Computer repairs in Chelsea

The modem nobody has touched since installation day

Chelsea and the bayside strip either side of it were connected to the NBN comparatively early, and a great many households are still running the modem their provider posted out at the time. That hardware is now well past the age where it performs properly, and it is the single most common cause of "our internet has got worse" calls in this area.

Routers age badly in a way people do not expect. They run continuously for years in a warm cupboard, their capacity was designed for a household with four connected devices rather than fifteen, and the wireless standards they support have moved on twice since. The connection into the house may be perfectly healthy while the box distributing it is not.

Working out whether it is the line or the box

This is worth getting right, because the two have completely different fixes and one of them is free. Much of Chelsea, Edithvale and Bonbeach is on FTTN, where fibre reaches a street cabinet and copper covers the last stretch to your house.

Slow on Wi-Fi, fine on a cable

Your router or its placement. Replacing or repositioning it fixes this and the line is not the problem.

Slow on a cable too

The line itself, or the plan. This is a provider conversation, and we can give you the measurements to have it.

Fine sometimes, terrible at night

Usually congestion on your plan rather than a fault, though a tired router makes it worse.

Drops out entirely and comes back

Often a line fault or a failing modem. Worth testing properly before anyone replaces anything.

We test at the socket before recommending hardware. A modem and setup job is $90–150, and we would rather tell you the line is at fault and charge you for the visit than sell you a router that cannot fix it.

Older machines, and taking the time

Chelsea has an older population than most of the suburbs we cover, and a fair proportion of our work here is with people who are not especially confident with computers and have been told, usually by a family member, that their machine is "too old". Often it is not.

We take the time to explain what is actually wrong in plain terms, and we are happy to write things down. If a machine is genuinely finished we will say so, but we will not push a replacement on someone whose computer needs a $120 drive rather than a $900 laptop.

Things worth doing on an older household machine

1. Check the drive is healthy — this is the component that fails and the one that takes your photos with it
2. Get a backup running automatically, so a failure is an inconvenience rather than a loss
3. Cut the startup programs back to what is actually used
4. Make sure there is exactly one antivirus running, not three

Scams, and why this area gets targeted

Suburbs with older populations get more scam calls, and Chelsea is no exception. The remote-access scam — someone claiming to be from your telco, your bank or Microsoft, who needs to install something to fix a problem you cannot verify — is the one we clean up after most.

The rule is simple and worth telling every member of your household: no real company will ever ring you unprompted and ask to connect to your computer. If you have already let someone in, disconnect the internet at the router and ring us. We check what was left behind and reset access properly.

Where we cover

Chelsea, Chelsea Heights, Edithvale, Aspendale, Bonbeach, Mordialloc and Mentone, all at the same price with no call-out fee. Most work is done at your kitchen table, and we are happy to explain as we go.