By Sam Miller

The delete key on the computer is used by almost every computer user almost every day. Whether it’s to correct a misplaced key stroke or get rid of a unwanted picture file, the delete key is used regularly. But did you know that when something is deleted it’s not really gone from the computer’s disc drive?

Of course often times using the delete key, as in the case of a picture or music file, will simply send that file to the Recycle Bin. Savvy users clean out their Recycle Bins and Temp files and Cookies on a regular basis using… wait for it… the delete key. For those who thought that this meant the information disappeared, think again.

There is a significant difference between deleting a file, File Shredding and Disk Wiping. When the delete key is used the file information is not annihilated, it remains on the disk. All the delete key does, in effect, is removes the “address” to that file. In practical terms that means that it frees up that portion of the disc so that other data can be written in the same space. While it’s true that, eventually, after the same area of the disc has been written over three or four times the original data will disappear, it is never really completely obliterated simply because the delete key is used.

File Shredding, or “Wipe Disk” on the other hand, is more akin to shredding a piece of paper in a shredder. Yes, there are still letters on the scraps of paper and, theoretically they could be reconstructed, but the task is next to impossible. When it is necessary to completely destroy data and all usable traces of it, it is important to perform a “Wipe Disc.” The only certain way to do that is with File Shredding software. There are a number of good “Wipe Disk” programs available and they are the surest ways to destroy the data on a disk. These programs, and others like them, work by overwriting the space on the disc multiple times with nonsense or garbage. This renders the original data virtually unrecoverable.

Keep in mind, though, that even File Shredding with a good “Wipe Disk” program has some limitations. If the original file has been moved or broken up then even File Shredding might not work. If, for instance, a `Disk Defrag` has been performed since the original file was written then that file will be spread over several locations on the disc. In that case the only way to be sure the data is completely shredded is to Disk Wipe the entire segment or partition of that disc thus destroying all of the files in that segment or partition. Short of actually physically melting the disc, this is the surest way to obliterate data.

About the Author: If you are interested in wipe disk, check this web-site to learn more about file shreddering.

Source: www.isnare.com

1. Place all your feeds on the following website and the directories listed on this page - http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/blog_lists.html

2. For fast inclusion into yahoo, get yourself a “my yahoo” page - http://my.yahoo.com/ and place your rss feed on that page.

3. Have a link which allows other people to put your rss feed on their own “my yahoo” page. See “my yahoo” for details.

4. For fast inclusion to msn, also open a “my msn” account and add your rss feed to that page.

5. Place your blog on all the major search engines - http://www.thewebtrafficco.com/search_engine.html

6. Join this site and add your blog (free) - http://www.BlogExplosion.com

7. Ping your blog after every post at - http://pingomatic.com/

8. Place a “blogroll” on your blog using - www.blogrolling.com

9. Make a blog post at least every day or less. Why? - http://www.feedforall.com/why-use-rss.htm If you don’t think you can write enough content on a daily basis, there are many free articles out there you can use.

10. Invite other editors/writers or webmasters to write on your blog as co-editors. Make sure you allow them to include their “resource box” at the bottom of each post and set up an “about our editors” page.

11. Place a link and description to your blog on all your websites, out going emails and any autoresponder courses you have set up.

12. Announce your blog at forums you currently use/participate in.

13. Place informative responses in the “comments” box of other highly trafficked blogs in your field of business.

14. Once you have 10 to 15 posts on your blog, announce it with a press release.

15. Download this free rss marketing ebook by top Rss expert, ‘Rok Hrastnik’ - http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/rss_the_business_case.zip

About the Author: Chris Taylor, online marketer, author and business owner has been running successful websites since 2001. His sites and blog cover all areas of planning, setting-up and marketing your own profitable web business. http://catdynamics.com http://catdynamics.com/web-based-business-life/index.php © Catdynamics.com 2005

Source: www.isnare.com

By Simon Peters

No matter how you decide to backup your computer files secure data storage is always high on everyone’s list. How you choose to accomplish that will depend on the type of data you are backing up as well as the type of files. Business and personal users have different secure data storage needs and the type of files will determine the type of capacity they need.

For many personal user, between five and 10 giga-bytes will usually be enough storage for your family pictures, favorite music and financial files. Your software files typically can be reloaded fairly easy and do not necessarily require backup, however for those who buy a lot of downloadable software online, information regarding your user ID and passwords may be something you want to store in a separate file and place in secure data storage.

There are sources online offering the opportunity to utilize their servers for safe and secure data storage of your important files, typically at a monthly fee, which are easily searchable and recoverable at any time, day or night. While a dedicated server for secure data storage is more expensive than sharing a server with other people or companies, it is also more expensive.

Business Security Needs Differ From Personal

Businesses will usually require more secure data storage space and may need access to the information much more often than those with personal files in storage. Retail businesses, for example, may want to back up their daily sales information and general business correspondence in secure data storage in case of fire, flood or other natural disaster. Computer crashes can also wreak havoc on business and while software can be re-loaded the merchandise listings will take a long time to input.

For most businesses being comfortable with secure data storage involves having total control over the access to this information and typically larger businesses will not want to share this access. In this event, they may own their own secure data storage server offsite with access to the encrypted files limited to one or two people.

While many people may have access to the main files, access to the backup information is usually strictly controlled in the event a rogue employee wants to alter business records. Several do not even allow the system administrator access to the backup files in secure data storage as a means of protecting them from potential liability.

About the Author: Simon Peters is the owner of On Data Backup, it is THE best source for advice on the subject on backing up your data, nothing to sell, just information . . .

Source: www.isnare.com

By George Baker

Recent estimates put the number of pedophiles online at over one million.

Facts:

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s 2006 annual study found that among children 10 to 17 who spent time online:

· 1 in 4 was exposed to photos of people having sex, even though about 1/3 of households reported using “Internet blocking software.”

· 1 in 5 was solicited for sex in the past year.

· 1 in 17 was threatened or harassed on the Internet, including threats of harm to the child, friends or other family members.

· 1 in 33 was aggressively solicited by someone they met online, meaning that the child was threatened, asked to meet, called on the phone, or received mail or gifts.

It is essential for parents to know what there child is doing online. Without parental monitoring software, you have no way of knowing exactly what your child is doing unless your standing over their shoulder watching the entire time.

How does parental monitoring software work? The basic function of it is to report what your child does on their computer. Common features include…

– Chat Recording: This creates a transcript of both side of chat conversation, not in web-based chat rooms. Typically will record such instant messaging clients such as AIM, ICQ, MSN, Trillian, etc.

– Email capture: It will create a copy of every email sent of received from the computer. Even deleted emails.

– Programs run: It will keep track of every program (aka application) that is run by the user of the computer.

– Keystroke logger: It will keep a log of every key press of the computer keyboard. This will enable the retrieval of passwords typed into website which generally appear on the screen as all *******.

– Screen snapshot recording: It will on a predefined interval take pictures of the computer screen that can be later played back like a video recorder to see every action taken on the computer.

– Website blocking: Using predefined or user defined lists, it will block “black listed” web site.

– Website tracking: It will keep a log of every website and web page visited.

– Print Logging: It will keep a copy of everything printed on the computer so that your can later recreate the printed documents.

– Stealth Operation: It operates completely hidden to the computer user. There is nothing that shows in the task bar or in the task manager. It is invisible to the user account being monitored.

Most of the top parental monitoring software products include these features. Be sure check for the features that are most relevant to your needs.

Even with the best software, there is no replacement communicating with your child. Talk with your child about the risks, and let them know that they can talk to your if they encounter strangers on the internet.

About the Author: For more helpful tips and information visit PC Tattletale and Content Purity. George Baker is a constant observer of the evolution of the internet.

Source: www.isnare.com

By Peter Lopez

Today, many businesses are choosing to unplug and go with VoIP technology. There are many advantages for using VoIP including cost effectiveness, greater productivity, and the incorporation of data, audio, and video all intertwined in one program. Here is an overview of five reasons that your business should make the switch to VoIP.

VoIP Reduces Cost

Businesses today depend upon telecommunications. Whether it is Internet, E-mail, Customer Service through telephone, online web applications, and E-mail, or whatever your IT business needs may be, VoIP offers to handle all of your needs with one application. Additionally, this reduces cost and increases productivity. VoIP also has combined with software applications that are perfect for many business needs. Software such as accounting programs, Email, and PC based applications help to save money by combining services.

The reduction in long distance charges is another great advantage for switching to VoIP for business needs. By combining data, video, and audio needs, companies save on bandwidth usage, which ultimately leads to financial savings.

VoIP is perfect for Call Centers

VoIP is slowly becoming the standard choice for Call Centers. VoIP offers some major benefits for Call Centers such as flexibility, cost efficiency, and enhanced customer service applications. For instance, in the past, a Call Center needed to be a stabilized facility equipped with many phone lines used by people who would physically be located in the Call Center. By using VoIP for your Call Center, not only is your main location easily relocated as your business expands, but you can hire employees virtually world wide. Larger companies take advantage of VoIP Call Centers by outsourcing work overseas where they can hire employees for less.

The Integration of data, audio, and web based features is another reason why businesses are opting for VoIP. Customer service calls are handled more efficiently with the integration of these three components. Not only are calls transferred more proficiently, but also greater care can be given to customers when Call Centers use integrated software platforms.

More Call Centers are taking advantage of the opportunity to hire employees world wide through VoIP services. Employees may work in different time zones, giving greater customer service benefits year round, and hiring home based employees is another way businesses are choosing to save money.

VoIP is better for Mobile Employees

Many companies employ mobile workers. Mobile Employees have typically used cell phones at the company’s expense to stay in touch during the day. By utilizing VoIP Mobile Employees can remain virtually connected with the company, and the company saves money on fees.

When mobile employees rely on cell phones, many times a customer will call the main office, only to hear a message or be told the worker’s cell phone number. This requires the customer to hang up and call the employee on their cell phone- increasing the chance that the employee will lose the sale. By using VoIP, a call is instantly routed to the mobile employee and productivity increases.

Since VoIP integrates many other technologies, including E-mail, mobile employees are able to conduct many more transactions with one application.

VoIP allows Real Time Global Conferencing

Global conferencing and training can put a burden on a business. Attempts to reach employees worldwide are not only expensive but time consuming as well. With VoIP technology businesses can avoid conferencing costs, and enable secure audio and videoconferences to offices worldwide. By reducing long distance costs, employees are also taking advantage of calling each other and corporate headquarters more frequently.

VoIP offers Flexibility that Ultimately Increases Productivity

VoIP allows greater flexibility. By using a standard VoIP Phone Adapter, you are able to take your telephone number with you. This allows greater productivity by allowing employees to conduct business overseas, while traveling, staying in hotels, etc. Your customers will be able to call you on your regular business phone number, and you won’t have to use your cell phone.

Many VoIP services are fully integrated with PC applications such as fax and email. There is greater productivity when employees can integrate their email and phone services with one application. Conduct business with VoIP on your laptop, any time day or night.

With the option to get VoIP phone numbers with area codes throughout the country, and some world wide, businesses can expand by choosing local area codes for the city, state, or country they are targeting.

About the Author: Peter works full time earning an income from the internet by developing websites for customers as well as developing content rich sites in niche markets. Visit http://www.voip101.net for more information.

Source: www.isnare.com

By Sebastian Romero

A typical IT Equipment Room has around eight different types of machinery as part of the room’s infrastructure. The operation of the computers and systems within the IT room, is dependant upon all of the supporting systems operating correctly. Most, or all of the systems will be sold with a Maintenance Contract covering routine maintenance and breakdown cover.

The infrastructure equipment supporting an IT Equipment Room can be made up of some or all of the following:
Standby Generator, UPS system, Electrical Switchgear and distribution, Fire Suppressant system, Air Conditioning, Building Monitoring System, Data Cabling, Building Services and general cleaning.

The handling of the day-to-day administration of all of these maintenance contracts, placed with different suppliers, is time consuming and a distraction from the individual’s role within their organisation. Contract renewals, maintenance visits and break down situations, for each supplier need to be arranged and supervised. Most site visits are usually outside of normal working hours.

This is the reason that companies are increasingly outsourcing their IT Facility Management. A good contractor will be able to carry out all of the above on your organisations behalf. You should be given a 24/7 single point of contact for all of your maintenance and break down contracts.

The outside contractor assumes responsibilities for existing contracts, or will be able to recommend a Service Provider from their database of approved suppliers.

Take, for example the UPS system for the computers. The external IT facilities management contractor will help you specify the correct level of protection for your system

Modern processors in computers are very vulnerable to voltage spikes in the mains power supply. The processor may even fail, through overheating if a properly regulated supply is not in place.

People think that because they are paying for a 115v or 230v (UK) supply that that is what they get. No way. The quality and consistency of the electricity supply depends on the load and load variations being placed on the supply by local businesses.

You can protect your computers and the systems that depend on them by fitting a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) System. UPS systems range from a simple plug in device for a few dollars to complete standby generators for many thousands.

The simple plug-in devices are a waste of time and money if your business computer crashes. These low cost “UPS” systems are really just basic mains filters that remove the worst of the voltage spikes.

If you want any protection at all you need to consider a system that has sufficient battery power as a backup to allow you to close your system down manually if the power fails. The cost of UPS systems largely varies with the amount of backup battery power available.

About the Author: Sebastian Romero works in the security industry and runs his own ITFM company. Find more articles here . Check out UPS Systems or IT Facility Management.

Source: www.isnare.com

By Danny Wirken

WordPress, the premier free open-source blogging utility, has gone through several upgrades in its life. Today it’s one of the most popular blogging tools on the Internet; it’s easy to use, powerful, and very versatile. It also has a very active base of skilled users who are eager to improve the product and to help out those who haven’t tried it before.

Though the Strayhorn 1.5 version is the favorite for many, it is not as stable or as secure as the newest version 2.0.3. The best part of the new version is the security patch; the new “nonce” security key reduces the chances of a malicious hacker finding a way into your admin panel. Besides the security patch, though, several minor bugs have been squashed with this version. Though a major upgrade to 2.1 is due out soon, the 2.0.3 is something you should definitely download and install if only because of the security fixes, which were actually backported from the major upgrade files.

In addition to the 2.0.3 install, you should be aware that some bugs have already been found, and that a plugin will need to be installed to repair those bugs. If you modify any of the files that this patch plugin fixes, you’ll need to either merge the changes with the new files or make those changes manually once again. You can find these issues by running a diff to locate changes; if the only changes you find are your own, then you’re fine, and otherwise you’ll need to merge them manually into the new files.

The short list of what WordPress 2.0.3 fixes includes:

•Small performance enhancements
•Movable Type / Typepad importer fix
•Enclosure (podcasting) fix
•The aforementioned security enhancements (nonces)

One mostly annoying bug shipped with 2.0.3 as well. It gives you an “Are You Sure?” dialog when you edit comments, and adds a backslash before each quotation mark in the post you’re editing. Make certain to download the patch.

What’s Up With The Security Problem?

The security problem seems minor, but the WordPress team is fixing it before it grows into something major. It’s a bug that takes advantage of the cookie you download when you sign into WordPress. The cookie in question prevents anyone unauthorized from accessing your admin panel. It’s tied to your user account, and verifies that you are the authorized administrator of the account you’re working on.

The bug that’s being fixed is one that takes advantage of a sociological trick. If someone created a link or a form pointing to your WordPress admin account, they might possibly be able to trick you into clicking the link. In the case of the one here, you delete a post. This sounds both minor and highly unlikely; but a small crack in the door can be exploited later by a dedicated hacker. And this is also the kind of bug that, a few years ago, allowed a hacker access to the Microsoft databases, from which he stole portions of the Longhorn and other codes. So yes, you do need to take it seriously.

WordPress had ensured you were safe from this kind of hacking by using a utility called HTTP_REFERER. But this utility has some issues. For instance, with JavaScript in Internet Explorer, it can be spoofed. In addition, certain firewalls and proxies can strip the information it’s supposed to carry out, causing some people to be unable to use their WordPress admin accounts the way they’re supposed to be able to.

Now, instead of the HTTP_REFERER, a nonce is used; this is a number used once. It’s like a password that changes every twelve hours, and is valid for twenty-four hours. The nonce is unique to the specific WordPress install being used, the WordPress user logged in, the action, the object of the action, and the 24-hour time of the action. When any of these is changed, the nonce is no longer valid. All plugin authors will have to ensure the nonce is added to their forms and other interactive capabilities that may be affected.

Upgrading from WordPress 2.0.2 to 2.0.3

As with any upgrade, the first thing you should do is back up everything: the files in your WordPress directory, the database plugin with any changes, and any data you have added should be backed up as well. In addition, it might be a good idea to do a second backup of your entire WordPress directory just in case something goes wrong with your install.

Now remove the wp-admin directory entirely. Also remove the wp-includes directory, except for any translation and language files or directories you may have added; add these files to the backup files you created earlier. Finally, remove all the files where WordPress is installed with the exception of the file http://wp-config.php.

Now you’re ready to start your install. Download and unpack the 2.0.3 version in a separate install directory. You want to make sure you can control files and directories you copy over. Now install the new wp-admin and wp-includes directories.

Install the rest of the files of the top directory, with the exception of the http://wp-config-sample.php file.

Now enter the admin panel. You should see the following message: “Your database is out of date. Please upgrade.” Follow the link provided to update the database, and follow the directions there. Now remove the files wp-admin/upgrade.php and wp-admin/install.php. Download the plugin fix; add it and activate it. Replace your backup files where they need to be, and do the comparisons if you’ve modified any of your earlier files. This should take care of the whole thing.

For geeks, there is also an upgrade package that only includes the changed files. Look for it under Changes Diff (2.0.2 > 2.0.3). It consists of a zip file that is much quicker to install, but you should be certain you can handle it before using it.

About the Author: http://www.theinternetone.net

Source: www.isnare.com