While technology is supposed to make our lives easier, for many it is the source of frustration. Devices are becoming more advanced, complex, varied and interconnected and so are the problems associated with them.

Galway-based start-up Rescue IT aims to solve the increasing number of tech problems faced by consumers from the comfort of their own homes.

Founder David Russell believes the public's love/hate relationship with technology is growing as computers and tablets become more advanced, with consumers becoming stressed when valuable information is lost, when their device runs slow or when a virus comes along.

Beginnings
He started the remote PC repair business in 2011 after receiving a redundancy package from Boston Scientific in Galway where he was a process technician.

“I didn’t want to be twiddling my thumbs following redundancy so I qualified as a PC technician and set up my own business.

"At Boston Scientific whenever we had a problem with the computers we would call IT support. It was actually a person in India who remotely logged in to the computer to fix it. I thought it would be good if home users could have a service like that too."

Businesses all used remote support but there didn’t seem to be much for home users, he says.

"Virgin Digital Help provide PC support for home users in the UK but there was no one focussing on it in a big way in Ireland. It is mostly business to business support."

He found most people were bringing their computer or laptop to the nearest shop if they had a virus or software issue.

“People can have the job down from the comfort of their own home. It’s especially easier for people with a desktop PC. They don’t need to be unplugging everything and transporting it to a shop.

“Also a shop might take a few days to fix the computer whereas I can do it there and then. It’s often a lot of hassle dropping and collecting PCs from a repair shop.”

The consumer has complete control to permit the Rescue IT support technician to connect to their PC or Mac, so the technician can view, diagnose and solve the computer or network problem online. The user can terminate the session at any time and no software is installed.

Furthermore, all traces of the connection disappear from the user’s computer once the support session is finished.

“People might be wary asking who is this person from Adam looking at my computer. However, they can see what I’m doing at all times. If they dropped a computer down to someone to be fixed they wouldn’t be able to see what that person is doing.”

The Rescue IT technician views and solves the problem via secure remote screen sharing technology which employs end-to-end 256-bit SSL encryption, the same security levels used and trusted by major banking institutions.

“New problems and viruses come along all the time. I can fix 80 per cent of issues and if I can’t fix them, I don’t charge anything.”

He says users mainly ring if they have a computer virus they want fixed or if their computer is running slow.

“People will also ring when they lose data and want help recovering it, or if they need help with application problems such as Microsoft Office.

“Once a business rang me at 10 o’clock at night. It was a small transport business in Dublin and they were very worried as their whole computer system had crashed. They needed the problem solved immediately. I was able to fix the problem and they’ve been back to me twice since for other issues.”

He says an advantage of his business is the potential to reach a large amount of customers. He doesn’t need to be in the same town or city as a person in order to fix their computer.

Once the problem is fixed, the consumer pays Russell via a secure online payment facility on his website (rescueit.ie).

However, things haven’t been all smooth sailing, Russell says.

“When I started off I had high expectations but zero customers. I only had a small advertising budget so it was difficult getting my name out there.”

He believes more start-ups are happening now than in previous years.

“There aren’t many job opportunities out there so people have no choice but to create a job themselves.”