FAQ's & Troubleshooting
Basic troubleshooting steps, as well as frequently asked questions.
If you require any additional assistance or information, see our Contact page!
If you have reason to believe that you have been hacked and your information and/or financials are at risk, please report the incident to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
To better educate and prepare yourself, please visit the Cyber Security Ontario website for tips, tricks and advice for people of all ages.
Step 1: Change your passwords
This is important because hackers are looking for any point of entry into a larger network, and may gain access through a weak password.
On accounts or devices that contain sensitive information, make sure your password is strong, unique—and not easily guessable. Adding your birthday to your mother’s maiden name won’t cut it. Try using upper & lowercase letter, numbers & symbols. Also, a good password manager can quickly generate hard-to-crack passwords for you.
Step 2: Secure your log-in process
Once your passwords are protected, make sure your log-ins are equally secure.
You may have heard about two-factor authentication, which is available on most accounts. This added measure helps to ensure you are the real person associated with the account you’re trying to access.
Two-factor authentication works by:
- Asking for your login credentials
- Sending a unique, time-sensitive code or notification to your mobile device, which you must enter or approve to complete the log-in process
While you’re at it, you might want to stop certain third parties from accessing your information on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. Follow the steps on each website’s settings section to disable these authorizations so the information you share is protected.
Step 3: Contact people who can help
If you suspect your personal or financial information has been fraudulently obtained, there are key steps to take immediately.
They include contacting:
- Your bank. They’ll help with processing claims and also be on alert for unusual spending activity.
- Friends and family. Let them know you suspect suspicious activity so they can keep an eye out for phishing messages or unusual communications.
- Your trusted friends at Forvan. Call us at 519-539-0705 or reach out to us via email at techsupport@forvan.com
When possible, write down any information about error messages or codes provided. Also, if possible take a screenshot or photo of your issue to share with the technician.
The first thing to do is check the power cord is fully plugged into the wall socket, and it’s switched on (hey, we all make mistakes!). If you’re using a plug strip, then ensure that it’s completely plugged into the wall, and the power strip is turned on. Some plug strips have built-in circuit breakers (this looks like a black or red button that’s near the power switch). Reset it to see if that turns your computer on.
Nothing is more annoying than when you’re working hard to get a deadline finished, and your computer suddenly crashes. There are so many reasons as to why your computer may crash or freeze, and you may not know the reason why. Your best bet is to wait a few minutes to see if it sorts itself out and resumes as normal. If it doesn’t, open the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete > Task Manager) to see which program isn’t responding, and close it. If your computer still isn’t working, then restart it.
If you’ve stepped away from your computer for a while and you’ve found your screen has turned black, it’s likely just gone into sleep mode. Moving your mouse around will have it back up and running. If that’s not the case, then click the power button on the monitor to see if it’s turned on. You should also check the back of your computer to ensure your monitor and all cables, are properly plugged in.
A “no signal input” message appears when there is no image displayed from your PC to your monitor. If this happens, then first of all, you should check that your monitor is correctly connected to the computer, and no cables are loose. You can do this by disconnecting all cables that are plugged into the back of the monitor. Finally, reconnect all the cables to see if that resolves the issue.
If your mouse or keyboard has stopped working, and it isn’t because it’s frozen, you’ll need to check that they’re connected properly. For wired ones, check they’re plugged in correctly into the computer. If your mouse or computer is wireless, make sure that the dongle is plugged in and that both accessories are switched on, and not in sleep mode. You can wake from sleep mode by clicking or pressing the space bar. You may also want to check if the batteries need replacing.
Technically you can just shut your computer off by pressing/holding the power button, as opposed to using the Start > Power > Shut down option. However, you should only do this if there’s an issue with your computer and it won’t switch off. We would only advise this as a last resort, because it can cause issues, such as data loss. Microsoft created the shut down feature to ensure that a computer goes through all the steps it needs to before turning off. That’s why if you just shut it down using the power button and then restart it, it comes up with a warning saying that your computer didn’t shut down properly.
One of the main reasons why you can’t send/receive emails, is likely because your computer isn’t connected to the internet. Another common cause of not being able to send or receive emails, is if your email program is set to the offline mode. Reconnecting is simple: just click on the Send/Receive tab, and check if the Work Offline button is shaded. If so, you will need to click it to get your email back online. If your connection doesn’t look to be the issue, then you may need to check that your email server isn’t encountering any issues – if that’s the case, the next best course of action is to contact us for assistance.
All you need to do is connect to your company’s VPN, in order to view all of the same files as you would when connected to the company network. You will need to check about the SSL VPN access – this could be through a terminal server, or cloud services such as Microsoft One Drive or Google Drive, depending on what your company prefers. To find your computer’s name, go to your Control panel click on System. When the window opens, you will see your Computer Name under the Computer name, domain and workgroup settings. If you are unsure of settings or requirements to connect, contact our tech team.
To make Chrome your default browser, open Chrome, then click More > Settings. You can then amend to Chrome under the Default Browser section. Alternatively, if you’re using Windows 10, by clicking Start > Default App Settings. You can then choose Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer as your default browser.
Your best password is also one that is easy to remember. That might seem tricky if it has to be long and random, but in actual fact the strongest of passwords can be very easy to remember.
A few tips to remember when making a new password:
- Choose a random string of words
- Use an entire phrase
- Deliberately misspell words
- Add punctuation(.,?!), numbers & symbols (@$&#)
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