Network Monitoring for Serious eCommerce

Posted by: admin  :  Category: Network Communication

In the real world, businesses come in every size, from self-employed entrepreneurs like me to mega malls like Wal-Mart.

On the Internet, companies come in every size, too, from a stand-alone ebook sales page with webmaster and owner all in one, to 300 pound gorilla like Amazon, with over a million pages, who requires the entire population of a small country to serve as webmaster.

If your site is a single page, it is its own network. But if your site is any bigger, and you have plans to grow, it is a network or is fast becoming one. You need network monitoring.

Most ecommerce webmasters are at least somewhat familiar with website monitoring. Many use a website monitoring service or software to keep track of “uptime” and “downtime”.

At your local shopping mall, serious business requires more than just knowing when the front doors are open and when they are closed. Serious ecommerce needs to know more than just when the site is accessible. That is what network monitoring is all about.

What Network Monitoring Monitors

Chances are, your e-business owns one of the following, or uses one of the following remotely:

DNS servers: These are used to translate your site name, like www.URL.com, to the numbers called “IP addresses” that computers understand. If DNS servers are not working properly, end-users will not be able to find your site and will get an error. Usually only an external or remote monitoring service will detect such a problem.

An FTP server: File Transfer Protocol servers are used to help you
exchange files with remote users. If you use FTP, a monitoring
service can make sure it is always up and running.

POP3 and SMTP servers: These are used for exchanging emails. If you are using email, chances are you are using SMTP and POP3. If your SMTP server is down, everyone who sends you email will receive an error, stating that your mail server is down and cannot accept incoming email. To say that the impression this leaves your customers is bad would be an understatement. If your POP3 server is down, you will be unable to retrieve email from your mailbox. Once again, only external monitoring will prevent such a problem.

Firewalls: Many businesses use firewalls to protect their internal network from un-authorized traffic, such as spyware, viruses and sabotage by competitors. Furthermore, a firewall is your first line of defense. If your firewall goes down, your whole network may actually become inaccessible from outside. In other words, if you host your own web site and mail servers, those will become
inaccessible to the outside world if your firewall goes down. Once again, remote network monitoring is required to detect that a problem exists and quickly get it repaired.

Internet connections: Users come to your network from multiple backbones, depending on the company they use to connect to the Internet and their location. It is important to insure that your connection performs well for each user. A remote monitoring service can ping your networks from multiple locations around the world, thus testing most major routes to your web server or network. Before hiring a network monitoring service, check to see that they have both your customer geography and the Internet backbone layout covered.

Very few websites of any size and functionality are anything less than a complete network, and many networks rely on servers in different parts of the world.

A good network monitoring service can ensure, as a base, that all servers are properly functioning, that data can be sent to and received from each server, and that each function sharing the server responds as required. An advanced network monitoring service can even remotely monitor the temperature of your servers.

What you need to monitor depends on how extensive your network is. A network monitoring expert can help you determine what needs monitoring. If you own the servers, or are remotely hosted on dedicated servers, you most likely need everything monitored. If your site is hosted on shared servers, you might need fewer functions monitored.

Calculating Your Early Repayment Options with a Mortgage Calculator

Posted by: admin  :  Category: Software

If you own your own home or are planning to buy a home, you should become very familiar with a great little tool called a mortgage calculator. A mortgage calculator is an online tool that tells you a lot of information about your mortgage. You can use a calculator to figure interest payments, house payments and much more. If you use the amortization option on a mortgage calculator, you can view each and every mortgage payment due. You can even see what affect making extra payments will have on your mortgage.

When you first start paying on your mortgage, the majority of your payment will be going toward interest. It is not until the end of your loan that you actually start really paying down the principle balance. A mortgage calculator will help you see exactly where your money will be going before you take out a loan. If you already have a mortgage, a mortgage calculator will show you how your payments will be distributed throughout repayment.

You can also use a mortgage calculator to see how making extra payments toward principle will affect your loan. For example: If you have an 8%, 30 year mortgage for $100,000, you will pay back $264,153. A huge chunk of that amount, $164,153, will go toward interest. Using a mortgage calculator, you can see how making an extra $50 payment each month toward principle will save you in the long run. By making an extra payment each month of $50, you will save $39,908 in interest. You will also pay off your mortgage 6.08 years earlier.

Why should a mortgage calculator be of interest to you? You can use the calculator to “try out” different repayment strategies. The mortgage calculator will show you how each strategy will pay off in the long run. A mortgage calculator can also be very helpful when it comes time to refinance your loan. It will show you exactly how much money you will save by refinancing at a lower rate.

You can also use a mortgage calculator to budget for a home. Many times, the loan that you qualify for is not the loan that you can afford. After you have completed a realistic budget, you can use a mortgage calculator to find the loan that you can afford. How much money can you reasonably borrow and pay back without having to make sacrifices? A mortgage calculator can help you figure it out.

When you have the right tools, you can make great decisions. Never buy a home or take out a mortgage without knowing all of the facts. A mortgage calculator will help you learn all of the details of your potential or existing loan.

Anti-Virus Software Fighting Back Against Computer Infections

Posted by: admin  :  Category: Software, Web Development

Many computer users adopt the ‘it will never happen to me’ policy, but there are a number of computer viruses out there just waiting to infect and destroy the information contained on their hard-drive. This is why companies invented anti-virus software, which is a program that automatically helps to detect the presence of viruses on a computer or in a file before it is opened.

Anyone who spends a considerable amount of time surfing the internet, visiting unfamiliar websites or downloading photographs is at a higher risk for computer viruses than those who do not. Computer viruses are typically attached to word processing documents, computer programs and images which, if downloaded, may instantly affect the computer’s performance.

If a computer virus infects a computer, the owner may immediately lose everything in their computer and may be forced to use the factory restore disk. This CD, which is accompanied by most new computers, will restore the computer to it’s original factory settings.

Anti-virus software is quite affordable considering it’s wealth of use. Without it, computer users are at constant risk for computer viruses. Anti-virus software can generally be found at any computer manufacturer’s website, retail store’s electronic department or online at many retailers selling computers.

Anyone who suspects that their computer may be infected with a virus should refrain from sending any e-mail messages or uploading photos to family or friends. Otherwise, the virus may spread to infect their computers as well.

Anti-virus software is available most commonly on a CD-Rom, but may also be downloaded from some manufacturers. By double clicking on the software, the anti-virus program will begin to perform a scan of your entire computer. As it progresses, it will give you an update on any potential located viruses or files that may be of concern. In addition, some anti-virus software will allow users to scan a single file before opening it. For example, if a computer user were to download an image but wanted to run a virus scan on it prior to opening the file, he/she could click on the anti-virus software and direct it toward the file in question. The anti-virus program would scan the file for potential viruses and will post the results immediately on the computer screen. This will allow the computer user to know which files are safe and which are not.

In today’s world, anti-virus software is to computers as Tylenol is to headaches. It’s both a preventative approach and a cure for certain ailments affecting a computer. If a user does not have anti-virus software pre-installed into their computer, it is recommended that they purchase a program immediately before logging on to the internet.

Colocation and Managed Web hosting service

Posted by: divengrabber  :  Category: General

Determine the appropriate type of Internet hosting is the success of all websites. There are several ways to select people. You will have sufficient knowledge of their sites before choosing a particular type of web hosting. , The knowledge and experience are the two most important factors that are tailored to their needs when making investment decisions. Their purchasing power is also necessary to include a broad sense, so that their decision is not likely to have an effect on your finances.

You can not be the best web hosting service together, and that can certainly vary depending on various circumstances. Co-location hosting and outsourcing are two main types of accommodation. Co-location of housing can be a pet for you. Co-location hosting is the type of accommodation the client to the server data center rack rented home. As its name suggests, managed hosting is the type of Internet hosting service that hosting account for hosting customers. Much less than this type of accommodation, where guests can concentrate on core activities rather than focusing on web hosting concerned.

Taking into account the two most important factors when choosing between the co-location hosting and managed services help and support. may in the co-location, you have full control over your hosting account. However, if the types of people who want someone else, things do generally not know you personally, then Managed Hosting is the best option for you. Managed Server can also be an abundance of many species. Partially or fully managed is reached one of the main categories of investment housing. In short, it is difficult to find if the colocation and Managed Hosting is the best, but the truth is that their advantages and disadvantages.