Breaking Down a Basic Web Hosting Package

 If you're new to the world of running your own website, and looking around at different web hosts, you've probably noticed that many hosts offer many different things within their hosting packages. And while it's easy to become overwhelmed by all the different terms and features offered, most of them break down into some pretty basic features that are all very similar to each other. Here's what those features are.

The platform

 The platform? is the general term for what operating system you want the server holding your website to be running from. The most common are Linux and Windows, although you can also find Mac and Unix hosting as well. When choosing the platform you want to work with, you need to consider a number of things. Do you want a user-friendly experience, or do you want to take advantage of open source software? Is security your biggest concern, or easy installation? Each platform comes with different pros and cons, and in some cases the type of website you're running may determine the platform you use.

Uptime

The concept of uptime is very simple - it's the amount of time that your website is actually  running. Of course, you want this percentage to be as close to 100% as possible. While it's near impossible to have a website running 100% of the time all year long, it is possible to have it running 99.99% of the time.

Bandwidth and data transfer

These are two very similar concepts, and they work hand in hand with each other to help your website transfer its data to the use's website. Many people make a huge deal out of these two features but truthfully, unless you're running a lot of videos or high-resolution images, they most likely won't be an issue with your site.

Storage space

Storage space refers to the amount of space your website will take on the web host's server. Again, this is a very important feature because without server space, your website doesn't have a home. However much like bandwidth and data transfer, unless you're using a shared hosting plan, storage space most likely wont be an issue.

Technical support

While some website owners might be too focused on bandwidth and storage space, they may lose sight of technical support in the process. However, this is a huge area of importance. If your website crashes and you need help, you need to know that your web host is there for you, no matter what time of the day; and you also need to know that they're going to be competent and capable to help you.

These are the main components of most web hosting packages, although of course you can find many specialty types of hosting as well, such as ecommerce hosting, that come with their own specific features. These standard features are all also going to have their own limitations and capacities, depending on the web host that you choose, so it’s important to examine each package carefully.

by Edmund Brunetti

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Piracy’S Part in the Digital Landscape

For better or for worse, digital piracy is a part of today's digital landscape. While some people may not admit to taking part in illegal file-sharing or downloading, the majority of people are doing it, whether they are completely aware of it or not.

Even within the circles of those who claim to be most affected by illegal file-sharing - artists, producers, directors, actors, etc - illegal downloading is prevalent. It's this kind of hypocrisy that makes it hard for people of any group to support proposed government bills that would impose fines and possible jail time for those found to be downloading materials illegally.

Additionally, some groups even use illegal downloading statistics to shape their marketing and distribution plans. One company, BigChampagne, gets paid up to $40,000 from clients to help inform them of what is hot and trending with their potential customer base. This type of internal separation within the media industry makes it much harder to find support for anti-piracy laws, especially ones that are so overreaching, such as SOPA.

It's been long-believed, as well, in the software industry that companies such as Adobe have floated releases of their product on the web in order to spread the word about their product to a large base of people who would eventually want to upgrade to a legitimate version of the software. It's no secret that the software industry has been deeply affected by digital piracy, however, it's the fact that people within the industry are so divided that prevents widespread support for anti-piracy laws.

Rather than take the sue-them-til-they-bleed approach, most experts believe that the solution to the piracy issue is actually more about creating legitimate alternatives than anything else. For example, in the U.S., Netflix takes up about 29% of the overall bandwidth use while in Europe nearly 29% is used by BitTorrent clients. This demonstrates a key point: if you give web users a legitimate alternative which delivers everything they look for when downloading illegally, it's likely that they will choose the legal path versus the illegal one.

Another contributing factor to illegal downloads - the fact that movies and media are available much sooner in the U.S. than other markets - could be remedied by the industry if they just realize who their client bases are and then cater to them, even if it's a much different approach than they've taken historically. This could mean releasing movies and music internationally at the same time as they do in the U.S., or shortly thereafter, or creating additional content for foreign markets.

 by Tim Roberts

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Difference Between Bandwidth and Data Transfer

 When you're about to start up a website, two of the web hosting features that you're bound to consider the most are bandwidth and data transfer. These two features are extremely similar.  So much so in fact, that sometimes even web hosts talk about them interchangeably as though they are one and the same. But in fact, there are small differences between the two that make them different from each other.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred at one time. Or rather, how much information you have on your website that needs to be downloaded to the user's computer. Data transfer on the other hand, is how much information is allowed to be downloaded.

Still sound like they're the same thing?

Think about bandwidth and data transfer as a bridge. The bandwidth would be the number of cars and vehicles that can cross the bridge at one time; whereas data transfer would be the amount of people and vehicles that are allowed to cross at any given time, such as in one month.

How does this affect your website?

If your website doesn't have enough bandwidth, it would be like a lot of cars trying to cross a very narrow bridge at the same time. Some people would simply have to sit and wait until others have crossed. The same thing is true with your website. If you don't have enough bandwidth, multiple users may not be able to use it at the same time. This would only be a problem if a huge amount of people were trying to access your site at the same time; but a lot of people do just that with a lot of different websites. Without adequate bandwidth, some of those users are simply going to have to wait, or come back to the site later.

And do you think they will? Or will today's impatient user simply move on to another site that will allow them access at the time they want it? Most likely, the user will simply move on; and this is why you need to make sure your website has enough bandwidth.

Not having enough data transfer on the other hand, is like having a very strict crossing guard at the entry of your bridge; and that guard will only let 50 cars across the bridge in one month's time. In this instance, your web host is the guard at the bridge and they dictate how many people can visit your site in that amount of time. Of course, you can choose to allow more people on; you'll just have to pay a little more in order to make sure that they can.

So why do even web hosts talk about bandwidth and data transfer as though they're the same thing? It's not because of a lack of knowledge, but rather the fact that typically an unlimited amount of bandwidth is given out with most packages. Web hosts will refer to transfer to indicate both the amount of data that's being downloaded, and how often that information is being downloaded. If you want your site up and running all the time, and allow as many people in that will come, you'll most likely need to upgrade your data transfer.

by Edmund Brunetti

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CLOUD COMPUTING

WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING 

  cloud computing has led to a ‘marketing fog’, and this is no better illustrated than with the multitude of definitions for the term.

I considered a number of well-known definitions of cloud computing, but I have chosen the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) draft definition as my preferred definition because it is publicly available, it reflects the IT market and it is relatively simple, in my opinion. Quoting from draft number 15 (Mell and Grance, 2009):

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of

configurable computing resources (eg networks,servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING?

This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

The NIST draft definition goes on to describe these five essential characteristics (on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service), three service models (Software as  a Service – SaaS, Platform as a Service – PaaS and Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS), and four deploymentmodels (Private, Community, Public and Hybrid Cloud);

but this chapter provides alternative descriptions.

Now, some industry experts do not like the use of the SaaS, PaaS and IaaS acronyms, but they are so firmly

embedded in the cloud computing literature that they  cannot be ignored .

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Business beyond buildings

Cloud computing frees you from common IT administrative tasks, but what can your business do with cloud computing technologies? Depending on any restrictions imposed by corporate governance and your organization’s internal (operational) controls, here are some examples to consider: access your data and applications from any internet connection, regardless of the device you are using,so you can work from home or on the move in exactly the same way as you would in your office;avoid storing confidential business data on laptops,PCs and other devices that could be stolen; share documents and collaborate more easily on documents and projects with colleagues, partners and customers; add pre-integrated third-party applications from within your cloud or connect to applications or datasources in other clouds (LinkedIn or Facebook for example) using standard web service protocols; use visual web-based development tools to quickly create new web applications and document

workflows that make more of your business data and speed up processes; run highly intensive data processing tasks on  any number of duplicate virtual servers and then

delete the server instances when you have your results.

photo credit: Stuck in Customs via photopin cc

Dr Mark I Williams

moving your business into the cloud

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Private and Public Digital Evidence and Forensic Investigation

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This article discusses the specific sub-field of digital forensics and the types of crimes that would need digital forensics for an investigation.

Digital Forensics

This sub-field of forensics examines data and information from computer storage media so that it may be used as evidence in a court of law or to answer a specific legal question as it may need.

For example in private investigations, digital forensics investigator may use digital forensics at the request of a private attorney for a defendant in a public case. And evidence may be gathered to prove that an employee is using company resources for personal private business use such as selling goods online or visiting the site that is against the company rules and regulation about Information technology. In this case, the employee may be subject to disciplinary action by the company, more personal liability, and perhaps criminal liability.

More so, evidence that proves an employee has violated an employment agreement. For example, evidence may be gathered that proves an employee accessed records or other information without authorization. It may also give that one employee has harassed another employee or perhaps stolen company information.

While public investigations require digital forensics only when a crime has been committed and computers can be used in crimes in one of the following ways, such as, Crimes associated with the prevalence of computers i.e. copyright violations, crimes in which computer is the instrument of the crime or crime in which computer are incidental to another crime such as using it to store illegal records and crimes in which the computer is the target such as crimes that involve stealing information from a computer or denial of service crimes.

Digital Evidence Collection

The collection of digital evidence may have several prominent roles in collection. These roles may include:

Physical Technology Collection: Investigators will collect the physical media. Physical media is any technology that stores data or information. E.g. hard disks, PDAs, flash and other electronic devices.

Physical Media Analysis: Investigators will analyze the physical evidence for finger prints or other evidence found on the surfaces of the physical technology. This role requires a deep understanding of the technology and may be able to aid the roles of digital evidence collection and digital evidence analysis even when the physical device is severely damaged.

Digital Evidence Collection: Investigators will collect the digital data from the physical device. Here, the evidence is the full set of files, folders, and bits stored on the physical media.

Digital Evidence Analysis: Investigators will analyze the data collected. Analysis of digital evidence may show hidden information.

Digital Evidence

Digital evidence is both the full set of bits, bytes, and blocks retrieved from the technology. It is also any subset of that full set such as e-mail, log files, text documents, spreadsheets, and other files.

Digital evidence has several unique challenges and questions that must be addressed. The highest challenge is found in modern computers which are implanted as multi-user systems with potentially hundreds of users. Since evidence must conclusively show facts in an investigation, it becomes critical to clear up ambiguities of who owns the data, how the data came to be on the system, and who or what originated the data.

Another concern is the legal issues surrounding the collection of evidence from privately owned devices such as cell phones in private investigations as well the expectation of privacy for employees using company provided resources. While no clear answers have emerged, many businesses specify the proper use of their assets and need employees to waive any such rights to privacy on company assets as part of their employment contract.

Furthermore, this issue has recently become more complicated with the onset of free publicly available encryption technologies. This specific question is whether or not a user retains an expectation of privacy by using encryption on company assets. Clearly, the company has the right to the encrypted version of the data; but does the company have the right to mandate the employee offer an unencrypted version? Subsequently, can a person be ordered by a court of law to give a password to law enforcement to decrypt the digital evidence?

One may be tempted to argue that no digital bit has ever been seen, so plain sight is not possible and not an issue. This issue of privacy raises the question of "plain sight" while collecting evidence from digital sources. Others may argue that a permit to collect any digital evidence stored on a disk or computer device is enough to collect any and all evidence from a computer for any crime.

The plain sight doctrine is best interpreted conservatively so that any seizure of evidence of one crime revealed during the search for evidence for another crime should be then justified by a permit.

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Computers, What to Know When Purchasing a New Machine!

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When considering a computer/laptop, do you know what you need to know prior to your purchase? Here are some ideas to consider...

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If the computer is going to be used for games or movies as a priority, then a screen and video card are the important things to consider. In this case a desktop computer would probably be best as it is easier to upgrade your video card and your video output device. Also, with games and movies the hard disk needs to be very large if you save any of the input. With a desktop you can always add more hard drives with ease.

If the computer is going to be used for creating spreadsheets, Word documents, or video presentations then either type of system would do. The only real consideration here would be the ease of typing the input. The keyboard on a desktop is easier to type on for most people. However, if you desire the laptop for portability or space requirements, you can always plug in a desktop keyboard (wired or wireless).

This now brings up the idea of portability. A desktop, normally, stays where it is installed. A laptop is made for travel. You can do your work at hot spots (i.e. McDonald's, coffee shops, book stores, etc.) or just in different rooms of your home; you are not tied down other than staying within the range of your wireless LAN when at home. This makes it much easier to sit on the porch enjoying the nice weather, going to the kitchen for a snack, or catching up on you "important" television shows while still creating documents.

Software packages are a main concern when buying a new computer. The first consideration is that if the software you are currently using is not on CDs or DVDs in your possession, you will probably have to buy them again. As a rule, software cannot be copied from one computer to another. It must be installed on each computer using it.

The second consideration is compatibility. Even if you do have the software on hand, some computers will not run older software. With the changes in computers happening every two or three years, software and hardware must be verified to run with the new system. Some systems now are running 32 bit and/or 64 bit operating systems. This can be important because some software is honed in to one or the other of these. Currently, there is very little software out there that runs 64 bit or dual processors. this is a big advertising game to sell computers; however, tomorrow... ?

The third consideration is cost. Software needed for a new system usually costs as much or more than the desktop/laptop purchase. Again this depends on what you are going to use the system for.

As stated previously above, there is hardware that will not run on the newer computer systems. Sometimes the problem is the operating system of the computer not being able to talk to the hardware device. Sometimes it is because the drivers (the translators for device to computer communication) for the device has not or will not be created.

If your new purchase is to create photo output or high quality presentation output, as opposed to general documents, then you may want to consider putting your money into a printer of high quality and much less into the computer itself.

The quantity of hardware could also be an issue. Most laptops have 2 or 4 USB ports to plug in hardware. If you need more you can get a USB hub with additional ports; however, there are still some hardware devices that will not work through a USB hub and needs the direct connection to the laptop USB port. A desktop can have 4 to 8 USB ports to plug into. Again a USB hub can be used for more ports or a card can be installed within the desktop for additional ports. If this is a strong consideration, then you will probably need a high end system to push all the power needed for each device.

Security is always an issue in this day and age. The word virus gives a lot of people a case of anxiety. There are several ways to solve this problem and enjoy your computer. The first is get a good anti-virus and anti-spyware program. There are a lot of free ones out there - some are very good. There are a lot of others that charge (usually yearly) - some are very good. This is a case of either read about them fro sources you trust or rely on other people that you can trust. There will always be someone who will like each one or they wouldn't all be on the market. And don't be fooled; if you have a cable (Comcast, FIOS, Cox, etc.) connection, you are ALWAYS on the Internet whenever the computer is turned on. You do not have to initiate your email, Internet, or any other application to be hacked.

Another way to secure yourself from viruses, spyware, malware, root kits, and ID theft is to make sure that you use a LAN or network that you can trust and that has security within it. Of course, the only way not to be "hit by this bus" is to stay off of computers. But even this is not a good alternative as your bank account, your credit card, and other out-of-home shopping situations are almost all computerized and susceptible to being hacked.

A back up power supply and a back up for your computer files are also steps in the right direction for security. A back up power supply will help stop a computer from being struck by a power surge. A power surge has all the capability of entering the unit and destroying the insides including wiping the hard drive. The correct power supply has the ability to turn off your computer when there is an outage also. A back up for your computer files is good when your computer bites the dust or gets decimated by a virus. With a good back up procedure your data will always be safe even if your computer is not.

Now that we have answered most of what you want your computer for, what specifications (insides) are needed for this computer? Do you need a DVD drive that has the capability to write or create CDs or DVDs or just one that can read CDs (for installations) or DVDs (for movies)? How fast should the computer be? How much memory do you need? What size video output do you want? What about your network speed?

These can be very involved questions without any real clear-cut answers. Without getting too deep into these questions, a new computer made within the last year would be more than enough for most people. Reviews on the Internet from reliable sources could also be a big help.

The final thought is whatever you decide to purchase, I recommend that you be happy with what you have to pay for your system and don't look at computer sales or ads for the next six months - because you will probably find something newer, bigger, faster, or on sale to make you rethink your purchase. Don't.

If you want to use my experiences, then feel free to go to my website and contact me with any thoughts or questions. I am not the "know it all geek" and will never proclaim myself the "number one guru" but I have had my hands on and in computers since 1967 and have clients and experiences to support my convictions.

What about refurbished systems?

A refurbished system is usually a very good system. But if you want a warranty you may want to stick with new if you don't know anything about computers or don't have a handy IT professional friend.

Hello. I hope my 40 plus years experience helps you understand computer and laptop purchasing a little more..

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