The expansion of fast Internet access combined with the flexibility and lower cost of calls using VoIP has made this burgeoning technology very attractive to consumers. Internet telephony is now one of the rapidly-growing applications on the internet with around four million VoIP users in the United Kingdom alone, not including business subscriptions.

The first step that should be taken when looking into setting up an account is to look into the available VoIP providers and the selection of services they offer. Once the provider and service have been selected the next stage is setting up your account. This is fairly easy but do be mindful that you should check your service offers a local number. Some VoIP providers don’t cover every phone exchange in which case you are likely to be offered a number from the nearest exchange thats available.

Having a non-local number may not seem like something to consider when VoIP is used for outgoing calls, it will matter to your family and friends when they make long distance (or national rate) calls to contact you even though they may live in the next street. There are some VoIP companies that only offer non-geographic numbers, using codes such as 0870, 0845 or 056. In the case of non-geographic numbers some limitations exist: Calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers are not allowed from most landline, mobile and VoIP providers’ all-inclusive call packages. In the case of 056 numbers, it is not possible to call them from outside the UK at present.

Consideration should be given to keeping a landline phone service as a backup. The reason for this is that if there is a power cut you are likely to lose your broadband connection - because the router and ADSL modem need power - and your VoIP access too, because the VoIP equipment needs to be connected to the mains. There are some types of VoIP equipment that offer a “lifeline” function that will connect urgent calls, and all calls if there should be a power failure, to a landline. You should check this point with your provider if you feel that you need to have this provision included in your service.

Some VoIP service providers offer services that allow you to pay for calls as you go while others offer a service that charges a single, all-inclusive fee. Plans offering unlimited local and national calls are also available for small businesses and for residential users. In the case of businesses additional features such as a free fax service are often included. There is a pricing option available to fit your needs.

Just contact the VoIP company of your choice and they will set up an account for you. The average person should be up and running with VoIP in about half an hour. Join the internet telephony revolution now!

Generally people relate ’steam power’ to the slow moving steam trains and boats of an age long since left in the dust, a sentimental picture of a Victorian railway perhaps… not exactly state of the art eco-power you may say. However steam power is getting a re-vamp thanks to a company who are trying to make the steam-engine more efficient and compatible with modern day technology.

Clean Power Technologies, in Newhaven on the English south coast, are trying to create a car that runs on steam power. They are developing steam hybrid engines that cut down and reuse the huge amount of energy wasted by the internal combustion engine. “When you talk of steam people think you are going backwards,” said Abdul Mitha, the company’s CEO and president, “Anywhere where you are wasting a lot of heat, we can go in, capture the heat and turn it into energy savings … Steam has tremendous power. If it can drive a steam locomotive, why can’t it drive an automotive engine?”

Of the energy in a vehicles petrol tank, just 27% is converted into forward motion, 33% is spent cooling the engine, 4% is lost as friction and a huge 36% is lost as exhaust heat. The company is aiming to harness the wasted heat that is pumped out of the exhaust and convert it into useful power. “There is a lot of heat that is created and totally wasted. Clean Power Technologies aims to recover 40% of this exhaust heat”, Mitha.

Clean Power Technologies have created an experimental model in which engine exhaust at 750C, the typical for a lorry, is run through a steam accumulator which heats water to 360C plus, creating high pressure steam which they are ultimately aiming to pump back to the main engine to drive the pistons. However at the moment they are using the steam to run refrigeration units transporting frozen goods on the trucks. A demonstration truck is under construction to be completed by the end of October.

The plans are supported by Dr Ralph Clague, a mechanical engineer at Imperial College London, “Recycling exhaust heat and energy that is rejected from the engine has got to be the way forward in the future.” He feels that there has been no need to improve the efficiency before, however people are now faced with minimal fuel supplies and rocketing prices, “A tank of petrol or a tank of diesel is such an incredibly good energy store that we have been able to afford to throw some of it away up until now.”Although these ideas have been around in the industry for a while, Clean Power technology is addressing them practically and productively. “It’s a perfectly feasible idea … Obviously now with rising oil prices etc it becomes essential to extract more energy from the fuel you are putting in.” Clague.

Hannah Walker is a writer for www.ecoswitch.com

Just a time ago it looked like high performance notebooks were only being manufactured by a handful of niche companies and were built to spec, not mass produced. In the past the small number of sales countered by the profit margins. These were the laptop computers you dreamed of but were out of your reach. I guess they weren’t the most functional but I still believe they were the best laptops. I guess they would give us an idea of what’s to be launched but hardly anyone would really buy laptops for gaming at that time. The global players have lately begun taking advantage of giant opportunities in gaming notebooks, so that is all altering.

If mass produced, brands can generate large revenues on gaming laptops. Nowadays the standard laptop computer margins are very small so it presents the opportunity for them to regain the gross profits. International brands would certainly find it effortless to get prospects to buy these laptops. Little manufacturers certainly have a gigantic task ahead now. Now laptops for gaming will no longer be thought of as a niche market. Plainly the association of a familiar brand name comes into use here.

I reckon its some what laughable that because it comes with an established brand name they are seamlessly perceived as the best laptops. I think that local system builders could still have an opportunity. Sometimes the smaller companies could offer new parts quicker and so provide faster specifications too. Typically this kind of consumer is well versed in the tech specs and can easily evaluate configurations. For customers of this sort, how well it performs can be of greater importance than how good it looks.

For the purchaser, this holds a lot of advantages. The competitiveness between the established players should force prices down when they attempt to separate from each other. Who is to envisage what will happen. I am actually not that certain. Whether notebook computer prices will come down overall is an additional matter but the best laptops are traditionally pricey. The well known brands have already released their own gaming laptop line, so all we can do now is sit back and see.

I believe this place (http://www.rizeon.com) are rather good value for the specs they are offering.

How to Upgrade Your Cisco Router or PIX Firewall

When network engineers find that the requirements of a network have grown over time to the point where the memory allocation by Cisco IOS on the network routers, or by Finesse on Cisco PIX firewalls exceeds the installed Cisco memory size, it becomes necessary to make a choice between the expensive process of upgrading all obsolete network hardware outright, or the less expensive process of upgrading memory and other components of existing hardware to extend its capabilities, thereby increasing the longevity of the devices. PC Wholesale carries a full range of Cisco Approved and third party Cisco router and PIX firewall DRAM and Flash memory.

While upgrading Cisco memory is a pretty easy process, it is also a relatively expensive one when one takes the transition period into account. Fulfilling requirements of redundancy can be achieved with extra standby equipment during the transition, or allowing existing redundancy that has been previously built into the network (with considerable expense and planning) to converge around the affected pipes, thereby allowing such staggered upgrades. Alternatively, engineers could allow an acceptable loss of connectivity to occur during periods of minimal demand with scheduled downtime, which is sometimes inevitable.

The memory upgrade or replacement procedure is similar for most Cisco hardware, and is designed to be simple. Usually it involves unscrewing a panel on the case, which is then slid open or removed. Once the DRAM slot is located, the engineer can either replace the existing DIMM (or SIMM in older devices), or if there is a free slot available, insert a new one into the free slot. Similar to the installation of PC memory, Cisco RAM and Flash memory can only be inserted one way, and will snap/click into place when seated correctly.

If, after powering on the device, it shows all LEDs lit up or all LEDs flashing, the router is experiencing a critical hardware error. This means it has either an incompatible memory module installed, a module is badly seated, or there some other critical hardware failure. If this happens, you should power down immediately and check all internal connections, especially the seating of RAM, and any internal upgrade memory.

To avoid the number of times a given new device needs to be taken out of commission to keep its capabilities up to date, you may consider ordering and installing the maximum quantity of RAM that a router supports before installation. While this is expensive by any short-term reckoning, the cost is justified, as it results in a more robust foundation for the network, increasing the predicted longevity of individual components considerably. PC Wholesale carries a full line of Cisco Original/OEM and Third party DRAM and Flash memory for every Cisco router, firewall and switch.

It’s utterly implausible, but a recent analytical study reveals a supermarket-subsidized operation as the most accessible email provider in the region. The reported study exhibits the unanticipated proficiency of email performance via the operation’s noncomplex network exchange. The broadband study was performed by Epitro, a popular benchmarking firm in the United Kingdom. This unforeseen development arouses contemplation regarding the functionality of the broadband UK industry, as one wouldn’t expect such a tenderfoot operation to be paramount in the system.

Tesco is a popular UK retail superstore, situated across the country’s regional expanse. Tesco also offers broadband packages, selling service from a variety of network technologies.

The service exhibits exemplary statistical numbers, displaying its exceptional prominence within the communications industry. According to the Study, the Tesco service yields a 99.9% delivery of emails in durations of less than three minutes. Its competition, Virgin Media, Orange, Pipex, and Demon, exhibit rates of 99.7%, 99.5%, 99.2%, and 96.3%, respectively.

The practical analysis employed innovational computing systems as testing stations, dispatching emails from various locations across the United Kingdom. Using complex time synchronization, the study was capable of determining exact operation speeds. During the testing trials, specifications were put in place to eliminate timing errors and internet packet obscurity.

Consequential of the temp of modern society, consumers yearn for a service which offers quick communicational delivery. This operation’s prompt operation is not only desirable, it is essential to modern methods of transaction.

Its insane that laptops are now becoming a common technology, as if you should have one. Taiwan, which is the main manufacturing country of laptops is having trouble with the demand at the moment. I think the worst thing for manufacturers is that it doesn’t look like any factor will diminish this demand for laptops. The technology is evolving in all directions simultaneously as well.

I’ve heard an increasing number of consumers enquiring about gaming laptops. You can actually get a lot of laptop for your cash these days because even the up market technology is falling into the mass market area very quickly. With the introduction of dual core processors, laptops are worthy of gaming. Some of the problems like heat and noise still are present to a point but hardly in the midrange models. The chassis’s are also fairly thin. Performance of computers should always be a mile ahead of laptops but its still encouraging to see. The development of gaming laptops suggest that they will get sleeker and weightless in the future.

Performance laptops are typically custom built to the customers spec. I’m partial to the thought that high quality components go into a couple of custom laptops. You can usually save cash on things you don’t desire by specing the laptop to your needs. Prebuilt laptops are aimed for average activies and not upto doing more specific tasks. Custom built laptops are about for this reason. They provide needs that others cannot. The service offered by custom resellers is also a little more individual in my view. Once again a futher point to custom built notebooks.

The future of upcoming laptop computers seems exciting. To date it seems like low priced portables are the current buzz. I did not think anyone thought they would be such a big success. In my opinion the market would adapt well to a 15″ variant based on the exact roots. I believe getting an attractive price point is a main roadblock in all this. For sure the technology is there. Guessing from what is happening it seems like we’ll start seeing ultra mobile gaming systems. Companies are always looking to distinguish themselves in this tough market so that keeps things developing.

In my opinion Rizeon have the best laptop computers in relation to price and performance.

iPod users do not have much to sound off about. One exception is the lack of ability to move iPod music, video and other files from their iPod back to an additional desktop or laptop computer. Though the iPod has no problem transmitting videos and music from your computer to iPod using iTunes, the contrary is forbidden. Without iPod to PC Package, you won’t be able to download your iPod content to a new personal computer. This event sometimes happens when customers get a new personal computer or have to install the OS on their old computer. Apple prohibits this action because it does not want unauthorized sharing of bought files from the iTunes shop. Notwithstanding, there are a lot honest times that iPod owners want the power to move from iPod to personal computer. If a personal computer goes down and you need to install the system files, you might need iPod to PC copy software to get your worthful data. Differently, the clean installment of iTunes will wipe out your iPod, possibly costing you hundreds of dollars in lost music. Another common scenario customers necessitate these types of computer software is when they purchase a new PC and need to put their existing library of iPod files on the new machine. Over Again, if you do not install this type of application, you might potentially lose your worthful iPod files. You can find many companies that offer software applications to achieve this task. A speedy visit to freeware websites will reveal a handful of alternatives. You can also just type ‘iPod to machine transfer software’ into Google.

Many small business owners are concerned about business continuity and ensuring that their staff remains productive during work hours. One of the biggest risks to productivity in the work place is the threat of viruses, worms and other malicious activities that circulate around the Internet and threaten our corporate and home networks daily. Most viruses are spread via email and most are not written to cause damage to a personal computer, but specifically to disrupt network services, or simply flood your email services with thousands of these emails that spread the virus around to your business partners, staff and other contacts.

The “Onion Approach,” or layering of your security, which protects your network and PC from the infiltration of worms and other viruses, is the best way to ensure that your technology systems remain functional and your staff productive.

The inside layer is to protect your network and workstations. This can be done by using an antivirus solution that offers complete corporate protection. I recommend the corporate editions by Symantec, Trend Micro or McAfee. Any of these companies can ensure your network and workstations are protected. This however is the last defense to ensure your network is protected.

The next layer is to prevent viruses from even entering your network. This can be done with a firewall solution that offers a complete Unified Threat Management system. Firewall solutions that offer UTM provide the small business network with a gateway antivirus solution, which stops viruses at the Internet router. These firewalls mean an investment in superior technology. One example of a firewall solution that offers complete protection is SonicWALL and their solutions are priced to bring value to the small business owner. If you can prevent one virus from entering your network and therefore keep your systems protected and your staff productive then that is an investment worth far more than its price tag of a few hundred dollars.

The next and equally important layer is to subscribe to a SPAM filtering service, a great example of this type of service is SingleFin out of Southern California. This service filters or cleans all of your email before it is sent to your email server. SPAM and Virus based emails are held at the filtering server until you decide what you wish to do with them. SingleFin’s service is 100% web based so therefore you do not have to purchase any additional equipment to provide this service to you, and it offers your first 10 seats at no charge. The added bonus to a service like this is that your internet connection and bandwidth are freed up to perform your business functions instead of receiving virus type emails.

Having a great computer consulting company is critical in assisting you with this type of service. They will have all the certifications to ensure that it is done correctly with minimal disruption to your business. A qualified systems engineer will also ensure that your antivirus systems are updating properly and scanning files effectively. Not having a great update policy that is followed carefully by an IT professional is almost as bad as having no protection at all.

I always hear from small business owners: “What is the cost for this protection?” or “It must be pricey?” To totally protect your network and keep you staff productive will cost your company about $200.00 per month. Isn’t your business network and staff productivity worth $200.00 per month? Imagine the cost of your company’s computer system being down for one complete working day with no email? Staff not being able to use their systems to get out quotes, sales, drawings or business correspondence? What is the true cost to downtime? The reality is that downtime will cost far more than the wiser investment in preventing that downtime with the right technology. Get that technology now and take the worry about your computer’s vulnerability out of your day.

Stuart R. Crawford is the Director of Business Development, at IT Matters Inc. (http://www.itmatters.ca), a Microsoft Small Business Specialist and Microsoft IMPACT Award Finalist 2005 - Network Infrastructure Solution of the Year. Stuart is very active in the Calgary Networking Community, where he is an Associate Partner with the Corporate Group of Allied Associates and volunteers his time to help other small business owners and entrepreneurs. He can be reached at scrawford@itmatters.ca

Unix is one of the most important operating system today. Its
powerful features, scalability, strong security, and support for
multiple users have made it the top choice operating systems for
server, workstations and mainframes. It is good to have some
knowledge of Unix commands especially if your web host is
Unix/Linux based. You could do alot of things by yourself by
logging into the server via Secure Shell(SSH). This article will
describe some of the important “need to know” Unix commands.

1. ls This command will show you what files are in your current
directory. If you add in a -F option, ie “ls -F xxx”, there will
be a “/” appended to the end of directory names, * to
executables and @ to links. “ls -a xxx” will display all hidden
files as well. This is also the most used command.

2. cd Change directory. If you type “cd xx”, it means to change
to the specified directory “xx”. “cd ~” means to change to your
default home directory.

3. cp “a b” Copy file a to b. If b is a directory, the new file
will be named b/a.

4. mv “a b” Move files from a to b. For example, if I type “mv
songs.txt /tmp”, the file songs.txt will be moved to
/tmp/songs.txt. Moving a file is the same as renaming a file.

5. echo “text” Print “text” to the terminal. If “text” is
surrounded by double quotes, the text will be printed with any
environment variables such as $HOME. If “text” is surrounded by
single quotes, the “text” is printed without any special
processing.

6. pwd Print the current working directory. Useful command when
you are lost in the directories.

7. cat “file” Print the contents of the specified file(s) to the
terminal.

8. less “file” Display the specified file one screen at a time.
Press the spacebar to go to the next screen. Press Q to quit.
You often combine “less” with some other commands such as “cat
abc | less”. This command means you print the contents of the
file abc and display it one page at a time.

9. ps Display information about your running programs. This is a
good command to use if your server is slow and you suspect that
some applications are taking too much memory. The most famous
command using ps is “ps aux”. This will display useful
information on the running programs.

10. rm Remove or delete a file. If you type “rm -r directory”,
it will remove a directory and all the files underneath it
recursively.

11. man This is the most important command. man means “manual”.
If you are stuck with cat command for example, type “man cat”
and you can see the help file.

Once you have figured out a name for your ‘domain’ it can be really confusing trying to decide on what should go after the “dot” (i.e. com, net, org, etc…) in your domain name. This part of the domain name is referred to as a top-level domain (TLD) and knowing the difference between each top-level domain is important when choosing your domain name.

Below are the descriptions of the best known top-level domains:

.com - This is the most popular TLD. It is used mainly for US commercial organizations. BUT, in its capacity, it represents the highest standing for any domain name. Anyone can have a ‘.com’, but it is more difficult to think up a unique name that hasn’t already been registered.

.net - This is the second most popular TLD. It generally describes the entity owning the domain name as a network and is used mainly by organizations that provide network connection services.

.gov - Generally used for government agencies.

.int - Intended to be used for sites relating to International Treaties or containing international databases. For this reason, it is not widely used.

.mil - Mainly used by military organizations of the US government.

.org - In general, non-profit organizations tend to use this extension.

.name - This is a new TLD and is intended to allow individuals to register their names (i.e. firstname.lastname.name) as a personal domain name on the Internet.

.biz - This is a new TLD for businesses; ‘.biz’ is intended to be an alternative to the ‘.com’.

.info - This is also new, and is freely available to anyone with a business, government or non-commercial site.

Written by Candice Humbley
http://m6.net
Fast, reliable and affordable Windows 2000 web farm hosting.

About the Author

M6.net is your No.1 provider of website web hosting on Windows 2000. The
lowest priced web hosting accounts with multiple websites and multiple
SQL Server databases per web account makes M6.net unbeatable value for
your web hosting needs - save $100’s of per month.