Company computers are for one purpose: company business. Anything else can put business investments into a spiral of repairs and diagnostics as the same problems reappear with the same users. Are your basic systems somehow operating at a crawl despite being less than 5 or so years old? Do you constantly see extra toolbars on certain workstations, or hear loud fans from computers that don't do much beyond using Microsoft Office? Whether you suspect bad browsing and unnecessary downloads for the problem or a system shortcoming that needs to be patched, here are a few troubleshooting angles to help you cut down on workstation failure:
Balancing Restrictions And Freedom For Important Tasks
Computer viruses are just a part of the internet experience, although many safe web design practices and browsing habits have cut down on rampant system infections--or at least it feels that way to some. An IT help desk company has no shortage of viruses to remove on top of other tasks, but there's the potential for employees to avoid infections.
So why do business workstations still get infected?
In some cases, it's because safe internet browsing is an art. It takes a lot of experience to know what a shady website looks like, or how to avoid downloads full of viruses. Unfortunately, many of the most successful and forward-thinking minds in your business may charge through those warnings and end up ensnared because they're too focused on their tasks, or simply don't care.
One good safety net for computers is to restrict certain actions when using business workstations. Restrictions can range from firewalls that block known lists of bad websites to user profile limits that don't allow installation or system changes.
The problem is that some businesses thrive on allowing employees full system control. That or employees are good at arguing for full control. The key is to work with some employees who need freedom by examining their habits and finding any flaws, then blocking out those flaws as seamlessly as possible. It's up to you whether you want to tailor the workstation experience to full freedom with patched safety, or a broad net that prevents most problems automatically.
Support Professionals Can Provide Guided Controls
If you want your employees to feel more freedom when using workstations for the sake of getting work done any way possible, someone needs to monitor their computer usage to see what's going on. It's not illegal to monitor your own business computers, but make sure it's known that monitoring is taking place.
If you have no monitoring policies in place, an Information Technology (IT) support company can help you draft a user agreement clause for your business. It's a necessary task, especially if certain users are serial offenders when it comes to infecting systems.
With monitoring in place, trends can be found to figure out what is causing the infection. It could be as simple as blocking certain advertisements from loading or helping the user find another source for their information.
This is, of course, if you want to allow such freedom. If you'd rather keep people away from most dangerous websites, a company firewall with website filtering can keep your systems safer. If a specific site is needed by employees, it's no trouble to route a request to access that website permanently.
Contact an IT help desk company to figure out what's going on with your business' systems, and how you can make the network safer.
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