Meants to write this few weeks ago but with Christmas and new year lots happened.
Few things have inspired as many technological advances over the past two decades as the internet. But that will come to a screeching halt with the passing of Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Here are some information about it.
• What is SOPA?

The “Stop Online Piracy Act” or SOPA is a bill running through America’s Congress right now that will allow big corporations to shut down sites that could possess copyrighted material. It is supported by big industries such as AOL Time Warner, The MPAA and the RIAA.
In theory, the SOPA act sounds good on paper, but in its practical use, it is not only not good, it could completely paralyse any technological advances that have been made.
• The Issues With SOPA
Why is SOPA such a problem? Well, for one thing, companies do not need to authoritatively prove there is copyrighted material. Simply saying “We believe that this site has copyrighted material” will allow a web site to receive a Denial of Service (or DNS error). DNS errors have been used to restrict access to information in China and Iran.
Second, SOPA also allows anyone in the world who is posting any sort of copyrighted material to be sued, and possibly imprisoned for up to five years. This is not strictly limited to America. In 2011, a 23-year old British student named Richard O’ Dwyer was facing extradition for providing links to copyrighted material. He did not even post the copyrighted material on his page and what he did was not illegal in England. President Obama sent in the U.S. Department of Immigration to extradite him!
How draconian is this law? This law is so draconian that say you were to upload a video with music playing in the background. If the song is a copyrighted song, you may be treated as a felon and sued for hundreds of thousands or millions of US Dollars, or thrown in prison for up to five years, regardless of what country you live in.
• Why we are against SOPA
SOPA will treat millions of every day people worldwide as criminals and felons under the U.S. Justice System.
SOPA will crush hundreds of thousands of independent music artists trying to get name recognition and a growing fan base by not allowing their music to be broadcast to the public.
SOPA will turn the world into a “police state” and will censor sites like YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and many others that people turn to for entertainment.
SOPA will impose denial of service systems which can be easily overridden with no proof it will stop social engineering, posting of copyrighted material, or anything along those lines.
• How to control social engineering
Social Engineering is a very serious problem and needs to be addressed. Some ways to stop it include:
1. If someone is “phishing” you, call the company directly and ask if there is a charge that you need to pay.
2. make sure your anti-virus and firewall software are fully up-to-date.
3. NEVER give your credit card information or personal information to anyone over the internet unless you have a strong encryption.
4. For most social media sites (Facebook, etc.), make sure that you have secure browsing turned on (use https instead of http).
[source] http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw0l6aTudT1r6mxhwo1_500.gif
 
15 December

Web Design Fuel

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Fuel is a Dublin based design and web solutions company. Services include Website Design as well as Corporate Identity, Branding & Print Design; but Fuel specialise in providing website content management solutions. Fuel have developed completely customised content management solutions on over 80 websites currently running in Ireland and the UK, providing their clients with complete control over all of the website content displayed.
In particular we’d like to point you towards Fuel’s CMS Packages
http://www.fuel.ie/about/packages/
which offer an affordable solutions for all levels of business.
Fuel’s regular clients range from small private companies to mid-sized enterprises. Providing each of their clients with the same professional and personal service, Fuel strives to supply innovative and tailor-made solutions to every project.
For a full portfolio of work and previous clients please visit www.fuel.ie

If there is anything that the recent recession and the current debt crisis of the United States and Europe have taught us, it is that businesses must save every penny that they can in any way possible.Server virtualisation technology is an advancement which allows businesses, especially those on small budgets, the ability to have the same protection and management of data as enterprise level businesses for a fraction of the cost.Server virtualisation technology is technically placing the data streams of different clients inside of the same physical server while segregating the data streams so as to simulate a dedicated server experience for each of the clients in the physical server. Since the same physical server is being used, each client does not have to pay for the resource of a dedicated server. However, because the server is virtual, each client receives the same resources as they would on a dedicated server.On a virtual server, each client can download different third party apps and even different operating systems without disturbing the other clients on the server. Security is also increased as data leaks in the data stream of one client also do not affect the other clients.
As to the resources that each individual client receives on a virtual server, they may not quite match the resources of a dedicated server, but they are usually enough for all but the largest enterprise level business establishments. Virtual technology also allows the resources of the server to be allocated to the business as they are needed, which saves a business from having to pay too early for services that they do not use or underestimate the services that they do need.
Virtual servers can be managed or unmanaged services. In a managed service, the virtual server host is responsible for all of the maintenance to the server. In unmanaged service, the client is responsible for the maintenance. This is usually only a wise course of action if a business has the manpower and the resources to take care of a server themselves. However, since the server itself is rented from the server hosting company, it is usually the best policy to let the server host take care of it, as they are the ones who actually own the server.
Businesses who are set to grow may also want to invest in an unmetered line. In the unmetered line of a virtual server the amount of data which is able to be streamed through the server has no limit, which will allow for the most growth possible for a business with traffic spikes and constant rises in traffic.
Certain types of software do not run well in virtual environments – this is really the only weakness of server virtualisation technology.
6 December

How a VPN Works

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Because of the prevalence of Internet communication technology, businesses that are in the growing phase these days have the capacity to expand into shops and business offices the world over. To insure the maximum efficiency of operations, the manpower in the new locations has need of a secure, stable and speedy way to share information. Also, any employees that travel need a reliable way to remotely connect to the computer network of the business.

The VPN, or virtual private network, is a popular technology built for problems like these. A virtual private network actually uses a physically public network, most times the Internet, in order to connect users from many remote sites. The connections are routed privately through the Internet from the private network of the business to the remotely located employee. The use of a VPN ensures that anyone who happens to intercept any data encrypted over the data stream can not actually read it.
The VPN is the connection network which connects many local area networks, like a ferry traveling between islands. There may be other people on this ferry, which is the idea of a leased line, which is the idea that the VPN came from. However, the VPN is more like a submarine than a ferry, transporting each individual client along his or her own data stream to get to the island that contains the remote employee.
Physical distance does not actually matter with a VPN, and a VPN is completely scalable, able to add more users much more easily than any other technology which attempts to connect LANs. The security of a VPN is also vastly improved over technologies of the past. Most VPNs now are not restricted by hours, meaning that any person on the business network should be able to access the VPN at any time from any location as well.
There are two main types of VPN.
The remote access VPN is the more common type of VPN. It allows each user to establish connections with other nodes within a business network privately. To have a remote access VPN, two components are necessary. First, a VPN must have a network access server, also called a media gateway. This is the server which the user actually uses to connect to the Internet to access the VPN. The VPN must also have client software. The client software allows the computer that the remote user is using to recognize the VPN that is being accessed and maintain a connection between that computer and the VPN. However, cloud technology is making this client software less and less a requirement as the “client software” can now be held by a third party server to which the remote computer will connect.
If you would like to find out more on how to implement this in your business contact IT Support