Siwa Host Blog » internet http://www.hostsiwa.com Sat, 19 May 2012 19:18:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Iranian Internet Access Once Down Returns http://www.hostsiwa.com/iranian-internet-access-once-down-returns/ http://www.hostsiwa.com/iranian-internet-access-once-down-returns/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:26:56 +0000 admin http://www.hostsiwa.com/iranian-internet-access-once-down-returns/ (The Hosting News) – Throughout the world, various countries have sought to limit Internet access for their citizens, especially around politically volatile times in which a country’s government may be feeling heat from its own citizens.

Just a few days ago, Internet users in the middle-eastern country of Iran found their web access increasingly limited as they attempted to log in to American-based web services including Facebook, Yahoo! mail and Gmail.

Last Thursday, limited Internet access in the country was chronicled in a report from the Washington Post which told the story of Iranian blogger Maysam who had noticed his inability to use sites including Facebook, despite Maysam’s reliance on what the Washington Post called a “special connection.”

Access to Facebook has been regularly blocked in Iran, but there’s a loophole to getting around the country’s firewall (most likely a virtual private network) which Maysam had been able to achieve, until recently.

Meanwhile, a report from AFP indicated that attempting to access some US-based services usually available in the country read, “Access to this page is a violation of computer crime laws.” While not all were necessarily blocked at all times, attempting access was reported to be extremely slow.

Over 30 million users were apparently hit by the limited Internet issue, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.

Now it appears that there’s finally some good news for Iranian Internet users. The four day downtime of such sites has ended with the Associated Press recently reporting that Iranian Internet users had indicated to the news agency that their services had returned today.

Limiting free speech rights by disabling Internet access has become all too common worldwide. Last year in June, various news agencies reported that Internet access in the country of Syria had been disabled following demonstrations by protestors in the country.

Meanwhile, similar instances were seen in other countries including Egypt during the 2011 revolution that ousted now former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Interestingly enough, the incident occurs during an important time for Iran. The country is set to hold parliamentary elections early next month.

SoftLayer

Iranian Internet Access Once Down Returns

www.thehostingnews.com

]]> http://www.hostsiwa.com/iranian-internet-access-once-down-returns/feed/ 0 The Day the Internet Stood Still http://www.hostsiwa.com/the-day-the-internet-stood-still/ http://www.hostsiwa.com/the-day-the-internet-stood-still/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:34:58 +0000 admin http://www.hostsiwa.com/the-day-the-internet-stood-still/ infographic

Source: frugaldad.com

infographic

Source: frugaldad.com

SoftLayer

The Day the Internet Stood Still

www.thehostingnews.com

]]> http://www.hostsiwa.com/the-day-the-internet-stood-still/feed/ 0 Save Money and Save the Internet! http://www.hostsiwa.com/save-money-and-save-the-internet/ http://www.hostsiwa.com/save-money-and-save-the-internet/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:13:32 +0000 admin http://www.hostsiwa.com/save-money-and-save-the-internet/ Best deal you’ll find this year! In light of the recent SOPA controversy many registrars are now offering discounts for domain transfers. Ok, to be fair there is no controversy – SOPA is bad, very bad, for the whole Internet, except GoDaddy, who helped write it and are now paying the price as customers are leaving.  SOPA threatens the freedom of the Internet and if passed will allow copyright holders to have sites taken down by a quick order of a judge, without any representation or court.  More bad news is that it’s likely to pass due to wide spread support in the Congress.

There is some good news however. Many registrars are trying to capitalize on the wave of hate towards GoDaddy that this has sprung and provide large discounts for domain transfers:

Name.com $ 6.65 –  code ‘NODADDY’

NameCheap $ 6.99 + $ 0.18 –  code ‘SOPASucks’

DynaDot $ 6.99 – code ‘TEAMDYNADOT’

Note that these are mostly for .com transfers and expire on Dec 31, so hurry up!

Name.com also have more information on SOPA and their position on it

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]]> http://www.hostsiwa.com/save-money-and-save-the-internet/feed/ 0 Bit-Defender Internet Security Review http://www.hostsiwa.com/bit-defender-internet-security-review/ http://www.hostsiwa.com/bit-defender-internet-security-review/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:25:57 +0000 admin http://www.hostsiwa.com/bit-defender-internet-security-review/ It’s that time of year again, all of the various security suites are coming out with their 2012 versions and redoing interfaces and making it all bigger, stronger and faster. Of course, href="http://www.bitdefender.com/" target="_blank">Bit-Defender is no exception to this rule. As we begin to evaluate our internet security options for this year, we can certainly see that this program, while a bit on the touchy side, may possibly be a way to turn.

Changes, Changes

The interface will be one of the places where you begin to see the wide host of differences that have been made with this year’s edition of Bit-Defender. Now showing a dark minimal interface that lacks the options of the past for their intermediate and advanced options panels, they have cut down on clutter and chaos by deciding for you which options you need available right at hand. You can, of course, change this in the options panel and make sure that you have your advanced tools there as well, but starting out, this is it. However, finding the menu to do so if you choose to change these options might prove a bit tedious and confusing.

While definitely lower priced than its competitors, the thing that their competitor has that this program lacks is the ability to install alongside or with other security programs also installed. Bit-Defender is so anti-social that it will refuse to install when there are even any remnants of other security sources installed. So it is recommended that you use an uninstall sweeper program to make sure that every last bit of your old security and anti-virus programs are gone first or install only on a fresh computer, otherwise it simply will not install.

Some of the new tools that have been added include:

  • Chat scanners
  • Phishing protection
  • Firewall
  • Parental Controls
  • File encryptions
  • System optimizer
  • Online backup

It is safe to say that while other programs offer these kinds of tools, they do so at a much higher price and a much longer installation time. With install time (and this includes registration) clocked at just under 2 minutes, Bit-Defender definitely has the market cornered on efficiency.

Interestingly enough, Bit-Defender now has an application that is also free for all FaceBook users: href="http://apps.facebook.com/bd-safego/">http://apps.facebook.com/bd-safego/. Having tried this little application, we definitely would have to say that it is non-invasive and trustworthy having caught and filtered out the infamous “Facebook Pornography Spam Attack” of last week. That little catch in and of itself was quite impressive!

Does not play well with others

Once installed, Bit-Defender does a preliminary scan and makes certain that it is not being put on an already infected machine (sorry, you folks who bought this as the answer to your virus problem, no go, here). Then, you can go into choosing one of many levels of scans available for your needs from the basic levels to the highly paranoid. Best to make sure you read the help files about the one you chose though. If you do not currently have time for a forced boot time scan, you need to choose full, not complete, or you will wind up having to do this tedious bit of work.

Once uninstalled, you’d think that a program so anti-social would make sure to clean up after itself, but unfortunately this is not the case with Bit-Defender and is perhaps our biggest issue with it. When the program is uninstalled it leaves behind traces in your registry that will need to be fixed in order to ensure proper running of your machine or of any other security program that you might choose to install. Once you uninstall the program, you should, to be safe, make sure that you use a registry fixing tool in order to ensure the health of your machine and its proper running.

All in all, if you can put up with the quirks of this program or you are installing it on a brand new, just built system, then you will be in heaven with this program and it’s relatively small cost. The tools that it offers are indeed extensive and will protect your computer from even the harshest of viruses and malware.7. However, if you are looking for help for an already infected machine, best to look elsewhere for the program that will best suit your needs.

Related posts:

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  • December 19, 2008 – href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2008/12/19/the-insecurity-of-the-open-source-cms/" title="The Insecurity of the Open-source CMS">The Insecurity of the Open-source CMS
  • November 17, 2011 – href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/11/17/clickjacking/" title="Clickjacking: What is it and How You Can Protect Yourself?">Clickjacking: What is it and How You Can Protect Yourself?
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  • September 13, 2011 – href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/13/keep-server-safe-common-security-problems/" title="How to Keep Your Server Safe From Common Security Problems ">How to Keep Your Server Safe From Common Security Problems
  • September 6, 2011 – href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/06/ip-filtering-through-cpanel/" title="Performing IP Filtering Through cPanel – A Brief Tutorial">Performing IP Filtering Through cPanel – A Brief Tutorial

    • Web Hosting Geeks’ Blog – News, Trends, Discussions.

    ]]>     http://www.hostsiwa.com/bit-defender-internet-security-review/feed/ 0     Internet Discount Clubs: A New Way to Save http://www.hostsiwa.com/internet-discount-clubs-a-new-way-to-save/ http://www.hostsiwa.com/internet-discount-clubs-a-new-way-to-save/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:47:32 +0000 admin http://www.hostsiwa.com/internet-discount-clubs-a-new-way-to-save/ In the current economy, everyone is searching for new ways to save a few dollars wherever they go. From websites like href="http://www.groupon.com/" target="_blank">Groupon and href="http://livingsocial.com/" target="_blank">Living Social that offer gift-cards to various local merchants at a highly discounted price, to href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/subscribe-and-save/details/index.html" target="_blank">Amazon Subscribe and Save which helps you save money on gas by sending items you use a lot of each month to your home automatically on a subscription service model, every company out there is looking for ways to save you a few dollars and keep your business. With so many options to choose form, which ones will provide the best deals? Will a combination of a few of them make life easier? Let’s take a look at some of the options available.

    Groupon /> href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Groupon-Logo.png"> src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Groupon-Logo-320x130.png" alt="groupon-Logo" title="groupon-Logo" width="320" height="130" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-3134" /> /> Groupon is one of the first largely publicized savings programs on the net. First launched in 2008 in their home town of Chicago, their first deal was a half price pizza from the pizza place that was on the first floor of their office building. They have come a long way in a short period of time, now being a publicly traded company that is worth well over 6 billion dollars USD at this time. How they work is, Groupon partners with companies to provide a significantly reduced product or service such as a massage that would be valued at 80.00 and sell it on their daily deals for 40.00. This provides the company with brand new customers and hopefully repeat clients from that, and Groupon keeps ½ of the deal price.

    Over time, there has been some criticism about how Groupon does business, some going so far as to say that it is “like a Ponzi” scheme. They are losing about 100 million dollars a quarter and have a negative net balance of well over 200 million. They are using later investors’ money to pay the earlier ones, etc. Somehow, though, even though this is known they still remain and even thrive! In fact, they genuinely only have one serious contender, Living Social.

    Living Social /> href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/livingsocial-logo.png"> src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/livingsocial-logo.png" alt="livingsocial-logo" title="livingsocial-logo" width="300" height="91" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3136" /> /> Living Social is much the same as Groupon, however, offering a bit more in the way of options. They have family and “escape” options that generate much interest among the cost conscious family community. While Groupon is primarily geared towards women of a higher economic class, Living Social has kept its eyes closer to the ground, for the “everyman” types. They have received much seed money from various large name firms in order to get the company going. While still smaller than Groupon, they have undoubtedly cornered the market in their own way.

    Amazon Subscribe and Save /> href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/amazon-subscribe-save.jpg"> src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/amazon-subscribe-save.jpg" alt="amazon-subscribe-save" title="amazon-subscribe-save" width="320" height="96" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3137" /> /> Amazon of course could not be left behind when it came to this juice part of business! They opened their “subscribe and save” service. This service allows you to sign up to receive certain products you use a lot of and have them shipped automatically to your home on a schedule. For example, you use 196 or so diapers in a month for your infant, and you don’t have a car but it’s blessedly expensive to put them in small packages because your local store does not sell cases. You sign up for this service through amazon, you find your brand and a case with the amount you prefer in it, and approve your credit card or debit card to be automatically charged for that item every month renewing on the same day that you originally bought the first product. The better idea is still that by signing up you receive a secondary 15% discount on the cost, bringing the price down to as low as .14 cents a diaper.

    Amazon lately has had many generous promotions like this, keeping in mind the working lives of people in the world today and the terrible economy we face. They too, enjoying the idea of the “deal of the day” model, have opened their own program along these lines, although it is still in beta and not yet in all cities around the country. It is called Amazon local; along the same ideas as both programs listed above, just through the Amazon website and servers. With this program, we will have to see how it fares after it comes out of beta and is nationwide. It is rather late in the game to be jumping on this particular bandwagon.

    Restaurants.com /> href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/restaurants-logo.gif"> src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/restaurants-logo.gif" alt="restaurants-logo" title="restaurants-logo" width="220" height="110" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3139" /> /> href="http://www.restaurants.com/" target="_blank">Restaurants.com is an entirely different program all together, focusing solely on places to eat out and maybe have a few drinks. It is much the same idea as Groupon, except that the gift certificates are always available, not just for a day or so (or until time runs out or all are purchased). For example, the restaurant up the road from you is perhaps a bit more pricey than you are usually willing to pay, however, the site has a gift certificate for 20.00 except that it is worth 50! Here’s the catch however; in order to get that 50.00 off, you need to spend 75.00 total. So, you will be outlaying some money but not as much as you would be if you went and had not purchased the certificate.

    Potential for Scamming

    Unfortunately, just as there are those companies who do a legitimate business, there are also those who would take advantage of people. When you choose to use an Internet discount club or a similar service, look out for these warning signs:

    After purchasing a gift certificate or deal from a legitimate site, a pop-up comes up asking if you’d like to save 10.00 on your purchase today, if so to enter your email.

    • You end up being redirected to a site whose listing in the address bar is different from that which you began at. This is a sign of click-jacking.
    • A site asks you after purchase for any identifying information that seems unnecessary for the purchase such as your ID number.
    • As always, be safe with your information online and you should be fine.

    In conclusion, there are many ways to save on everyday expenses online in this dreary economy. There are even ways to ensure that you have some luxury as well and don’t have to forgo eating out in pleasant places or getting that massage that would unquestionably make your day. By utilizing Internet discount clubs like the ones listed in this article, you can still have the life you had before…just for less cost.

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    • Web Hosting Geeks’ Blog – News, Trends, Discussions.

    ]]>     http://www.hostsiwa.com/internet-discount-clubs-a-new-way-to-save/feed/ 0