I look after the everyday technology in Heaton homes and small practices: Wi-Fi that will not reach the loft conversion or the garden office, slow laptops, new computers set up with everything moved across, printers, email and backups. Based in Bolton, minutes away, and most jobs are same or next day.
Based in Bolton. You deal with me directly, not a call centre.
Heaton is the stretch of west Bolton along Chorley New Road around Bolton School, taking in Markland Hill and running up towards Smithills. The houses are large, a good number of them the Victorian and Edwardian villas the town's mill money built, and a lot of them have grown since: loft conversions, rear extensions, converted cellars, garden offices at the bottom of long plots.
Every one of those additions puts more distance and more walls between the router and the person trying to use it. The result is the complaint I hear most in Heaton: the broadband is fast where the engineer left the box, and unusable in the room where somebody actually works. A video call that freezes twice a meeting is not a broadband problem, it is a coverage problem, and it is fixable.
Alongside that is the normal run of household technology in a busy house. Several laptops, a printer nobody can connect to, tablets for the children, a smart doorbell, photos spread across three devices and backed up on none of them. It only needs someone to sit down and sort it out properly once.
Machines that take five minutes to wake up, freeze on ordinary jobs, or have quietly got worse every year. Usually fixable rather than replaceable.
Weak or dropping Wi-Fi diagnosed properly, routers and access points repositioned or replaced, mesh set up so the coverage reaches the whole house.
New laptops and PCs set up, files, photos and emails moved across from the old machine, your software installed and a backup in place before the old one goes.
Printers that will not connect or have gone offline, scanning to email, mail that stopped arriving, accounts locked out and passwords sorted safely.
Malware and fake warning pop-ups removed, and an honest answer about whether that phone call or email was a scam. It usually was.
Photos and documents backed up automatically rather than in theory, so a failed drive or a lost laptop is an inconvenience and not a disaster.
To be clear about what this is: computer and laptop help, setup, networking and support, including upgrades like SSDs and memory. Not screen replacements or board-level repair. If that is what yours needs, I will tell you straight and help you work out whether it is worth doing.
Dead spots, dropouts and rooms the signal never gets to are the single most common reason people in Heaton get in touch. There is a full page on how that gets fixed, what it involves and when mesh is worth it.
Wi-Fi and home networkingYes. Heaton is minutes from where I am based in Bolton, so a home visit is straightforward and usually same or next day. Where a problem can be fixed remotely over a secure connection I will offer that first, because it is faster for you.
This is the most common job I get in Heaton and it is very fixable. Depending on the layout it is either repositioning the router, replacing an old one, adding mesh points on the right floors, or running a proper wired link out to a garden office so it gets full speed rather than a weak scrap of signal. I survey the coverage first so you buy the right thing once instead of the wrong thing twice.
Yes. In most Heaton houses it is several laptops, a printer, tablets, phones, a TV and a smart doorbell or two, all half set up. I will go through the lot, get them talking to each other, make sure the photos and documents are actually backed up, and leave you with a written note of what is where.
Both. A lot of problems, especially software, email and account issues, can be fixed the same day remotely over a secure connection with you watching what I do. Where it is hardware, Wi-Fi coverage or a setup job that needs hands on it, I come to you.
Heaton in Bolton, BL1, the area along Chorley New Road around Bolton School, taking in Markland Hill and bordering Lostock and Smithills. If you are in Heaton Moor, Heaton Mersey or another Heaton, remote support still works fine, but a home visit would be a longer trip.
Everything I cover, and how it works, is on the main tech support in Bolton page. Businesses with staff, shared files and a network to look after are covered on IT support for small businesses. If it is your website rather than your computers, there is a page on web design in Heaton too. Heaton borders Lostock, Smithills and Doffcocker, and I cover all of them.
Describe the problem in your own words, in whatever detail you have. I will tell you what is likely going on, whether it can be sorted remotely, and what it would cost, before anything starts.