No HTML Required: 5 Free Tools to Help You Build Content Rich Websites

There are so many ways to build a website that sometimes it can be confusing.

The first thing you need to decide when building a website is, what is its primary purpose?

Will you use your site only to build a list, will you provide content, do you want to generate passive income?

These are all questions you want to answer before you begin tobuild your website.

Once you decide what type of website you want to build, then choose the right tools. This will save you a lot of frustration in building a new website, and it's not really necessary for your to understand HTML in order to build an effective website.

1. Landing Pages
Landing page builders are effective if you want to build a list. You can also use them to help you promote on sites like GoogleAdwords or Overture.

Most of these sites require some type of landing page now because they won't allow you send your traffic directly to an affiliate program.

You can use these tools to help you build landing pages for yourpay per click campaigns.

Landing Page Builder - http://www.landingpagebuilder.com - Free tool to help you build landing pages.

Google Publisher - http://www.googlepublisher.com/index.html - Offers a free and paid version. The paid version allows you to create unlimited pages and add your Google Adsense publisher ID.

2. Content Pages
Content will make your site sticky. This is especially effective if you choose to use some type of program like Google Adsense to monetize your site.

The easiest way to make your site sticky is to use articles. Make sure that the articles you choose are valuable to your readers and solve a problem.


You also want to choose keyword rich articles targeted to your market.

Orwell - http://www.portalfeeder.com/blog/ - Use this tool to search the article directories. It will also format the articles in HTML for you, saving you hours of coding.

3. HTML Editors
Choosing the right editor will determine how quickly you can get your site online.


If you don't know how to write HTML, there are editors available to you that will do this for you.

NVU - http://www.nvu.com - This site building tool is similar to Dreamweaver or Front Page. You don't need to know HTML to use it. Since it's open source, it's free. You can also use it on MAC and PC.

Easy Web Page Creator - http://www.easy-web-page-creator.com/ - This free tool will allow you to create web pages with a few clicks of your mouse.

4. Content Management Systems
If you plan to build a content rich website, you will find a content management system to be the best choice. With a few clicks of your mouse you can totally change the look of your site.

It's also much easier to add and organize content.

The most important aspects of a content management system are ease of use and search engine friendly.

Open Source CMS - http://www.opensourcecms.com - This site allows you to try out all types of content management systems including blogs before you use them.

Since it's open source, they're all free to install and use.

5. Other Scripts
If the thought of creating or writing content makes you crazy, let others create it for you.

The easiest way to add content to your site is to offer an article directory. Then all you have to do is monetize and promote your new site.

Article Dashboard - http://www.articledashboard.com - is a free article script you can use to create your own article directory. It's very easy to customize, and very search engine friendly. It also incorporates RSS, as well as email, allowing you to build a list, as well as promote in RSS directories.

Regardless of what solution you choose for building your website, make it search engine friendly, well organized, and rich in content and resources.

Choose your tools before you build your website, and you'll build a better website. 

Product Sourcing The Right Way Using Onesource

For the person wanting to break into Ecommerce or hoping to flourish their already existing business, finding the right products at the right price can be one of the most significant challenges. It seems spammers and illegitimate wholesalers are lurking around every corner hoping to get your business and take money from the sale that is rightfully yours. World Wide Brands offers their product OneSource to provide you with genuine, factory-authorized wholesale suppliers who want to work with you to increase your profit and make your product sourcing as successful as it can be.

Let's get one thing straight-most often seeking out wholesale suppliers through Internet search engines is a time-waster. In fact, the legitimate wholesalers are not even in the results of such search queries. Sure, by putting in hours and hours of time and energy, you may be able to come up with the product sourcing research to support your business, but even then you will be missing out on information that can take your Ecommerce to the next level.

Instead of wasting your valuable time and money, wouldn't it be more cost effective to work with a company that has already done the research? World Wide Brands' One Source has a full-time research staff that has identified the real and fraudulent wholesalers through in-depth online and offline research. In addition, their staff attends the most significant wholesale tradeshows throughout the U.S. to determine which ones are the best and are willing to provide the product sourcing for your unique business. <


While this important research is being done, you can attend to other important areas of your business, saving you time, money, and the frustration of getting hooked up with wholesale spammers. Finally, One Source provides you with a compiled list of the very best wholesalers offering the products you need to make your home-based Internet business work.

Although having good wholesalers is an important part of your business, knowing what to sell is another key aspect of product sourcing. Products can literally make or break your business. With an ever-changing market, keeping the right products in your hands is yet another task requiring a lot of solid research. Once again, World Wide Wholesalers can get it done with OneSource.

In order to sell online, you have to keep up with the needs of the market. OneSource provides market researchanalysis each time there is a product search. The information you receive will include, the sell success rate of each product you search for, the number of people searching for the product online, information about competitors selling the same product, and which search engine keywords are most popular for the product you want to sell.

You don't try to find a new way to mail a package, because you know there are package-mailing professionals to do that for you. So why try to do your own product sourcing? Leave it to the expert-World Wide Brands OneSource-and you can save time and money, and gain the upper hand in your product sourcing efforts. 


(readbud.com)

Want Tips For Making Your Website User Friendly?

it is a no-contest issue that only a properly designed web site is the key to attract visitors and to make them keep coming back. Don't forget that your company's website is often the first point of contact and therefore it holds the key to creating the first (and most often the most important) impression of you as a company, and by extension of your products and services for many of your visitors/potential customers.

First time visitors can't judge your way of conducting business, they do judge you by your site standards. The average Internet cruiser is quite weary these days – we are living in the "attention economy" as the say. So how do you catch his/her attention? By having a qualitatively designed site! This can be achieved by employing a professional web development company.

Also you must not forget that traffic retention is equally, if not more, important than driving high traffic to your site. After all, there is absolutely no use of spending all your time and money on building a 100-page site and spending big bucks in advertising through some strategic internet marketing services company if visitors don't like to stay on. Here are some simple tips for turning your site into a user-friendly one that brings in and retain new visitors/potential customers:

• It should load fast: Your website should be fast loading .You can achieve it by using more text and fewer graphics.

• It should have easy navigation: Website must be easy to navigate so that people should easily and quickly find what they're looking for without scrolling down each page. It's important to link pages in a consistent, well thought out manner so that users can easily navigate in-between them.

• Use graphics sparingly: Graphics does add glitter to your site but they should be used judiciously – using them where they are absolutely required. Otherwise they might distract visitors from important concepts of your site or take much time in downloading.


• Use colors selectively: Use suitable colors which magnify your product otherwise your copy will be difficult to read and few people will bother reading it.

• Don't let pop-ups irritate visitor: Do use pop-ups as they can be an effective way to get a higher response from visitors, but you shouldn't overuse and abuse them. Pop-ups should be used to offer something of high value to your site visitors.

• Fulfill visitor's expectations: Put yourself in visitor's shoes and think what you want this site to deliver and try to fulfill this expectation. Ensure that your navigation and related content use keywords which are most searched, as popularity of a particular keyword related to your business reflects what a visitor wants.

• Minimize number of clicks: Most visitors would leave your site if they have to click too much to get what they want. Remember a normal Internet surfer is jaded and doesn't like to waste time. So put the content on scrollable pages with quick navigation links so that people can jump to any section while being on the same page.

• Fast downloading: The above mentioned argument is equally true for this point – people don't wait while surfing on Internet. So avoid flash intros or bandwidth-hungry graphics as much as possible. Try making your site as lean and nimble as possible to ensure fast downloads.

Your site's credibility is also one of the factors which decide its usability which can be achieved by having an 'About Us' and a 'Contact Us' page. Many people would like to call while visiting your site so assure people you're a proper business by giving them options to contact you through phone, email, and related directions.

If you can develop your website on your own, good! Better idea is to contact a professional web development company which is also well versed in strategic internet marketing and let it develop your website and market it professionally for best results.


(readbud.com)

Common Mistakes: Home Page Design

Issue:
What pitfalls should companies avoid on their Web, Intranet or portal home pages?


Response:
The home page of a Web site, Intranet or portal is the most important page. It should tell site visitors, what they can do precisely deeper in the site or at least inform them, what they may be able to expect. However, in most cases, the home page is just a compromise to satisfy internal politics and neglecting site visitors' needs. To set up an effective home page that matches corporate objectives and user's expectations the following pitfalls should be avoided:

1) Too much information instead of links: Many home pages provide detailed information such as complete news, company description, etc. or are overloaded with images. Site visitors do not want to read information on the home page nor guessing what might be hidden behind an image. They want to find a link to start navigating to the information, which they came for. Providing detailed information on the home page limits the space available for valuable links. Further, it increases the risk that site visitors do not even start navigating the site, as they do not find their specific entry point to start their specific action or scenario. There are two types of pages, which apply to any Web applications such as Web sites, Intranets and portals. Those are navigation pages and destination pages. Navigation pages allow site visitors discovering the options to navigate. Destination pages provide the information, which site visitors are looking for. The home page is the ultimate navigation page. It needs to provide as much as possible links to the various Web sections. The Web strategy determines the links from the home page to the site sections. There are two major linking approaches:
- - Individual link, which relates to one link for a complete Web section.
- - Category links, which is one link to a complete Web section, followed by links to further detail this section (sub-category links).
Provide category links for strategic Web sections that you want your target audience to browse and navigate to (for example for IT companies provide category and sub-category links to product and service overviews, customer engagements, download section). Use individual links for Web sections that target secondary audiences (for example company profile or recruitment).

2) Animations / animated links: Even though that usability research clearly shows that animations such as rotating banners, animated text, etc. distracts site visitors, it is still used on many business sites. In most cases, marketing managers request Web designer to implement animations although designers know that animations are more destructive than increasing site effectiveness. Web designers need to clearly explain the differences between offline and online media. In offline marketing, publicity needs to attract the attention of prospects. For example, if you are walking on a street, advertising such as ad posters must attract your attention, as you are not walking down a street to discover ads. In online media, site visitors already decided to go to a Web site with a specific goal in mind (e.g. finding contact, product or support information, etc.). Hence, the Web site does not need to attract the visitor's attention. There are successful concepts to replace animations such as the so-called hooks. Hooks are static images or graphics with a minimum of text to tell site visitors what they can expect by clicking on them. Hooks are not limited to the home page but can be used on all navigation pages. Effective hooks target the page audience (best practice sites: www.cisco.com, www.ups.com/content/gb/en/index.jsx ). Place hooks on the home page that target the prime Web audience, on subsequent navigation pages, refine hooks accordingly to the page audience.<

(readbud.com)

No HTML Required: 5 Free Tools to Help You Build Content Rich Websites

There are so many ways to build a website that sometimes it can be confusing.

The first thing you need to decide when building a website is, what is its primary purpose?

Will you use your site only to build a list, will you provide content, do you want to generate passive income?

These are all questions you want to answer before you begin to build your website.

Once you decide what type of website you want to build, then choose the right tools. This will save you a lot of frustration in building a new website, and it's not really necessary for your to understand HTML in order to build an effective website.

1. Landing Pages
Landing page builders are effective if you want to build a list. You can also use them to help you promote on sites like Google Adwords or Overture.

Most of these sites require some type of landing page now because they won't allow you send your traffic directly to an affiliate program.

You can use these tools to help you build landing pages for your pay per click campaigns.

Landing Page Builder - http://www.landingpagebuilder.com - Free tool to help you build landing pages.

Google Publisher - http://www.googlepublisher.com/index.html - Offers a free and paid version. The paid version allows you to create unlimited pages and add your Google Adsense publisher ID.

2. Content Pages
Content will make your site sticky. This is especially effective if you choose to use some type of program like Google Adsense to monetize your site.

The easiest way to make your site sticky is to use articles. Make sure that the articles you choose are valuable to your readers and solve a problem.

You also want to choose keyword rich articles targeted to your market.

Orwell - http://www.portalfeeder.com/blog/ - Use this tool to search the article directories. It will also format the articles in HTML for you, saving you hours of coding.

3. HTML Editors
Choosing the right editor will determine how quickly you can get your site online.

(readbud.com)

Web Design UK

In today's market, it is essential for every business to have a presence on the web – and the web design of the site is a key factor to the site's success in boosting the visibility and profitability of the business. The Internet is often the first place that potential customers look when searching for a business to meet their needs, and a well designed, clearly presented and informative website will assure them of the expert service or products available from the business the site promotes. A web presence also means a global presence – the possibility of reaching customers from all corners of the world, and it also means that regular updates on new services or price specials can be posted to inform customers immediately and effectively. In this way, the web design of an inviting site can be one of business' biggest assets for success.

It is often the case that businesses fear that the cost of high quality web designs will be prohibitive. While more and more people are gaining a clearer understanding of web design and how it works, for many people it just seems too expensive and complicated an option. However, there are many simple and cost-effective web design solutions available that will create a quality site for as little as a few hundred dollars. Once a site is well designed, maintaining and updating it is often very easy – and most importantly, worth it in terms of the return on a little effort. For a fairly simple site that will feature only basic information, such as the nature of the business, location and perhaps some specials or coupons, it may be a case of investing in some software that will provide templates for creating a simple site-by-numbers. However, for a more vibrant, active site that will fully represent the business online – and possibly allow for an e-commerce capability – it is worth looking to a professional web design company. Many offer competitive deals and the cost will be unquestionably offset by the greater traffic to the site that a professional site can generate.<

(readbud.com)

Article Directory Website Design: Understanding the Essential Basics

If you have done any article directory surfing, you have probably noticed all types of article directory designs. You may have run across those that are visually impressive and enjoyable to look at it. They make you stop and ask yourself the following questions: "How can I make an attractive design like that?" Then you have probably run across those site that have inflicted pain onto your eyeballs and you have probably questioned yourself, "How do I avoid that?" So many people do not understand the essential basics to creating a visually pleasing website design. Let us take a look at these four important and basic subjects of design.

*Contrast

Most of us understand the concept of contrast, yet when you look at different website designs, we often see this concept ignored. Contrast needs to be highly considered when creating any type of website. Ultimately, you want the visitor to come in contact with the content and information of the website. Your visitor does not want to have *dig* through your website to find the information for which he or she is looking. If your content is hidden, people will miss the purpose of your website and simply give up trying to find the information or article they need. Reader's eyes want a visible and clear presentation.

To put contrast in exercise, highly and carefully consider the colors you are using for your website design. The type of contrast you are looking for is black text on a white background. While that may seem boring, it is most important that your background contrasts with your text so your text is clearly visible and seen. Another mistake you will often see is the overuse of graphics and images. Use graphics wisely! Too many graphics can clutter your website and make your content buried. A graphic-laden page does not necessarily mean it will be more visually pleasing.

Contrast is a simple and effective way to visually enhance your website. Remember, that you want to bring the content to your reader. You do not want your reader to have todig for it.

*Alignment

The second concept, alignment, is also extremely vital to the website presentation. Good alignment brings about unity and order. Bad alignment brings about chaos and disorder. Knowing that we want to bring content and contextual components to our visitor, we need to present that content in an orderly fashion. The basic principle for alignment is this: do not mix alignment styles. For example, if you have left aligned text, do not create a centered heading. You want your design to flow. That brings us to our next concept, repetition.<

(readbud.com)

Tips for Organizing Your Monthly Bills and Paperwork

Do you get hit with late fees because you forget to pay your bills on time? Do you constantly waste time searching for that cable bill you left somewhere in the house? Spend an hour organizing your personal bills and papers now, and this will save you time and frustration in the future. Plus, this helps make tax time easier because you already have everything in one place.

First of all, have a place where you sort your mail every day. Junk mail gets trashed or recycled right away. Magazines and catalogs should go in a rack to read later. Open your bills, make a note of the due date and immediately put them on your desk in a small file until you write the check. A small letter file that sits on your desk works well- no need to buy any fancy tickler file unless you think that will work better for you.

It's best to start in January, but you can begin to set up your filing system at any time during the year. Use a filing cabinet or plastic storage box to store all your files. I prefer a plastic file box because at year end I can carry it to the basement to store with other old records.

If you have more than 10 bills a month, use a separate manila folder for each company you write a check to. I prefer to use the manila file jackets instead because they have closed sides that prevent small receipts from falling out and getting lost.

Create a folder for Miscellaneous for those people or companies you only pay once or twice each year, such as insurance or magazine subscriptions. You can also use this folder to keep those occasional letters you need to write during the year but don't know where to file them.

Make a folder for bank statements and another one labeled "For income taxes." As you pay a bill that can be deducted on your tax return (such as real property tax or medical bills), file it in this folder instead of your paid bills file. Name one folder "Investments" for any paperwork that comes regarding your 401(k) or IRA during the year

(readbud.com)

The Pleasures of a Wireless Media Router

With everything becoming available wireless these days a great innovation is the wireless media router. What is a wireless media router? It's a router that allows the transmission of signals from the router to anywhere in the house that has a receiver.

Wireless routers are becoming more and more popular. They have many uses, one of which is viewing pictures and movies from your computer on your television. This comes in very handy when you have media files that you can't burn on CD or cannot be played on your DVD player.

A second use would be to transmit paid television. For example if you paid for HBO usually you would be able to only view it on one nominated television. With the wireless media router you can send the signal you television is receiving, HBO, to any other television in the house. You can even change the channel from the remote television while viewing.

The third use would be watching television at a location where an antenna is not available. This means no more long cables leading from room to room just to be able to watch television.

Depending on the amount of receivers you have you can receive the signal from multiple televisions. How does it work? The receivers are connected to the remote televisions. The router takes the signal from the source television and distributes it to the remote televisions by way of the receiver. On the remote television a certain channel is dedicated to this receiver meaning you can watch independent television, and easily switch the channel to the signal being received from the wireless router.

This also makes running your entertainment room a breeze. The receiver can also be hooked up-to a projector making it easy to view anything you wish. This means you will not need to purchase separate DVD players VCR's for every room.

(readbud.com)

Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure

It is a hierarchical representation of all the objects and their attributes available on the network. It enables administrators to manage the network resources, i.e., computers, users, printers, shared folders, etc., in an easy way. The logical structure represented by Active Directory consists of forests, trees, domains, organizational units, and individual objects. This structure is completely independent from the physical structure of the network, and allows administrators to manage domains according to the organizational needs without bothering about the physical network structure.

Following is the description of all logical components of the Active Directory structure:


Forest: A forest is the outermost boundary of an Active Directory structure. It is a group of multiple domain trees that share a common schema but do not form a contiguous namespace. It is created when the first Active Directory-based computer is installed on a network. There is at least one forest on a network. The first domain in a forest is called a root domain. It controls the schema and domain naming for the entire forest. It can be separately removed from the forest. Administrators can create multiple forests and then create trust relationships between specific domains in those forests, depending upon the organizational needs.


Trees: A hierarchical structure of multiple domains organized in the Active Directory forest is referred to as a tree. It consists of a root domain and several child domains. The first domain created in a tree becomes the root domain. Any domain added to the root domain becomes its child, and the root domain becomes its parent. The parent-child hierarchy continues until the terminal node is reached. All domains in a tree share a common schema, which is defined at the forest level. Depending upon the organizational needs, multiple domain trees can be included in a forest.


Domains: A domain is the basic organizational structure of a Windows Server 2003 networking model. It logically organizes the resources on a network and defines a security boundary in Active Directory. The directory may contain more than one domain, and each domain follows its own security policy and trust relationships with other domains. Almost all the organizations having a large network use domain type of networking model to enhance network security and enable administrators to efficiently manage the entire network.


Objects: Active Directory stores all network resources in the form of objects in a hierarchical structure of containers and subcontainers, thereby making them easily accessible and manageable. Each object class consists of several attributes. Whenever a new object is created for a particular class, it automatically inherits all attributes from its member class. Although the Windows Server 2003 Active Directory defines its default set of objects, administrators can modify it according to the organizational needs.


Organizational Unit (OU): It is the least abstract component of the Windows Server 2003 Active Directory. It works as a container into which resources of a domain can be placed. Its logical structure is similar to an organization's functional structure. It allows creating administrative boundaries in a domain by delegating separate administrative tasks to the administrators on the domain. Administrators can create multiple Organizational Units in the network. They can also create nesting of OUs, which means that other OUs can be created within an OU.
In a large complex network, the Active Directory service provides a single point of management for the administrators by placing all the network resources at a single place. It allows administrators to effectively delegate administrative tasks as well as facilitate fast searching of network resources. It is easily scalable, i.e., administrators can add a large number of resources to it without having additional administrative burden. It is accomplished by partitioning the directory database, distributing it across other domains, and establishing trust relationships, thereby providing users with benefits of decentralization, and at the same time, maintaining the centralized administration.

The physical network infrastructure of Active Directory is far too simple as compared to its logical structure. The physical components are domain controllers and sites.


Domain Controller: A Windows 2003 server on which Active Directory services are installed and run is called a domain controller. A domain controller locally resolves queries for information about objects in its domain. A domain can have multiple domain controllers. Each domain controller in a domain follows the multimaster model by having a complete replica of the domain's directory partition. In this model, every domain controller holds a master copy of its directory partition. Administrators can use any of the domain controllers to modify the Active Directory database. The changes performed by the administrators are automatically replicated to other domain controllers in the domain.

However, there are some operations that do not follow the multimaster model. Active Directory handles these operations and assigns them to a single domain controller to be accomplished. Such a domain controller is referred to as operations master. The operations master performs several roles, which can be forest-wide as well as domain-wide.

(readbud.com)

Web Servers and Firewall Zones

Web and FTP Servers

Every network that has an internet connection is at risk of being compromised. Whilst there are several steps that you can take to secure your LAN, the only real solution is to close your LAN to incoming traffic, and restrict outgoing traffic.

However some services such as web or FTP servers require incoming connections. If you require these services you will need to consider whether it is essential that these servers are part of the LAN, or whether they can be placed in a physically separate network known as a DMZ (or demilitarised zone if you prefer its proper name). Ideally all servers in the DMZ will be stand alone servers, with unique logons and passwords for each server. If you require a backup server for machines within the DMZ then you should acquire a dedicated machine and keep the backup solution separate from the LAN backup solution.

The DMZ will come directly off the firewall, which means that there are two routes in and out of the DMZ, traffic to and from the internet, and traffic to and from the LAN. Traffic between the DMZ and your LAN would be treated totally separately to traffic between your DMZ and the Internet. Incoming traffic from the internet would be routed directly to your DMZ.
Therefore if any hacker where to compromise a machine within the DMZ, then the only network they would have access to would be the DMZ. The hacker would have little or no access to the LAN. It would also be the case that any virus infection or other security compromise within the LAN would not be able to migrate to the DMZ.

In order for the DMZ to be effective, you will have to keep the traffic between the LAN and the DMZ to a minimum. In the majority of cases, the only traffic required between the LAN and the DMZ is FTP. If you do not have physical access to the servers, you will also need some sort of remote management protocol such as terminal services or VNC

(readbud.com)

It's 12 Noon, Do You Know Who's Using Your Network?

The idea of reading email while lounging by the pool, text or instant messaging while doing the laundry, or lounging in the Jacuzzi listening to your MP3 collection is appealing to us all.

Unfortunately, many, or even most, wireless units don't come with security features already functioning. This may not seem like a big issue to someone who is simply setting up a home network, but there are a number of potential problems you should consider.

The most serious problem is the increase in identity theft. If your network is unsecured, the personal data on your wireless electronic equipment is also unsecured. The order you just placed for a book at Amazon may have given your contact and payment information to an unscrupulous hacker!

Nearly every town in which "WiFi" is common will have "War Drivers" and "War Chalkers" at work. These are people who walk or drive around town with wireless equipment, searching for unsecured networks. The "Chalkers" then live up their name, marking curbs and other public items with chalk so that others can more easily find and exploit your network.

Not all "War Drivers" are hackers, of course. Many just want to use your network for free, but the risk is high if you don't learn how to protect yourself. You can usually find quite a bit of free information as to how to secure your network at the website of your router's manufacturer, or by doing a search in a search engine for a phrase like "secure home wireless."

Beyond the truly malicious, there are also your neighbors who may find your network by accident and enjoy nosing into your activities and using your Internet access at will, slowing down your network speed in the process.

Even many businesses use cheap, home-use quality equipment for their company networks. With the poor security often found on small business networks, anyone with a basic knowledge of wireless can access sensitive company and customer data.

If you are unable to secure your network yourself, there are many service companies who will do it for you. A search of your local yellow pages or an inquiry at your neighborhood computer store should yield professional help and get your private data private again

(readbud.com)

Crime Fighting Computer Systems and Databases

As crime globalizes, so does crime fighting. Mobsters, serial killers, and terrorists cross state lines and borders effortlessly, making use of the latest advances in mass media, public transportation, telecommunications, and computer networks. The police - there are 16,000 law enforcement agencies in the Unites States alone - is never very far behind.

Quotes from the official Web pages of some of these databases:

National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC)

Its mission is to combine investigative and operational support functions, research, and training in order to provide assistance, without charge, to federal, state, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies investigating unusual or repetitive violent crimes. The NCAVC also provides support through expertise and consultation in non-violent matters such as national security, corruption, and white-collar crime investigations.

It comprises the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center (CASMIRC), and Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP).

VICAP is a nationwide data information center designed to collect, collate, and analyze crimes of violence - specifically murder. It collates and analyzes the significant characteristics of all murders, and other violent offenses.

Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS)

A program within the Washington state's Attorney General's Office that tracks and investigates homicides and rapes.

Violent Crime Linkage System (ViCLAS)

Canada-wide computer system that assists specially trained investigators to identify serial crimes and criminals by focusing on the linkages that exist among crimes by the same offender. This system was developed by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in the early 1990s.

UTAP, stands for The Utah Criminal Tracking and Analysis Project

(readbud.com)

Finding Your MAC Address On Wired And Wireless Network Cards

Over the past few weeks I have received quite a few e-mails about Ethernet cards, both wired and wireless, and more specifically, about Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. I think the main reason I've received so many questions about Ethernet cards and MAC addresses is people trying to secure their home wireless networks and their desire to use MAC address filtering. This type of filtering in wireless networks can be configured to allow or deny specific computers to use or attach to the wireless network, based on the MAC address.

My first thought was to write an article just about MAC addresses and wireless Ethernet. After thinking about it I decided to expand on this and go over some specific information about Ethernet cards and communication.

Different Ways Of Finding Your MAC Address And More
--------------------------------------------------
There are several ways of finding your Ethernet and communications protocol information. Many Ethernet card manufacturer's have proprietary software that can reveal this information but they work differently depending on the manufacturer. So we will use the Windows 2000 and XP "ipconfig" utility since this is available in the majority of Windows Operating Systems.

First, go to "start" -> "run" and type "cmd" without the quotes. Then hit the enter key. At the command line type "ipconfig /all", again without the quotes. Actually, just typing ipconfig without the /all will work but will only provide you with abbreviated information regarding your network cards. An example of what you might see by typing the "ipconfig /all" command is below with each item commented in green lettering:

Fault Tolerant And Highly Availability Computer Systems
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There are several ways of finding your Ethernet and communications protocol information. Many Ethernet card manufacturer's have proprietary software that can reveal this information but they work differently depending on the manufacturer. So we will use the Windows 2000 and XP "ipconfig" utility since this is available in the majority of Windows Operating Systems.

First, go to "start" -> "run" and type "cmd" without the quotes. Then hit the enter key. At the command line type "ipconfig /all", again without the quotes. Actually, just typing ipconfig without the /all will work but will only provide you with abbreviated information regarding your network cards. An example of what you might see by typing the "ipconfig /all" command is below:

OutPut Of The "Ipconfig /All" Command
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Windows IP Configuration


Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Home Computer
This is the name of your computer, typically defined during the windows installation. However, it can be changed after installation.

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : domain.com
If your computer participates in a network such as a Microsoft Windows domain this item may contain the name of the domain.

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
The Node Type may say Unknown, or peer-to-peer, or in some cases "hybrid". It is a setting that has to do with the Windows Internet Naming Services used in certain types of Windows domain networks.

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
This setting determines if Windows XP or 2000 will function as an IP router. If you have two or more network cards you can setup your system to act as a router, forwarding communications requests from one network to another. Windows 2000 can be configured to do this in a pretty straight forward fashion; Windows XP will need a registry modification.

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy is another setting that is related to the "Node Type" we discussed earlier. It is normally not a required setting in a home or small office network, or newer types of Microsoft Windows domains.

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:
If you have multiple Ethernet (network) cards in your systems, as I do in this laptop, you will have multiple listings. This one happens to be the second Ethernet card, an internal wireless Ethernet card.

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
This is the description of the Ethernet card, usually the Name / Manufacturer and type of Ethernet card. In this case, it is a Broadcom wireless Ethernet card built into my laptop.

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-90-4B-F1-6E-4A
And here we have the MAC address. The MAC address is a 48 bit hexadecimal code and is suppose to be a totally unique address. It is 48 bits because each number or letter in hexadecimal represents 8 bits. Hexadecimal numbers range from 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E, F. There are 6 alpha-numeric codes hence 6*8=48(bits). The first 3 codes identify the manufacturer of the card and the remaining codes are used to create a unique number. Theoretically there should never be a card with same MAC address on a local network. However, there are a few exceptions. There are software tools that allow you to change this code. In fact, this is a step some hackers take to attack other systems on a local network. I say local network because MAC addresses are not routable between network segments. By spoofing this address, you can impersonate another machine on the local network. Traffic that was bound for the intended target can be redirected to the hacker's machine. This is the address you would also use to populate a MAC address, or physical address table when setting up your wireless access point to support MAC address filtering.

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
DHCP, or the Dynamic Host Control Protocol, if enabled means your computers IP address is being provided by a DHCP server on you network. The DHCP server could be your wireless access point, cable/dsl router, cable modem, or a server on your network. Also, if a DHCP server is not enabled on your network, your computers Operating System will auto generate a random IP address within a certain predefined range. This means you could network a group of systems together without having to manually assign the IP settings.

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.117
This parameter provides you with your current IP address. The address listed above is what is called a "private" address. There are certain classes of IP addresses that have been set aside for private use. This means for your internal, local, or private network at home or office. These addresses are not, or should not, be routable on the Internet. The Internet routes what are called "valid" IP addresses. Your cable/dsl router or cable modem has a valid IP address assigned to its "external" network interface. The external interface may be your phone line or cable TV cable.

(readbud.com)

AdvancedNetworX, Inc.: A New Network Integration Company Opens In Morrisville, NC

AdvancedNetworX, Inc., a network integration services company, announces a new business headquartered in Morrisville, NC focused on the delivery of advanced technology solutions to clients across North Carolina and into Virginia and South Carolina.

The President of AdvancedNetworX, Deborah Shaw, and the Vice President of Professional Services, Robert Roesch, rounded up the talented team, which includes four senior level engineers (all Cisco Certified Internetworking Experts or CCIEs), two sales professionals, and two operations professionals. "Our goal is to provide our clients with the senior level consulting and assistance they expect from larger Cisco partners, but with the agility and complete devotion to their satisfaction that comes from working with a smaller partner," says Shaw.

"The talent of the engineering team that we have constructed is second to none for companies like ours in North Carolina," says Roesch. "We intend to focus our business on a targeted set of high-level technologies and to provide services in those areas."

The focus of AdvancedNetworX will be primarily around Advanced Technologies, including Routing and Switching, Unified Communications, Security, and Wireless. They will be working with clients across all verticals and sizes.

At AdvancedNetworX, your business IS our business. We work closely with you to determine the technology solution that best matches your needs. We then design, implement and support that solution, striving all the while to exceed your expectations.

Because the quality of your business depends on the quality of your network, security and voice services, count on AdvancedNetworX to be an extension of your team. We have the knowledge and experience to keep your company's network services at 100%.


For more information about AdvancedNetworX, Inc., visit their website at www.AdvancedNetworX.com


(readbud.com)