I help with computers and, more often out here, with getting a usable signal across the property: Wi-Fi through thick-walled and converted buildings, coverage out to outbuildings and annexes, and the everyday computer setup and support that goes with it. I cannot change the line into the property, but a great deal of what people blame on rural broadband is actually fixable coverage.
Based in Bolton. You deal with me directly, not a call centre.
Rivington is a scatter of properties around the reservoirs, up towards the Pike, Anglezarke and the Belmont Road, and the technology problems out here are not the same as they are in town. Buildings are older and often converted: barns, farmhouses, stone cottages with walls two feet thick, outbuildings and annexes a long way from wherever the line comes in.
So the complaint is usually framed as slow broadband, and sometimes that is genuinely what it is. But very often the line coming in is doing better than the household ever sees, because a single router is trying to serve a building it has no chance of covering. Once the signal is distributed properly, with mesh points or a wired link where it matters, the connection people thought they were paying for turns up.
I will be straight about the limits. Where a line is genuinely poor I cannot conjure speed out of it, and I will say so rather than selling kit that will not help. What I can do is make sure every bit of what does arrive actually reaches the rooms and buildings you use, and look at the alternatives worth considering where the line is the real problem.
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 Rivington 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. Rivington and the properties around the reservoirs are a straightforward run out past Horwich, and I cover Anglezarke, Belmont Road and the surrounding farms and cottages too. Visits are arranged rather than same-hour, so give me a ring and we will find a time.
Partly, and I will be honest about which part. I cannot change the line coming into the property, and where the line itself is genuinely poor I will tell you rather than sell you hardware. What I can very often fix is everything after the router: coverage that never reaches half the building, an old router throttling the connection, and devices falling back to the weakest signal in the house. That is frequently where most of the missing speed has gone.
Yes, and it is the job I do most often out this way. Usually that means a proper wired or point-to-point link out to the building rather than an extender in a window, then an access point at the far end. Done that way the outbuilding gets a real connection rather than a bar of signal that drops whenever the weather turns.
Mesh helps, but in a thick-stone or converted building it works properly only if the points are placed against the layout rather than dotted about, and often only if at least one hop is wired instead of wireless. That is exactly the kind of building where a survey first saves money, because the wrong setup in the right house still fails.
Both. Out here the network is usually the reason people call, but the same visit will normally take in the slow laptop, the printer nobody can connect to, the email that stopped working and the backup that was never set up. It makes sense to do it all in one go given the distance.
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 a website you need rather than tech support, start with web design in Bolton. That covers Anglezarke, Belmont Road, Blackrod and the Horwich side.
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.