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Right now, the servicemen and servicewomen of the US Military are overseas fighting for your freedom. They chose to serve in the military knowing full well that someday they might be put in harm’s way. These brave men and women put country above their own safety. Now in far away lands, they fight for us on the front lines. Over the years, these front lines have changed. Yes, the danger is still there, but so are options to relieve their boredom. Enter the world wide web. Just like us, they have access to the Internet.

So what do they do on the Internet? Believe it or not, many of them watch TV. Sure, they might be able to watch television using a TV set, but the shows available in country are either in a different language or they are old reruns of old American television programs. While I’m sure that “I Love Lucy” is still a favorite, and who doesn’t want to watch “Gilligan’s Island”, current US television shows are not usually available. On the Internet, they can stream TV shows from the major networks. They could have watched the last episode of “Monk” or the new “White Collar” show on the USA Network. Or maybe they want to watch football. The web makes this possible.

Instead of TV, they might be on social networking sites like FaceBook or MySpace. For those who have not served in the army, you can’t imagine how much of a gift these websites are to lonely young men and women far from home. With a click of the mouse, they can see friends and loved ones. They can catch up on the latest happenings in their families or circle of friends. They can see videos, pictures and general news. And maybe, just maybe, some of the loneliness might go away. Sure, they are still at the front. Yes they are still in harm’s way. But they have a connection back to their normal every day lives. Unfortunately, they can’t always connect back to these US websites. You’d think the web is available everywhere.

While Internet access is common around the world. And while our soldiers can usually access the Internet while overseas, many times the sites they want to visit are blocked. That’s right, blocked. There are two types of blocks. The first type is put in place by the country they are in. Many countries have restrictive Internet censorship. Apparently watching US TV or reading the New York times online is considered subversive or dangerous. Think I’m joking, do a Yahoo search on Internet censorship and see what pops up. It’s downright scary. They other blocks are understandable and just as annoying. Many US sites block access from overseas. They do this by looking up the IP address of the surfer to determine their location. If it’s not in the US, it get’s blocked. They do this because it costs money to run a website. And many of these sites make their money with advertising. And advertisers don’t pay to advertise to people that they cannot sell to. Think about it, do you think it does Toyota any good to advertise their US versions of their vehicles to consumers in Iraq? Not really. There is a way around these blocks though. Anonymous proxies.

An anonymous proxy hides the IP address of the user to one it has control over. A good anonymous proxy is also encrypted and protects any information sent over the Internet. With the change in the IP address to an IP address in the United States, the user can access US websites that are blocked because of the IP address. With encryption, the surfer can by pass in country blocks out in place by restrictive regimes. For many people an anonymous proxy is a way to protect their online identity. For our servicemen, it’s a way to access the web freely just as all people in the US can.

For additional information on how to hide your IP address so that you can bypass any kind of website censorship or blocks, just go to our Proxy website for additional information. To buy Private Proxy, please go to our Proxy Subscription web page.

All RFID tags are used to store and ultimately send data. They can best be thought of as the replacement for the bar code. However, they have significant advantages over bar codes. For instance: RFID tags can hold much more data than bar codes; they can be scanned from further away and they can in point of fact send data, not only store data.

There are three varieties of RFID tags: passive, active and hybrid. Passive RFID tags are the least expensive, because they are less complex. They need to be induced to disclose their data by taking power from an RFID reader. When the reader’s radio waves hit them, they reflect back their data. This is the kind of tag used in goods in a retail outlet or on crates in a warehouse.

On the other hand, active RFID tags have a battery, a transmitter and an aerial so that they are always transmitting. These devices are obviously a lot more expensive and so are used only on more expensive items such as a container, a battle tank, an aircraft, on criminals ankle bands or on an animal of an endangered species.

The hybrid RFID tag is capable of transmitting, but it has to be told to transmit; it has to be turned on by a signal. This signal could be a satellite flying over head. These hybrid RFID tags are also costly, but the battery lasts longer because they are not ‘always on’. These tags have the same uses as the active tags, but are suitable for use where it is not vital to know where something is every minute of the day: for instance cows in a field or goats on a mountain.

Passive tags can be attached permanently by sewing them into hems or putting them under skin because they do not have their own electricity source and do not wear out. This is a cause of anxiety to some people who worry about an invasion of their privacy or the erosion of their human rights.

Active and hybrid tags are most frequently plainly visible so that the batteries can be changed as and when required. If this is going to be unlikely to take place, as in the case of wild animals, the tag can have a biodegradable clasp which will break sometime after the probable expiry of the battery.

Some uses for RFID tags are on season tickets so that the holder can pass through the style more quickly than a customer paying by cash. It has uses in security; most of the ID badges you see pinned to jackets have RFID built into them so that security guards do not have to stop and question everybody.

They can be put into wagons that repeatedly cross frontiers so that they do not have to stop for identification. They can be put on windscreens so that, as you pass through a motorway toll post, either your credit card is billed or the charge is added to your company’s monthly statement.

Hospitals utilize them on patients so that they do not lose anyone or misidentify them. RFID tags are helpful in our daily lives but people are concerned about criminals being able to read all this information too readily as well.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is now concerned with the RFID asset tracking. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

If you log on to the Internet, you definitely need anti-virus software. It does not matter whether you do not use a computer. Whatever you use to get on line you must have anti-virus software. Although there are hundreds of malicious idiots producing viruses to attack those who log on to the Internet from a computer, there is an increasing number who are focusing on mobile phone users as well.

It is harder to clear viruses from your mobile phone as well, because there are less vendors for the anti-virus software and mobile phone users are often less technologically knowledgeable than computer users, although the technique of clearing the virus is fairly analogous.

Let’s just use the example of using computers to go on line. If you go on line, your ant-virus software is your most essential item of software. It does not matter what you use the Internet for – transferring data back to base or receiving emails from friends – you are subject to attack.

For instance, if you use the Internet only to communicate with your head office, a hacker could try to piggy-back your connection to gain access to the mainframe at head office and possibly access financial or other personal data and if you just send to and receive emails from your friends and family, you are open to attack from malevolent twits around the world.

If you use webmail such as that offered by Yahoo, Hotmail and MSN to name only the most popular, you will be protected from the most obvious attacks, but still not safe. If you receive your email via an email client such as Outlook or Outlook Express, then you do not even have that small amount of protection.

If you do not use email, but only surf the Internet for research or whatever, you are still not secure, because some websites and loaded with viruses, trojans and worms, waiting to unload them onto unsuspecting visitors.

Therefore, whatever reason you surf the Internet for, you could do with some type of security. Luckily, anti-virus software for personal use is cheap and may even be free. Commercial users will normally get tax relief on their purchases.

However, be cautious with the free anti-virus software, because not all of it is effectual enough. The exceptions that spring readily to mind are Avira and AVG. These are exceptional products and have justly gained worldwide praise. Just Google the two names to get the download URL.

The anti-virus software that costs something (typically $25-$50 per annum) invariably offer one to two months free trial before you buy and a reduction in price, if you pay for more than one year at a time. Names that fall into this class are Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton and Nod.

After you have chosen your software, the subsequent steps are the same for free and paid software. First install it and then configure it. If you are not certain how to do that do not worry, the default settings are fine for the vast majority of users. The only choice you will get that it is imperative you make correctly is to consent to automatic updates.

New viruses are being exposed or fixed every day and for your anti-virus software to be effective, you must allow it to bring itself up to date whenever it wants to.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the network antivirus software. If you have an interest in such software, please go over to our website now at Computer Antivirus Software

Today, more and more people are using their computers for everything from communication to online banking and investing to searching. As we do these things on a more frequent basis, we open ourselves to prospective hackers, attackers and crackers.

While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others want to use your computer as a platform from which to attack other unsuspecting targets. Hereunder are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure.

1. Always make backups of important data and store it in a safe place away from your computer.

2. Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently. If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running the update wizard. This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows operating system. Also go to officeupdate.microsoft.com to locate possible patches for your Microsoft Office programs.

3. Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all access your computer from the Internet with no trouble. Consideration should be given to the advantages and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.

4. Review your browser and email settings for maximum security. Why should you do this? Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computer. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they can still track your movements on the Internet to create a profile of you. As a minimum precaution, set your security setting for the ?Internet zone? to High, and your ?trusted sites zone? to Medium Low.

5. Install antivirus software and set for automatic updates so that you receive the most current versions.

6. Do not open unidentified email attachments. It is simply not sufficient that you may know the address from which it originates because many viruses can be spread from a familiar address.

7. Do not run programs from unknown sources. What is more, do not send these kinds of programs to friends and colleagues because they contain funny or amusing stories or jokes. They may contain a Trojan horse just waiting to infect a computer.

8. Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to ?hide file extensions for known file types?. Disable this option so that file extensions show in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to stay hidden, but you are more likely to see any strange file extensions that do not belong.

9. Switch off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker can not strike at your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off.

10. Make a boot disk on a floppy disk or CD in case your computer is damaged or infected by a malevolent program. Clearly, you have to take this precaution before you are subject to a hostile violation of your system security.

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New computer viruses are being created, exposed and fought every day. These computer viruses are created often just to annoy us and to wreak mayhem in our computer systems. Below, I have described ten viruses currently cited as being the most widespread and being potentially able to cause the most damage. However, new viruses are being created daily, so this list is by no means complete. The only thing you can do is stay alert, keep your anti-virus software updated, and stay aware of the current computer virus threats.

Virus: Trojan.Lodear: A Trojan (from Trojan Horse) that attempts to download files from a remote source. It will inject a .dll file into the EXPLORER.EXE process causing system instability.

Virus: W32.Beagle.CO@mm: A mass-mailing worm that lowers security settings. It can delete security-related registry sub keys and may block admittance to security-related websites.

Virus: Backdoor.Zagaban: A Trojan that permits the compromised computer to be used as a covert proxy and which may degrade network performance.

Virus: W32/Netsky-P: A mass-mailing worm which propagates by emailing itself to addresses harvested from files on the local drives.

Virus: W32/Mytob-GH: A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan for the Windows platform. Messages sent by this worm will have the subject chosen randomly from a list including titles such as: Notice of account limitation, Email Account Suspension, Security measures, Members Support, Important Notification.

Virus: W32/Mytob-EX: A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan similar in nature to W32-Mytob-GH. W32/Mytob- EX runs continuously in the background, providing a backdoor server which allows a distant intruder to gain access and control over your computer via IRC channels. This virus spreads by sending itself to email attachments harvested from your email address book.

Virus: W32/Mytob-AS, Mytob-BE, Mytob-C, and Mytob-ER: This family of worm variations possesses similar characteristics in terms of what they are able to do. They are mass-mailing worms with backdoor functionality that can be manipulated through the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. Furthermore, they can spread themselves via email and by various operating system vulnerabilities such as the LSASS (MS04-011).

Virus: Zafi-D: A mass-mailing worm and a peer-to-peer worm which replicates itself to the Windows system folder with the filename Norton Update.exe. It can then generate a number of files in the Windows system folder with filenames made up of 8 random characters and a DLL extension. W32/Zafi-D replicates itself to folders with names containing words like ’share’, ‘upload’, or ‘music’ as ‘ICQ 2005a new!.exe’ or ‘winamp 5.7 new!.exe’. W32/Zafi-D will also show a fake error message box with the caption “CRC: 04F6Bh” and the text “Error in packed file!”.

Virus: W32/Netsky-D: A mass-mailing worm with IRC backdoor functionality which can also contaminate computers vulnerable to the LSASS (MS04-011) exploit.

Virus: W32/Zafi-B: A peer-to-peer (P2P) and email worm that will reproduce itself to the Windows system folder as a randomly named EXE file. This worm will test for the presence of an Internet connection by attempting to connect to google.com or microsoft.com. A bilingual, worm with an attached Hungarian political text message box which translates to ?We demand that the government accommodates the homeless, tightens up the penal code and VOTES FOR THE DEATH PENALTY to cut down the increasing crime. Jun. 2004, P?cs (SNAF Team)?

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the network antivirus software. If you have an interest in such software, please go over to our website now at Computer Antivirus Software