You might be asking what features should I look for in a wireless router. You will have to ask yourself some questions first.

1. Do you currently have a 802.11b or 802.11g wireless adapter?

2. Do you want to connect remotely to your office network?

3. Do you live in an apartment or house?

4. What security features are you looking for?

5. Do you have desktop computers to connect also?

If you currently have a 802.11g wireless adapter you will want to purchase a 802.11g wireless router so you can maximize your network speed at 54mbps. 802.11g adapters will also connect to 802.11b wireless routers but you will only have a network speed of 11mbps. This speed you still be fine for the majority of users, most public wireless access points use 802.11b.

Connecting securely to your home office will require a technology called a VPN or virtual private network. Most routers will claim to have the ability to use VPN’s but when you attempt to connect you receive nothing buy errors. So you will want to purchase a wireless router that will specifically designed for wireless and VPN technology. Once you have purchased your wireless router you need to get the latest firmware updates from the manufacture.

Wireless router security could fill up volumes so I will keep it as “simple” as possible. The following are some basic features that are on most routers:

1. Disabling SSID broadcasting

2. Change your default SSID

3. Enable WEP encryption

4. Enable MAC address filtering

If you enable the above you will discourage most “hackers” from even looking at your wieless network. There are too many wide open networks that don’t need any brainwork to get into.

The following are some of the more advanced Security features on newer routers with updated firmware.

1. WPA – WPA is the solution to all of WEP’s security flaws. WEP uses one key to for all network traffic. A hacker can exploit this by using a network analyzer to capture the key. WPA changes the key with every data frame so once a hacker captures the key it has already been changed by WPA. WPA uses tools such as TKIP and AES encryption.

2. WPA-PSK (Wireless Protected Area pre shared key) This is really easy to set up just copy your shared key to router and adapter and your set.

3. TKIP – The second best version of encryption for WPA

4. AES – This is the highest version of encryption for WPA

5. WPA -RADIUS uses a RADIUS server to authenticate users which adds another layer of security. Linksys does offer a service to for $5.00 month per user to use their RADIUS server. If you have no clue what you just read then don’t worry about it.

Wired security will include NAT ( Network Address Translation) this takes your public IP address and converts it into multiple private IP addresses. Some people consider this a firewall but it isn’t because it doesn’t block unwanted outgoing addresses.

Another newer feature is Called MIMO (Multi in Multi out) the basic concept of this your router or access point has more that just two antennas which enables your router to receive and send information at a greater rate. This creates signal reflections which could reduce dead spots in your network. Add on top of this SRX technology will automatically have your router switch to the clearest channel instead of staying on a channel with interference. The above will increase your range greatly and the increase the power of your signal.

Another router feature is POE (Power over Ethernet) this is a really good feature for business environment because you power your router through the Ethernet cable, which means you don’t need a power outlet.

One feature which is often over looked but one of the coolest features of a wireless router or access point is the ability of act as a wireless bridge. If you have a huge ware house and you need to connect computers on either end of the warehouse you can use a wireless bridge to connect both ends with out running wires.

The main things to remember are: 802.11g is faster than 802.11b, enable the basic security features and finally choose the router that will fit your needs.

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What is Broadband?

Broadband is a high-speed Internet connection that is always available. This means you don’t have to dial-up every time you want to send an e-mail or surf the Internet. There is more than one type of Broadband connection, here is some info that will help you make the right choice.

ADSL

The easiest and most cost-effective way to get fast Internet is with ADSL. Quite simply, ADSL is a high-speed, always-available digital connection to the lnternet that works using your existing telephone line.

How does ADSL work?

When your ADSL line is activated and you have the necessary hardware in place (a PC and an ADSL modem), your telephone line signal is divided into two channels one for voice or fax and the other for a high-speed data connection.

Why should I get ADSL?

ADSL is up to 9 times faster than a standard dial-up connection.

It’s always available. You will never have to wait to dial-up again, because with ADSL you are permanently connected to the Internet.

You don’t pay for a call every time you use the Internet, so your telephone bill will reflect a fixed monthly rate for your ADSL access.

It’s cost effective. If you find you are spending more than

With a wireless network, not only can you share Internet connectivity, but you can share files. You can put a file on a shared drive, and then anyone on any computer in your house can access it.

Additionally, you can share a printer. You can literally press “print” while working on your laptop in the bedroom, and the printer in your office will start spewing out your latest reports.

To start out with, you need a gateway the Internet. Any computer can serve as your gateway. This system must be directly plugged into the Internet in order for other users to be truly wireless. Thus one computer is stationary, you cannot move it.

To connect your wireless systems to the Internet, set up your gateway. Click on the Start menu and scroll up to the Control Panel. Then double click the Network Connections icon. At this point you can run through the series of steps in the Network Set up Wizard. Make sure to select “set up a home or small office network.”

Continue moving through the wizard until you reach the “select a connection method” page. You will need to select the option that states that your computer is directly connected to the Internet. Keep moving through the steps until you arrive on the final page with your reward: the finish button.

At this point you only have one computer hooked up to the Internet, and you can’t move it around the house. To gain mobility, you will need to go through the same steps with each of your other computers, only this time, you should select the option that states you’re your computer is connected to the Internet through a network and not directly connected to the Internet.

Unfortunately this sort of network does have a downside: the wireless connection relies on the gateway. When you turn your gateway off, the rest of your systems drop their Internet connection too. You might also want to consider purchasing a wireless router. Check out our article configure a network that always stays on.

Overall a wireless connection offers the freedom that no other Internet service does. You can even sit outside your home within a reasonable distance and access the Internet. Imagine that: shopping online from your deck. You could work from the kitchen, the bedroom, and even the bathroom. And while no one wants to become a workaholic, some people need the variety of setting to stay productive. So take the necessary steps to get hooked up and go wireless today.

If you are interested in obtaining dialup access, you will see that there are quite a big number of Internet service providers offering dialup access. Choosing the best from among these ISPs can be a confusing task. The best way to do so is to first verify your needs as well as your budget and then look for the ISP that will satisfy these needs adequately. When looking for a dialup ISP, there are many factors you should consider.

Aside from the features that come bundled with the dialup service and the billing options available, vital issues that you should consider are the Internet dialup access numbers. These access numbers are necessary for the phone line to be able to connect you to the Internet. Make sure the ISP you choose offers local access numbers. This way, you can avoid costly long-distance charges.

If you need to travel, ask if your ISP provides access numbers for a wide range of locations. Some ISPs have a toll-free access number. Do research on the ISPs you are considering. Some provide an access number lookup on their sites. Just enter your phone number, and they will provide you with a list of the available dialup access numbers you can use in your area. You can also ask the Internet dialup access provider’s customer service representative to get more information.

Internet Dial Up Access provides detailed information on Internet Dial Up Access, Free Internet Dial Up Access, Internet Dial Up Access Providers, Internet Dial Up Access Numbers and more. Internet Dial Up Access is affiliated with Internet Access Providers.

Everyone is talking about the U.S. borders not being secure
– illegal aliens streaming over our borders, about securing
our broadband connections from hackers, and I was just
curious about the silence of securing our children’s minds.

Has anyone been paying attention to our most precious
treasure being assaulted on a daily basis by the equivalent
of illegal aliens – a failing education system, drugs,
violence, teen pregnancy and immoral attacks on all levels?
Our children’s spiritual borders are being left unguarded,
and this assault is during the most critical years of their
lives when it comes to learning about becoming a whole
person when they become adults. The Southern Baptist
Convention to their credit has developed a resolution “to
warn their members concerning the toxic spiritual nature of
the government school system”. The resolution further calls
on churches to “become aggressive and proactive in starting
Christian schools and in supporting homeschooling”.

That is a wake-up call and others need to be sounding the
alarm across our nation. Securing broadband Internet
connections cannot be more important than securing a loving
realtionship with our children, instead of them forming a
relationship with the blurred PG-13/R rated broadcasts
coming from the television.

Parents, family, neighbors, and friends should be sounding
the trumpet about protecting our children’s spiritual
borders. See more info here:
http://www.earnedmedia.org/gtko0531.htm it is a website
called the Christian Communication Network and details the
SBC’s resolution. This site also has a link to
http://www.getthekidsout.org/ a grass roots effort to
educate parents about the loss of morals in the public
school system and the full resolution.

A moral education is the first defense our children should
have against everything else, they need the ammunition to
make the right choices when it comes to drugs, violence and
when to start a family – which is where the confusion starts
that creates teen pregnancy in the first place. A second
pillar of defense is a proper relationship with your child
as each one is a different person and needs respect, love
and wisdom for that individual. These pillars help develop
a foundation that can withstand practically any assault our
children have to face in the world today and in the future.

If the Southern Baptist Convention is drawing up a
resolution advising parents to take their children out of
public schools, then at least we have someone paying
attention. Their needs to be a far louder alarm sent to
parents everywhere to get our children into a quality
environment where they can learn moral values and will not
be restricted or challenged for exhibiting moral values.
This is an issue that needs to be addressed like no other
as it is already too late to ignore with the large number of
children being negatively affected by the forces trying to
brainwash them to make the wrong choices.

We all need to remember – to train up a child in the way he
should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)

Many business owners use some amount of technology every day, but sometimes find themselves unwilling to try new technological advances due to a lack of understanding or an overwhelming amount of complication associated with certain technologies. However, business VOIP is a relatively simple technology to obtain and use that allows you more versatility in your phone uses while saving you money.

Business VOIP may seem like a very foreign term to your business. The “VOIP” in business VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. That may sound technical, but really it just means that you will be able to use telephone services over your internet connection rather than your traditional phone lines. How does this benefit your business? Free long distance is one way your company can save money with business VOIP.

Business VOIP allows you to call anywhere in the world using your internet connection. This means that there will be no additional long-distance charges when you use business VOIP. Besides savings on long-distance, you will also be able to avoid those other costs tacked onto your regular phone bill like taxes, tariffs, and other mysterious charges. In some cases, companies already using business VOIP have reported savings up to 60 percent over their traditional phone bills.

However, the financial savings associated with business VOIP is not the only reason to change to this more technologically advanced phone system. The potential services available through business VOIP will also offer your business flexibility and communications potential that will enhance your continued efforts at growing your organization. For instance, there is technology available for your business VOIP system that will allow your computer to communicate with others via the phone, and business VOIP also opens doors to conferencing via tele-video. Imagine being able to see the person you are speaking to in real time video or being able to present a product in real time.

Another great aspect of business VOIP is that it allows you to enhance your advertising potential immediately via message on hold. Through a simple .wav or .mp3 file, you can take an audio file and turn it into an advertisement your clientele can hear via your telephone. Taking the advancement of the telephone and adding in a new kind of communication potential makes business VOIP a must for most businesses.

Read the rest of the article here: Business VOIP.

Download the Home Based Business Manual (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Home Based Business. He specializes in showing people the Best Work at home and Best MLM Leads online.

Vacations are important to us, for many reasons, and an inclusive vacation is the best way to go where the value and
pricing are important. Where local travel agency’s don’t have the time to monitor all the packages out there, you never
know if you’re getting the best available cheap all inclusive holidays for your money.

Many vacation agencies must resort to multiple searches within a variety of slow travel databases that take a lot of time, and that’s what agents don’t have these days is time to do last minute searches, so you normally end up with a quote that is much higher than what you saw on the Internet!

On the other hand, with the Internet, vacation specials are easy to find because you’re tapping directly into the live vacation reservations system that is updated daily. With the amount of cancellations that occur, you have the luxury to tap into this mass inventory of travel deals that have to sell quickly to fill these voids.

If you happen to be wondering why they sell the vacation packages so cheap, I will give you an inside tip. Most of the
Tour Operators pre-purchase resorts, airfare, and the other services in advance. The resort and airline company will normally give them a time frame to release the space without penalty, however, if it’s cancelled too late, the Tour Company is responsible for the cost, and if it goes empty, they will lose the total revenue. This is why many people that cancel last minute get penalized, by either losing their deposit or full package amount.

This is where you and the Internet come into play. The Travel Suppliers rely on the online travel companies such as 11thHour Vacations.com, Last Minute Vacations.com, and expedia.uk, which have these massive databases that can update in minutes! They are the backbone in driving great deals online quickly to the public, and where you can enjoy fantastic savings. Sometimes you can book specials that come available up to two weeks prior to the date you would like to depart!

The problem is that the Internet Connection Sharing Wizards that come with Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Me don’t work very well, and in some cases, can break your existing Internet Connection. The good news is that it’s not that hard to set up, as long as you do it properly.

How Internet Connection Sharing Works

When you set up Internet Connection Sharing, you set up one of your computers as a ‘gateway’ to the Internet, and then use this gateway to access the Internet with your other computers. Essentially, requests for data from the Internet are being sent out through the gateway, and the responses are being sent back across the network (’routed’) back to your computer. The gateway computer is still the only one that’s directly connected to the Internet.

If you have trouble visualising what’s happening, imagine for a second that the computers are people. Let’s call the computer-people Bob, Fred and Alice. They’re all in a bar together, but Bob is the only one with money for drinks (we could say he has a ‘connection’ to the bar). Fred and Alice can ask Bob to buy them a drink, and Bob can bring over the drinks, for them to have as they usually would. At no point, however, can Fred or Alice go and order a drink at the bar.

Setting It Up: The Gateway

Note: this guide assumes that you have already set up your wireless network, but you have not connected it to the Internet yet.

The computer with the modem connected to it is the one you need to set up first — as the gateway, it’s going to be providing Internet access to all your other computers. On this computer, go to the Control Panel, then click Network Connections. From here, you can run the Network Setup Wizard by clicking ‘Set up a home or small office network’.

Click next through the wizard until you get to a screen called ‘Select a connection method’. On this screen you need to select ‘This computer connects directly to the Internet. The other computers on my network connect to the Internet through this computer’. From here on, you should be able to click next again until you get to the finish. Say ‘yes’ to turn on file and printer sharing when you’re prompted.

Your computer is now ready to be a gateway to the Internet.

The Network

The next step is setting up the other computers on your network to make use of the gateway you just created. Run the Network Setup Wizard on each of these computers, but this time through choose ‘This computer connects to the Internet through another computer on my network or through a residential gateway’.

If the computer that will now be using a shared Internet connection was using a dial-up connection before, then there are a few things left to do — you need to change some settings in the web browser Open Internet Explorer, then go to the Options screen (in the Tools menu). Click the Connections tab. You should click ‘never dial a connection’, and untick three boxes: ‘automatically detect settings’, ‘use automatic configuration script’ and ‘use a proxy server’.

The Trouble With Internet Connection Sharing

To go back to our bar for a moment, imagine Bob leaves. Oh dear. Looks like Fred and Alice can’t get any more drinks, doesn’t it? The same thing applies to the computers on your network — if the gateway computer is switched off, they will lose all their access to the Internet.

That’s not the only problem, though. While Internet Connection Sharing works fine for the web and email, it can be more problematic when it comes to doing other things. Downloading files from filesharing networks, for example, or using videoconferencing, requires you to mess around with the gateway computer’s settings. After a while, it can get quite frustrating. If you’re in this position, you should really try a wireless router — see our article ‘Create Always-On Networks with a Wireless Router’.

Hospitals and other large, fragmented workforces are discovering the value of using wireless VoIP phones to converse with one another quickly and efficiently while in different wings, floors or buildings of a large facility. This kind of wireless VoIP setup can have huge cost savings over cell phones and is more efficient that using pagers.

While business VoIP has caught on in the corporate landscape, residential VoIP is still trying to take hold. This is largely because of a couple of current disadvantages of VoIP. First, not all current VoIP systems have power backups. When the power goes out in a residence, the landline is still operational. Since VoIP works over a high-speed Internet connection, which requires power, if the power goes down, so does the VoIP connection. This will be of concern to many concerned about emergency situations. The good news is that many VoIP hardware providers are starting to deliver systems with power backup to address just this issue.

The second drawback of residential VoIP is that not all current VoIP service providers offer full, 24-7 emergency 911 service. After hour calls in Florida, may be mistakenly rerouted to Idaho for instance. This is also about to change. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all phone service providers offer e911 service as standard. According to the FCC, “All interconnected VoIP providers must automatically provide E9-1-1 services to all customers as a standard, mandatory feature without customers having to specifically request this service. VoIP providers may not allow their customers the option to “opt-out” of E9-1-1 service.”

Clearly, though, residential VoIP is heading towards direct competition with the local phone companies’ coveted landlines. A couple of years ago at a meeting in SBC’s Publishing division, one of the executive managers cried, “Landlines, we need to stop losing landlines!” This was in response to cell phone companies taking away market share from the local Baby Bells. Now that VoIP is on the radar, the executive management teams for the local and long-distance phone companies must be huddling in their back offices, trying to figure out how they will stop the bleeding in the years to come.

With VoIP costing far less that traditional local and long-distance phone service and overcoming the last of the residential hurdles, one can be sure that consumers will soon be taking notice. Many will also start wearing t-shirt like “VoIP VIP” and “Got VoIP?” to herald in the new era in telecommunications.

Copyright © 2005 VoIP Service Providers3

VoIP Service Providers – Marvin Bellnick writes for VoIP Service Providers, a company dedicated to publishing the latest happenings in the Voice Over IP industry.

There are alarms that have the same options you can find in the professional wireless security systems in the $500 to $1,000 bracket. With the use of the remote, the alarm will instantly sound in the whole house, similar to a car alarm. When you use the handheld control pad and set it to maximum, you have one minute to leave the house after you have armed the system and before the alarm sounds off.

This alarm can also be used to monitor children going in and out of the house. When the alarm is set in the “run2″ and it is off, it will sound a pleasant chime upon opening any door or window with a sensor or whenever the motion sensor senses movement. When you set the “run1″mode, there will be no sound of chimes.

Other features of this wireless alarm are the ease in installation and the 95dB piercing siren. It also has a remote control so that there are no security codes to remember and lamps that flash when the alarm is moved.

Aside from being simple to use, the alarm calls up to four phone numbers until one person answers. It then plays a message you recorded using your own voice. It has a listen-in feature that allows the contacted person to listen to your home for any activity or noise.

It also boasts a built-in microphone that records your message. The home and away modes allow you to either secure your home inside and outside or the exteriors only. Since it is not permanently installed, it means you can take the system with you.

The motion sensor has an LED that indicates any sensed movement. Entry and exit charms alert parents or other occupants. This device, priced at $109.99 includes a base console, two door or window sensors, a lamp module, motion detector, keychain remote, and security or home control remote.