Don’t expect changes overnight, because this is way down the list of priorities (far lower than ‘Spend time with family’ and ‘Earn money’), but I plan to make some changes at BowenRacing.com.

Initially I started the site to tell people about my karting and other racing. Since then it has morphed into a place for me to post all sorts of stuff. Clever people like Nikki Pilkington suggest that a website should be more focussed. So, I’m going to have three websites:

• www.BowenRacing.com will focus on my motor racing, F1, and other car-related stuff
• Another website will be for my IT Consultancy business, with topics that might be of interest to a typical private or business client
• Another website for… there’s no other way of saying this, for the geeky stuff

There are still no plans for a website for my Financial Services business (yes, this is the Colin Bowen from Berry Bowen Financial Services).  Regulatory constraints are one reason, and another is that we only deal with existing clients and new clients by recommendation; that’s just the type of personal-service-based business we are at the moment.

Subscribe to this site’s RSS feed for updates, and I’ll post on this website when the other sites go live.

I’m on Twitter too, with two accounts:

• @BowenRacing is now the account I’ll be using for racing and F1 news
• @ColinBowen is the account I’ll use for tech and general tweets.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a comment.  Thanks!

BBC News reported on a Which? report today which shows that most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are using premium rate numbers for their tech support.

Why would anyone want to pay premium rates for a call to India and have to wait (while paying) for their call to be answered? Why not contact me? My time is cheaper than some premium rate tech support calls, and I’ll help you in person. Most of the calls I get are from people who have called their ISP, spent around an hour on the phone, and still haven’t got a solution. Most of the time, it’s not a problem the ISP can fix directly anyway.

Take a recent case as an example. A couple, both computer novices, had been on the phone to BT for ages because they couldn’t get their PC connected to their internet service. BT tech support had asked them to do lots of stuff on the PC to try to fix the problem, but as novice’s this was slow and frustrating. They even told them to buy an unusual type of USB cable to connect the modem/router to the PC. They did, but that didn’t work either.

I went round and started my diagnostics. I found that my laptop easily connected to their internet service, so it wasn’t a problem with the BT end of things. Their PC couldn’t ‘see’ the modem using the USB cable; the reason is that the USB socket on their BT modem is for attaching an external hard disk, not a computer, so that was never going to work. This just illustrates that the BT helpline doesn’t even know how its own equipment works.

The solution was easy. I fitted an Ethernet card to the PC (having cleaned out the dust from the inside of the PC first) and we got a connection immediately. They’ll have a good, reliable internet connection now. It’s something a novice couldn’t do on his own, and a helpdesk can’t do over the phone.

It took 90 minutes from start to finish, including cleaning out the PC, explaining everything in terms they understood, and a good chat (I know them personally). 90 minutes of personal service, compared to long phone calls, trips to PC World for unnecessary purchases, and still no solution.

I offer:

• In-you-home PC and IT services for residential clients in Essex, UK
• In-your-office PC and IT services for business clients nationally (if it’s cost effective for you and me)
• Online tech support at www.crossloop.com/ColinBowen (requires broadband connection)
• Payment by cash, cheque, credit card, or PayPal
• Work us guaranteed for 48 hours

Whatever you need, if it involves computers or IT then please contact me by:

• Click here to email me
• By leaving a comment on this website (see immediately below). Requests for IT support will not show up on this website, so leave some contact information please.
• By sending me a Direct Message on twitter (www.twitter.com/ColinBowen)
• By by online chat (if I’m available) at www.crossloop.com/ColinBowen. Just click ‘Chat With Me’ (free Crossloop registration required; takes about 60 seconds to register with your name, email, a password and ‘Accept Terms & Conditions’).