What's in a Security Check?

Only available for a PC.

Choose this service if you are concerned that your computer might be vulnerable to an attack. Choose this service if you would like to check that your computer is as secure as it could be.

This service is only available at this price (£30) if we can connect to your Windows laptop or PC remotely.

We'll test this with you firstly.

If, for some technical reason, we cannot connect to your computer then you might like to consider a visit to your home or office which costs £65.

Our steps and processes to complete the security check is as follows:

1. Connect to computer remotely. From here on, you'll be able to see what we do as we work on your computer.

2. Review your computer to make sure that it would benefit from the Security Check.

3. Ask you to pay for a remote Security Check at http://www.helpcomputing.net/payments.html. Please quote your name in the reference field as you complete your payment.

4. We'll continue to work on your computer. We'll stay in touch with you via your computer, but you are otherwise welcome to do other stuff instead. We'll call you if we have any queries.

5. Check Anti Virus (AV). Check AV schedules. Reconfigure AV if necessary. If no AV then offer to install helpcomputing's AVG CloudCare anti-virus. 

6. Test for open ports. Computers communicate with other computers via ports and there are thousands of ports. We make sure that only necessary ports are open.

7. If ports are unnecessarily open then check firewall (incl any hardware firewall in internet router). May need to take care if ports need to be open for games or other applications.

8. Check Windows Firewall is on.

9. Check Windows Update is working. Set to automatically update weekly.

10. Check User logon privileges. Recommend accordingly.

11. Run full AV scan. A full AV scan may take an hour or more.

12. Wrap up. A security check summary of what we did will be emailed to you. If the AV scan is still running, we will review this. Our special helpcomputing AVG variant will report back to us with any problems. We'll disconnect. The scan will continue. The AV is set to automatically deal with any problems but you may still call us (at no extra charge) if you have any queries about the result of the scan.


In rare cases, we may discover that your computer has a serious problem that our Security Check service cannot fix. We are likely to have discovered this at step 4 or 5. This may be impending problems with your computer, or perhaps a virus that has already taken hold of your computer.

Being fair, and because we like being fair, we'll do the following:

* Show you why we think your computer has a problem.

* If we weren't able to complete the Security Check because of the problem, offer you a full refund. And always be happy to leave it at that. We like being fair.

* Be happy to offer you a Service Option instead, if we feel we can fix the problem remotely, and charging you the difference. That is, the Service cost less the cost of the Security Check.

* Or be happy to offer you the Repair Option if the problem cannot be resolved remotely, charging you the difference between the cost of the Repair and the cost of the Security Check.

Credit and debit card details

Neither helpcomputing.net, nor Cairos Computing Limited store your financial details. Purchases made via this website are processed by PayPal and we have no method of storing or retrieving your credit or debit card details. If you use your credit or debit card in person then the reader we use has no method whereby your card details are stored.

This means that once you have passed your credit or debit card details to us, it is only used for the purpose of completing your transaction with us. Once your transaction has completed, your credit or debit card details are not retained.