IT Services vs. Product Companies

IT Services vs. Product Companies

Having worked in the IT service industry people have different experiences. Lots of the differences are obvious but the more I get to understand the rhythm of a product company the more I see the similarities too. Just to get us on the same page, here’s my definition of each type of company.

Service companies (SC) build software at the request of their clients - typically at an hourly rate or on a fixed price contract. The client drives the requirements and time constraints and ultimately owns the output of the engagement.

Product companies (PC), on the other hand, build software too but sell the software itself, rather than their time, to their clients. While clients do influence the features that are delivered and the definition of the requirements the ultimate decisions lie with the software company.

Some of the differences include,

Freedom to change - a PC has a lot more freedom to change the scope and timeframe of software features. Ultimately they run the show and decide what to implement and when to deliver it. Interestingly a lot of what has been written about agile software processes originated from PCs where the freedom to redefine and delay scope are critical. Success with agile practices in SCs is limited.

Solution Longevity – a successful PC invests in a product and reaps the rewards, through sales, over the life of the product. The product will evolve to meet new demands and include new features but the longer it stays around the better. SCs often build solutions to solve specific business problems at a given point in time. There is rarely enough scope to design the solution to last. It’s almost expected that in a few years it will be cheaper to build it again – from scratch – to meet the inevitable difference business requirements and processes. How many solutions built by a SC have lasted 30 years like Microsoft Word!

Incremental Improvement – a SC typically has one chance to get it right. They sign a contract to say they’ll deliver a working solution in 6 months, they deliver it and and may never get to see it again other than supporting bug fixes and small enhancements. A PC's product will go through multiple production releases, each time there is an opportunity to incrementally improve the solution - its architecture and implementation.

SC Earning Potential - the earnings of a SC is limited to the number of productive staff they have – it is not possible to earn more than when all productive staff are charging all their time to a client.

PC Earning Potential - the earnings of a PC is limited to the number of clients that buy their software – this can range from nothing, if your product sucks, to heaps, if it doesn’t.

Great Ideas – implementing great ideas (that attract/impress clients) in your software could dramatically increase a PC’s potential revenue – for a SC it will simply mean the client pays you or at best asks you to do some more work for them.

Some of the similarities are also interesting though.

Pressure to Deliver – both types of companies are under pressure to deliver. Whether it’s because a client is freaking out it’s taking too long or your sales team are screaming at you for the next killer feature to sell – building software has its tough side.

Compromise – pressure to deliver, limited resources, staff skill levels… all these things conspire to ensure you will always have to compromise, take shortcuts, repeat code, etc. that’s just software. There is no perfect solution and you could always of done it better.

People are Important – it’s true that for any company people are a crucial part of their success. Motivated, valued and supported staff will be way more likely to be productive, responsible and happy.

Supporting Your Code - PCs and (most) SCs both have to support the code they write. This means that code quality is an important factor.

Specialisation – as any company increases in size there is a tendency towards specialisation. At Intergen it happened across the different Microsoft products – we had specialists in ASP.NET, SharePoint, CRM and NAV and once you became associated with a particular product it was hard to move on. This is symptom of the increasing complexity in software – no one person can know everything and as any company gets bigger the only way to scale is for people to become experts in a given area.

Some things that might be differences or could just be from my experience only.

Testing - PCs take testing more seriously. At Xerox, testers are involved from very early on in the process and throughout the process. If a tester says it’s not ready to go live it doesn’t go. At SCs I’ve worked at testing is either pushed on to the client or internal testers are asked to stand at the software train station and check everything’s OK as the express races past (but it’s OK since the developers have already tested their code! Yeah, right.).

Work Units - since the earning potential of a SC is directly related to the number of staff they have (unlike PCs) it is tempting for SCs to depersonalise their staff and treat them as “work units” – ordering in more when they have the work and getting rid of some when the work dries up. I’m not saying this doesn’t happen at PCs but there is more chance (especially in the early stages of a PC’s growth) that employees, regardless of their position within the company will feel a sense of common purpose.

Personally, I've always found PC work far more satisfying. 
Not without its stresses, at times, but that feeling that you're part of a greater good, and empowered to innovate, and actually make a difference has always felt stronger with PC projects I've worked on.

Differences are so not simple. Take the longevity for example. If you work on big projects maintenance phase is usually very long and often very intensive. Actually many systems which have many of so-called change requests. Sometimes these are minor changes but sometimes they could be easily compared to original development.

I look at it a bit differently - at the development level working on custom software is more like working on a series of smaller products. The biggest difference is of course in product management. If you work on products it is located inside the organization, if you work on custom software it is outside.

Experience with the solution longevity may be skewed by working too long in Govt. - the number of times Millions spent on a project to then drop it and do something different is scary. This is rarely an option for a PC - once you've committed, pulling out could be a death sentence. At the Govt still get to spend our taxes on the next project! But I get your point - there are always exceptions.
In this particular case our problem was the app was really crappy so every change cost us a lot in terms of paying technical debt off. That's why we wanted to terminate maintenance of the system. Client's answer was "We don't make money on this app really, but our competitors still maintain theirs so we can't witch off this one."
But I agree that on average software products have longer time span than custom application.

What does a server do?

What does a server do?

A server is a computer that serves information to other computers. These computers, called clients, can connect to a server through either a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet.

There are a number of different types of servers, including Web servers, mail servers, and file servers. A web server serves Web pages to computers that connect to it. It also can parse scripting languages such as PHP, ASP, and JSP. A mail server stores users' e-mail accounts and sends and receives e-mail messages. For example, when you send an e-mail to a friend, the message is sent by a mail server, using the SMTP protocol. A file server is a computer that stores files that can be accessed by other computers. File servers are often used within local networks and typically require a password or some kind of authentication to connect to it.

These are a few examples of some common servers, but several other types of servers exist. Just about any computer can be used as a server if the necessary server software is installed on it. While servers typically don't need a lot of processing power, lots of RAM and fast hard drives are helpful for dealing with heavy traffic to and from the server.

A server is a system (software and suitable computer hardware) that responds to requests across a computer network to provide, or help to provide, a network service. Servers can be run on a dedicated computer, which is also often referred to as "the server", but many networked computers are capable of hosting servers. In many cases, a computer can provide several services and have several servers running.

Servers operate within a client-server architecture. Servers are computer programs running to serve the requests of other programs, the clients. Thus, the server performs some tasks on behalf of clients. The clients typically connect to the server through the network but may run on the same computer. In the context of Internet Protocol (IP) networking, a server is a program that operates as a socket listener.

Servers often provide essential services across a network, either to private users inside a large organization or to public users via the Internet. Typical computing servers are database server, file server, mail server, print server, web server, gaming server, and application server.

A server is a computer that provides data to other computers. It may serve data to systems on a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) over the Internet.

Many types of servers exist, including web servers, mail servers, and file servers. Each type runs software specific to the purpose of the server. For example, a Web server may run Apache HTTP Server or Microsoft IIS, which both provide access to websites over the Internet. A mail server may run a program like Exim or iMail, which provides SMTP services for sending and receiving email. A file server might use Samba or the operating system's built-in file sharing services to share files over a network.

While server software is specific to the type of server, the hardware is not as important. In fact, a regular desktop computers can be turned into a server by adding the appropriate software. For example, a computer connected to a home network can be designated as a file server, print server, or both.

While any computer can be configured as a server, most large businesses use rack-mountable hardware designed specifically for server functionality. These systems, often 1U in size, take up minimal space and often have useful features such as LED status lights and hot-swappable hard drive bays. Multiple rack-mountable servers can be placed in a single rack and often share the same monitor and input devices. Most servers are accessed remotely using remote access software, so input devices are often not even necessary.

While servers can run on different types of computers, it is important that the hardware is sufficient to support the demands of the server. For instance, a web server that runs lots of web scripts in real-time should have a fast processor and enough RAM to handle the "load" without slowing down. A file server should have one or more fast hard drives or SSDs that can read and write data quickly. Regardless of the type of server, a fast network connection is critical, since all data flows through that connection.

CLOUD SERVER HOSTING

Cloud server hosting is a type of hosting in which hosting services are made available to customers on demand via the Internet.  Rather than being provided by a single server or virtual server, cloud server hosting services are provided by multiple connected servers that comprise a cloud. Cloud server hosting is also sometimes referred to as cluster server hosting or server on-demand hosting.

Cloud server hosting offers the advantages of increased accessibility and reliability, seamless scalability and potential cost savings, as customers are freed from having to invest in on-premises servers and hardware, and they pay only for the resources they consume.  On the other hand, security and lack of access and full control are potential concerns with cloud server hosting

WEB SERVER

Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the Web server whose domain name is pcwebopedia.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser.

Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet. There are many Web server software applications, including public domain software from NCSA and Apache, and commercial packages from Microsoft, Netscape and others

PROXY SERVER

A server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a certain amount of time. Consider the case where both user X and user Y access the World Wide Web through a proxy server. First user X requests a certain Web page, which we'll call Page 1. Sometime later, user Y requests the same page. Instead of forwarding the request to the Web server where Page 1 resides, which can be a time-consuming operation, the proxy server simply returns the Page 1 that it already fetched for user X. Since the proxy server is often on the same network as the user, this is a much faster operation. Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of users. The major online services such as America Online, MSN and Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.

Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites.

DEDICATED SERVER

A dedicated server is a single computer in a network reserved for serving the needs of the network. For example, some networks require that one computer be set aside to manage communications between all the other computers. A dedicated server could also be a computer that manages printer resources.

Note, however, that not all servers are dedicated. In some networks, it is possible for a computer to act as a server and perform other functions as well.

In the Web hosting business, a dedicated server is typically a rented service. The user rents the server, software and an Internet connection from the Web host.

APPLICATION SERVER

Also called an appserver, an application server is a program that handles all application operations between users and an organization's backend business applications or databases.

An application server is typically used for complex transaction-based applications. To support high-end needs, an application server has to have built-in redundancy, monitor for high-availability, high-performance distributed application services and support for complex database access.

Are my files really safe if I store them in the cloud?

Are my files really safe if I store them in the cloud?

Storing your data on cloud servers is easier than ever -- many services offer drag-and-drop interfaces and seamless automatic backup.

Now when you have saved all your important and confidential information and data in clouds thus comes a question- where these servers are? and if they keep Your Information Secure

The days of keeping all your documents, photos and music on your computer's hard drive are gradually coming to a close. Today, cloud storage is helping to solve the ever-present need for more storage space to hold all of your digital property. But is all your personal data safe out there on the 

Internet?

To answer this question, we need to examine two things. First, we need to decide what constitutes data security. Is password access to the storage sufficient, or should files be fully encrypted on the storage device? Some of that will be up to you, but everyone should note these important security points:

Passwords can be hacked. This doesn't mean that passwords aren't safe, just that they're vulnerable to dictionary. If you choose a cloud storage solution that relies on a password to access your data, choose a password that's difficult to hack with dictionary attacks, and change your password often to reduce the chances of success from brute force attacks.

Most storage services will encrypt the data while it's traveling back and forth, making it impossible to read even if someone captures the files. If your cloud storage works through a Web app, look for "https" instead of "http" in front of the URL in your browser's address bar. That extra "s" indicates the form is using secure HTTP. If you have a standalone cloud storage app installed on your computer, check to be sure that app uses some type of encryption for its Internet exchanges.

People are more dangerous than computers when it comes to hacking. Don't give out your password to anyone, even someone claiming to be from technical support. One of the biggest dangers for security is social engineering: creating a trust between the hacker and the end user that causes the end user to happily hand over personal information. Note that when you speak with the real technical support specialists, they'll require only minimal identifying information from you, and most likely not your password.

Hackers usually want the most information for the least effort. This means they will likely attack the heart of a cloud storage service rather than its individual users. Thus, you probably want to find a service provider with a good history of keeping its clients' accounts and data secure.

Your data isn't always immune to search by local government entities. In the U.S., for example, any cloud storage company could be served a subpoena requiring them to open their clients' data for government examination.

We also need to look at cloud storage providers to see which ones are doing the most to keep your information safe. Next, let's look at how the major cloud storage providers protect data and go over some tips for choosing a safe cloud storage service.

Safe Cloud Storage Options

When you're shopping for a cloud storage service for your files, you'll probably start by considering what you plan to store and how you need to access it. Along with that, determine how important it is to keep that information secure. For example, if you're storing important documents about your medical history or home finances, you may be more concerned about keeping your data safe than you would, say, music files from CDs you've ripped. Here are some safety features to look for when you're choosing or opting for a cloud storage service:

A company with a reputation for excellent physical and network security

Multiple-level redundancy, meaning there are multiple copies of your data to prevent loss in the case of a single disk or server failure

Redundancy across multiple geographic locations, so when a natural disaster destroys your data at one location, that same data is still available elsewhere

How long it takes to delete a file across the redundant servers in the cloud, or if it's ever truly deleted from the cloud storage banks

Cloud security hasn't been as rigid for end-user storage services as it has for enterprise-level clouds. As a result, even the top cloud storage options available to you have some vulnerabilities. While these vulnerabilities are probably not a big concern for most users, they are worth noting if you decide to store sensitive personal information. The following are just a couple of examples:

Dropbox -- Dropbox is simple and sufficient for most users, encrypting your data while it's in transit over the Internet. In its simplicity, though, it did leave a couple of security holes. First, it left local authentication protection up to its users. All you need to sign in from another computer is a copy of your Dropbox configuration file, so you're responsible for limiting access to your local computer. 

Dropbox also leaves the names of your files in plain text. It's up to you whether you want a third-party security application to encrypt and decrypt the data in the folder you're synchronizing locally to protect filenames and prevent anyone from reading that data without your additional decryption keys [sources: G.F., Newton].

Amazon Cloud Drive -- Amazon stands toe-to-toe with Dropbox when it comes to simplicity and availability across platforms. Amazon is also up front about one of your security risks. In its user agreement, Amazon Cloud Drive declares its right to access your files and disclose account information to offer support and to ensure compliance with that agreement. Since the Cloud Drive offers streaming of MP3, this is largely to enforce copyright law regarding music. If you want to protect those files, you'll have to give up the streaming option for media files and use a third-party encryption app for all the data you synchronize to the Cloud Drive [sources: Vaughan-Nichols, Raphael].

Know the limitations of your cloud storage service before you start uploading.

  

How a Cloud Antivirus Works

Whether you have years of computing behind you, or you've just bought your first laptop or desktop, you're probably familiar with the need to protect computers from viruses. A virus is a software program that installs itself on your computer and makes undesirable changes to the data on your computer. Though there are rare viruses designed to target offline computers, we're talking about malicious software (malware) you can pick up from the Internet.

To prevent malware from attacking your data, you can use antivirus software. One antivirus option is a technology called cloud antivirus. Cloud antivirus software does most of its processing elsewhere on the Internet rather than on your computer's hard drive. Internet technology like cloud computing has made such innovations both possible and affordable.

Cloud antivirus software consists of client and Web service components working together. The client is a small program running on your local computer, which scans the system for malware. Full locally installed antivirus applications are notorious resource hogs, but cloud antivirus clients require only a small amount processing power.

The Web service behind cloud antivirus is software running on one or more servers somewhere on the Internet. The Web service handles most of the data processing so your computer doesn't have to process and store massive amounts of virus information. At regular intervals, the client will scan your computer for any malware listed in the Web service's database.

Here's a summary of the advantages cloud antivirus has over traditional, locally installed antivirus software:

You have access to the latest data about malware within minutes of the cloud antivirus Web service learning about it. There's no need to continually update your antivirus software to ensure you're protected from the latest threats.

The cloud antivirus client is small, and it requires little processing power as you go on with your day-to-day activities online.

It's free! You can get an impressive level of virus protection from the free versions of cloud antivirus software. You can also purchase upgrades for additional utilities and support, for prices that are competitive with popular local-only antivirus applications.

Now that you know what cloud antivirus is, let's look at the features of cloud antivirus software and how you can use them to keep your system clean.

Cloud Antivirus Features

If you have any experience using antivirus software, the user interface (UI) of cloud antivirus software should look familiar. After all, its primary job is the same as any other antivirus application: Scanning your computer to identify and clean up any malware. Therefore, you'll find these common functions in a cloud antivirus UI:

Scan the entire computer or certain folders on the computer.

Adjust when to make automatic scans and what files to include in them.

View detailed reports to see what malware was detected during a scan.

Take actions to remove or restore any quarantined files, or files that were neutralized in some way until you decide to restore or delete them.

The unique features in cloud antivirus are those you won't see in the UI. We've already seen that cloud antivirus splits its tasks between your computer (a client application) and Web servers elsewhere on the Internet. Because of this split personality, cloud antivirus can leverage resources from across the Internet to better defend your computer against malware. For each cloud antivirus product, these resources come together to form a central database of malware data.

This malware data is collected in different ways depending on the product. For example, Panda Cloud Antivirus gets data for what it calls its Collective Intelligence from IT and software industry resources, honeypots (computers used to trap malware) staged worldwide and feedback from customers [source: Ilascu]. Immunet Free Antivirus depends on its entire community of users (the 

Immunet Cloud) to learn about potential threats, adding the data to its Collective Immunity technology [source: Immunet]. Cloud antivirus servers run algorithms on the data to classify malware by different qualities, including level of threat.

What makes these malware databases special, though, isn't just their collection techniques. Their real advantage is how quickly they can make that data available to you. Rather than waiting to download some big patch for your antivirus software every few weeks, your computer can scan for the latest threats while you're online, catching them within minutes of their addition to the database.

For offline access, a cloud antivirus product might keep a cache of malware data on your local computer. The cloud antivirus software can keep this cache up-to-date as long as you're online. This cache won't include the entire database of malware threats, but it will include malware that presents the most common threats to your computer.

So far, we've looked at the general features of cloud antivirus software. For a better idea of what this looks like, let's examine the user interface for one of these cloud antivirus products.

What is a server ? What does a server do ? How many type of servers are there ?

What does a server do?

A server is a computer that serves information to other computers. These computers, called clients, can connect to a server through either a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet.

There are a number of different types of servers, including Web servers, mail servers, and file servers. A web server serves Web pages to computers that connect to it. It also can parse scripting languages such as PHP, ASP, and JSP. 

A mail server stores users' e-mail accounts and sends and receives e-mail messages. For example, when you send an e-mail to a friend, the message is sent by a mail server, using the SMTP protocol. 

A file server is a computer that stores files that can be accessed by other computers. File servers are often used within local networks and typically require a password or some kind of authentication to connect to it.

These are a few examples of some common servers, but several other types of servers exist. Just about any computer can be used as a server if the necessary server software is installed on it. While servers typically don't need a lot of processing power, lots of RAM and fast hard drives are helpful for dealing with heavy traffic to and from the server.

A server is a system (software and suitable computer hardware) that responds to requests across a computer network to provide, or help to provide, a network service. Servers can be run on a dedicated computer, which is also often referred to as "the server", but many networked computers are capable of hosting servers. In many cases, a computer can provide several services and have several servers running.

Servers operate within a client-server architecture. Servers are computer programs running to serve the requests of other programs, the clients. Thus, the server performs some tasks on behalf of clients. The clients typically connect to the server through the network but may run on the same computer. In the context of Internet Protocol (IP) networking, a server is a program that operates as a socket listener.

Servers often provide essential services across a network, either to private users inside a large organization or to public users via the Internet. Typical computing servers are database server, file server, mail server, print server, web server, gaming server, and application server.

A server is a computer that provides data to other computers. It may serve data to systems on a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) over the Internet.

Many types of servers exist, including web servers, mail servers, and file servers. Each type runs software specific to the purpose of the server. For example, a Web server may run Apache HTTP Server or Microsoft IIS, which both provide access to websites over the Internet.

A mail server may run a program like Exim or iMail, which provides SMTP services for sending and receiving email. A file server might use Samba or the operating system's built-in file sharing services to share files over a network.

While server software is specific to the type of server, the hardware is not as important. In fact, a regular desktop computers can be turned into a server by adding the appropriate software. For example, a computer connected to a home network can be designated as a file server, print server, or both.

While any computer can be configured as a server, most large businesses use rack-mountable hardware designed specifically for server functionality. These systems, often 1U in size, take up minimal space and often have useful features such as LED status lights and hot-swappable hard drive bays.

Multiple rack-mountable servers can be placed in a single rack and often share the same monitor and input devices. Most servers are accessed remotely using remote access software, so input devices are often not even necessary.

While servers can run on different types of computers, it is important that the hardware is sufficient to support the demands of the server. For instance, a web server that runs lots of web scripts in real-time should have a fast processor and enough RAM to handle the "load" without slowing down. A file server should have one or more fast hard drives or SSDs that can read and write data quickly. 

Regardless of the type of server, a fast network connection is critical, since all data flows through that connection.

CLOUD SERVER HOSTING

Cloud server hosting is a type of hosting in which hosting services are made available to customers on demand via the Internet.  Rather than being provided by a single server or virtual server, cloud server hosting services are provided by multiple connected servers that comprise a cloud. Cloud server hosting is also sometimes referred to as cluster server hosting or server on-demand hosting.

Cloud server hosting offers the advantages of increased accessibility and reliability, seamless scalability and potential cost savings, as customers are freed from having to invest in on-premises servers and hardware, and they pay only for the resources they consume.  On the other hand, security and lack of access and full control are potential concerns with cloud server hosting

WEB SERVER

Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL 

http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the Web server whose domain name is pcwebopedia.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser.

Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet. There are many Web server software applications, including public domain software from NCSA and Apache, and commercial packages from Microsoft, Netscape and others

PROXY SERVER

A server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a certain amount of time. Consider the case where both user X and user Y access the World Wide Web through a proxy server. First user X requests a certain Web page, which we'll call Page 1. 

Sometime later, user Y requests the same page. Instead of forwarding the request to the Web server where Page 1 resides, which can be a time-consuming operation, the proxy server simply returns the Page 1 that it already fetched for user X. Since the proxy server is often on the same network as the user, this is a much faster operation. 

Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of users. The major online services such as America Online, MSN and Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.

Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites.

DEDICATED SERVER

A dedicated server is a single computer in a network reserved for serving the needs of the network. For example, some networks require that one computer be set aside to manage communications between all the other computers. 

A dedicated server could also be a computer that manages printer resources. Note, however, that not all servers are dedicated. In some networks, it is possible for a computer to act as a server and perform other functions as well.

In the Web hosting business, a dedicated server is typically a rented service. The user rents the server, software and an Internet connection from the Web host.

APPLICATION SERVER

Also called an appserver, an application server is a program that handles all application operations between users and an organization's backend business applications or databases.

An application server is typically used for complex transaction-based applications. To support high-end needs, an application server has to have built-in redundancy, monitor for high-availability, high-performance distributed application services and support for complex database access.

What are Proxy Servers?

The other day, I was searching for some proxy sites in order to get access to facebook which is blocked in my institute. After some search I did get a site but then arose a question in my mind: - What are proxy servers? 

Proxy servers, just like simple web servers, complete the requests made by clients. But the difference is that proxy servers don't have the resource that clients request for. A proxy server just connects clients to the main web server and acts as a middleman/ intermediary. It is like you trying to talk to your friend through a third person. Then the next question that came to my mind was: - Why do we need a proxy server then, can't we directly contact web servers to gain the required information ? Yes, we can but there are situations where using a proxy server is beneficial for a user as well as for organizations. 

Proxy Server Concept

Uses of Proxy Servers

Now that you have some idea about what a proxy server is, you may think that we don't need a proxy server if we can access some resource or file directly from a web server. But there are some inherit advantages of using a proxy server for a general user as well as organisations.

Due to various reasons, organisations and ISPs block access to various sites. This content filtering is made possible by proxy servers. So depending on the content access policies of the organisation, the network administrator can configure the settings of proxy servers.

Proxy Servers also help in improving the performance by addressing client requests faster. This is possible by use of cache. Consider that you access facebook often using proxy site. Then a friend of yours, on the same network, also tries to connect to facebook through the proxy site. Facebook homepage will now be saved in the proxy server’s cache rather than retrieving from remote server again and your friend will be able to access it faster.

Proxy Server helps in keeping the client's IP address anonymous, thus ensuring better security.

Although they help organisations in blocking sites and filtering content but at the same time, some proxies allow user to access blocked sites. Such proxies help the user get through various firewalls and controlling softwares which are installed to regulate access.

Proxies can be used to log internet usage within an office or by a particular user.

Proxy server can be used as firewall to scan outbound and inbound flow of data. Thus they also nullify chances of hacking.

I hope now you know the advantages of proxy servers. But a word of caution, proxy servers are difficult to configure and if not done properly, a hacker can exploit it to gain sensitive data.
P.S. Do share your experiences of using proxy sites from college or office. :)

What is a Channel Partner, System Integrator, Value Added Reseller, Alliance Partner, Distributor, OEM ?

What is a Channel Partner, System Integrator, Value Added Reseller, Alliance Partner, Distributor, OEM ?

Channel partner

A channel partner is a person or organization that provides services or sells products on behalf of a software or hardware vendor. Value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs), consultants, systems integrators (SIs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and distributors may all be called channel partners. Many companies, including CA, Microsoft, AMD, IBM, SAP and Oracle, have formed channel partnership programs to work more closely with the distributors for their products.

Channel partnerships provide an opportunity for companies to promote certain products or services. In return, channel partners receive access to product and marketing training, discounts, technical support, lead generation tools and beta versions of releases. A VAR that chooses to partner with a

How to publish your blog or want that someone who reads your blog can share your article on their linkedin ?

Hi All, if you want to publish your blog or you want that someone who reads your blog can share your article on their linkedin then follow these steps:

Add the InShare plugin to your website to enable members to share your content on LinkedIn.

You'll find it here: http://developer.linkedin.com/plugins/share-plugin-generator

You can get the code after entering your blog’s url like for example

What is a cookie ? All about Cookie Define Cookie

All about Cookies.  What is a cookie?

Cookies are usually small text files, given ID tags that are stored on your computer's browser directory or program data subfolders. Cookies are created when you use your browser to visit a website that uses cookies to keep track of your movements within the site, help you resume where you left off, remember your registered login, theme selection, preferences, and other customization functions.

The website stores a corresponding file(with same ID tag)to the one they set in your browser and in this file they can track and keep information on your movements within the site and any information you may have voluntarily given while visiting the website, such as email address.

Cookies are often indispensable for websites that have huge databases, need logins, have customizable themes, other advanced features.

What is PODCASTING ? What is PODCAST ? Meaning of PODCASTING ?

With the popularity of the Apple iPod, the term podcasting was initially tied only to that specific device.  The term has a much broader scope now.  Podcasts refer to any audio, video or digital media that is distributed to any computing device (i.e. portable media players or personal computers) on a regular or demand basis. 

The word podcast is similar to ‘broadcast’ in that the term can refer to the content itself or to the method used to distribute the content.  

In fact, you don’t need an iPod at all to do this. Almost all computer devices can utilize podcasts. They are simply digital streams of information that can be downloaded and played on your computer or handheld computing device.  There are readily available archives of podcasts you can easily use, the most well-known off which is iTunes (also from Apple).  

Windows 9 ?

More Windows 9 Details Leak, And It Sounds Like Microsoft Is Slowly Gutting Windows 8

The Charms sidebar may be excluded from Windows 9, according to Winbeta and ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, who has an excellent track record when it comes to breaking Microsoft news.

The Charms menu is a sidebar that offers shortcuts to certain functions within the operating system, such as the search bar, the Settings menu, and the Devices page, among others. It's one of the primary means of navigating Microsoft's software.

Instead, the company will supposedly include some of these buttons in title bars for Windows' "Metro-style" apps. It's unclear whether this will be the case for all versions of Windows (including tablets, PCs, and hybrids), or just for mobile devices. Winbeta says this will apply to desktops only, while Foley says the Charms bar will disappear from all Windows iterations.

How to download best of YOUTUBE videos available on internet without any external software or downloader ?

Best of YouTube video service is available on the Internet.

YouTube anyway so you have many times, but do you know the URL of the YouTube videos may be slightly altering many things.

 

1. Make such videos without any software download-

Easily with the help of YouTube videos can be downloaded. It will not need any special software. Not only that, can be downloaded from YouTube MP3 files. You just have to change a little in the URL.

To download any video PWN would write her in front of the URL.

Example

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yZDsep3IBA

Nokia Lumia gets freezed and hanged what to do ?

My Nokia Lumia is frozen (the software isn't working): returning to factory settings

Soft reset ('taking the battery out') is NOT Possible in Nokia Lumia 925…!!!

If your mobile appears to be frozen there are a couple of things you can do to try and fix it.

First, you need to try what is known as a 'soft reset'. If you can, take the battery out, put it back in and turn the phone on. If you can't take the battery out, try this instead:

1.       Press and hold down, at the same time, the Volume (down) and

How many types of files are there ?

1. AIFF

2. Animated GIF

3. Batch File  

4. Bitmap

5. BMP

6. CDFS

7. DLL

8. eBook

9. EXIF

10. GIF

11. JPEG

12. JSON

The shortcut method will remove all hyperlinks | Remove all hyperlinks with VBA

Remove all hyperlinks by using shortcuts with VBA

Simple Method

1. Press “Ctrl-A” to select the whole document.

2. Press “Ctrl-Shift-F9”.

The shortcut method will remove all hyperlinks

Remove all hyperlinks with VBA

Following VBA can be used to remove all hyperlinks in Word.

1. Press “Alt-F11” to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window;

2. Click Insert > Module, and then copy and paste the follow VBA code into the Module window.

3. Then click Run Sub button to run the script.

How to remove all hyperlinks in a Microsoft Word document

How to remove all hyperlinks in a Microsoft Word document

For Windows Users:

CTRL+A

then

CTRL+SHIFT+F9

For Mac Users:

COMMAND+A

then

FN+COMMAND+SHIFT+F9

How to download facebook Videos ? How to download videos from facebook ? Download facebook videos | Way to download facebook videos

How to download facebook Videos ?

  How to download videos from facebook ?  

Download facebook videos 

 Way to download facebook videos

Although Four ways are suggested here but personally Way-3 (Read Point No. 3) is one of the secure, easiest and fastest to download videos. A non- techie can also do that very easily.

1. Download Facebook Videos By Changing The URL

Facebook videoz is a free service that allows you to download Facebook videos by just adding videoz after facebook in the URL of any Facebook video.

How to Lock the System Folder without any software

If we are using some secure files in the computer, you should have an close eye on those. There are several utilities available in the Internet that provides security to your files, but we can Lock the Folder in our computer without the use of such utilities.

                                                             
Let see how it happens

1) For an instance take the name of the folder as F:\abcde


2) Create a New Note pad file in the same drive in Next to this folder with the Exact statement it had.
   Statement is ren abcde abcde.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

3) Now save the above file as Loc.bat (batch file )



4) Now create an New file in the Note pad of this type statement
    Statement is ren abcde.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} abcde

I lost my cursor while working in MS-Excel- 2007, 2010 and it converted into plus sign ? what to do ? How to recover my cursor back on excel sheet ?

I was working in a spreadsheet, and suddenly I noticed that my cursor was a plus sign and that it 

wouldn't change to the arrow when hovering over lines in order to click, drag, and widen a cell.  I closed that 

spreadsheet and opened another, but even in that one the cursor is all messed up.

What is the difference between a modem/router/switch/WAP ?

To understand the difference between a modem and a router, you need to understand several different, but related, devices.

The individual devices are

 (1) an ADSL modem; (2) a router; (3) a switch; and (4) a wireless access point (WAP).

It becomes confusing because there are combination devices which can combine both an ADSL modem and a router in the one case as well as devices which can combine an ADSL modem, a router and a switch all in the one case!

What is the Difference between Modems and routers ?

Difference between Modems and routers

Modems and routers are both involved in connecting your home PCs to the Internet. The modem encodes and decodes data so that it can pass between your home network and your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The router, on the other hand, directs the information collected by the modem to devices within that network. The modem brings the information in, and the router distributes (or “routes”) it to different devices like computers and phones.

Comparison chart

	Modem	Router
Layer:	Data link layer (Layer 2)	Network Layer (Layer 3 devices)
Ports:	2.One for connection to ISP. Next one to connect with router(For large networks)	2/4/8
Device Type:	Inter-networking device	Networking device
Function:	Facilitates a connection to the internet by transmitting and receiving data over telephone lines.	Directs data in a network. Passes data between home computers, and between computers and the modem.
Data Transmission form:	Packet	Packet
Connections:	Can connect to one PC using Ethernet port	Can connect to multiple PCs or networking devices via Ethernet or WiFi
Necessary for Internet Connection?:	Yes	No, but provide additional security and allow for multiple connections.
Independent?:	Yes. A modem can work without a router, delivering information (such as Internet access) to a single PC.	Routers can share information between computers, but cannot connect to the Internet without a modem.
Security:	No security measures	Provides security measures to protect network

 

 

How a modem and router connect to each other, the Internet and devices on the network.

A modem transmits and receives data through telephone lines, and is used to connect a single computer or an entire home computer network to the Internet Service Provider (ISP).

A router allows computers to connect to the modem and to each other in a network. It selectively delivers packets of information to multiple destinations, and allows multiple devices to connect to the Internet via the modem.

Connections

A modem can only connect to one device: either a home PC or a router.

A router can connect to multiple devices in a network, either through Ethernet cables or through WiFi.

Security

A modem does not screen the data it encodes or decodes, and so it passes on any potential threat to connected computers.

Routers examine data packets to determine their destination, and so can contain firewalls to screen out attacks on the network.