Title:

Anonymous Proxy

Word Count:

327

Summary:

An anonymous proxy, also referred to as an anonymous proxy server, allows a client to access a file, web page, or some other resources through a server which services the requests of the client through another remote server.

Keywords:

Anonymous Proxy

Article Body:

An anonymous proxy, also referred to as an anonymous proxy server, allows a client to access a file, web page, or some other resources through a server which services the requests of the client through another remote server. For example, when a client accesses a web page through an anonymous proxy, the client talks to the proxy and the proxy talks to the web page, maintaining the privacy of the client, such as his/her IP address. The purpose of such a proxy, or a server, is to protect the privacy of the client from the service and from other individuals who may be logging and inspecting the client’s connection.

Such proxies are commonly used in schools and workspaces, to pass-by potential firewalls and monitoring services in place. Students will often utilize anonymous proxies to access social networking websites deemed and blocked by the school as harming the productivity of the students. Employees of a company may try to circumvent forms of monitoring within a company that may try to track or control which websites its employees are visiting.

Anonymous proxies serve as a wall between the client and the service being accessed. These servers can be used to bypass the restrictions and access these services possibly blocked by the country or some other organization providing the Internet connection, while others may use it solely for the privacy that is possibly guaranteed.

Risks Behind Anonymous Proxies

Because of how anonymous proxies, especially those running on web pages, are designed, all data sent to the proxy servers are unencrypted. Therefore, it is possible that confidential information such as logins and passwords can be recorded by a malicious proxy server. Also, through proxy chaining, some clients could potentially fall as victims to a web page displaying a false security measures, allowing all proxies within these chains to trace the client’s activities. Thus, only trusted anonymous proxies with a clear privacy policy should be used for security sake.

Title:

What is a netmask calculator and how do I calculate it?

Word Count:

342

Summary:

A netmask calculator is basically a script or a program that automatically calculates the netmask numbers for you. Netmask is simply a code of numbers that is used to correctly transfer messages among machines in the same subnet. So, a netmask would work together with the router to determine whether the data goes. For example, if the host’s IP address was 63.243.31.41 and the netmask was 255.255.255.0, the netmask is responsible for telling the machine what numbers in IP address are the subnet and what numbers in the IP address is the machine. In this case, 63.172.202 would be the subnet part while 41 would be the machine part. So, any machine in the 63.172.202 would be part of the (local) subnet and thus, the netmask is exactly what assists in differentiating the IP address.

Keywords:

Netmask Calculator

Article Body:

A netmask calculator is basically a script or a program that automatically calculates the netmask numbers for you. Netmask is simply a code of numbers that is used to correctly transfer messages among machines in the same subnet. So, a netmask would work together with the router to determine whether the data goes. For example, if the host’s IP address was 63.243.31.41 and the netmask was 255.255.255.0, the netmask is responsible for telling the machine what numbers in IP address are the subnet and what numbers in the IP address is the machine. In this case, 63.172.202 would be the subnet part while 41 would be the machine part. So, any machine in the 63.172.202 would be part of the (local) subnet and thus, the netmask is exactly what assists in differentiating the IP address.

Behind the Calculation of a Netmask

Before anything else, it is advised to use freely available online netmask calculators as most modern equipments do not need a full understanding of how the netmask works to correctly configure them. In fact, most of the newer models have been hard coded to force a 255.255.255.0 netmask. Nonetheless, such calculating knowledge in needed when dealing with older equipments.

Firstly an internet protocol (IP) address is divided into three main sections when looking at the first octet (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx): Class A, Class B, and Class C. One of the rules of the IP address are that Class A should be 0-127, Class B should be 128-191, and Class C should be 192-222 with everything else reserved for a special reason. Basically, these classes in the IP addresses are what determine the netmask. Class A means a netmask of 255.0.0.0, Class B means a netmask of 255.255.0.0, and Class C means a netmask of 255.255.255.0. Thus, a simple knowledge of which class implies which netmask is the key to calculating the netmask.

Free Online Netmask Calculators

Again, most of the modern equipments used today have been hardcoded to have a netmask of 255.255.255.0. However, there are also readily available scripts and softwares available that can help in the calculation.

Title:

CONFERENCING CALLS

Word Count:

468

Summary:

The concept of web conferencing is one of the most efficient, easiest and cheapest means for meeting with small audience or large audiences at the same time and that too within your budget .It enables people to talk to a number of participants simultaneously and get their responses immediately.

Keywords:

conference calling

Article Body:

Web conferencing provides a great combination of the advantages of the Internet together with voice conferencing to enable you to carry on online meetings and events like a face to face meeting with the aid of audience response tools , visuals, and other features with ease making your events and meetings productive, more interactive, entertaining and engaging through inexpensive conference calling.

Web conferencing is the term which refers to conducting presentations or meetings over the Internet live. In the initial span of time for the use of Internet, the terms "computer conferencing" and "web conferencing" were generally used to specify to group discussions that were conducted within a message board (through posted messages) i.e. they were not live. But with the advancement of technology, the term has grown to refer particularly to "live" meetings, while the posted message variety of discussion is called a "message board", "forum", or " company bulletin board", since these days live discussions are more effective. One needs to have an internet connection for web conferencing. Web conferencing requires an application software that enables any user to communicate with other conferencing people using internet. This application is provided by a "host" company which charges for using it. The people involved can exchange their ideas, information and data easily and the presenter can get the feedback immediately from all the people concerned simultaneously. This can be either an application that is downloaded on each of the attendees computers or an application that is web-based where the attendees simply have to enter a "URL" or website meeting address to enter and participate in the conference or live meeting . These web applications use either Java or Flash technology for their functioning. For many individuals and businesses entities, conference calls alleviate the unnecessary cost and troubles of travel by providing a platform to contact different people at the sane time. By using this facility a person can be contacted at the best comfort. Audio conference call service systems help organizations improve communications and business processes while significantly reducing conferencing costs Tele conference calls involve telephone solutions only - no internet or web-based technology. Conference call, using standard telephone equipment and speakerphones, was a new way to reach out and connect with distant clients.

Now, companies can save significant travel expenditure by using tele conferencing – get connected with 5, 10, or 50 co-workers, clients, or customers.

Our expert designed solutions utilize industry standards to ensure compatibility of existing networking infrastructure. It reduces overall business travel expenses and eliminates potential risk factors to employees..

Instead of the deployment of the complete or process redevelopment or network face-lifts , a network add-on is often simpler and more effective. Conference call rates are less and even allows timely, productive and effective communications between employees , businesses, investors, suppliers, and customers on a 24 by 7 basis without any hassles or disruptions.

Title:

Proxy

Word Count:

319

Summary:

A proxy is also known as proxy server and application level gateway.

Keywords:

Proxy

Article Body:

A proxy is also known as proxy server and application level gateway. It is a form of technology developed for the use of various business institutions and individuals when it comes to their network and Internet access needs. With this, a proxy acts as a computer that serves as a mediator between the computers that make up the local network of a company and the Internet or any other large-scale network.

A proxy’s work starts when incoming data is requested by a specific computer in the local network. When this happens, the proxy ensures that the data properly enters and passes through one of its ports. Subsequently, the data is forwarded to the unit that requested it through another port. Hence, by providing a means of prohibiting the direct access between networks, a proxy can prevent hackers and unauthorized individuals from obtaining sensitive information such as the internal addresses of a group.

A proxy has 2 types. These include:

(1) the http proxy; and

(2) the SMTP proxy.

The former acts as a gateway for Internet access, while the latter acts as a gateway for email. Apart from controlling the access level of external networks, the proxy can also restrict computers within the local network in terms of the online resources they could access. This is especially useful in situations when the network administrator needs to prevent the users from opening websites they are not supposed to access.

A proxy can also cache web pages. This is a feature that enables the main computer to store copies of downloaded Web pages in its hard disk. When a computer in the local network requests for an external URL, a copy of that URL is stored in the server. Subsequently, when another computer requests for the same URL, the proxy can provide the stored copy instead of getting the original one from the Internet. This, of course, minimizes the time for acquiring information.

Title:

Rekindling Ties With Old Friends Through Prepaid Call Cards

Word Count:

585

Summary:

In today’s fast-paced world of technology and communications, prepaid telephone calls are a trendy method of contacting friends and family from almost everywhere, and it also allows the caller to control spending and not get tied up into paying standard fees or regular rates with standard telephone service providers.

Keywords:

prepaid calling card, calling card, international, communication, telephone, tips, advice, buying, buy, sell, call

Article Body:

In today’s fast-paced world of technology and communications, prepaid telephone calls are a trendy method of contacting friends and family from almost everywhere, and it also allows the caller to control spending and not get tied up into paying standard fees or regular rates with standard telephone service providers.

Most telecom companies now provide prepaid call card service, which they usually sell advance. When a customer purchases a prepaid phone call card, one is paying for long distance connection time in advance. When a customer makes calls using the phone card, the card's value is deducted based on connection fees, duration of connection or calls made, surcharges, and any or whatever maintenance surcharges are associated with the call card.

Prepaid phone calls are generally implemented in a telephone operator’s network using a method called “intelligent network functionality”. The competitive rates these providers offer are usually made possible by spending lesser cost routing and lower overheads than the established telephone operators.

Friends or family worldwide now find it convenient to establish connections and maintain friendships through the advent of prepaid phone call cards. These cards, commonly known as phone cards in the US and the United Kingdom, are readily available almost from every newsstand, convenience store or drugstore. They are now admittedly the cheapest means of making long-distance and international calls, and what is more important is that they offer complete anonymity to the one using it.

Prepaid phone call cards sold by retailers are considered active once they are purchased. A call card generally has a web site that offers prepaid PIN’s for calling, which denotes that there is no physical phone card. There are also call cards that have toll-free operators, that offer added services to customers or patrons who hold accounts with them and have already paid money in advance for the service.

This service is typically accessed by the user when he/she dials a toll free number from any telephone, much like a 1-800 number. The customer then authenticates himself with the operator by entering a PIN number. Most of the time, these operators have toll free numbers all over the world, ensuring that a customer can access the service even when he is in another country.

Prepaid call cards are also offered by majority of mobile phone providers around the world. Typically all the standard mobile call card services are readily available to prepaid users, however a user would need to top up, or load their balance in advance before they can be used. Loading up on an overseas call card could be done via a variety of mechanisms- either thru vouchers, swipe cards, debit and credit cards.

Whenever one needs to avail of a prepaid call card service, the customer should keep these in mind, to enable him or her to find the best prepaid call service which would truly suit his requirements for overseas or local calls. A person should know if he/she would be making calls mostly overseas?; Whether he/she would be calling to the US from overseas frequently?; Would the customer need internet access to come along with the prepaid call card service?, or Whether he/she is calling mostly just within the US and Canada. For travelers to the US and Canada, it is advisable to get the services of a call card, since most prepaid call cards in the US offer better and cheaper rates, and there are a wide array of services available in all US cities or towns.

Title:

Toll Free Conference Calls

Word Count:

577

Summary:

Conference calls are a convenient method of communicating with a lot of people all at once. Technologies today allow many different types of conference calling.

For a small business, simple 3-way calling may suffice. This feature is available through your telephone company and whatever long-distance rates you have on the phone that originates the call will apply.

When several people located in many different places need to access conference calls, a conference call comp...

Keywords:

conference, call, toll, free, pricing, business, calls

Article Body:

Conference calls are a convenient method of communicating with a lot of people all at once. Technologies today allow many different types of conference calling.

For a small business, simple 3-way calling may suffice. This feature is available through your telephone company and whatever long-distance rates you have on the phone that originates the call will apply.

When several people located in many different places need to access conference calls, a conference call company can provide this service.

A basic conference call service offers audio conference calls (also called teleconferencing) over the telephone. Usually, you have the option of toll-free calls or flat-rate calls.

“Toll-free” is sort of a misnomer because “toll-free” does not mean it’s entirely a free call because the person or business that hires the conference call company pays for the service.

Toll-free conference calls are free for the participants. With toll-free packages, participants use a toll-free number to dial into the call via the conference call company.

The charges for the calls are usually by the minute for the length of the call. In many cases, the more minutes used, the less money per minute it costs. For instance, one package may offer 1,000 toll-free minutes for $70 or 7 cents a minute. If you go over 1,000 minutes, each additional minute would cost 7 cents. Another package may offer 10,000 minutes for $400 or 4 cents a minute and 4 cents for each minute over 10,000 minutes. You can see the cost goes down with the larger packages.

A flat-rate conference call package requires the participants to pay their own long-distance charges. They dial a regular phone number to access the call via the conference call company. The company who hires the conference call company also pays a flat fee to set up the service.

The conference call companies always offer features that augment their basic service. For example, you can have the conference call company record your conference calls and then provide a playback. The playbacks can even be on-demand so people can hear them at any time 24/7.

As you might imagine, conducting a live conference call with dozens of people on the line at once could get a bit out of hand with everyone talking at once and noise in the background as well. Technology comes to the rescue with mute buttons that allow the moderator and/or operator to control what is broadcast on the call.

The operators at the teleconferencing companies can assist you in many ways. In addition to connecting participants as they call in to access your conference, operators can even call participants and then connect them to your call. Operators can attend the entire conference call, providing opening announcements, introductions for host and speakers, moderating question and answer sessions and making closing comments at the end of the call.

Audio conference calls are not the only options available to you. Web conferencing is another type of conference call that utilizes access through participants’ computers. Participants are able to view PowerPoint and whiteboard presentations and to share documents. Communication among participants can be audio or via chat formats. Upgrades of web conferencing services include application and desktop sharing, remote control and video conferencing.

As you can see, there are many ways that businesses today can communicate effectively via conference calling. There are lots of conference-calling companies to choose from and the competition among them drives good bargains for business owners who will take the time to do a little research to find the best bargains.

Title:

Antenna - How One Works

Word Count:

539

Summary:

A simple English explanation of just what happens inside your TV or radio antenna that allows it to pick up signals and transmit them to your receiving device.

Keywords:

antenna

Article Body:

It's probably not something many people are interested in unless they're some kind of an electrical engineer or just bored, but understanding how an antenna works can be useful when the one on your TV or radio goes south on you and the reason is beyond your comprehension.

Trying to explain how an antenna works in simple English is not an easy task as there are a lot of technical specifications that need to be explained. But a general understanding is possible without getting into tech speak that would make Einstein cringe.

In order for an antenna to work it has to radiate. Your antenna, whether TV or radio has what is called free electrons running through it. It is these free electrons that vibrate. The question becomes, how do these free electrons vibrate and what causes them to vibrate?

Well, in real life it takes an electric field to move an electron. If you take an isolated straight dipole, the power comes from the combined fields of all the charged particles, both positive and negative, in the antenna. We'll call this field the antenna's coulomb field.

In addition to this field, the antenna exhibits a magnetic field that is the sum of the magnetic fields of all the free moving electrons. The antenna also has a dynamic electric field that is the vector sum of the dynamic electric fields of all the free electrons. What we can do is separate the electric field of the antenna at any point in space into two components. One of the components will be in phase with the total magnetic field and the other will be 90 degrees out of phase. The in-phase component is the radiation field of the antenna and the out of phase component is the induction field. At the antenna, both fields are parallel to the metal surface.

What happens is that the coulomb field and the induction field fall off much more quickly than the radiation field as the distance increases from the antenna. When you reach distances greater than a few wavelengths from the antenna, you have what is called the antenna's far field. This field is pure radiation. As you get closer to the antenna you have what is called the antenna's near field. This field is a mixture of radiation, coulomb, and induction fields. Still with us? Great, we're getting to the good part.

What ultimately happens with all these fields that makes it so that your TV or radio picks up signals through your antenna is this. The free electrons moving through your antenna are moving at their maximum speed. The right hand half of your antenna accumulates electrons. The left hand half of your antenna is where the electrons depart and leave an excess of charged ions. The coulomb field produces an imbalance and opposes the electrons' rightward motion. The electrons then stop, coast for a bit and then head back towards the left. After they reach maximum speed they then stop and process is repeated, now heading back to the right. The result is a vibration of free electrons that heats the metal and in turn generates electromagnetic waves.

And that, in as simple English as possible, is how your antenna works.