by Dwayne Hall

There are two types of “free” in the audio conferencing industry. Toll-free audio conferencing means every participant in a conference call dials a toll-free number. The moderator of the conference call has to pay for every toll-free caller on his conference call at a rate depending upon whatever the conferencing company is charging. Free audio conferencing is when everyone on the conference call dials a regular long distance number. So you are not paying any per-minute rate to the conferencing company (which is great), but you are paying your long distance provider whatever they charge you for long distance. Of course, this is typically less expensive than toll-free conference calling.

Customer can access the conferencing service with a dial-in number and an optional password to disseminate among the group of callers. Such a password to access the service can be either permanent, with a limited usage (number of calls, time period, etc.), or created only for a single teleconference session.

Help For All Participants

Video conferencing allows participants to meet face-to-face and enjoy both audio and video communications in real-time. Applications include product launches and design reviews. Teleconferencing and webcast services that specialize in system integration can help businesses connect existing communications systems to teleconferencing or webcasting technologies.

A video conference electronically links geographically dispersed participants so that they can see and hear each other in a live and interactive environment. Polycom is the standard conferencing equipment at K-State. The K-State Accord bridge allows for multipoint conferencing (multiple sites convening for one conference.) Noninteractive video experiences such as satellite programs, video streaming, web casting, etc.

Take It To The Bridge

Once the conference attendees have connected to the bridge they may be required to enter their security or identification number. Once this is done, audio communication is established between the parties. During the time that the audio connection is established, the conference attendees may also be connected to the Internet using a web browser with an HTML converter plug in.

At the time a conference attendee calls into the conferencing bridge, he or she also provides the IP address either to a live person who enters this information manually, or through touch-tone into an email processor. Once all this information is entered, the processor in the audio conferencing bridge compiles a list of all conference attendees including their IP addresses.

In Conclusion

Some Web conferencing technologies are simply not ready for widespread use. Sometimes Voice over IP-real-time voice delivered via the Web-is one such technology because when it’s used, the slides are often out of sync with the presenter’s voice.

About the Author:

To discover more about audio conferencing services check out http://www.Conferencing-Services.Info where you’ll find everything you need to know about net conferencing services and much more.

by Paul Wilcox

Along with spam advertisements hawking prescription medicines, ‘cheap’ mortgage rates and online gambling sites, there are a number of common scams whose sole goal is to separate you from your money.

One of the most common is the Nigerian bank scam. Someone sends you an email pretending to have some kind of relationship to a government official who has recently died, most often in Nigeria. They claim to know about money that was deposited in a secret account that is not accessible to them. In exchange for paying the “transfer fees” and accepting the money in your account, you get to keep a large portion of it. Of course, there is no money and they just want to get your bank account information and the transfer fees you send them.

Some Internet scams offer investment opportunities with huge paybacks. They usually claim to be risk-free, but once they have your money, you’re very unlikely to see any return. Another common scam involves offering credit cards for those with bad credit ratings - just send a security deposit and processing fees. In return you get - that’s right - nothing. And by the time you start to investigate, the scam artist has disappeared.

Remember these offers are worse than even ordinary spam. Legitimate businesses do not promote their products by spamming. They e-mail selected groups, generally those who have purchased from them before or voluntarily offered an e-mail address. Other offers should usually be ignored. Simply hit your delete button. However, even highlighting the e-mail in order to delete it can signal a spammer that you received one.

How To Avoid Getting Scammed

Firstly, never ever reply to spam, either by hitting reply or by clicking a link in the email. These things will only serve to confirm your email address is active and you will shortly start to receive much more spam than you do already.

Never send any private information like credit card numbers or username & passwords by email. Legitimate companies like Paypal or your bank will never ask for these things directly through email.

Spam isn’t an easy things to stop, but if you don’t recognize the person sending you the message, and it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Besides, how many dead Nigerian dictators with huge bank accounts can there really be?

About the Author:

Do you know how to safely avoid spam and other online security threats? Learn how you can stop spam and other threats on the Online Security Toolkit website. Visit http://www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com for more information.

by Paul Wilcox

Along with spam advertisements hawking prescription medicines, ‘cheap’ mortgage rates and online gambling sites, there are a number of common scams whose sole goal is to separate you from your money.

One of the most common is the Nigerian bank scam. Someone sends you an email pretending to have some kind of relationship to a government official who has recently died, most often in Nigeria. They claim to know about money that was deposited in a secret account that is not accessible to them. In exchange for paying the “transfer fees” and accepting the money in your account, you get to keep a large portion of it. Of course, there is no money and they just want to get your bank account information and the transfer fees you send them.

Another fairly common scam is investments with extraordinary returns. They’ll claim to be risk-free but this is obviously not the case. Once you send them your initial investment, it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever hear from them again, unless it’s to ask for more money.

These fake offers are particularly bad for legitimate businesses who use email for doing business. Because so much email is spam, the internet service providers and email hosting companies work hard to filter it out. But these filters can sometimes stop legitimate email from businesses you want to hear from.

How To Sidestep These Scams

First, never reply to spam. This just tells the spammer that your email is in fact valid and the amount of spam you’ll receive will quickly multiply. Some spam will even include a link at the bottom for removing yourself from their list. If it’s a true spam email, don’t use this - it just confirms your email address as well. If you did sign up to receive the email however, this is a legitimate way of removing yourself from future mailings.

Never send any private information like credit card numbers or username & passwords by email. Legitimate companies like Paypal or your bank will never ask for these things directly through email.

How do you know whether it’s spam? Since, one man’s spam is sometimes another’s welcomed advertisement, there’s no perfect answer. But there is one good rule of thumb: if you don’t recognize the sender, it’s probably not someone you want to hear from. After all, how many former dictators in Nigeria are you likely to know?

About the Author:

Do you know how to fully protect yourself from email scams and other internet security threats? Find out how to stop spam and other security attacks on the Online Security Toolkit website. Visit http://www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com for more information.

by Paul Wilcox

These days, most computer users realize they need to be using antivirus software. The trouble is, there is a lot of equipment providing services to these users on the internet. What is being done to protect them from virus infections?

Computer viruses attack servers - web, file, ftp and e-mail, along with routers and other network gear - along with individual PC’s.

Many of these servers are really not that different from a desktop PC. They may have more memory, multiple processors and larger hard drives, but they’re still more or less the same type of equipment when you get right down to it.

Because they really run the same kind of stuff as a desktop system, they’re also vulnerable to attack and need to be protected with similar methods. They need to be running antivirus software and firewalls to avoid being infected.

What else can be done?

Since servers and routers provide services to multiple, sometimes thousands, of user systems they’re more frequently attacked. Users can help administrators of these systems by keeping their own systems clean and refraining from passing on viruses to others across them. Administrators can help themselves by forgoing the temptation to use them as personal computers with full e-mail clients, word processing software, and fully enabled browsers.

Users can help administrators and themselves by being more careful in browser selection and configuration. Most could profit from better self-education in how to minimize the ‘target area’ for hackers by changing browser settings. Users and computer professionals have made strides in voicing concern over security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Adopting other browsers in greater numbers will help to get the message across.

Avoid booting from or loading software from CD’s, DVD’s or other disks that haven’t been scanned for viruses, if you’re not sure of the source. If a single file on one of those disks contains a virus, it can spread like wildfire.

Finally, if you use FTP for transferring files, you need to consider switching to a more secure alternative. FTP sends all passwords unencrypted so if someone is able to intercept your internet connection, they can easily get your password.

Users need to take responsibility for making sure a network is secure - not just the system administrators. System admins have many tasks on their plate and they’re not always able to respond to security risks as quickly as they should.

About the Author:

Is your PC as secure as it should be? Find out what you should be doing to keep it safe from viruses, spyware and other online security threats at the Online Security Toolkit website. Visit http://www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com for more information.