Dedicated server hosting is a kind of internet hosting in which a client leases an entire server to one customer only. In other words, in dedicated server hosting website owner takes an entire server on rent form the hosting service provider. This is different from the shared server hosting, where a number of client s use the same service, hence the bandwidth and space is very less.

Many website owners start with shared server when the number of visitors is less. This is the most economical option for hosting the website as overall cost of server maintenance is shared by many people. Moreover the service provider ascertains you with support, security and maintenance. However, in shared hosting, your website faces many problems when there is a sudden surge in the traffic. Read more…

In today’s society, many professionals and corporations are giving back to their communities. By becoming socially responsible, these people are making a difference in both the environment and within their own communities.

Several networking organizations exist to bring together these professionals to educate, share resources, network and collaborate with the goal of making the world a better place. Take notice of these organizations because they are bound to make a difference in your community.

Net Impact

Net Impact, which was originally founded in 1993 as Students for Responsible Business, is an organization that brings together more than 11,000 M.B.A. students and professionals. Its mission is “to foster a new generation of leaders who use the power of business to create a better world.”

Net Impact is an international organization with more than 100 chapters. It is comprised of 15 city-based chapters, 17 international chapters and more than 70 M.B.A. school chapters. Midwest chapters include Chicago and Cleveland.

Net Impact helps members to use their business skills for positive social change by providing education, career resources, events and an international network. Each chapter puts on a variety of events including topics such as social cases, business plan competitions, a speaker series and career panels.

Its programs not only allow members to enhance their business network but also broaden their business education, refine their leadership skills and pursue their professional goals.

In 2004, the Chicago chapter was formed, which already has 300 members and is growing. A unique and ongoing program that this chapter facilitates is its “Net Impact Non-Profit Advisors,” which matches Net Impact professionals with local non-profit organizations for short-term engagements.

“Chicago is one of the thought leaders in the world regarding corporate social responsibility. It was a natural fit to start a Net Impact chapter here,” said Mark Mastroianni of B2P Commerce, a leadership team member from 2004 to 2005. “I believe this to be true about Chicago because of the many graduate programs in the city instructing these tenets as well as the social enterprises that call Chicago their home.”

Social Venture Partners

Social Venture Partners was created in 1997 in Seattle with the vision “to build a philanthropic community using a model that paralleled venture capital practices.” Known as “venture philanthropy,” its intention is to develop the capacity and sustainability of local non-profits through long-term and highly engaged investments of money, resources and business expertise.

As of February 2005, Social Venture Partners has 23 chapters across North America, more than 1,600 partners (members who contribute financially), more than $16 million in contributions and 121 non-profit engagements. Midwest chapters include Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota and St. Louis.

Each chapter is comprised of people who want to have a positive impact in their communities by making meaningful contributions to non-profit organizations through their skills, time and financial resources.

The shared mission of the partners is to “catalyze significant, long-term positive social change in their communities by educating individuals to be well informed, effective and engaged philanthropists and investing time, expertise and money in innovative non-profits to collaboratively strengthen their organizations.”

Each chapter typically requires its partners to make an annual contribution of at least $5,000, which is used for investing in projects with local non-profits. The investments are geared toward helping non-profits address a variety of issues such as children and education, early childhood and youth development and the environment.

Social Venture Partners Chicago was formed in 2004, currently has 14 partners and focuses on projects that empower the individuals who seek assistance from non-profits.

“I joined Social Venture Partners Chicago because in coming together with a diverse group of partners, we are able to provide a broad range of expertise to the investee organization (non-profits seeking assistance),” said Rebekah Kohmescher of Altair Advisers and a founding partner of Social Venture Partners Chicago.

Green Drinks

Green Drinks, which was founded in London in 1989, is an informal gathering of people who work in the environmental field and meet monthly for drinks in more than 70 cities across the world. Midwest cities include Chicago, Champaign-Urbana, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Participants are a diverse group of individuals with professional backgrounds in non-governmental organizations, academia, government and business. They have professional and personal interests in sustainability topics.

Chicago Green Drinks, which was inspired by the original gatherings in London, was started in 2003. Each month, between 70 and 100 people get together in Chicago who have an interest in environmental and sustainability issues.

Each Chicago Green Drinks event features a panel discussion that’s meant to provide information and initiate further discussion. Recent topics have included municipal recycling, smart urban growth, water management, local living economies, green cleaning and home products.

Final Thought

By becoming involved with organizations that promote social responsibility, you have the chance to make a difference in your community while building some quality relationships. Differentiating your networking is a good idea so long as you believe in the cause of these socially responsible groups.

By: Jason Jacobsohn

Not too many years ago, no one ever thought of having more than one computer in the home. Now that we are so dependent upon them, it is a common thing for home to have multiple computers. Before the blink of an eye, there are seven computers in the house yet there is only one printer and just one Internet connection. How is everyone going to be kept happy and productive?

The answer is to set up a network! This is none other than a group of computer components connected together with a router, hub and switch which gives its users the ability to share resources. These resources are some of the most integral parts of computer use. A network is much like a spider web. That is the basic reason why the Internet is often called the World Wide Web. Signals are constantly flowing along the network. Unlike a spider web, a computer network sends and receives those disturbances in the form of ‘packets’. Although there are other ways to perform the same function, almost all networks today operate as explained below.

On the network, the software and hardware cooperate to pass those packets.These packets are chunks of information that contain your data that is wrapped in control information. The control data allows the computers and the routers to know where and how to send your data. In most commercial and home networks, the method uses IP or Internet Protocol. Every device on the network is assigned an address such as 206.121.34.148. When you are talking about using a computer in the home these addresses are typically in the range of: 10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255, or 172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255, or 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255

These are what are known as Private Addresses since they are not able to be sent unmodified over the public networks that make up the Internet. These are used by computer, routers and peripherals in your home network. These same address ranges are also used by private commercial networks. An NAT, or network address translation, and coupled with the use of a boundary router allows many companies and homes to use the same range without unintentionally passing information to and from one another over the Internet.

It may happen that your computer may have quite a different address such as 70.31.192.243. This is often true because a single computer that is connected to the Internet gets an address that is assigned by the ISP or Internet Service Provider. You then do not really have only a home network, but you are considered to be a paying customer of a commercial network. When every device, computer, router and printer, is assigned its own address, the software as well as the hardware can ascertain where the data is coming from and when it should go. This is called communication without confusion.

The router software along with the hardware, routes the data to and from the proper devices using those addresses. The method is almost exactly the same as the postal system when it routes letters from one home or business to another.




By: Joseph Nyamache

With many homes now having more than one computer, home networks are becoming more and more appealing to the average PC user. Networking your computers together allows you to transfer files amongst the different computers at breakneck speeds, as well as share a printer or scanner or other peripheral.

Worldofcables ( Santa Clara) CA – A basic network (LAN or Local Area Network) consists of two computers that are linked in order to share resources (such as printers and CD-ROMs), exchange files, or allow electronic communications.

For this article, we will assume that your local cable or Phone Company has installed a broadband Internet connection on one of your PCs. If they haven’t, then that should be your first step.

Many new homes are being built pre-wired for Internet. This means that you have network cables running throughout your walls and coming out as jacks in the wall in various rooms. If this is the case then you will have an even easier time setting up your network. If not, that’s ok too, as cables can be neatly run under carpets, through attics, or along baseboards.

For the basic network, you will need the following in order to connect two or more computers together (see figure to left):

A broadband internet connection (such as cable modem or DSL)

One CAT-5E network cable for each computer

One CAT-5E network cable for modem

One network interface card for each computer

Note that more and more computers are offering a network card already built in, so check your computer for an Ethernet cable port before purchasing another card. For Cat – 5 E cable visit www.worldofcables.com.

Plan Your Setup

Next, you need to figure out how and where to run the appropriate length cables to fit your specific needs. We offer special flat Ethernet cables specifically designed for running along baseboards and the floor. This helps in keeping them out of the way and from people tripping over them.

Connect one end of a network cable into the back of your DSL/cable modem and the other into the “Internet” port on the back of the router. Connect a network cable in the back of each of your computers and into separate ports in the back of the router. You now have the start of a basic network.

Note that the purpose of the network router is to allow multiple computers to share one internet connection, without having to pay for a multiple-connection option from the internet service provider.

Most new computers will auto-configure your router and get you connected. You may have to configure your computer to turn on DHCP. This allows your router to differentiate between your different computers.

Enable DHCP

If you have a Windows based computer: Go to Start -> Programs -> Control Panel -> Network Connections. Right click on the connection and select Properties. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click properties. Select Obtain IP Address Automatically and Obtain DNS Server Address Automatically. If you are using a Windows 2000 machine you must then click Advanced and select DHCP Enabled and click OK. You may have to reboot for the settings to take affect.

If you have a Mac running OS 10.2: Go to System Preferences -> Network. Click on the TCP/IP tab. In the TCP/IP panel, change Configure Manually to Using DHCP. Delete any Domain Name Servers that are listed in the Domain Name Servers box. Click Apply Now.

If you have a Mac running OS 10.3: Go to System Preferences -> Network. From Show, choose Built-in Ethernet. Click on the TCP/IP tab. From Configure, choose Using DHCP. Delete Domain Name Servers. Click Apply Now.

Repeat the above steps for each computer on the network.

Setup Sharing

To allow for the other computers to share certain folders or printers:

If you are running Windows 2000/XP: Right click on any file folder and go to Sharing and Security… Select Share This Folder. Click OK. The other computers on your network can access anything you put in this folder. To share a printer, on the PC with the printer, go to Start -> Printers and Faxes. Right click on the printer you’d like to share and select sharing… Select Share this Printer. Click OK

If you have a Mac running OSX: Go to System Preferences (on the Apple menu) and click on Sharing. Select Personal File Sharing. The “Public” folder in your home folder will now be shared automatically. Use the address displayed at the bottom of the Sharing window to access this folder from other computers. Unlike Windows, Mac OSX does not allow you to share any folder you want. To share printers, select Printer Sharing. For more visit www.worldofcables.com




By: Pradeep Singh

Today’s lesson is on networks. Before you roll your eyes and go flipping around for the crossword puzzle, understand that I’m going to make this super easy. Let’s get going.

Networks. Perhaps you’ve heard people, TV commercials or magazine ads throwing that term around. And then there are all those companies out there that “do something” with networks: Nortel, Novell, Cisco … but the questions still remains for the majority of the non-technical population: Um, what exactly is a network, anyway? Do I have a network? Do I need a network? Aren’t networks only for businesses?

Let’s take the big topic of networking and break it up into little, understandable pieces.

First, we need a layperson’s definition. A network is just two or more computers that are linked so that they can exchange files or share resources such as printers. That’s it.

Networked computers can be linked together via cables, telephone lines, radio waves, satellites and even the ever-fancy infrared light beams.  Without a network, a computer is an island. The old, dusty computer sitting in your den right now is probably not connected to any other computers. It is not networked.

If you set up another computer next to that old, dusty computer and networked the two, you could share data (yep, even REALLY BIG files) back and forth between them – without e-mail, jump drives, or CD-Roms.

You could then set up a third computer and connect it to this little network in your den; in fact, you could connect as many computers as you’d like to the network. While that may not matter at home, just imagine how useful that same network would be to a small business office spread out across several rooms within a building.

Networks can be tiny. They can be set up in the same room between two computers. They can also be gigantic – reaching across the globe interconnecting thousands of computers.

Networks aren’t solely for businesses, though. Many families like to set up small two- or three-computer networks in their homes. I mean, how else could siblings simultaneously play together in multi-player computer games?

Let’s simplify even more. Here’s a great way to think about networking. Know this much, and you’ll be set.

Say there are three computers in an office. Without a network, everyone in the office in essence has their own paper filing cabinet and their own paperwork. Files can get messy, overlooked and, worst of all, be handled more than once.

With a network these three computers would share the same information. This would be like having one central paper filing cabinet in the office. Everyone can access the same information. No two people can modify/change the same files at the same time. Things are kept organized, nice and neat, thanks to the network.

How do you know if you or your company need a network? Here are a few issues to consider:

Do I ever need to access resources on another computer while I’m working away on a different computer? Would my life be easier without transferring data via email or jump drives? Does my company expect to grow and have employee tasks overlap?

If you answered a strong “yes” to any of these questions, a network just might make your life easier.

So that’s it! Now you know what networks are and why people get so excited about them. They’re not for everyone, but for those who use them, they’re infinitely valuable.




By: Erin