Category: Internet

Categories
Social Media

How social Media Helps Small Business Succeed

It’s not easy to get your business noticed online, and it’s definitely a difficult task to make a connection to a potential customer that will last long enough for them to convert. If you’re trying to market a business as green this can be twice as hard, since people can be quite skeptical around your green credentials.

 

This has been made all the more difficult thanks to more savvy online buyers – due to the amount of time we collectively spend on the internet, even those who would once have been considered less than computer literate are easily capable of filtering out poor quality advertising images and copy floating around their Facebook sidebars; instead going for what the business and marketing types might call higher quality, more sharable articles.

A spokesperson for Make It Cheaper, one of the UK’s leading energy comparison sites, said: “High quality content and social media marketing has been gaining prominence as the way forward for web traffic generation in recent years. It is rewarded by search engine algorithms and word-of-mouth both online and offline. By creating and regularly updating informative website blog content and building customer engagement on social media, businesses can not only have their website re-indexed by search engines but also generate trust and establish authority on relevant topics. It’s easy to see that the business landscape is becoming more transparent because the internet allows fast access to company information and customer reviews.”

It no longer matters what industry a business operates in – high quality content is essential to ensure that potential customers engage with the brand. A business gas comparison expert from Make it Cheaper spokesperson continued:
“As a result, it is equally important to practice ethical business management and to provide quality products that perform according to expectations. Informed and cost-conscious customers base their purchasing decisions on value and convenience for time and money. For this reason, we at Make It Cheaper offer our customers free, fast, friendly and impartial advice on business cost reduction over the phone. Our savings experts help to dramatically reduce business gas, electricity, telecommunications, and chip and PIN bills by comparing market prices, and we can even help you appeal your business rates and source new insurance policies and premiums without charging a consultation fee.”

Categories
Internet Web App

5 Cloud Storage providers that Offer More Free Storage than Dropbox

Dropbox has become so popular lately, it has probably become one of the top choices, if not the top choice, when people look for free cloud storage. The file-hosting service gives you 2GB of free storage space upon signup, with the potential to boost storage to up to 5GB, if you perform some actions like enabling Camera Upload, connecting your Facebook account, and inviting other users to sign up, too. If you’re not exactly excited to do all these just to bump up your free storage space in the cloud, there are alternatives worth checking out.

Mediafire

Mediafire has been a solid player in the cloud storage business, even before Dropbox came along. The service is worthy of mention, since it gives users a whopping 50GB free storage with limits of 200MB per file upload.  Paid plans include Pro, with 250 GB of storage and a 4-GB file-size limit, and Business, which comes with 1000 GB of storage and a 10-GB file-size limit.

If you’re looking for a straightforward online backup service and a collaboration service rolled into one, Mediafire is one of your best bets.  Aside from giving you huge free storage, Mediafire lets you arrange files into an unlimited number of public or shared folders, set passwords, and share links. Not to be left out by other file-hosting services offering “collaboration in the cloud,” Mediafire now also lets users collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Mediafire is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Mobile apps are presently in development.

4shared

4shared is just like any other file hosting service, letting you create backups in the cloud, access files from smartphones and tablets, and share files with others. It gives you 10GB of free storage (plus 5GB more if you verify your email account) with maximum file sizes of 2048 MB.  4shared also allows other users to subscribe to your feed and lets you sync files across all your devices.
4shared is not the go-to collaboration platform, but it’s one of the most popular ones for music sharing. Once uploaded, music files can be listened to online before download.  One of its best feature is the web-based 4shared music app, which is also available for Android. The app lets you share music publicly and stream any music on your smartphone or on the web.   After downloading the desktop app, simply upload music to your online locker. You may now directly access your files even if you’re offline. But the best part is that 4shared populates with other tracks from other 4shared users. Tap the song you want to listen to and stream to your heart’s content or, if you’re using your mobile device, until your battery runs out. If you want to store huge files of audio and music, better upgrade to Premium, which gives you 100GB of storage with 5GB file size limit.

Box

One of Dropbox’ major competitors, Box is another file-hosting service that’s great for personal or business use. Box gives you 5GB of free storage and the ability to organize files into folders and access them on any device. Collaboration is obviously a major feature of this cloud service, since it also lets you securely share file and folder links and sends real-time notifications once your files have been accessed or edited.   To give you increased productivity, Box integrates with Salesforce, Google Apps, RingCentral, and other productivity tools.

Google Drive

Available for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android, Google Drive is one of the best choice if you want to make your files accessible anywhere.  Aside from 5GB of free storage, Drive lets you create and edit documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.  If you’re a hardcore Google user, you’ll be pleased to know that Drive disposes of bulky email attachments by letting you send links directly to Gmail. It also makes photos you store instantly available in Google+.  As expected from the search engine giant, Drive helps you find files faster by letting you search and filter by file type, owner, and more. Like Box, Drive also integrates with a host of third-party apps.

Windows SkyDrive

If you’re a Windows fan, then this may be the cloud storage for you. You don’t have to be eagle-eyed to spot that SkyDrive offers 7GB of free storage, more than the entry-level offerings of major players Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box. Batch uploads are easy on SkyDrive and it’s also pretty easy to create documents from within your SkyDrive browser and share them with select recipients or more publicly on your social networks. Unfortuantely, SkyDrive hasn’t released an Android app as of the moment, but you can use the Microsoft OneNote app for Android or Browser for Skydrive if you want to access your files.  If you have a Windows phone or even an iPhone or iPad, then Skydrive is worthy of consideration.

Though these are alternatives to Dropbox with more storage space, some of these lacks some impeccable features that Dropbox offers with certain limitation. So while you select your cloud storage provider do proper research before you zero in on any one. Don’t look at just the tons of storage but other aspects must be evaluated. And when you are looking for business purpose, we recommend to go for a paid plan.

Categories
Browsers Internet

7 Best Browser Security Extensions you need to stay safe

Why Browser Security Extension

The internet is essentially like a vast disease and parasite filled jungle. If you’re moving around on it through your browser, you need to make sure that you’re well protected from infections of all types. It’s easy, very easy, to find yourself the victim of hackers, Trojans, data miners, information thieves, viruses, worms and malicious bots all over the web. There are also fun programs like spyware, malware and adware that can screw your computer up. With all these threats lurking around the net, hidden in many forms, you should really think about maintaining tight security all around.

While it’s a good idea to install a firewall on your computer, a malware scrubber and reliable antivirus software, your first line of defense will be the point of entry: your browser; secure this and you will dramatically decrease the possibility of attacks from external threats before they get a chance to enter your computer or steal your personal data. Here are some excellent browser extensions that can help you keep your machine and your private information safe.

NotScript and NoScript

NotScript is a Chrome extension while NoScript is a Firefox extension; they both do essentially the same thing to different degrees. Both programs will block script using applications on the websites that run them while you browse. Since these scripts are commonly prone to code attacks on your machine, it’s generally a good idea to avoid them where possible. NoScript is considerably more versatile than NotScript since it will block any kinds of scripts, while its Chrome counterpart can only be used against JavaScript.
In the case of both programs, you can place certain sites you trust on a white-list to avoid having their scripting apps blocked off. This is also useful since some web pages that are trustworthy absolutely depend on flash or JavaScript to run.

Web of Trust

If you decide to use just a single security extension for your Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer browser, make it Web of Trust. This extension rates almost every website you visit and gives it a green, amber or red warning depending on its trustworthiness. The information that generates this is based on user reviews, so you can also add your own opinion into the mix; very accurate and very reliable.

Adblocker Plus

This handy little extension will essentially purge your browsing experience of advertisements and other annoying ad based things like popup ads and such. Adblocker isn’t so much as security plugin as it is a nuisance elimination tool, but the extension’s ability to eliminate ads does play an important security function: ads are where many renegade malware and spyware programs Gide, waiting to infect the computer of someone who clicks on them. Getting rid of them removes the potential for many accidents.

LastPass

This excellent data security extension, available for Chrome, Firefox and IE, is a great tool for managing all your online passwords easily while keeping them extremely secure. The extension allows you to create a single master password with which you manage all your other login prompts through the plugin’s internal password creator. The security benefit is that LastPass creates much stronger passwords for all your online data than any you are likely to try remembering later on. This tool is very handy for stopping brute force password crack attacks against your online banking, credit card and any other passkey enabled access pages.

HTTPS Everywhere

This extension was created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to secure all digital communication between your browser and other servers and websites through high strength encryption. It mainly protects your data transmissions so that the login information and other sensitive data you’re inputting all over the place cannot be stolen and used to defraud you or hack your personal accounts or web based access points. Unfortunately, the HTTPS Everywhere plugin is still only available for Firefox.

Keyscrambler

Keyscrambler is a keystroke encryption tool that will take all of your typed in characters and encrypt them at the level of your keyboard drivers while at the same time letting you see what you’ve written on your screen. The encryption protects your typed information from secretly installed keystroke loggers that might be hiding in your computer; they will only see a stream of gibberish instead of your vulnerable personal data. The Keyscrambler extension is available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Your Browser

No, this isn’t another security extension, it’s a bonus point you should keep in mind: The brand of browser you use will also have a big impact on your data and computer security. Of the three main browsers, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, Chrome has recently been ranked as the most secure and most robustly protected against frequently updating threats. Chrome’s list of features such as script and process sandboxing, Just in Time engine hardening and basic plugin installation security make it the award winner against its less advanced rivals Firefox and IE. Chrome also seems to have the shortest response time against constantly changing malware threats. Go with Chrome for better security; it’s sleek, fast and won’t overload your RAM like Firefox is prone to doing with its latest versions.

Categories
Browsers Internet

10 useful Firefox 13 Customizations

One of the reasons Firefox is my favorite web browser is because it is highly customizable. Not only are there a lot of useful add-ons that you can download, but the browser can be customized with simple commands inside the about:config page. If you don’t like something about Firefox, you can usually find a command in the about:config page to change things up to your liking. This tutorial is created for Firefox 13, so it may or may not work in other versions of Firefox.

Todays’ post will list 10 useful Firefox 13 customizations. Most of these customizations are implemented by opening Firefox and typing “about:config” into the web address bar. You will get a warning that tells you to be careful. Click on the “I’ll be careful, I promise” button and follow the steps below to implement each change.

1. Change the default starting tab

One of the big change in Firefox 13 was the styling of new tabs. When you open a new tab in

Firefox 13, the default start page now displays a grid of bookmarked websites and popular websites from your history bar. The new tab layout in Firefox 13 resembles the Chrome start page.

Some people (including myself) are not big fans of the new start page. If you would prefer new tabs to start on a blank page or a custom URL, access the about:config page and look for the search bar at the top. Type “browser.startup.homepage” into the search bar.

Double click the one result that comes up and type in the URL of any website. For example, I use http://www.google.com/ and now Google is my default starting page. You can also use about:blank to start all new tabs on a blank page.

2. Disable Google Autocomplete

Google autocomplete drives me nuts. It flickers around showing me all kinds of search results and tries to suggest new searches for me while I’m busy typing my search term. I type way too quickly for this to be anything but annoying.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to disable autocomplete. Use the following URL as your homepage or new tab page:

https://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0

Congratulations, you have finally defeated the dreaded autocomplete “feature.”

3. Disable the Delay for Add-On Installations

This is a quick little tweak that eliminates the mandatory countdown timer that is associated with installing new plugins. The delay is designed to protect you from malicious software installation, but you can easily disable the delay if you feel comfortable around computers.

Visit the about:config menu, search for “security.dialog_enable_delay” and double click on the first result that appears. Change the value to zero and hit “OK.” You can now install plugins without waiting.

4. Close Tabs with Your Mouse Wheel

This isn’t really an about:config customization, but it’s still useful. If you work with a lot of tabs in Firefox, it can get old to repeatedly click on the tiny “X” to close tabs. One simple trick is to just place your cursor on the tab and click down on your mouse’s scroll wheel.

5. Disable Auto Refresh

Some websites like to automatically refresh the page after a certain amount of time. For example, I browse DrudgeReport.com sometimes and that site randomly refreshes on me. These auto refreshes are annoying but they can be disabled inside your about:config page.

Visit the about:config page and search for the following term: accessibility.blockautorefresh

Two results will appear, choose the shorter one that matches your search term exactly. Double click on that result and change the value to false. Web pages will now stop auto refreshing.

6. Use the Mouse Wheel to Open Links in a New Tab

Here is another quick trick that doesn’t require the about:config page. Most people right click on links and choose “Open Link in New Tab.” You can save yourself a click by simply placing your cursor over the link and clicking down on the mouse wheel. This will open the link in a new tab.

7. Disable Blinking Text

Some websites use blinking text on their pages. This serves no purpose other than to be an annoying strain on the eyes. You can disable blinking text by visiting the about:config page and searching for “browser.blink_allowed”.

Double click on the search result and change the value to false. Blinking text will soon become a distant memory.

8. See More Tabs

Open enough tabs in Firefox and eventually you’ll stop seeing new tabs. All new tabs will be replaced with a little arrow on the side of the tab bar. If you would like to see more tabs in Firefox, you can adjust the width of each tab and fit more tabs into the tab bar before new tabs start disappearing.

Visit the about:config page and search for “browser.tabs.tabClipWidth”. The default value is 140. Change that value to something smaller and tabs will now take up less horizontal space.

9. Stop Selecting Spaces Next to Words

When you double click a word in Firefox, that word is automatically highlighted for easy copy/pasting. The one problem is that the space next to the word is highlighted by default. I prefer to select the exact word and leave the space out.

You can change this by visiting the about:config page and searching for “layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word”. Double click on the first result to change the value to false. Now, you can double click any word in Firefox and only that exact word will be highlighted. Those annoying additional spaces will no longer be included in your copies and pastes.

10. Undo about:config Customizations

Did you mess something up inside your about:config page? Want to undo a custom change but don’t remember the original value? You can reset any about:config customization by visiting the about:config page and right clicking on any setting inside that page. Choose the “reset” option and the setting for that line will go back to the factory default.

Categories
General Internet

Web and Video conferencing and their benefits

Today technology has evolved so much that there is no need to be present physically at a location to take part in a meeting or to take classes. Everyone prefers to live in a virtual world and so do they want to work virtually. The technology that powers this kind of virtual communication is called Web conferencing.

Web conferencing is a service that allows real conference to happen virtually. People present at different locations can take part in a conference and present things as if they are physically present in the conference room. The web conference is made possible through Internet Technology with the help of TCP/IP protocols. The web conferencing technology helps in transmission of voice, text as well as video through the network across geographically distributed locations.

Video conference is another similar technology but with few limitations e.g in Video conferencing only picture and voice can be transmitted in real-time but it does not offer desktop sharing. So it is not the preferred choice in corporate conferencing. However video conferencing is used while transmitting a live event with an added advantage of 2 way communication.

In most if the situations, web conferencing combined with video conferencing gives the optimum result as it offers the best of both the technologies. For this reason many service providers like Powwownow are offering both web conferencing as well as video conferencing solutions.

Features of Powwownow video conferencing:

The video conferencing solution provided by Powwownow is customized for both desktop and mobile. It provides HD video quality with no delays and dropped calls. Main benefit of this is it does not require any additional hardware as you can use your existing PC with a microphone and web camera.

Usage of Powwownow video conferencing:

The video conferencing solutions from Powwownow can be used to deliver effective training without the need for the trainees to be physically present. It can be used to give presentation to customers and clients without you leaving your office. You can even conduct virtual interview using this.

Features of Powwownow Web conferencing:

The Powwownow web conferencing solutions is a featured packed solutions offering all the functionality offered by paid web conferencing solutions. This is absolutely free and too easy to use and set up. It offers desktop sharing so that you can have a guided tour on your computer sitting at your office and clients sitting at various different locations. Another great feature is, with Powwownow web conferencing, only the host has to download and install the software in his/her system, the viewers do not need to download anything. They just need a web browser with Internet connection.

Usage of Powwownow video conferencing:

You can use this web conferencing solutions to facilitate group training for employees situated at various office locations. You can have interactive presentations with your team members. You can use this to present company updates.

The kind of new technologies like web and video conferencing system are making our life so easy. Now executives and trainers do not need to travel places to discuss and give training to their clients and students. This can help in saving travelling time as well as money. Even people can opt for working from home and use this facility to interact with their team members. Such kind of technological improvements are boon to the society.

 

Categories
Internet

How to Use Internet Technology to increase Business Profits

The internet is a massive resource for businesses looking to increase market share and maximize profit margins. The best advantage of the internet is that it offers an equal opportunity of growth to all businesses regardless of their market share, size or capital. This may at times even give relatively new businesses an edge over bigger market players. The manifold benefits of the internet have been realized by businesses on both global as well as local level. Here are some reasons why many businesses believe that internet technology can help them realize higher profits:

Globalization

Where some businesses owners are only too keen to blame computers for encouraging laziness in the workplace, statistics clearly stands against such opinions. Computers open new frontiers of trade and new windows of opportunity for businesses. For businesses that have integrated internet technology into their system, it is much easier to forge relationships on a global level. With a host of new vendors at the businesses threshold, businesses can grow in leaps and bounds in a seemingly shorter amount of time than it world otherwise take them.

Communication

It is hard to fathom how businesses would communicate with a global audience effectively if it were not for the internet. With the advent of internet technology, marketing strategies and advertising campaigns have gone online allowing businesses easier access to international markets. This has enabled even smaller businesses with limited resources to cater to a global audience. Internet technology has also accelerated sales processes by blessing businesses with higher efficiency levels and quicker processing time.

Cost Effectiveness

It wouldn’t be controversial to say that the biggest benefit that internet technology has offered businesses is that of economy. Businesses with massive operations spread across many countries require huge investment of money and a lot of meticulous planning and yet most businesses are only able to generate small profits. This is because marketing campaigns and other costs related to business operations can have an adverse effect on the financial budget of a business. Internet technology can be of tremendous help to businesses at such a time as it allows easier and quicker communication, greater market penetration, and allows them to interact with a larger audience. This reduces costs while also stretching profit margins.

Marketing and Advertising

Simply by establishing their very own online presence, a business can greatly boost its prospects of targeting a larger market share. A website provides businesses with the opportunity to market their products to a larger audience without having to worry about operational and monetary hassles related with conventional marketing campaigns. Businesses can save costs associated with various marketing material such as print media (fliers, mailings or newspaper ads). Online means of marketing and advertising are also more focused on their approach as they can be easily customized to appeal to a specific market. Most businesses have different sections on their websites for different markets and this allows them greater flexibility in their dealings with different niches.

Larger Customer Base

Internet technology has greatly assisted businesses in their endeavors to expand their customer base. Smaller businesses have a tough time making ends meet when they are operating in a market predominantly ruled by big market players. In such a scenario, internet technology offers them a greater chance of success. A small business having its own website stands a better chance of stretching its profits beyond projected margins.

Other Advantages

Most small businesses that are newly established take the online route to evade the crippling taxes that reduce profit margins. Internet technology helps businesses reduce their tax liabilities considerably as they can benefit from tax deductions. Apart from these considerations, businesses can also save on regular traveling expenses related to product marketing and launches in new markets.

Conclusion

Considering the manifold benefits that internet technology offers businesses today, it is of little wonder why many businesses have integrated it into their business model. Internet technology offers a quick, cheap and highly effective way of promoting products and services. Now, smaller businesses with limited resources have an equal chance of appealing to a target market as bigger market players. In addition to this, already established businesses can put internet technology to effective use to maximize profits.

Author Bio:

Erika Jonathon is a freelance writer by profession. She has worked with internet service providers for years and is the best person to consult when it comes to any information regarding internet service providers.

Categories
Internet Social Media

5 reasons you need a social inbox

Getting involved in social media and networking can seem like a daunting task for any business or individual. Multiple networks, multiple accounts and worst of all, everything you want or need is spread out and in separate places. But not to panic, MarketMeSuite is an end to end social media management tool which helps you condense and orgainze your work into a “Social Inbox”.

This article looks at why you need to be using a Social Inbox and why you’ll wonder how you lived without one.

It’s A Familiar Concept

Everyone has and uses email. Whether it be Gmail, AOL, Mac Mail, what ever, the lay out and interfaces are all very similar. You have an “Inbox” of emails ready to be read, replied to, filtered or forwarded. You have options down the side to view your sent emails, your archived mail, important and starred mail. MarketMeSuite’s Inbox works the same way! You have your data all in one place, it’s then up to you to create your own Inboxes and filters to pull in the content you need and want. The concept is exactly the same. You have your unread tweets, Facebook updates, @mentions, DM’s, wall posts all ready to be organised and filtered however you please.

Archive And Search

Just like with email, your Social Inbox allows you to have access to Archived data. This means if someone sends you a message, you can rest easy knowing that it is stored safely away for X number of days. This means that you can rest easy knowing that important social media content is safe and easily accessible in case you need it to act upon at a later date.

Search goes hand in hand with archived data. These days, with so many tweets, Facebook updates, LinkedIn messages, it is impossibly slow to find and locate one particular piece of information. MarketMeSuite allows you to search through all content, whether it was sent by you or others in one easy step! Just use the “Search Inbox” option by writing in your chosen word or phrase with quotations, and you get all the results you need. You can also do searches outside the inbox with “Real-time” search, which has geo-targeted capabilities and is a must-have for anyone with a local business.

No Social Bias

Your Social Inbox does not favour any particular social network. Many clients (including some of MarketMeSuite’s previous versions) were built for Twitter with an after thought of Facebook and LinkedIn, but the Social Inbox simply has every feed and network in one stream which then allows you to filter for particular accounts. A good business needs to be on as many social networks as possible to ensure maximum exposure and engagement.

Goodbye Panes Hello Smart Inboxes!

A long time ago, at the beginning of  social dashboards, it was decided that vertical panes were the best way to disseminate social information. And for Twitter, it worked. But who out there has experienced the endless horizontal scroll where you need a 57 inch screen to view everything all at once.  Not anymore.

Your Social Inbox allows you to have one normal sixed screen with options to change what you are looking at by one click of a mouse button. By having inbox options down the left hand side, you simply have to click on “@mentions” or “Facebook News feed” to get that data. And, you can create smart ways to filter that data. Facebook notifications and @mentions for 2 Twitter accounts your priority? Make a “Smart Inbox” for just that. No more scrolling left and right trying to frantically locate it in a pane.

Curation and Leads

When you have so many accounts and pages to manage, it’s essential that you have a way of organizing it all and knowing what’s been replied to, which content is a worth flagging, assigning, or marking as lead. That’s powerful. Imagine you see an update you believe could get you a new customer or is of importance, you can tag it as a “Lead” so you can track that update,make sure it’s been replied to, and convert that follower or fan into a customer.

Key Take Away

A Social Inbox is an intuitive and natural progression for social media organization. It’s a interface you are used to, easy to understand and incredibly simple! It’s time to move beyond the “classic” dashboard. Set up a Social Inbox for your business today.

Categories
Social Media

Tips on using Facebook Effectively

Have some people become obsessed with their Facebook profile. Have they become their own brand and social media marketing entity? Have we all fallen into the trap of thinking we are something important to the rest of the world and we must invest in hours of personal online marketing? Here is a no-nonsense look at how to interact on Facebook.

Facebook is the core of social media marketing, but how many of us really know how to use it? How much are all of your friends actually paying attention to what you are doing on it? How much are you interacting with others on the site, or are you really just reading whatever is put in front of you? Getting attention on Facebook takes some special skills, it also takes some other abilities. Here is a look at how to get more involved with others on Facebook. Let’s face it, you are after attention yourself.

Use your likes

While we all want to be the wittiest person ever, most of the time it is hard to come up with something more entertaining than an eight year old. Your next option is to use your like button. This is an easy way to interact with others and make them feel good at the same time. Whether you like it, them, or not, does not really matter, they will feel that you have given them some positive attention.

Upload photos as much as possible

Just like a picture speaks a thousand words, photos give you a whole essay of material you could not possibly write. It would be great if I could come up with something interesting everytime I opened the site, and it would be something that attracted attention. Just like most of us, I can’t. The next best thing is to upload photos. Everyone likes to look at photos, it is just the way people are. Photos give a visual dimension to your existence, and this adds more to your personality online. Words are wonderful for conjuring up provocative thoughts, but photos and videos lay it all out there for others to see. Do your best to select only those photos and videos where you look fantastically fabulous or completely ridiculous. Either one will intrigue.

Comment on photos

Looking for somewhere to say something, and not sure what to say. Other’s photos will always give you something of interest to say. More importantly, because it is them you are talking about, and it is plain to see for everyone else, you will get a reaction every time.

Be yourself

Facebook is your personal online marketing tool. Perhaps you are not that interesting in the first place. Perhaps, what is more important, is those who care about you. Don’t try too hard to impress. Just be yourself. If people out there are not interested in you, it is time to find friends who do. Don’t take your Facebook profile too personally. Those who like you will like you anyway. Those who added you just so they could add another number to their total friend count, are not your friend anyway. Just because someone has more friends on Facebook, does not mean they have more influence. The quality and amount of interaction with that network is what really makes the difference.

Categories
Internet

iVPN: the best VPN service provider

Couple of weeks back I was in dearth need of a VPN service and while doing my research, I came across numerous VPN service provider. None of them were fulfilling my requirement, in a sense they were not offering what I was looking for. Just then one of my friend suggested me this VPN service called iVPN. I went deeper into their site and got in touch with their customer service to clarify few of my queries and guess what ‘” I found exactly what I was looking for”. This review is based upon my personal experience with iVPN service for last couple of weeks.

For those who are not sure what exactly is a VPN, let me take this opportunity to define it. A Virtual Private Network or a VPN (in short) is a secured way of connecting to a private network (LAN) present in a remote location through an unsecured public network like Internet. You can use VPN service to connect to your office network from your home which majority of us do. But the VPN service comes in handy in many other ways too.

The speciality of iVPN:

If you go with the enormous amount of VPN service provider available in the Internet you will find many loopholes in the service and most of the time you have to pay a hefty price as your security might be compromised. Some of them are such a waste that you will neither get security nor the speed and do not ask about the worst customer service. generally when we look for a VPN we primarily consider the security and speed. So without this the service is a waste.

The iVPN offers the best security as it is built with most secured Open Source software available today like OpenVPN, IPSec and freeRADIUS. (Most of other providers use insecured protocol like PPTP where data can be sniffed easily). The traffic between the client machine and iVPN network is encrypted with AES 256 bit encryption.

IVPN offers maximum speed as they offers very low subscribers ratio and offer premium bandwidth through their Gigabit network. Hardly ever your connection will be dropped.

Apart from this they offers maximum privacy as they do not collect any personally identifiable information except the mail ID. Backed by all this they have a fantastic support team who are always ready to help.

Signup and Setup:


In order to start using the iVPN service you need to signup to iVPN as a subscriber. You have the flexibility to pay monthly, quarterly or annually. They also have a very attractive pricing plan with a reducing price for increased duration. If you want to try the service before buying, they offer a 7 days risk free trial without any obligation.

The signup process is fairly simple and takes less than 30 seconds as they do not collect any information apart from the mail ID and password. After signing up, you will receive an email with setup instructions and the Username and Password to connect to the iVPN network.

Depending upon the type of protocol you will be using like an OpenVPN or IPSec, you will need to download the client program and configuration file. I prefer OpenVPN as it is slightly faster, more stable and can pass some firewall restriction which IPSec cannot.

For OpenVPN, the downloader is available here and the ones for IPSec/L2TP are available here. You can also follow the extensive step by step tutorials for setup by visiting the iVPN knowledge base.

Once you download the client for the type of connection, double click on the installer to start installation and proceed with the default options.

I would advice to use the automatic setup scripts for configuration available in the download page as manual configuration is too complicated and making something wrong will not allow you to connect.

This iVPN has served my purpose and I am overall quite happy with the service and I would rate them 8.5 out of 10.

If you happen to use the service of iVPN or any other VPN service provider, do not forget to write your opinion through comment.

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Internet Social Media

Do’s and Dont’s of Social Media for Business[Infographic]

If you are wondering how to start your social media campaign? what to do in your social media campaign and what to avoid in your social media campaign, this infograph will definitely help you. It provides quite useful points about the usage of Social media for the business. The rise of Social media has made many business embrace it. But it is as essential to know the strategies to make maximum benefit out of it. The points cited in this infographic is very general but quite useful. Most of us know about it but don’t follow. So I would suggest those using Social Media as one of their primary marketing medium to abide by the points cited here, this will surely help you guys.

This infograph is created by the steel method.