5 Beginner-Friendly (And Free) Tools to Test WordPress Performance

Want to know how your WordPress site is performing? The internet offers a number of online tools to test website safety and performance, including tools to test WordPress performance specifically.With most of them, all you need to do is plug in your WordPress sites URL, and you can quickly gain valuable insights about how well your site is doing. SpeedUptimeMalwareSearch Engine OptimizationMobile FriendlinessUsing these tools, youll be able to gather data and check your website regularly for weaknesses. You can then use the test results and recommendations to carry out preventive measures or to take corrective action.1. Tools to test website speedGoogles PageSpeed Insights analyzes your website for performance issues and tells you where theres room to improve.Using this tool to test WordPress performance is downright easy. Simply paste the web page URL of your website on the tools  homepage and hit enter. PageSpeed accesses the mobile and webpage versions separately and checks each page on various parameters.It returns your score in less than a minute, grading your pages on a scale of 1 to 100, and categorizing them as Good, Needs Work and Poor. A high score generally translates into better user experience and faster page load times (though other factors, like hosting, can influence page load times more than PageSpeed Insights):It doesnt stop there, it goes on to make specific recommendations to help you optimize your websites performance. Some recommendations may require professional assistance to implement. But youll be glad to know that there are many free plugins that help improve your score, as well as  many ways to improve website speed.One thing to note is that PageSpeed Insights  does  not actually measure how long it takes your site to load. If you want to measure actual load times, another popular tool to test website speed is Pingdom Website Speed Test.2. Tools to test website uptimeSometimes, your website may experience downtime, and its lik ely that youll not even know about it. But before you can  minimize downtime, you need a way to actually tell how often your site goes down.Uptime Robot is a free service that does just that. It checks your website every 5 minutes to make sure its still available. And if its not, it will notify you right away.Setting up an account is easy. Sign up with an email, verify your account by clicking on a link and youll land up on the dashboard.Next, click Add New Monitor, and you can add any system by furnishing IP or host URL.To view your uptime stats from within your WordPress Admin screen, install Uptime Robot Plugin for WordPress. Youll need to paste the API key from your Uptime Robot account in the plugin settings. Stats and logs can then be viewed from any page or widget by placing shortcodes.You can also test the accessibility of your website right from your Chrome browser by using an extension. The Server Monitor can be added to your browser  and used to monitor any number of websites. By merely clicking on the extension in the browser, youll be able to view your sites status. Moreover, if you enable a popup, any change in the status of the URL will immediately show as a popup.3. Tools to check for malwareChecking for malware should be a core part of securing your website. But you can also gain by submitting a URL to a quick scan on online scanners such as Sucuri SiteCheck Scanner. Visit Sucuri SiteCheck Scanner, enter the URL of your website and hit the Scan Website button.The scanner conducts a remote malware scan of your website. It extracts the links, JavaScript files and iframes, and revisits the page as a search engine bot.It compares all the pages and links against Sucuris malware database and reports anomalies. The scan will detect malware, blacklisting, defacing, website errors, and out-of-date software. A report of the malware found is generated, along with recommendations as to how you can fix it.Its important to note that the scanner does not access your server, so its only able to detect front-facing issues.If you do not want to run the URL often, you can activate the Sucuri Security on your website and generate a free API.Sucuri also offers paid Firewall services  as well as malware cleanup.Another solid option for malware scanning is VirusTotal, where you can upload files or submit URLs to detect malware. Or Quttera Web Malware Scanner which detects malware lurking in your website.4. Tools to help with SEOSERPChecker is part of a set of four SEO tools from Mangools. Its user-friendly, allowing you to look into your competitors strengths and weaknesses, offering you an insight into Google SERPs.You can also use it to check where your site is ranking for certain keywords, which is important because you wont always get accurate results if you just search on Google (because Google personalizes your search results).The free account entitles you to 5 lookups per 24 hours and 50 keyword suggestions per search.  Visit th e tools homepage and input your keywords, domain preference and desktop/mobile view, and click Analyze SERP.Within seconds, youll get a detailed look at all the sites ranking for that keyword. It also provides information on 45 SEO metrics, including the number of Facebook shares that the keywords enjoy. You can personalize the report by choosing the metrics that you want to appear by clicking on the Manage Metrics button.You can also view an actual look of the Google SERP by clicking on the Snapshot tab.The results can be exported in CSV format for later reference.For an increase in the number of searches and additional features, youll need to create an account and sign up for their paid packages. SERPChecker is not the only SEO tool out there, there are many more free SEO tools available that can help improve your Google rankings.5. Tool to test mobile friendlinessGoing mobile with your WordPress site is no longer an option given the sheer number of searches initiated from mobile devices. Besides using a responsive theme, there are many things you can do to make your WordPress mobile friendly. And to check if youve got it right, you can rely on Googles Mobile Friendly Test  to test WordPress performance on mobile devices.Using it is simple, just paste the URL of your page to find out if it passes the test. The test results will show if there is any difficulty in accessing the page on a mobile. Besides, it can identify common errors such as small font size or closely placed touch elements.The results will warn you if external elements such as images and CSS files cannot be loaded. The test result will also include a screenshot of how your website appears to Google on a mobile device.Wrapping upWith these free tools, you can get a better understanding of your WordPress sites performance. And that means you can know whats going well, and where you still need to improve. Give them a try and make your website better today!And what have you been doing to test Wo rdPress performance so far? Does your website run the way you want it to? Feel free to share in the comments. Use these 5 #free #tools to test your #WordPress site's #performance

Quizz on Chapter 1 International Management 10 E Essays

Quizz on Chapter 1 International Management 10 E Essays Quizz on Chapter 1 International Management 10 E Essay Quizz on Chapter 1 International Management 10 E Essay CHAPTER 1 QUIZ 1. The term globalism or globalization generally refers to _____. a. increasing loyalty to your own country b. global competition characterized by networks that bind countries, institutions, and people. c. competition in an increasingly borderless world d. b and c only 2. The hostility to the takeover of Europe’s largest steel company, Acelor, by India’s Mittal Steel illustrates a. the decrease in nationalism and increase in globalism. b. the backlash against globalism. c. the decline in competitiveness in the steel industry. d. ultural differences about the benefits of takeovers. 3. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a. are generally not competing internationally. b. are major investors in world markets. c. face good opportunities currently as a result of trade shows, export initiatives, and the Internet. d. are unaffected by globalism 4. The three major world currencies today are _____. a. euro, yen, U. S. b. euro, yen, peso c. euro, U. S. dollar , German mark d. euro, U. S. dollar, peso 5. The European Union currently consists of how many nations? a. Ten b. Twenty-seven c. Forty d. Fifty 6. Which of the following countries is not one of the Four Tigers? a. South Korea b. Hong Kong c. Taiwan d. Thailand 7. China has enjoyed recent success as an export powerhouse built upon its _____. a. strengths of low costs and flow of capital b. geographic location in the world c. high educational standards d. close ties with Japan 8. Which of the following statements is not correct about China? a. China joined the WTO in 2002 b. One of China’s key strengths is its excellent infrastructure c. China is stuck halfway between a command economy and a market economy d. China continues to enjoy significant inflows of money from ethnic Chinese outside of China 9. Which of the following statements is correct about India? a. India’s biggest contributor to growth is its excellent infrastructure. b. India is the world’s leader for outsourced back-office services, and increasingly for high tech services c. India is the fastest-growing free-market democracy d. b and c only are correct 10. India’s economic boom is a result of a. reducing protectionism and red tape b. lifting restrictions on foreign investment c. reforming its financial sectors d. ll of the above 11. Which of the following is not correct? a. Foreign investors have become wary of Russia because of recent government action against the Yukos oil group. b. Africa has been ignored by most of the world’s investors c. Because of the political and economic risks in LDCs, they offer no potential international business opportunities d. South Africa has the biggest economy i n Africa. 12. The U. S is offshoring white-collar computer programming jobs to India because _____. a. Indians are better programmers than Americans b. Indians speak better English than Americans . Indian programmers cost one-fourth the cost of equivalent American programmers d. all of the above 13. Political risks are any governmental actions or politically motivated events that adversely affect the _____. a. capacity of the company to survive long-run profitability or value of the company b. personal safety of corporate managers and employees c. company’s capacity to meet consumer needs 14. _____ occurs when the local government seizes the foreign-owned assets of the MNC and provides inadequate compensation. a. Nationalization b. Expropriation c. Confiscation d. Repatriation 15. Suppose the government of Karakozia seizes all assets of Pepsi in Karakozia without offering any compensation to the company. This action on the part of the government is an example of _____. a. nationalization b. repatriation c. expropriation d. confiscation 16. Zagreb Inc. , negotiates a multi-million dollar contract with the government to provide electricity to country A. The government is voted out of power shortly after and the new government changes the contract for all oil producing companies. This is an example of _____. a. barriers to repatriation . expropriation c. confiscation d. micro political risk 17. Micro political risk events are those that affect _____. a. numerous industries or companies b. several other nations in the same region c. one industry or company or a few companies d. managers and employees who are nationals 18. Which of the following is not one of the seven typical political risk events common today? a. loss of technology or intellectua l property rights b. political takeovers and civil wars c. discriminatory treatment in the application of laws d. interference in managerial decision making 19. Expropriation of corporate assets without prompt and adequate compensation is an example of _____. a. economic risk b. political risk c. legal risk d. cultural risk 20. Risk assessment by multinational corporations usually takes two forms: _____ and _____. a. use of experts or consultants; newspaper reports b. use of experts or consultants; internal staff c. use of internal staff; publications d. government risk reports; computer modeling 21. Which of the following is a form of hedging? a. staged contribution strategies b. development assistance c. local debt financing d. ocalization of the operation 22. Representatives of a MNC seek an interview with local government leaders in the Department of Commerce in India with a view to assess the types of policies likely to be implemented. According to Mathis, this is an example of ______. a. qualitative approach b. quantitative approach c. checklist approach d. a combination of all of the above 23. The host country’s legal system is derived from ______. a. common law b. civil law c. Islamic law d. all of the above 24. Tariffs and quotas are examples of what types of policies? a. protectionist b. conomic development c. free market d. political development 25. Some countries rigorously enforce employee secrecy agreements in order to _____. a. protect a firm’s intellectual property b. restrict labor mobility c. avoid costly litigation among firms d. all of the above 26. About 70 countries, predominantly in Europe, are ruled by ______ law, as is Japan. a. common b. Islamic c. civil d. custom 27. Political risk insurance is a form of _____. a. input control b. development assistance c. equity sharing d. hedging 28. When a MNC keeps certain key subsidiary management positions in the hands f expatriate or home-office managers, it is exercising ______. a. input control b. market control c. position control d. bureaucratic control 29. Companies often reduce risk in foreign countries by creating dependency of a subsidiary on the host country. Which of the following is not a means of maintaining dependency? a. market control b. equity sharing c. staged contri bution strategies d. input control 30. Which of the following risk management strategies is not a means of adaptation? a. participative management b. development assistance c. funds sharing d. localization of the operatio

Reflection Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reflection Questions - Assignment Example These weapons were devastating to soldiers as death tolls during the Great War’s massive battles resulted to horrific loss of life due to these new weapons. Civilian populations were mobilized to many industrial factories as these weapons were needed to be manufactured at both high rate and volume. While Russia’s initial involvement in the Great War was seen in a positive light, most Russian soldiers were conscripts who were not close to willing to join in. Coupled by the lack of effective logistics, poor leadership of Russia’s many officers, and the eventual staggering casualties and desertions; it would be no surprise that such news would increase the discontent in the already disillusioned Russian population to the point of revolt. As Trotsky (1930) observed, â€Å"the revolutionary elements, scattered at first, were drowned in the army almost without a trace, but with the growth of the general discontent they rose to the surface† (p.15). The withdrawal of Russia would lead to military and political changes in Europe afterwards. Howard (2002) posited that â€Å"by then the Russians might well be out of the war and the Germans able to concentrate all their forces on breaking the Western allies†, this would add military pressure to the Western Front which France and Great Britain were engaged in. Politically, Russia’s humiliating withdrawal would lead to the downfall of the Tsarist regime and pave way for the rise of the Communist Soviet Russia. The Russian Provisional Government under the Kerensky administration insisted on remaining in the Great War in was to adhere to its obligations with Russia’s wartime allies to continue the fight against the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. This did not make the soldiers feel any better since such an objective showed less concern for the country’s welfare and situation. Vladimir â€Å"Lenin† Ulyanov and Lev Bronshtein,

Assignment 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assignment 6 - Essay Example We look to interpret that change in behavior and form an analysis based on our reading. For so many years that humans have evolved, they have become masters in reading their fellow beings behavior (Norman, 2004). We definitely need to take people’s feelings seriously especially as a producer or designer. A producer must keep in mind his consumers when producing something. If the product is well designed and everything works as expected from the product, then there will be a positive response coming out of consumers. They might add it as part of their daily, weekly or monthly purchase depending upon its usage and durability. On the other hand, if a product turns out to be undesirable or not what it promised, then there is a high possibility that the consumers might take out their frustration on it. It is very easy to blame the product if it does not meet out the requirement so the designer must consider people’s feeling before putting his heart and soul solely on the pro duct (Norman, 2004). Norman is of the opinion that machines in the future will need social interaction and a network of communication to get the job done. He is of course not kidding and why would he if he thinks that machines can perform faster and better with interaction among themselves. If they could be programmed to coordinate like human beings, then I think machines can do a better job simply because they do not fatigue out. They can continuously work for longer hours without any rest. To be honest, they do not even need lunch and tea breaks. It is a very good idea to make them work independently, without humans operating them. More and more machines and robots are being deployed to work in organizations, and it would be so much easier if these robots are made to communicate without a helping hand from us. Robots are now being used in dangerous jobs like fire fighting and in military for war purposes. Apart from this they are also used for house cleaning, delivering letters an d washing cars. Their role is expanding and to make way for them we need to program them with emotions. We need to make them wary of what basic emotions like pain are. We would not want to see them bumping to cars or people every now and then if we want to introduce them freely in this world. When they know what pain is they will automatically look to avoid smashing into things for their and our sake. I totally agree with Norman when he says that we could slowly distribute or install emotions in them. It is going to be a step by step process; for example, in the initial stage they could be taught what fear, satisfaction after achieving a certain goal, consistency in maintaining their work and obedience to their owners. Emotional interaction with robots will also give us an opportunity to know them better. We could penetrate if they are happy with their work or not, making progress or having difficulties. Then we could treat them according to their mood. We could also know what motiv ates them and reward them to work better and faster. There is so much room for improvement and with the pace science is making progress I believe one day robots will be a household name. The sooner we plan the better it is (Norman, 2004) 2. Witthower has been exemplary in his work on the iPod and the iPod’s implications. It looks like he has not missed a single point on the subject. It’s not only detailed, but it is also one of the most organized books to read. The book

Global Corporate Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global Corporate Strategy - Essay Example In an example, two airline companies might create a strategic alliance through bringing up their resources together to create a strong advertising website in order to develop a more effective marketing process. Strategic alliance is more effective in companies that have closely related products (Vedder, 2008). One of the major differences between strategic alliance and other joint ventures is that the business that forms an alliance remains independent. Alliances involve transfer of technologies, economic specialization and sharing of different expenses and risks. Types of strategic alliances include; Joint ventures, equity strategic alliances and global strategic alliances (Kleymann & Seristà ¶, 2010). Unlike strategic alliances where businesses involved in alliances remain independent, merging involves dissolution of both businesses’ activities to form a single entity. In mergers, businesses combine their transactions and form a single and more powerful business. With increased level of globalization that is being experienced currently, the level of competition has increased tremendously as multinational companies which have a powerful financial base have been able to invest in different countries. Airline industry has been one of the most hit organization an aspect that has made two or more airline industries coming together to form a strong organization (Kumar, 2012). One of the benefits of merging is increased competitiveness of the organization formed due to increased financial resources, technical resources and human resources. In addition, the level of competition between the companies forming a merger makes it easy for the company formed to make effective decision w ithout fear of intense competition. Some of examples of successful mergers include Pan Am and National alliances and Northwest Airline which merged with Delta to form one of the largest airline industry (Hecker, 2009). Acquisitions on the other hand, involve a corporate action by a

Functional Relationship Network Architecture

Functional Relationship Network Architecture A computer network, is referred to as a network, it is a harvest of computers and instruments interconnected via communication channels that enables communications among users and permits users to allocated resources. Networks may be classified according to a wide range of characteristics. A computer network permits sharing of resources and knowledge among interconnected devices. Fig1:Block diagram of computer network Connection method Computer networks can be classified according to the hardware and software engineering that is accustomed to interconnect the individual devices in the network, such as optical fiber, Ethernet, wireless LAN. Functional relationship (network architecture) Computer networks may be classified according to the functional relationships which exist among the elements of the network, e.g., active networking, client-server and peer-to-peer architecture. Network topology Computer networks may be classified according to the network topology upon which the network is grounded, such as bus network, star network, ring network, mesh network. Network topology is the coordination by which tools in the network are organized in their rational family members to one another, independent of physical arrangement. Even if networked computers are physically placed in a linear arrangement and are joined combined to a hub, the network has a star topology, alternatively a bus topology. In this regard the visual and operational aspects of a network are distinct. Networks may be classified grounded on the process of knowledge adapted to carry the data; these include digital and analog networks. Fig2. Mesh topology Fig3. Star Topology Fig4. Ring topology What is a firewall? Fig5. firewall A firewall is a component of a computer system or network that is arranged to avoid unauthorized access where letting agent communications. It is a implement or set of tools that is configured to sanction or turn down network transmissions grounded upon a set of administers and other criteria. Firewalls can be implemented in either hardware or software, or a combination of two. Firewalls are commonly adapted to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks joined combined to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or withdrawing the intranet surpass through the firewall, which inspects each outcome and prevents those that do not find the specified protection criteria. There are several types of firewall techniques: Packet filter: Packet filtering checks each packet that is passing through the network and accepts or refuses it based on particular IP addresses that is user defined. Although difficult to configure, it is effective and mostly transparent to its users. It is vulnerable to Internet Protocol spoofing. Fig6. Packet filters This type of packet filtering pays no heed to if a packet is part of an older stream of traffic (i.e. it stores no information on connection state). Instead, it filters each packet based only on information contained in the packet itself . TCP and UDP protocols consists most communication over the net, and because TCP and UDP traffic by convention uses well known ports for some types of traffic, a stateless packet filter can differentiate between, and hence control, those types of traffic (such as web browsing, remote printing, email transmission, file transfer), untill the machines on each side of the packet filter are both using the same non-standard ports. Packet filtering firewalls work mainly on the initial three layers of the OSI reference model, which means most of the work is done in between the network and physical layers, with a little bit of peeking into the transport layer to find out source and destination port numbers. When a packet originates from the sender and filters through a firewall, the device finds matches to any of the packet filtering rules that are configured in the firewall and removes or rejects the packet accordingly. When the packet goes through the firewall, it checks the packet on a protocol/port number basis (GSS). Application gateway: Applies security mechanisms to some applications, such as FTP server. This is effective, but can degrade the performance Fig7.OSI reference model The benefit of application layer filtering is that it can understand applications and protocols and it can also detect if an unwanted protocol is sneaking through on a non-standard port or if a protocol is being used in any harmful way. An application firewall more secure and reliable as compared to packet filter firewalls as it works on all 7 layers of the OSI reference model, from the application to the physical layer. This is similar to a packet filter firewall but here it also filters information on the basis of content. In 2009/2010 the focus of the best comprehensive firewall security vendors turned to expanding the list of applications such firewalls are aware of now covering hundreds and in some cases thousands of applications which can be identified automatically. Many of these applications can not only be blocked or allowed but copied by the more advanced firewall products to allow only certain functionally enabling network security administrations to give users functionality without enabling unnecessary vulnerabilities. As a consequence these advanced versions of the Second Generation firewalls are being referred to as Next Generation and bypass the Third Generation firewall. It is expected that due to malicious communications this trend will have to continue to enable organizations to be truly secure. Third generation: stateful filters Fig8. Stateful filter Third-generation firewalls, in addition to what first- and second-generation look for, regard placement of each packet within the packet series. This technology is generally referred to as a stateful packet inspection as it maintains records of all connections going through the firewall and is able to determine whether a packet is the start of a new connection, a part of an existing connection, or is an invalid packet. Though there is still a set of defined rules in such a firewall, the state of a connection can itself be one of the criteria which trigger specific rules. This type of firewall can actually be exploited by certain Denial-of-service attacks which can fill the connections with illegitimate connections. Circuit-level gateway: Applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP connection is established. Once the connection has been done, packets can go between the hosts without checking further. Stateful filters Fig8. Stateful filter Third-generation firewalls, in addition to what first- and second-generation look for, regard placement of each packet within the packet series. This technology is referred to as a stateful packet inspection as it maintains records of all connections going through the firewall and is able to determine whether a packet is the start of a new connection, a part of an existing connection, or is an invalid packet. Though there is still a set of static rules in such a firewall, the state of a connection can itself be one of the criteria which trigger specific rules. This type of firewall can actually be abused by some Denial-of-service attacks which can fill the connection tables with false connections. Proxy servers Checks all messages entering and leaving the network. The proxy server hides the right network addresses. Fig9.Proxy server In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, asking for some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server processes the request according to its filtering rules. For example, it may filter traffic by IP address. If the request is passed by the filter, the proxy provides the resource by connecting to the relevant server and requesting the service on behalf of the client. A proxy server may alter the clients request or the servers response, and sometimes it may pass the request without contacting the specified server. In this case, it caches responses from the remote server, and sends back subsequent requests for the same content directly. Types of proxy Forward proxies Fig10.Forward proxies A forward proxy taking requests from an internal network and forwarding them to the Internet. Forward proxies are proxies where the client server names the target server to connect to. Forward proxies are able to get from a wide range of sources. The terms forward proxy and forwarding proxy are a general description of behavior (forwarding traffic) and hence ambiguous. Except for Reverse proxy, the types of proxies described on this article are more specialized sub-types of the general forward proxy concepts. Open proxies Fig11.Open proxies An open proxy forwarding requests from and to anywhere on the Internet. An open proxy is a forward proxy server that is accessible by any Internet user. Gordon Lyon estimates there are hundreds of thousands of open proxies on the Internet. An anonymous open proxy allows users to conceal their IP address while browsing the Web or using other Internet services. Reverse proxies Fig12.Reverse proxies A reverse proxy taking requests from the Internet and forwarding them to servers in an internal network. Those making requests connect to the proxy and may not be aware of the internal network. A reverse proxy is a proxy server that appears to clients to be an ordinary server. Requests are forwarded to one or more origin servers which handle the request. The response is returned as if it came directly from the proxy server. Reverse proxies are installed in the neighborhood of one or more web servers. All traffic coming from the Internet and with a destination of one of the web servers goes through the proxy server. The use of reverse originates in its counterpart forward proxy since the reverse proxy sits closer to the web server and serves only a restricted set of websites. There are several reasons for installing reverse proxy servers: Encryption / SSL acceleration: when secure web sites are created, the SSL encryption is often not done by the web server itself, but by a reverse proxy that is equipped with SSL acceleration hardware. See Secure Sockets Layer. Furthermore, a host can provide a single SSL proxy to provide SSL encryption for an arbitrary number of hosts; removing the need for a separate SSL Server Certificate for each host, with the downside that all hosts behind the SSL proxy have to share a common DNS name or IP address for SSL connections. This problem can partly be overcome by using the SubjectAltName feature of X.509 certificates. Load balancing: the reverse proxy can distribute the load to several web servers, each web server serving its own application area. In such a case, the reverse proxy may need to rewrite the URLs in each web page (translation from externally known URLs to the internal locations). Serve/cache static content: A reverse proxy can offload the web servers by caching static content like pictures and other static graphical content. Compression: the proxy server can optimize and compress the content to speed up the load time. Spoon feeding: reduces resource usage caused by slow clients on the web servers by caching the content the web server sent and slowly spoon feeding it to the client. This especially benefits dynamically generated pages. Security: the proxy server is an additional layer of defense and can protect against some OS and Web Server specific attacks. However, it does not provide any protection to attacks against the web application or service itself, which is generally considered the larger threat. Extranet Publishing: a reverse proxy server facing the Internet can be used to communicate to a firewalled server internal to an organization, providing extranet access to some functions while keeping the servers behind the firewalls. If used in this way, security measures should be considered to protect the rest of your infrastructure in case this server is compromised, as its web application is exposed to attack from the Internet. VPN A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure such as the Internet to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organizations network. It aims to avoid an expensive system of owned or leased lines that can be used by only one organization. It encapsulates data transfers between two or more networked devices which are not on the same private network so as to keep the transferred data private from other devices on one or more intervening local or wide area networks. There are many different classifications, implementations, and uses for VPNs. Fig13 VPN Vulnerabilities:- Unauthorized access: This simply means that people who shouldnt use your computer services are able to connect and use them. For example, people outside your company might try to connect to your company accounting machine or to your network file server. There are various ways to avoid this attack by carefully specifying who can gain access through these services. You can prevent network access to all except the intended users. Exploitation of known weaknesses: Some programs and network services were not originally designed with strong security in mind and are inherently vulnerable to attack. The BSD remote services (rlogin, rexec, etc.) are an example. The best way to protect yourself against this type of attack is to disable any vulnerable services or find alternatives. With Open Source, it is sometimes possible to repair the weaknesses in the software. Denial of service: Denial of service attacks cause the service or program to cease functioning or prevent others from making use of the service or program. These may be performed at the network layer by sending carefully crafted and malicious datagrams that cause network connections to fail. They may also be performed at the application layer, where carefully crafted application commands are given to a program that cause it to become extremely busy or stop functioning. Preventing suspicious network traffic from reaching your hosts and preventing suspicious program commands and requests are the best ways of minimizing the risk of a denial of service attack. Its useful to know the details of the attack method, so you should educate yourself about each new attack as it gets publicized. Spoofing: This type of attack causes a host or application to mimic the actions of another. Typically the attacker pretends to be an innocent host by following IP addresses in network packets. For example, a well-documented exploit of the BSD rlogin service can use this method to mimic a TCP connection from another host by guessing TCP sequence numbers. To protect against this type of attack, verify the authenticity of datagrams and commands. Prevent datagram routing with invalid source addresses. Introduce unpredictability into connection control mechanisms, such as TCP sequence numbers and the allocation of dynamic port addresses. Eavesdropping: This is the simplest type of attack. A host is configured to listen to and capture data not belonging to it. Carefully written eavesdropping programs can take usernames and passwords from user login network connections. Broadcast networks like Ethernet are especially vulnerable to this type of attack Here are a few examples of firewalls :- Untangle Fortiguard Netnanny Websense ClearOS These firewalls can be affected by the above vulnerabilities. One way how a firewall/web filter can be bypassed is by using VPN. As studied above we can VPN to some external network and use that network. So we can bypass the firewall by doing VPN to a remote network and using its default gateway. Below are the precise steps how to setup a VPN server, Client, AD and LB configurations. Complete VPN Configuration Below is the complete procedure on how to setup VPN server and client side Note:- Windows XP and Windows 7 both have the capability to act as VPN servers VPN Server Configuration Open Network connections and follow the below :- Click next on the welcome page Select the options highlighted in the below snags :- Once you have followed the steps above you are done with the server side configuration. VPN Client Configuration Below snags show the client side configuration Once the above steps are followed the client side is also setup The work is still not over Port Forward Port needs to be forwarded from the modem/LB etc Follow the instructions below to get it rolling :- Dial in Rights on AD The final step is to give the user permissions to VPN First RDP to the AD Login Open Active Directory Find the user and go in properties Follow the snag it once the above is done :- The best firewall:- According to the first hand experience we found Untangle to be the best firewall as it is free and has a host of functions too. Below is a screenshot of the untangle dashboard:- Fig14. Untangle dashboard Conclusion:- Our aim was to explain what a firewall is and expose a few vulnerabilities in it. We have studied how a firewall works, its architecture, types of firewalls and vulnerabilities. We have thus compared the firewalls on various parameters and have concluded that Untangle is the best firewall with reference to the features and cost of it.

Comparing Hurrican Hits England and Not my Business Essay -- Grace Nic

Comparing Hurrican Hits England and Not my Business The two poems I am to compare are Grace Nichols â€Å"Hurricane Hits England† a poem that shows that the whole world is one world and how a storm reminds a Caribbean woman of home. The author obviously misses her home country and feels it in the storm which she wrote about, the violence of the storm is harsh and causes some damage. The second poem, with which I will be comparing â€Å"Hurricane...† is Niyi Osundare’s â€Å"Not my Business†. This poem describes the violent and horrific nature in which the Nigerian Government treated those people who disagreed with the state. It describes the pain and suffering they forced upon these people and how the pain and suffering is then brought to the narrator. This poem is about shared responsibilities and the way that tyranny grows if no one opposes it. It is composed, simply, of three stories about victims of the oppressors, followed by the experience of the speaker in the poem, in which he has not done anything, but the fact that he knows makes him a target. The poet is Nigerian but the situation in the poem could be from many countries, there are words used like â€Å"yam†, and the names of the people which tell you this. The poem echoes, in its four parts, a statement by Pastor Martin Niemà ¶ller, who opposed the Nazis. Speaking later to many audiences he would conclude with these words, more or less: â€Å"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak... ...oem. The last lines of this poem emphasise the confusion surrounding why they are there. The line, â€Å"The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawn† is personification which suggests that no-one, not even his lawn, knows why it’s happening. And then a repetition of the word â€Å"Waiting† makes it seem as though the men have to do a lot of waiting and that time maybe seems to go so slowly because of these things that are happening. Both of these poems are excellent at enforcing their own point in their own ways, â€Å"Hurricane†¦Ã¢â‚¬  through tactile emotional words and beautiful yet violent images of the storm, and â€Å"Not My Business.† through blatant disregard for human life depicted through the eyes of a hunted man, who is hunted because he knows what is going on. All in all two excellent and well thought out poems, each with their own perfectly presented message.

“Harrison Bergeron” Versus “2081” Essay

There are many similarities between Kurt Vonnegut’s short story â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† and Chandler Tuttle’s short film adaptation â€Å"2081†. Obviously the same basic idea and theme are prevalent throughout both the stories. They are both set in the future where everyone is made equal by being forced to wear handicaps where they might show strength. Both of the stories involve the same characters in the same settings under mostly the same circumstances. The short film adaptation may vary a little bit in some of the details but for the most part both of the stories are exactly the same. In the beginning of â€Å"2081† the narration of the story is exactly the same as the beginning of Harrison Bergeron. Chandler Tuttle took it word for word straight from the short story. There are many differences between â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† and â€Å"2081† but they are mostly small details and do not change the story much. The first difference that I noticed when I watched â€Å"2081† was that instead of wearing bags filled with lead balls around their necks, the characters wore futuristic computer devices with a flashing display on them. The next subtle detail that I noticed was when George, one of the main characters, heard a loud noise coming through his earpiece in the beginning, it was Hazel who had suggested that it had sounded like a milk bottle being stuck by a ball peen hammer instead of George. One of the bigger differences between the two stories is the conversation between George and Hazel in the beginning of the story. In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† when Hazel suggests to George that he rest his handicap weights on the pillows for a while, George responds by saying that he doesn’t mind them because he has worn them f or so long that he’s become accustomed to them. He then proceeds to explain to Hazel that if he tried to get away with it then other people would try to get away with it as well, and that would lead to everyone being against each other again and eventually to the dark ages. Hazel resounds that she would hate it if that were the case. However in the short film â€Å"2081† when Hazel suggests that George rest his weights for a while, George responds only implying that he himself would not be equal to Hazel to which she responds she would hate that. Also in the short story Harrison is arrested at age fourteen and escapes at age fourteen but in the short film the story takes place six  years after Harrison was arrested. The final main difference between â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† and â€Å"2081† is the â€Å"bomb†. In the short film adaptation when Harrison escapes from jail and bursts into the ballet he claims that he has a bomb stored under the theater and the detonator in hand. When the H-G men cut off the broadcast to the incident, Harrison presses the detonator button, revealing to the audience that the bomb was in fact a device that sent out the television broadcast once again. In the short story there is never any mention of any such device. There are many differences and many similarities between the short story â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† and the short film â€Å"2081†. However, throughout both stories the same theme remains prevalent throughout the entire stories conveying to the audience the same message, showing the beauty and necessity of diversity.

The Wild History of Roller Skates

The Wild History of Roller Skates An overview of the evolution of dry land skating aka roller skates. Early 1700s - Skeelers In Holland, an unknown Dutchman decided to go ice skating in the summer, ice skating was the widespread method used in the Netherlands to travel the numerous frozen canals in winter. The unknown inventor accomplished dry land skating by nailing wooden spools to strips of wood and attaching them to his shoes. Skeelers was the nickname given to the new dry-land skaters. 1760 - Crashing the Masquerade Party A London instrument maker and inventor, Joseph Merlin, attended a masquerade party wearing one of his new inventions, metal-wheeled boots. Joseph desiring to make a grand entrance added the pizzazz of rolling in while playing the violin. Lining the huge ballroom was a very expensive wall-length mirror. The fiddling skater stood no chance and Merlin crashed solidly into the mirrored wall, as his roller skates crashed into society. 1818 - Roller Ballet In Berlin, roller skates made a more graceful entrance into society, with the premier of the German ballet Der Maler oder die Wintervergn Ugungen (The Artist or Winter Pleasures). The ballet called for ice-skating but because it was impossible at that time to produce ice on a stage, roller skates substituted. 1819 - First Patent In France, the first patent for a roller skate issued to a Monsieur Petibledin. The skate was made of a wood sole that attached to the bottom of a boot, fitted with two to four rollers made of copper, wood or ivory, and arranged in a straight single line. 1823 - The Rolito Robert John Tyers of London patented a skate called the Rolito with five wheels in a single row on the bottom of a shoe or boot. The Rolito was unable to follow a curved path, unlike the in-line skates of today. 1840 - Barmaids on Wheels In a beer tavern known as Corse Halle, near Berlin, barmaids on roller skates served thirsty patrons. This was a practical decision, given the size of beer halls in Germany, which gave dry land skating a publicity boost. 1857 - Public Rinks Huge public rinks opened in the Floral Hall and in the Strand of London. 1863 - Inventor James Plimpton American, James Plimpton found a way to make a very useable pair of skates. Plimptons skates had two parallel sets of wheels, one pair under the ball of the foot and the other pair under the heel. The four wheels were made of boxwood and worked on rubber springs. Plimptons design was the first dry-land skate that could maneuver in a smooth curve. This considered the birth of the modern four-wheeled roller skates, which allowed for turns and the ability to skate backwards. 1884 - Pin Ball-Bearing Wheels The invention of pin ball-bearing wheels made rolling easier and skates lighter. 1902 - The Coliseum The Coliseum in Chicago opened a public skating rink. Over 7,000 people attended the opening night. 1908 - Madison Square Gardens Madison Square Gardens in New York became a skating rink. Hundreds of rink openings in the United States and Europe followed. The sport was becoming very popular and various versions of the roller skating developed: recreational skating on indoor and outdoor rinks, polo skating, ballroom roller dancing and competitive speed skating. 1960s - Plastics Technology (with the advent of new plastics) helped the wheel truly come of age with new designs. 70s 80s - Disco A second big skating boom occurred with the marriage of disco and roller-skating. Over 4,000 roller-discos were in operation and Hollywood began making roller-movies. 1979 - Redesigning Roller Skates Scott Olson and Brennan Olson, brothers and  hockey  players who lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, found an antique pair of roller skates. It was one of the early  skates  that used the in-line wheels rather than the four-wheeled parallel design of George Plimpton. Intrigued by the in-line design, the brothers began redesigning roller skates, taking design elements from the found skates and using modern materials. They used  polyurethane  wheels, attached the skates to ice hockey boots, and added a rubber toe-brake to their new design. 1983 - Rollerblade Inc Scott Olson founded Rollerblade Inc and  the term rollerblading  meant the sport of in-line skating because Rollerblade Inc was the only manufacturer of in-line skates for a long time. The first mass-produced rollerblades, while innovative had some design flaws: they were difficult to put on and adjust, prone to collecting dirt and moisture in the ball-bearings, the wheels were easily damaged and the brakes came from the old roller skate toe-brake and were not very effective. Rollerblade Inc Sold The Olson brothers sold Rollerblade Inc and the new owners had the money to really improve the design. The first massively successful Rollerblade skate was the Lightning TRS. In this pair of  skates  the flaws had vanished, fiberglass was used to produce the frames, the wheels were better protected, the skates were easier to put on and adjust and stronger brakes were placed at the rear. With the success of the Lightning TRS, other in-line skate companies appeared: Ultra Wheels, Oxygen,  K2  and others. 1989 - Macro and Aeroblades Models Rollerblade Inc produced the Macro and Aeroblades models, the first skates fastened with three buckles instead of long laces that needed threading. 1990 - Lighter Skates Rollerblade Inc switched to a glass-reinforced thermoplastic resin (durethan  polyamide) for their skates, replacing the  polyurethane  compounds previously used. This decreased the average weight of skates by nearly fifty percent. 1993 - Active Brake Technology Rollerblade, Inc. developed ABT or Active Brake Technology. A fiberglass post attached at one end to the top of the boot and at the other end to a  rubber-brake,  hinged the chassis at the back wheel. The skater had to straighten one leg to stop, driving the post into the brake, which then hit the ground. Skaters had been tilting their foot back to make contact with the ground, before ABT. The new brake design increased safety. Presently the best way for you to experience the latest inventions in the world of wheels is up-close and personal. Please do so, try in-line skating and keep rolling.

Free Essays on Fellowship Of The Craft

, it’s layered facets include the sailors inexplicable link to the see, which leads to a common belief system that then leads to a trust, resulting in a deep bond or brotherhood within a crew. These relationships coincide with the captain’s, and are overshadowed by the militarily reminiscent no-questions-asked authority of the captain, again born of the same links to the sea and unwavering trust. These two end results of the fellowship are the entire basis of a successful voyage, in both the safety and productivity of a vessel, and the emotional well being of her crew. Joseph Conrad concludes that â€Å"it is the sea that gives it-the vastness, the loneliness surrounding their dark stolid souls,† (Conrad, pg. 1095) making a sailor what he is. A further example of the innately honorable relationship within a crew can be noted a sailors own recollections, â€Å"Can you imagine a rough, uneducated sailor like Jim, forgetting all about himself at a time like tha t and thinking only of the safety of a shipmate? Ah!-They were the men that were true, uncut diamonds of the first water and coming to the surface they cast a beam of sunshine when you least expected it.† (Harlow, pg. 364) These men are ... Free Essays on Fellowship Of The Craft Free Essays on Fellowship Of The Craft â€Å"The Fellowship of the Craft† The â€Å"fellowship of the craft† is truly the most important aspect of a crew, and therefore of their ship and her voyage. This fellowship or comradery is the tie that binds the men together, with common goals, views and especially the trust the afore mentioned bring, making the fellowship the life-blood of a vessel. Authors of sea literature illustrate and utilize this fellowship in numerous ways, helping to give the unknowing, unsea-worthy reader an opportunity to better understand this mystical connection. The fellowship of the craft is an extraordinarily complex inter-relationship of crew, captain & inevitably, the sea herself. While one would be hard-pressed to fully explain this with mere words, it’s layered facets include the sailors inexplicable link to the see, which leads to a common belief system that then leads to a trust, resulting in a deep bond or brotherhood within a crew. These relationships coincide with the captain’s, and are overshadowed by the militarily reminiscent no-questions-asked authority of the captain, again born of the same links to the sea and unwavering trust. These two end results of the fellowship are the entire basis of a successful voyage, in both the safety and productivity of a vessel, and the emotional well being of her crew. Joseph Conrad concludes that â€Å"it is the sea that gives it-the vastness, the loneliness surrounding their dark stolid souls,† (Conrad, pg. 1095) making a sailor what he is. A further example of the innately honorable relationship within a crew can be noted a sailors own recollections, â€Å"Can you imagine a rough, uneducated sailor like Jim, forgetting all about himself at a time like that and thinking only of the safety of a shipmate? Ah!-They were the men that were true, uncut diamonds of the first water and coming to the surface they cast a beam of sunshine when you least expected it.† (Harlow, pg. 364) These men are ...

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS REPORT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS REPORT - Essay Example And they have acknowledged that their success is indebted to the talent, creativity, and dedication of their employees. They did not only compete to gain prestige and power but they are also searching and attracting talented people to work for them. Overall, the group’s vision is to â€Å"map out a specific plan of reaching $400 billion in revenue and becoming one of the world’s top five brands by 2020† (â€Å"Samsung,† n.d.). Samsung (UK) is popular in the areas of telecommunication and digital media as they have developed and distributed several products of mobile phones and consumer entertainment devices. Despite of the company’s overwhelming success, Samsung (UK) did not stop to aim for higher goals because the global market is constantly changing, and more importantly, they did not give their competitors a chance to overhaul. For them, nothing is impossible, as long as they have the needed financial resources, talented people, and loyal custome rs. This is the kind of spirit a true company must have. The main thrust of this paper is to analyze the performance of Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd. By using the company’s financial statements and by applying financial ratios, Samsung’s (UK) performance and financial situation will be determined. For the past three years, Samsung (UK) has proven its success and growth. The company has received several recognitions in terms of producing innovative and advanced technologies. Most of the company’s recent development has been accepted by the people. For 2009, they managed to release new mobile phones like Giorgio Armani smartphones, Galaxy Tab, and Windows Phone 7 (Altoft, 2010). They had also released the world’s thinnest Blu-ray player, TV (6.5mm), and watch phone. Another important event for Samsung (UK) is the restructuring of their organizational leaders and announced their new general managers in UK print and display division (â€Å"Channel Pro,† 2010). Part

Innovation and Risk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Innovation and Risk - Essay Example Innovation is making a new idea valuable. It is improving on the existing new design it is not something that has never been there before. An inventor frequently makes a change. Innovation interrupts the status quo but dies not translate into entrepreneurship. On the other hand, Entrepreneurship is coming up with something very new. Its not like the innovation whereby they are improving the existing ideas. Coming up with ideas without implanting them is worthless. Change is challenged in terms of financial management aspects while entrepreneurship pride in culture and financial management (Entrepreneurial risk, investment, and innovation, 2013). Keeping up with the market is a major challenge to the managers since the market is continuous and unpredictable. A manager is required to do an ongoing market research in order not to make outdated decisions. Being the market leader is the aim of every entrepreneur; how to get there is the effort, the entrepreneur puts (Caggese, n.d.). Planning is another challenge since the managers have to make different decisions from time to time. The decision made today will be different from the decisions made tomorrow depending on the circumstances. As the business grows, the strategies need to evolve to meet the changing demands (Entrepreneurial risk, investment, and innovation, 2013). Financial management is another challenge to the managers. Managing the cash flow is crucial especially in a growing business. Planning in terms of funds to be used in future is crucial so that you can know where to get i.e. external sources. Competition is a challenge to every business, finding the strategies to cope with the competition is crucial. The loyal customers might find an alternative product hence you must have a way to win them back. Winning back the customers is not easy since you need to do research no why the customers had to shift. Technology is a problem with many businesses. The