News

BT have recently confirmed that the switch-off of lines will now occur by January 31, 2027, rather than the original deadline of December 2025 – this includes the switch-off of Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). This delay is a significant development for customers, and we feel it is important that you understand what it means for your business.
At Trichromic we want to keep our customers informed about the latest developments in the UK’s full-fibre future. For those who are currently using analogue (PSTN) or ISDN lines for calls, alarms, fax machines, PDQ machines or, CCTV, these will need to be replaced with digital solutions at some point.

Why the Delay?

The delay is primarily due to the need to ensure a smoother transition for vulnerable customers and those with additional needs. The extra time allows for a more comprehensive approach to migrating these customers to digital landlines, ensuring they receive the necessary support and equipment to maintain their connectivity. Continue reading →

Following on from our recent post regarding the switch-off of PSTN (the very old UK system phone system that runs on copper wires), we thought it would be a good idea to debunk some of the scare stories regarding digital phone lines that are doing the rounds.
The PSTN switch-off should be happening in 2025. From then on, at home or at work, we’ll all be using digital phone services. Many businesses have already successfully made the move to digital – they’re already enjoying the many benefits of a new phone system.

At Trichromic we understand that not everyone is fully conversant how digital phone systems work and you may have heard rumours that the technology is not as robust as it should be. We’d like to debunk some of these myths. Here goes:

1. Calls over the internet aren’t as good as those made over a normal phone line
They’re better. Back in the early days of internet calls this observation may have been true. But the tech is no longer new – there have been huge improvements in network connectivity. It’s sophisticated, and delivers crystal clear audio with no more dropouts, tinny voices, echoes, or delays. Continue reading →

There is a major change coming to phone systems across the UK in 2025 – we will all have to use digital phone services.

What is happening?

The UK’s phone network is being upgraded – every landline cable is switching to faster, more reliable and responsive Internet Protocol (IP) technology. To use the IP network, any systems connected to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) phone line will need to be moved to a IP-based service.

At Trichromic we understand that not everyone is aware of this change and what it means to them. So, over the next few weeks we will be giving you the facts about this change and what you need to do to maintain your business communication systems.

The world of telecoms is full of confusing acronyms, especially when it comes to line rental. PTSN, ISDN, SIP, VoIP – what do all these acronyms mean? And which one is right for your business?
Here are the main differences between the big three: PSTN, ISDN and SIP. Continue reading →

A recent security breach at password management service LastPass was the result of one of its engineers failing to update a movie streaming app on their home computer. Thus is a sobering reminder of the dangers of failing to keep software up to date and business and personal software separate.

It appears unknown hackers leveraged information stolen from an incident that took place in August last year and a second attack between August and October 2022.

The attack enabled the hacker to steal partially encrypted password vault data and customer information. The second attack specifically singled out one of the DevOps engineers, targeting their home computer with a keylogger malware to obtain the credentials and breach the company’s cloud storage. Continue reading →

Personal and financial information, including names, billing and delivery addresses, phone numbers, order details and the final four digits of payment cards of approximately 10 million customers of Fashion retailer JD Sports were potentially accessed by hackers in a cyber-attack.

This data is related to some online orders placed between November 2018 and October 2020.

The affected JD Sports group brands are JD, Millets, Blacks, Scott’s, and Millet Sport. If exploited, this information could be used by cybercriminals to attempt phishing attacks, which could lead to financial loss or even identity theft. Continue reading →

Microsoft has confirmed support for Windows 8.1 and Microsoft 365 Office apps installed on the Operating System has come to an end. This may have you jumping for joy, but it is bad news if you find yourself stuck with an unsupported operating system.

Any individual or organisation still running Windows 8.1 (including Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 8.1) will be affected. Support for Windows 8 ended on 12^th January 2016. The problem is Windows 8.1, which up until now has been supported, is now having it’s support canned as well. To make matters worse, the support was pulled on 10^th January 2023 and there will be no extensions. Continue reading →

Hopefully our recent post will help you avoid some of the Christmas cyber scams out there. Unfortunately, there are plenty of these.

Here are some more scams to be aware of and how to avoid them:

 

 

Continue reading →

It’s that time of year again – Christmas is around the corner and many of us will be looking forward to some down time with our families and friends.

There is one industry that never has time off – fraudsters and criminals. The Christmas break is actually a very busy time for them; lots of opportunity to part people from their money and data whilst our guards are down.

At Trichromic we take cybercrime very seriously and to help you out we spoke to our local bobby who kindly flagged up his ‘top 3’ frauds and how to avoid them: Continue reading →

In recent weeks, our team of friendly experts at Trichromic have been contacted by a several customers who have had difficulty connecting to their IT systems due to a new process. The cause of the problem is Outlook 2013 not being automatically configured to use Modern Authentication so, it loses the ability to connect to the 365 Exchange Online mailbox.  This is a very frustrating issue that wastes a lot of your valuable time.

Modern Authentication is an umbrella term for a combination of authentication and authorisation methods between a client (for example, your laptop or your phone) and a server. Basically, it is a method of identity management that offers more secure user authentication and authorisation.

Modern Authentication is a good thing – it improves security. The use of the current Basic Authentication process is being removed for Exchange Online mailboxes on Microsoft 365 and replaced with Modern Authentication across all Microsoft products.

But there is a fix for this…

Continue reading →

Microsoft is investigating user reports of issues with Remote Desktop on Windows 11 systems after installing the Windows 11 22H2 Update.

Affected administrators and home users have been sharing their experiences across several online platforms, including Microsoft’s Q&A community platform for IT professionals.

Installing the Windows 11 22H2 feature update will cause Remote Desktop clients not to connect, randomly disconnect, or freeze unexpectedly.

A Windows admin said on Microsoft’s Community site, “All of our Remote Desktop Users using Windows 11 are having problems connecting to Remote Desktop after installing this update. It just hangs at connecting,”.

It appears there is a bug in the Remote Desktop client which is affecting the connection to another device – basically, the Windows 11 client only seems try one protocol (UDP) but, if this cannot process the data traffic, the secondary protocol (TCP) isn’t used, and the connection fails. Continue reading →