monterey 12 prior to 12.5.1

Recommended actions
Check your OS version and update if required. To do so, navigate the menu as follows:
• On your iPhone or iPad: Settings > General > Software Update
• On your Mac: Apple menu > About this Mac > Software Update

Note: Early signs point to this mainly being Safari Browser related and we would recommend to use alternative Browsers eg Google Chrome on older devices if available and no longer supported by Apple hardware is not recommended to be used online.