bacre is a new weapon to fight against the informatic plague that the viruses are. It protects your pc against viruses, trojans and bugs.

Active Virus Shield 6.0.0.308

Active Virus Shield is a free system, supported by AOL and based in the powerful antivirus engine of Kaspersky Labs. It is so simple that you can install, config and start using it in minutes.

AntiPharming 1.30

This application was created in order to prevent "Pharming". You can install it in your PC and it will check the websites that you visit and protect your PC against this recent-created activity.

Avast Home 4.8

Avast Home is a powerful, functional and well-known antivirus. It can detect a large list of viruses, trojans, bugs, rootkits and spywares. It also checks your PC with great efficiency, cleaning it in real time.

AVG Free Edition 8.0

Grisoft has recently created the new 8.0 AVG. This corporation says that this version has a lot of facilities and is much better than previous editions. Some of the innovations are a LinkScanner and a WebShield module.

Comodo AntiVirus 2.0 Beta

Altough this antivirus is free, it has a lot of advantages and good options. You can make 3 kinds of analysis: Fasts, Generals or periodics. It has automatic actualizations and support for e-mail analysis.

NOD32 Anti-Virus System

This is, perhaps, the best antivirus in the market, and you can get it for free here. It is one of the fastest and powerful antivirus. It also has automatic actualizations and it works in all versions of MS Windows.

Norton Antivirus 2008

Norton Internet Security is a complete set of security tools for your computer. You will have a full FireWall, internet privacity, e-mail scan, and many other useful applications. It is also one of the most known antivirus.

TrojanHunter 4.7

As its name says, it will defend your computer from Trojans. TrojanHunter checks the Registry files, memory and disk drives, to detect any trace of Trojan, including new Trojans.

Windows Defender 1593

Windows Defender is an utility with which you can easily remove spyware that have infiltrated your PC, while you are protected so that they do not 'enter' more, as do the antivirus software with viruses.

None of these services is an alternative to a virus protection program on your PC but it is always good to check and double check your system using sites like these if you have any concerns over the health of your computer.

As will soon become apparent, it is the way in which the Internet has evolved and hence its current structure that allows for the possibility of certain ISPs and larger Telcos to jointly exercise what would amount to an elitist monopolistic style of control over the Internet encompassing all elements and aspects of its accessibility, delivery, reach and functionality.

It is those issues surrounding current and future Internet accessibility that are of particular relevance considering the content, scope and provisions of various tabled and pending legislations in the USA and other countries. Make no mistake about it. What is at stake here is the very thing that has made the Internet what it is today; its neutrality.

Therefore; throughout the course of this investigation, we will be keeping an eye to the future while paying specific attention to how it is possible for ISPs, if permitted to control the Internet and all elements and aspects of its accessibility.

A Distributed Wide Area Network (WAN) Model

In essence, the Internet (internetwork) is based around a distributed Wide Area Networking (WAN) model (see Fig.1 above) comprised of untold numbers of different networks of varying architectures, topologies, technologies, sizes and complexity being linked together to form one giant internetwork spanning the entire globe and even beyond into space. Yes, they do have Internet access onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

As depicted in Figure 1; consumers, enterprises and organizations of all types and sizes wishing to access remote resources or to connect with another network via the Internet must first establish and maintain a connection with their Internet Service Provider (ISP). This ISP will in turn accesses the Internet backbone either directly at an Internet Exchange Point (IX or IXP) or by connecting with another (usually larger) ISP from whom they purchase IP transit or peer with. See IP Transit for more details.

The key factor that defines a distributed WAN is that servers and clients will be spread throughout the entirety of the network more or less randomly. In fact, up until recently the majority of Internet access and services were such that end-points would be continually and sporadically connecting and disconnecting without prior notice to their ISP.

From an ISP's perspective, this behavior placed scalability issues among the hardest facets of service provision and quality of service delivery to address.

It was also common for ISPs to terminate endpoint connections that they (the ISP) “deemed” to be idle. Unfortunately, the end user and their ISP often have very different and conflicting ideas and definitions of what constitutes idle and therefore qualifying for connection termination. This has always been the most frustrating characteristic of traditional dial-up Internet access.

The Rise of Point-to-Point Links

When dissecting and analyzing the structure and topology of the Internet it is important to never lose sight of its fundamentally distributed conglomerate nature. One direct consequence of this is that routers play an essential role in connecting together the various networks and subnets which comprise the Internet.

In general, whenever these different networks are not geographically adjacent dedicated always on point-to-point links have up until recently been the traditional modus operandi (see Figure 2 below).

Historically, this type of point-to-point full-time telecommunications interconnect is known as a leased-line and in its simplest form consists of a dedicated telephone line with modems and routers or modem/routers at each end. Standard practice in implementing this design is to assign the dedicated link a subnet unto itself with only two IP addresses; one for each end.

This type of arrangement was fine from an enterprise perspective as it permitted various geographically dispersed branches of an organization to be permanently connected while preserving IP addresses.

The biggest drawback however, is the fact that point-to-point connectivity deployed as a full mesh topology (see Figure 2 above) rapidly becomes an over complicated administrative and economical nightmare. As the number of separated sites requiring interconnection increases, so too does the number of relatively expensive dedicated leased-lines and associated point-to-point connectivity terminal devices (modems, routers, cabling etc.) and infrastructure (distribution and access devices and wiring).

Another problem with traditional point-to-point connectivity is that each individual link consumed two “live” IP addresses. Incorporation of multiple redundant links as in a mesh topology (Figure 2) improved the overall internetwork's reliable availability but consumed ever larger numbers of “live” IP addresses which were fast becoming very hard to come by. This depletion of the available “live” IP address pool is one of the main reasons that we are currently transitioning to IPv6.

The practical establishment of an organization-wide mesh topology network is therefore economically and administratively unrealistic. The result was that in practice, organizations would establish up to three point-to-point links per site thereby providing redundancy of connectivity. Should any one link be disrupted the site could still communicate via the other links; albeit in a circuitous manner. The message still got through.

A Cooperative Model

Moving beyond a single enterprise desiring full-time interconnectivity the picture immediately increases in complexity. Now either every organization has its own routers connecting to the shared internetwork or some organizations could cooperatively share internetwork connected routers as their “gateway” to the internetwork. For a fee of course (see Figure 3 below).

The technical term for cooperative tariff-free network access and IP transit arrangements between different organizations (or even individuals) is peering.

Due to its numerous different forms, details, characteristics and manifestations peering warrants an article unto itself. Similarly, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) Tier system merits further investigation. However, due to the tight relationships between the two (ISP tiers and ISP peering) I will collectively cover them both in another article entitled Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Tiers and Peering.

Jumping forward in time for a moment, we find that for the Internet of today a modified cooperative model has won. Special organizations known as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have their own Internet internetwork connected routers and the rest of us enter into an agreement with the ISP to gain usage rights for Internet access via their (our IPS's) Internet internetwork connected routers (see Figure 3 above).

Internet Backbone Topology

Right from the outset, the Internet in the USA has always used a backbone topology, with the original backbone network infrastructure being provided by the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). This structure was eventually privatised in 1995 when a variety of commercial organizations, known as Network Service Providers (NSPs) collectively took over the backbone functionality.

Note that in most parts of the world today (including Australia and the USA) these original Internet backbone provisioning and support NSPs are now referred to as Tier 1Internet Service Providers (ISPs). As I will discuss shortly; very similar structures, circumstances, peering arrangements and relationships between the Tier 1 ISPs exist in practically every Internet connected country, at least at their local national level.

Internet Exchange Points (IX or IXP)

One particularly important and pervasive characteristic of the Internet that also occurs at the local, national and the global levels is that geographically speaking Tier 1 ISPs interconnect with the Internet backbone and each other at various clearly defined and readily distinguishable physical locations throughout the Internet backbone (see Figure 4).

Originally, these Internet backbone access and ISP interconnectivity points were known as Network Access Points (NAPs). However, the term Network Access Point (NAP) is no longer used in this context. Rather, the name commonly given to the physical locations at which Tier 1 ISP Internet backbone interconnections occur today is Internet Exchange Points (IX or IXP) (see Figure 4).

Note that although the term Network Access Point (NAP) is still in common use today it now refers not to the Internet backbone access points but to those points at which users access their local network. This may be a home or corporate LAN, MAN, WAN or even a public wireless hot-spot. In fact any point at which individuals access a network is considered to be a network access point.

As one would expect either certain cooperative arrangements (peering) or very complex financial schemes exist between the various Tier 1 ISPs. I will be discussing these arrangements and Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs in another article so I won't delve into this aspect any further at this point. Suffice to say that on the global stage the Internet is built around the same type of backbone structure with discrete Tier1 ISP access via Internet Exchange Points (IX or IXP).

ISP Point of Presence (POP)

An ISP has a Point of Presence (POP) at a physical location if its customers can connect to it at that location. This holds true regardless of which tier that ISP may be classified as belonging to or which level of the Internet structure or local hierarchy we are discussing.

Local Conditions and Network Evolution

As an example of the changes and local conditions that may prevail in different geographical locations from time to time I will use the Australian case as this is somewhat easier to grasp and illustrate being a one-country continent even though the distinctions between Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs are somewhat blurry.

Back in 1990 the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) was established to connect all Australian universities and a number of research institutions. The first AARNet implementation involved a state-level router in each Australian State capital city. These routers were connected to the main AARNet hub router in Melbourne by way of expensive leased-line services. An additional leased-line was used to link the Melbourne-based hub router to the USA.

AARNet retained ownership of all of the routers and the provision of basic carriage services was the only involvement of Telstra, the telecommunications provider at the time. Thus, Internet access between Australian universities more or less followed the cooperative model as already discussed above.

This expensive to maintain and run architecture has now been replaced by a far more economical one where an ISP (C & W Optus in this case) interconnects all state regional networks to each other as well as to the publicly accessible Australian and International Internet.

In this example we see a relatively expensive private hybrid tree/star topology network based upon point-to-point connections being replaced by a far more economical publically accessible commercial backbone-based topology internetwork.

Endpoint Connectivity and Presence

While the Internet backbone is a highly structured, ordered and persistently stable component of the global internetwork, the terminal networks, user nodes and other endpoints connecting to it are free to come and go as intermittently as they please. It is merely a matter of convenience or of a fiscally driven e-commerce desirability that sees most broadband Internet connections being “always on”.

Beyond Terra Firma and into the Future

As already noted Internet access is available onboard the International Space Station (ISS). What is not so well known is the degree to which traditionally Earth-bound communications and networking technologies and devices such as routers and switches are leaving the confines of terra firma and making the transition to space; thereby becoming truly universal infrastructure devices.

To illustrate just how much these unified communications and networking technologies are extending their reach far beyond terra firma, the Japanese have recently launched an ATM switch onboard a communications satellite.

The idea being to perform the switching functions in situ (in space) rather than beaming signals from earth-bound handsets up to the satellite, down to a ground-based exchanges for switching, then back up to the satellite for final relay back down to the intended earth-bound recipient. Compare this to the efficiency of a caller beaming the signal directly to the satellite where onboard switching takes place and the signal will then be transmitted directly to the intended recipient.

With the continuing evolution of converged unified communications and networking technologies and functionalities such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) this trend will not only continue into the foreseeable future but accelerate exponentially.

Further Reading, Additional Links and Resources:

• Wide Area Networks (WAN)
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
• IP Transit

Texas Instruments Inc.

This device extends the battery life in certain types of medical tools, scales, and data acquisition applications.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Building- I. M. Pei

The architect tends to design buildings that depict the high-tech movement. He always works on larger scale projects and uses geometric designs to shape his buildings.

The "Butterfly Effect" - Prof. Edward Lorenz

Professor Lorenz realized that small differences in a forceful system such as the atmosphere could trigger unsuspected results. These explanations eventually led him to formulate what became known as the butterfly effect. "This term came from a paper he wrote in 1972 entitled Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?"

Bose stereo - Professor Amar Bose

These stereo speakers are world-renowned for giving high-end performance despite their reticent size.

Ethernet - Robert Metcalf

Ethernet is a relationship between the unit frame-based computer networking technologies for (LANs). The Ethernet controls our access to certain types of data processing models, i.e. Internet.

The Internet Archive - Brewster Kahle

The Internet Archive (IA) consists of an online library containing the vast information on the Web and other multimedia resources. This information includes certain snapshots from various times from software, WebPages, audio visual and other sources.

Rockman amplifier - Tom Scholz

The Rockman is used in conjunction with headphones and an amplifier used for certain guitars. If any of you are familiar with Boston then you know who invented this.

Spacewar, the first computer game-Steve Russell

Spacewar was the first digital computer game of our time. The idea behind the game involved spaceships attempting to shoot each other while manipulating within the galaxy. I remember this game; I used to play it all the time on my Atari. I wish I still had it.

Hypertext - Prof. Vannevar Bush PhD

Hypertext is defined as words or text that leads the user to information associated with those words.

GPS (Global Positioning System) - Ivan Getting

The GPS uses satellites that transmit microwave signals. These signals enable receivers to determine certain types of pertinent information such as direction, time, speed and location.

 

 

 

Introducing Wide Area Networks (WANs)

A Wide Area Network (WAN) is generally considered to be a type of computer network that covers a broad area where communications links cross regional, metropolitan or national boundaries. Today, it is probably better to think of a WAN as a network that uses routers and publicly accessible communications links. Without doubt the largest and most well-known WAN is the Internet.

Wide Area Networks (WANs) are used to connect Local Area Networks (LANs) and other types of networks, including Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), Local Area Networks (LANs), wireless and private networks. The purpose of a WAN is to enable users and computers in one location to communicate with users and computers in other, often very geographically dispersed and separated locations.

Typically a WAN will consist of a number of interconnected switching nodes that allows transmissions from any one device to be routed through these interconnected nodes to the specified destination device(s). These nodes are not concerned with the contents of data rather their interest is focused on the provision of a switching facility to move the data from node-to-node until they arrive at their intended destination.

Wide Area Network (WAN) Models

In essence there are two basic design models upon which all WAN connectivity structures and organization are based. They are:

The Centralized WAN Model - Consists of a server or group of servers in a central location and client computers or dumb terminals that connect to the server(s) which provide the bulk of the network's functionality. Figure 1 above is a logical construct of a typical centralized WAN. Note that all points lead to the centrally located servers.

Today's typical physical Point of Sale (POS) functionality such as that implemented by chain organizations such as banks and supermarkets etc is a classic example of a centralized WAN. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and web based applications are other examples of a centralized WAN computing model.

The Distributed WAN Model - Consists of client and server computers distributed throughout the network (see Fig.2 below). The Internet is a distributed WAN.

The three tiered network design hierarchy consisting of a core layer, a distribution layer and an access layer is implemented on top of which ever WAN connectivity and organizational structures are chosen. For more about the three tiered network design hierarchy check this article out Network Design: Hierarchies.

Building Wide Area Networks (WANs)

In order to facilitate the efficient and effective transfer of information between a WAN's end systems a number of protocols (rules that govern the transmission and reception of information between computers and network end-points) needed to be developed and implemented.

Generically speaking; a networking protocol is the formal description of a set of rules that describe, enable, govern and regulate the various characteristics, aspects, attributes and properties of an internetwork. One of the more important early WAN protocols was X.25. Although it is not used today, many of X.25's underlying protocols and functions (with modifications and improvements) are still in use by current iterations of Frame Relay.

Initially, most WANs were built using expensive leased lines. The most common production implementations of leased line based WANs involved the use of a router at each end of the leased line to connect to the LAN on one side to a hub within the WAN on the other.

Wide Area Networks (WANs) Reducing Implementation Costs

If ever the use of Wide Area Networks (WANs), including the Internet was to become widespread and accessible to the bulk of humanity (be it as individuals or collectives) something needed to be done to reduce the startup and running costs of planning, implementing and maintaining WANs. Fortunately solutions did exist.

Less costly alternatives to using expensive leased lines when building a WAN include the use of circuit switching or packet switching technologies. Here, network protocols including TCP/IP serve to deliver transport and addressing functions. While protocols such as Packet over SONET/SDH, Multiprotocol Layer Switching (MPLS), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay are commonly used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to deliver the links that are used in WANs.

Wide Area Network (WAN) Connectivity Options

Leased Line - Provide secure but comparatively expensive Point-to-Point connectivity between two computers or Local Area Networks (LANs) using protocols such as Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) and Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC).

Circuit Switching - A less expensive dedicated circuit path offering bandwidth data transfer rates ranging from 28K-bit/sec to 144K-bit/sec is created between end points. On the downside call setup and connection establishment needs to be renegotiated every time access is desired because the link is not necessarily permanent. The most well known example of circuit switching WAN connectivity is dial-up connections. Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) are two of the most widely used protocols for circuit switching WAN connectivity.

Packet Switching - Variable length packets are transported over a shared single point-to-point or point-to-multipoint link across a carrier internetwork using Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVC) or Switched Virtual Circuits (SVC). X.25 and Frame Relayare two examples of packet switching protocols used for WAN connectivity.

Cell Relay - Cell Relay is very similar to packet switching, but uses fixed length cells instead of variable length packets. Data is divided into fixed-length cells and then transported across virtual circuits. Unfortunately the overhead can constitute a significant proportion of the total bandwidth. Cell relay protocols such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) (up to 155M-bit/sec) are best for simultaneous use of Voice and data.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) - With the recent reductions in Internet connectivity and concurrent increases in bandwidth and transmission rates now offered by ISPs many organizations have opted to use VPN technologies such as those on offer from the likes of Cisco Systems, New Edge Networks, Juniper, Check Point and Vyatta to interconnect their networks. One of VPN's strong points is encryption and considering the prevalence of cyber-crime today it is no surprise to find that this form of WAN is currently very popular.

Wide Area Network (WAN) Transmission Media and Links

Any given WAN may use one, more or even all of the following technologies for the transmission and transport of information:

Copper-Based Media - Telephone lines, coaxial cable, CAT cable etc

Fiber Optic-Based Cables - Single-Mode and Multi-Mode (see Fiber Optic Cableand Optical Networkingfor more).

Wireless - Radio frequency channels, microwave links, satellite channels and publically accessible wireless “hot spots”

Wide Area Network (WAN) Transmission Rates

Typically, WAN transmission rates usually have ranged from 1.2K-bits/sec to 6 M-bit/sec, although some connections such as ATM and Leased lines can reach speeds greater than 156 M-bit/sec. The advent of ADSL 2+ has upped the ante even further.

Now with transmission rates up to 30 Mbps, DSL and cable modem are two high data-transmission rate consumer Internet connections that transmit considerably faster than a dial-up modem (56 kbps). Add to this the fact that they are also generally cheaper than both ISDN and dial-up and you get a very cost-effective solution.

Wide Area Network (WAN) Access

Wide Area Networks (WANs) may be public (usually built by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide Internet connectivity) while others are private (built for a specific organization). That is to say that public access to an organization's “private” network component is regulated by that organization. In contrast, access to public networks and user privileges remains largely unregulated beyond the criteria as defined by the agreement between the consumer and your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Hence, the general public, anonymous and guest visitors, colleagues, business partners, and associates etcetera may be permitted limited privilege access to various sectors of an organization's private network but not to all of it. Functionalities, services, assets and user capabilities will vary greatly on a case-by-case network-by-network basis.

Demilitarized Zones (DMZs)

A classic example of this regulated limited access is commonly implemented in the form of Demilitarized Zones (DMZs) that allow public access to a very restricted and confined portion of an organization's private network. Here they may be able to access a web server for e-commerce, technical support or even just for casual browsing. You cannot make a sale if you cannot communicate with your customers. Even auto responders and automated shopping carts require some degree of two-way participation from both the customer and your software.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Another increasingly more common type of WAN is the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) which is basically the same as a WAN except that its boundaries are contained within a single metropolitan area (city).

In Australia, a MAN can be viewed as a network for which standard landline telephone communications are charged at the local call rate (not STD) as all endpoints have the same area code. With broadband configured as a permanently connected service the customer only pays the local call fee for the initial setup connection or reconnection if the service is interrupted for any reason.

Examples of private Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) would be the corporate links between various branches of the same organization (chain stores, banks) in the Perth metropolitan area. The key here is that regardless of the protocols or other technologies being used, part of the transit will be via publically accessible networks such as the Internet. The remainder will of course be contained within the boundaries of their “private LAN”.

WANs, MANs and Interoperability

Internetworking and interoperability are key factors critical to the realization of effective and readily available e-commerce portals as well as other external network resources and services. Regulatory and other compliance issues also need to be taken into consideration.

The seamless, secure interoperability of multiple systems and networks is essential in order for the general public to have free and ready access to those components of the enterprise LAN/MAN/WAN deemed desirable by that organization/enterprise.

For example; it is usually deemed to be highly desirable that the general public have rapid seamless access and interactivity with an organization's e-commerce facilities such as the shopping cart, support services if appropriate and resources such as online documentation.

The expansion of Web 2.0 functionality and the upsurge of social networking applications all rely heavily on the effective and efficient seamless integration of internetworking and interoperability technologies at all levels.

Stuff Online

iGoogle

iGoogle is your personal homepage. You can check your Gmail, view webcams, weather reports, RSS feeds, Calendar, and mini games. You can choose from the library of widgets and choose a background suited to your style. The classic page is always accessible by clicking the link at the top of the page.

Gmail

Gmail is Google's webmail, boasting up to 6 GB of email storage, IMAP support, serious spam filtering, built in chat, mobile phone support; the list goes on.

Maps

Google Maps is the basic online version of Google Earth with place search. It uses satellite imagery from NASA and also recently added a feature called "Street View", which allows you to look around certain places from a street view. It can also display geographical locations of Wikipedia articles.

YouTube

YouTube is the most used video site on the web, hosting over 6 million videos. Users can upload their own videos to share with others. Google bought YouTube for US $1.5 Billion in 2006.

Page Creator

Page Creator is an online tool for creating basic websites, which are then hosted for free on Google's servers. Web Pages are easy to create and don't require any skill in web design. This is still in beta testing in Google Labs.

Docs

Google Docs is an online document creator. Spreadsheets, Presentations and Text Documents can be created and stored in this online service. Documents are then shareable with others.

Calendar

Calendar is an online calendar to keep you organized. The advantage of having an online calendar is that you can share events with others and it can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. You can change between Day, Week, Month, 4 Day and Agenda.

Stuff for your computer

Earth

Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. An internet connection is required to use although you can go to already viewed places in the offline cache.

Desktop

Google Desktop can search your computer with easy access from the desktop. It also features a sidebar where clocks, mail, system information, weather, news and more can be seen at a glance.

Toolbar

A useful search add-on to your Internet Explorer or Firefox Browser. Features include easy search, quick access to bookmarks, and custom buttons to suit your needs.

Picasa

Picasa is a basic photo editor and organizer. You can label photos, file them, create screensavers or create a gift CD with your photos. There are a variety of ways to share your photos, from publishing them in a Picasa Online Album to sending them in an email.

SketchUp

Google SketchUp is a basic 3D modelling program that is very easy to use. With a range of easy tools, such as square and extrude tools, you can master the basics in no time. There is a library of models online called the 3D warehouse which you can share models with others. Models can also be given rendered texture and can be exported into Google Earth.

Talk

Talk is Google's instant messenger and VOIP client. Kind of like Skype, it features voicemail and mobile support. An online version is integrated into Gmail.

Pack

This is a bundle of software full of useful applications for your computer, some of it created by Google and the rest from other places. It contains Google Earth, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Talk, StarOffice and Mozilla Firefox.

1. A Computer Just To Work

   If you use your computer to anything else than just work you will be not 100% productive since you will be tempted to install software you don't need and games that will just waste your time. Delete ALL the programs you don't need to work. Buy one computer for entertainment and play with that computer instead.

2. All your tools must be just one click away

   If you have to click twice or more to open or get what you want you are not 100% productive and remember you only have one life because you are not a cat! All your shortcuts must be in the deskbar so you can launch all you want with one click. To access your documents quickly I recommend you to install Google Desktop ONLY if you still use Windows XP. Vista users use the default desktop search.

3. Email productivity is crucial

   You have more important things to do than checking your mail all the time. Gmail is the best and the fastest mail because not only you don't need to install any software to make it fast but also you have powerful tools to search and tag all your mails easily.

4. Browser productivity is the single most important producivity improvement you must make

   Install Firefox 3 as fast as you can. It's not the fastest or the most secure browser, but overall it's the best one because of compatibility issues and website interaction. Don't install any theme or you risk having fun instead of working. The only add on you need is Stumble Upon toolbar to submit your pages to the comunity but you should hide the toolbar while you are not submitting to see less distractions.

5. Delete all the files from your desktop

   My computer, Recycle, Documents, hide them all. You don't need them that often and you can access them faster if you use Google Desktop in Windows XP or the Start Button in Windows Vista because most of the time you are browsing or writing and closing all the Windows requires not only time but a lot of patience too.

6. Get a nice wallpaper because it's the face of your computer

   Don't get one with hot chicks or cars. Instead get a professional one like Windows Vista Ultimate Wallpaper. Get it on Google. It's looks very good and professional and it boost morale to work.

7. Configure your computer regular tasks to be done automatically

   Defragment, Disk Cleaning, Anti Virus and more sould be done 100% automatic with zero user interaction.

8. Delete ALL the files you don't need to work

   I mean all the images, music and videos as well as Firefox Bookmarks for sites you don't need to work. They will just be there to distract you.

9. The U.S. Navy knows something that most people don't know

   To achieve 100% focus you need to see only the essencial buttons to command a powerful and dangerous submarine so the soldiers cannot have more than 11 lights on in the submarine control pannel because human beings cannot hadle so much input. This means you should clean your computer from all distractions. Clean your office as well. You need only the essencial input to work 100% concentrated.

10. Work with your browser in full screen mode

    This way you will see less buttons and attention messages from many programs and you can work longer and more concentrated. Just press F11 while using your browser.

11. Put Media Player streaming a good radio with music only

    If you play your own music you will always feel tempted to choose this music or that one instead. With just one radio you know you can't choose so you concentrate on working.

12. Peace of mind is absolutely important to work better

    Password protect your computer and all your log in sites with a very strong password from a password generator javascript website and save all those passwords in a password protected document.

Now go back to work and see how faster you are working now!

 If you do not have a big server room, designed by expert, it might be interesting for you to see how others manage security, safety and cooling system. Read about true experience and it might give you an idea what to check next in your server room.

How Keep your Server Room Cool Enough.

If you are working in an average IT, you do agree that server rooms are far away from what you might see on IT exhibitions. The cruel reality is that the whole system is in a small, usually overloaded room. How can we make sure the cooling system is going to work all the time? It is crucial part, even if we do not want to agree. If cooling system fail you can have a big problem.

Situation:

Small server room with three racks, one air condition system, UPS power supply for servers, fire alarm and access control.

True Example:

It was Monday morning in December, it was snowing and there were traffic jams. There was unplanned electricity power loss, servers went down as it was planned and everything looked just like standard procedure. After few hours the electrical power came back and all servers started to work normally.

Problem:

The cooling system didn't start again, because safety fuse has blown.

Here the big problem occurred. The temperature in the server room started increasing rapidly. There were also loud noises coming out of the server room, since all the vents were trying to do their best. The temperature in the room was much over 50oC/122F and the walls were pretty hot.

Procedure:

Alarming system send few SMS to admin cell phone and we all started with emergency procedure. One of our coworker, with enough authorization rights, opened the server room and started with cooling the server room. All servers were already in safety stage and in that time they started the shut down process.

Damage:

There was no real HW damage since servers were down only for half an hour. We could calculate the time and money we spend/lose with this event, but in general due to weather condition everything worked slower than in normal working days.

Result:

We wanted to do some sort of improvement, so similar incident would not occur any more.

• We installed two separate air-condition systems
• There are already a fire alarm installed but we also built in some fire extinguishing ampoule beneath the servers, just in case
• Second most important improvement was installing special air ventilation in case air-condition is not working, that way we can at least assure constant air circulation and that fresh air is coming inside and hot air is leaving the room
• Sensors, added vent and air-condition are on different safety fuses

Conclusion:

Despite all precaution, there is always a chance that we forgot on something. But we can learn from our and other experiences and try to minimize chances of possible failure in the future.

You might have seen VirusTotal in the American edition of PC World Magazine s 100 Best Products of 2007. For those of you that didn't, Virus Total will scan the file you uploaded with 33 different virus scanners updated every few hours including AVG, avast! and McAfee. VirusTotal has no upload limit, but don't be surprised when a 200mb file takes half an hour to upload.

Jotti's Malware Scan

Jotti's Malware Scan is similar to VirusTotal, but it only has 20 virus scanners. But because of this Jotti's Malware Scan will be a little faster. However, the Malware Scan only accepts files less than 10 mb.

VirSCAN

This multi-engine scanner has three more scanners than VirusTotal, but it seems to take twice as long as VirusTotal and Jotti's Malware Scan. Not only that but it only has a 10mb upload limit. One feature that might be useful to some users is the ability to see how harmful or harmless an infected file may be (I personally get rid of an infected file if I see one).

That concludes this article, but remember that none of these scanners replaces a good antivirus client that is actually installed on your system. You can get some good free ones pretty easily here and here.

Pros: Recently just out of beta stage, Avast 4.8 now offers a built in anti spyware and anti rootkit now giving it better detection then it's previous version 4.7. It seems to me that 4.8 uses less resources, though the Avast development team says there should be no change in memory usage. Avast also has an automatic update feature. Also i might at that Avast has a faster scanner then previous versions. Avast has also added a new self defense feature which stops Avast from being shut down by malware.

Cons: Avast currently has no heuristics scanner besides it's email protection. I have heard a couple complaints from people saying they thought Avast was slowing down their Internet speeds, i have tested several times to see if i could encounter this same issue and i did not see any difference in my download speed with Avast.

AVG Anti Virus 8.0.1 (Free)

Pros: AVG has finally came out with a new version of AVG Anti Virus that now offers a built in anti spyware giving it too better detection of spyware. AVG 8 also seems to be a lighter anti virus on memory usage. The AVG developers have also added a new feature called "Link Scanner" which turns out to be a Web Shield detecting viruses that are actually embeded in websites. AVG 8 was one of the first anti viruses to detect the Alicia Keys myspace virus with Link Scanner.

Cons: This isn't to big of a con, but its updates download kind of slow. The heuristics engine is not that good on detecting unknown malware and viruses compared to Nod32 and others.

Avira Antivir Personal 8.1 (Free)

Pros: Avira Antivir offers a strong heuristic scanner to detect some of the newest and unknown malware and viruses based purely on the behavior. Avira also has a very fast virus scanner, they have also added an anti spyware feature to it's free version thus giving it too better detection of spyware and also better overall detection.

Cons: Myself and many others have come to the believe that Avira must put it's free version updates on some of the slowest servers, depending on the time of day it can take up to 3 minutes to even connect to the update server, even then it takes another 2 minutes to download the updates because the speeds tend to be around 2-7KBPS (this download speed could be an issue only with me and a couple others though). And it also has an annoying popup each time it updates asking you to purchase the premium version.

BitDefender Anti Virus 10 (Free)

Pros: BitDefender 10 has a very sophisticated heuristic engine which will detect new malware and viruses that other Anti Viruses can not detect. It's paid for version has hourly updates which is a great thing for an anti virus. Another really good thing that i believe is a pro is that BitDefender uses virus signatures and a heauristic engine to detect viruses, spyware, malware and trojans.

Cons: BitDefender 10 is only an on demand scanner meaning, it will NOT give you 24/7 protection from viruses, it will only detect what is already on your computer. I suggest it should only be used as a second virus scanner and not your only anti virus.

ClamWin Anti Virus 0.93 (Free)

Pros: ClamWin is an open source anti virus built by the open source community, it offers good detection of new and old viruses. ClamWin is built on ClamAV technology and has just recently reached 1 million signatures in it's database. ClamWin provides an automatic update feature that lets you know when your database is out of date and needs updated. It also has a nice feature that will allow you to scan your memory (processes that are currently running) for viruses and other infections.

Cons: ClamWin is only an on demand scanner meaning it will not detect if you download a infected file until you manually scan that file, just use it along with your every day real time anti virus.

Dr.Web Anti Virus 4.44 (Free)

Pros: Dr.Web Anti Virus is a very small anti virus with a very big punch, detecting some of the nastiest viruses in the wild to date. It is an on demand scanner for home use only, it also makes a great secondary virus scanner along with your real time protection anti virus. Dr.Web also has a fast scanner with low memory usage.

Cons: The only con i can really come up with at this time is that it is only an on demand scanner and will not protect you from viruses, only detect and remove them or even try to "cure" the infected file.

PCTools Anti Virus 4 (Free)

Pros: PCTools Anti Virus 4 offers realtime protection which will protect you from even being infected by alot of different viruses and types of spyware. It offers a good heuristic engine and also a signature based engine to compliment the heuristic engine, it also offers a very simple interface that even a new computer user would not have trouble with.

Cons: PCTools also is the owner of the famous "Spyware Doctor" Anti Spyware which used to be a great program till they started to turn it into bloatware that isnt as good as other anti spywares, why this is a con for their Anti Virus is because they could do the same to their Anti Virus and ruin another good thing. Right now it seems highly unlikely they are going to do any major changes to their anti virus which is good and bad, they also have a very slow scanner that takes a much longer time then alot of other anti viruses. (pro) But i know alot of people who say they like when they scanner takes longer because it could possibly mean it's doing a deeper scan.