Cyber World: 07/16/07

Monday, July 16, 2007

Web Hosting Features To Look For

When you are looking for a professional web hosting service, you
want to look for certain features and services. Do not worry about
knowing exactly what all the technical terms mean, just look for them!
You should always shop around, phone the hosting companies and ask
questions as part of your qualification process.

1. Reliability and Speed

Look for a hosting service that owns their own equipment, with
high-speed connections to multiple Internet backbones, backup power
generators and backup systems in place. The hosting company will
generally brag about their high-speed connections and will usually
guarantee 99% or better availability of your web site.

Many hosting services are operated by resellers. This can be a good
thing if they bring better and more knowledgeable support to their
resold services. Unfortunately, many resellers do not really have the
resources or knowledge to adequately support you.

Years in business are something you should take a look at. Three years or more is a pretty good yardstick of reliability.

If they offer a trial period, take advantage of it and actually try the service out.

2. Operating Systems

Do they use a standard operating system configuration that they keep
updated on a routine basis? If they do not, you may have trouble
getting newer scripts to work. On Linux servers, look for Red Hat,
Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Slackware and CentOS. You can visit
www.kernel.org to find out what the latest stable version of Linux is. On Windows servers, look for recent Windows operating systems with all
patches kept current. If they do not publish this information, email or phone them to find out.

3. Language and Database Support

They should support the key programming languages and databases that
are used by newer scripts and should keep these up to date as well. On
Linux you should look for PHP and Perl at the least. For a database,
look for MySQL. You should be allowed at least one database. You should
have your own CGI Bin. On Windows systems, look for MS Access at the
least and MS SQL Server for power and speed. If you want to use the
Microsoft .NET framework, your hosting will need to support that.

4. Support

Check their support. The minimum support is email support. The
better hosting services provide 24/7 email, ticket system and live
telephone support. Actually try their support and see if they respond
quickly enough for your needs and if their support staff is helpful and
knowledgeable.

5. FTP Access

Many inexpensive hosting services do not provide FTP access. You
will need FTP access if you plan to add much material to your website
or if you need to install scripts on your website. Also check that you
can change permissions on your files via FTP or through SSH.

6. Email

How many email accounts do they provide? Are they POP email
accounts? Can you add forwarders and email aliases? Look for web mail
access as well. The better the service, the more options they will
provide for email.

7. User Control Panel

Look for a comprehensive user control panel that allows you to
manage your hosting account. The better control panels also provide
automatic script installers like Fantastico or Elefante. Cpanel, Ensim
and HSphere and Plesk are all well known and well supported. There are
many more control panels than these and they are good too, but you
should probably check them more thoroughly and take a look at their
demo system if they have one.

8. Domain Names

You should be able to host at least one domain name. The better
hosting companies will generally allow you five or more domain names.
There should be no restrictions on sub-domains.

9. Statistics

Does your hosting service include a statistics program so you can monitor your website traffic?

10. Disk Space

The absolute minimum is 50 MB, but you should be paying very low prices for that little disk space.

11. Bandwidth

The main difference between the basic and expensive plans of any hosting service is the amount of bandwidth allowed per month.

To figure how much bandwidth you need, multiply your visits per day X page views per visit X average page size X 30 days.

Example: 100 visits per day, 5 page views per visit, with a page size of 45 kb: 100 X 5 X 45 KB X 30 = 675,000 KB = 675 MB.

Try to get as much bandwidth for your dollar as possible, but beware
of web hosting services that offer unlimited bandwidth. Read the fine print and their terms of use carefully. There is usually some kind of restriction that you will need to be aware of.

Make sure you read up on how they charge you if you exceed your monthly bandwidth and what upgrades they have available.

12. eCommerce

If you plan to run a shopping cart or secure payments or data
transfers on your website, you need to make sure that the hosting
service supports SSL.

Some Closing Thoughts:

Typical prices for professional level hosting range between $6.99
and $45.00 per month for a reasonable level of disk space and bandwidth
on shared hosting. Below that you are asking for trouble because they
probably do not make enough money to adequately support their
equipment, systems or you.

Windows servers are usually more expensive than Linux servers
because the Windows operating systems are not open source. The hosting
company has to pay for using them.

When you are comparing plans, keep in mind that you are getting a
better deal at $25 per month for eight domain names than $10 per month for one.

When you are looking for hosting don’t be afraid to ask
questions. Good hosting services have no problem directing you to
helpful information or answering your questions in a way that you can understand.

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business , matrix, internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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10 Proven Ways To Accelerate Your Profits

By Jeff Casmer

1. Make copies of your web site in many different languages.
This’ll allow foreign speaking people to read your web site and
advertisements.

2. Give your customers a surprise bonus for buying.

When you give customers more than they expect, there is a good chance they will b.uy from you again.

3. Send greeting cards offline or online to customers on holidays.
You’ll get the chance to i.ncrease your orders by including your
ad inside the card.

4. Market your products or services to your target audience. For
example, don’t try to sell a football in a cooking magazine.

5. Give people the option of buying other products or add on
products when they decide to b.uy your main product or service at the
point of sale.

6. Think of new ways to attract people to b.uy your products or
services. You could add on extra f.ree bonuses, delivery options,
payments options, etc.

7. Give other businesses the option of selling your product. It
could be a simple joint venture deal or an affiliate/associate program.

8. Follow-up regularly with all your prospects and current
customers. When people see your ad more than once they are more likely
to b.uy.

9. Learn sales ideas from reading and studying other business’
advertising and marketing material. It could be ads, brochures, tv ads,
sales letters, etc.

10. Educate yourself with new strategies to i.ncrease your sales.
You could take classes, subscribe to e-zines and magazines, read books
or ebooks, etc.

Quote of the Day:

“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something
for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s
pain, life is not in vain.” — Helen Keller

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How I Get 76 Out of 100 People To Read My Offer With These Six Simple Secrets

By having a good amount of traffic to your website will allow you to
build an opt-in and grow the list from there. This allows you to have a
good list of loyal followers anytime you want to make an offer.

People in the subscribers are people who are interested in what you
are offering them i.e. valuable information, freebies, etc. But that
does not mean that every single one of your subscribers will be reading
what you sent them.

Many marketers have just built a list based on giving a free gift or
for a promotional discount and such. This caused many subscribers to
treat them like cyberspace waste and delete them without even opening
them.

But you change all that. You do not want your readers not to open
your email because your emails are not interesting enough. You will
need to arouse their curiosity so that they will open your email and go
to your website to take a look at your offerings.

Here are six secrets to remember when you are writing your subject
title of an email. I used them myself and you can increase your email
response up to as much as 76%.

1. Well Thought Out and Well Written Subject

By giving a great and well written subject, you can be sure that
your recipient will open them up. This is so as a well written subject
will most probably be what your recipient is interested in.

2. Short and Concise

This is important to catch the attention of your recipients so that
they will immediately open your email to take a look. Plus, it should
also provide a summary of the email content.

3. Tickle Curiosity

You will have to force an emotion out of your recipients so that you
can literally force them to open the mail. A certain emotion and
curiosity has to be generated from them just by reading the subject
heading. It is essential to use specific words to get the reaction you
need right away.

4. Tips and Methods

Informative subject lines are also very good to create the desire to
click on them. An example of this is using keywords and keyword phrases
such as, “How to”, “tips”, “Guides
to”, Methods in and others like that.

5. Questions

By using questions, you will be able to provoke curiosity. People
are naturally curious and once posed a question, even if they secretly
answer it, they will want the answer. If possible, it will be even
better if your email content directs them to your website saying that
the answer can be found there.

6. Shock

Using shock is a nice tactic to pique your readers’ attention.
For example, if you deal with car engine parts you can write in your
subject, “Announcing the new engine that uses no gasoline, It
runs on water”. This will definitely create enough curiosity for
them to click open your email.

So by using all these six simple secrets, you will be able to
increase your responses to your offer and your readers will be highly
motivated to take action such as buying your products. Thus, you will
definitely benefit from the eventual increased sales.

P.S. Check out site out now! => It has 8 very
powerful videos teaching you step-by-step on how to create killer
emails that get your readers pumped up and ready to take action on your
offers anytime you want them! (Oh…by the way, I managed to get
them for you for FREE!;-))

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10 Tips to Write a Great Compelling Headline That Pulls & Build Your List

Brian Lam April 10th, 2007

One thing that always makes a difference to whether you are getting
30 - 50 plus subscribers a day to only a mere 3-5 subscribers a day is
your headline.

Don’t you underestimate the power of headlines

Powerful internet marketing experts will just tweak one of their
headlines and they can generate more sales than they are having
currently.

So how do you want to create the so called perfect headline?

Well, I have some 10 headline tips for you:

Make sure that headline arouse your target market readers’
curiosity i.e. it can be posing a question to your reader so that they
would want to know more
Ensure that when you try reading it aloud, does it sounds alright to you or does it just sounds too fake/spam?
Think about this after reading your headline: Will your reader want
to read the next paragraph or even the next line if they want to know
more about what you headline is saying.
Make sure your headline is in Bright Red or Dark Red Color
Make sure your headline is in Bold
You can put quotes signs => “ at both the
beginning and at the end of the headline. For e.g. “Do you want
to lose weight and be able to eat what you like everyday?”
Always Make Sure You Capitalize Every First Alphabet Of A Word In Your Headline Like This.
Start your headline with your reader’s name if possible
Your headline should be to convey your most powerful benefit of whatever product or services you are offering
Use compelling words such as “Discover”, “How To” and “Warning”, etc

These headline tips can be applied to both your webpage or your
emails to increase your opt in rates and also your email open rates.

But just by following these tips is not enough because you will not
know how much your headline will be converting unless you test it out.

For those of you who knows how to split test headlines, basically it
is just a test on two copy with only the headline changed and getting
the results of the headline. You can find out your sales and opt in
rates or practically anything with split testing.

But for some of you who would want the easier way out of tedious but
profitable testing and tracking, then I have found you a free tool
which can check your headline and rate your headline accordingly to
different standards such as professional copywriters and such.

However, one limitation of this tool is that it can only check 20
words at one time. But you can always easily solve by splitting your
headlines and test it.

Click here to access the free headline analyzer tool

If you want a comprehensive giant headline swipe file that has all
the proven and tested headlines of the copywriting experts then you
might like to check out this giant headline swipe file.

Or if you want more automated and those direct and simple comments
that is personalized to your whole copy, then you might like to check out this great salesletter software that helps you check with the many historically profitable ads.

Well then, hope this copywriting headline tips will help you improve your copy.

Best regards,

Brian

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Gary Halbert Has Passed Away….

It was so sad when I heard of Gary Halbert had passed away on April 9 when I was browsing some forums.

Gary Halbert, probably one of the most creative and amazing
marketers and copywiters to ever grace the halls of direct marketing
has died… and no details on what caused his death or when any
services will be held…

If you want to know what he is all about, you might like to take a look at all his works at his site at:

Copywriter - Gary Halbert’s Newsletter Archive

I’ll always remember him though…

Regards,

Brian

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10 Order Pulling Ways To End Your Ad Copy

Brian Lam July 6th, 2007

1. Make your reader visualize they have already bought your product
in your ad. Tell them what results they have gotten and how it makes
them feel. They’ll already become emotionally attached before
they b.uy.

2. Turn your ad into an article. It could be a story, or how-to
article. This will lead them into your ad without them knowing
it’s an ad. They’ll already be interested when they get to
your sales pitch.

3. Make sure you show your reader that they are getting a bargain.
Tell them the usual price you sell your product for is $99. Then tell
them if they o.rder today they can b.uy it for $69.95.

4. Direct your ad headline to your target audience.

Your readers will feel important and belong to a select g.roup of
people who b.uy your product. For example; “Attention!
Accountants, Discover A New Way To I.ncrease Your Client Base!”

5. Tell your reader how fast they can receive your product or
service in your ad. Their buying decision may be based on how fast they
can receive your product. They may need it by a certain deadline.

6. Use bullets to highlight your product or services benefits.
Benefits are the key to selling anything, make them standout in your
ad. You can use dots, dashes, or circles to highlight them.

7. Give a m.oney back g.uarantee that surpasses a normal one.
Instead of the normal timed g.uarantee, give them extra back. Tell them
they can keep the f.ree bonus or give them double their m.oney back.

8. Tell your reader they’ll receive surprise bonuses.

This’ll raise your reader’s curiosity and make them want to b.uy so they can find out what the surprise bonuses are.

9. Let your reader know this specific package will not be offered
again. You must create urgency so people b.uy now. You may always sell
the same product but not with the same bonuses or price.

10. Give them a couple tips in your ad that will help them with
their problem. This will give your business credibility and gain your
readers trust to b.uy your products or services.

Quote of the Day:

“Adversity and loss make a man wise.” — Welsh proverb

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2 Easy Surefire Low Cost Web Site Traffic Promotion Tactics

Brian Lam July 9th, 2007

The most important factor of success is not having a web site or a
product. It is rather the ability to promote your web site in a low
cost way which means low cost web site promotion tactics that really
works.

If you are one of those who already have a continuous stream of visitors to your website then I will say all the best to you.

But if you are one of those who need help in the promotion, or are
often impatient to promote their own product or just lack the knowledge
to properly market themselves.

Then here are two easy low cost web site traffic promotion tactics that can help you achieve the level of success that you want.

This low cost web site traffic promotion tactics consists of two
aspects – Search Engine Submission and Ranking. Both aspects have
the same impact on the market of your web site that is the way which
your products are presented to catch people’s attention.

#1 Easy Low Cost Web Site Traffic Promotion Tactic – Search Engine Submission

The most important thing in this method is the act of filling up and
submitting your information to various search engines. There are two
types of Search engine submission – manual and automatic.

For a low cost web site traffic promotion tactic, using automatic
submission will be more cost effective as a software program will
assist you submitting your information to many other search engines.

#2 Easy Low Cost Web Site Traffic Promotion Tactic – Ranking

This really just means the numerical position in which your web site
appears on a search engine, based on your web site’s criteria.

Some search engines will rank accordingly to how many other web
sites are linking to your web site pages. The leading web sites on this
order would eventually fulfill a low cost web site promotion tactic.

There are also other types of inexpensive web site promotional
tactics which you can use to boost traffic to your site such as banner
advertisements, classified ads, text links and section sponsorship.

Banner advertisements can be pop ups or pop unders for web pages or
sometimes in another window. Text links and sponsorship may cost more
but these tactics are really marketing to a targeted audience.

Even if you may find your low cost web site traffic promotion
tactics may be insignificant in traffic building, always remember that
it all adds up and will make a huge difference to your traffic, sales
and profits eventually.

Don’t waste time and find your own affordable low cost web site promotional tactic of your choice today.

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The Easy Tactic of Profits Exploding Affiliate Marketing

Pay-per-click or PPC is one of the four kinds of Search Engines. If
you do not know of PPC then let me give you a quick overview of it. It
is almost similar to an auction where you bid the keywords that people
search on the search engines.

Higher rankings come from higher bids on the particular keyword. The
highest bidder will have their site ranked as number one in the PPC
Search Engine followed by the second and third highest as follows.

Right now, how is this linked to being the easy tactic of a profits exploding affiliate marketing?

Well by using PPC, you can really explode your affiliate marketing business.

Most affiliate program only pay you when a sale is made or a lead
delivered after a visitor has clickthrough your site. Your earnings can
be higher or lower depending on your web site content and the traffic
that you are generating to it.

When you incorporate PPC into your affiliate marketing program, you
will be making more money easier than in any other kind of affiliate
program. You will be paid according to how many times of clickthroughs
your visitor made on the advertiser’s site. Unlike some programs,
you are not paid per sale or action.

PPC is very useful especially since it can be used to monetize and
profit from those visitors who are not interested in your products or
services and are leaving your site for good.

You will not only get commission from those searching using your PPC
Search Engine to find products and services but also build your
site’s brand as a valuable resource.

Chances are that satisfied visitors who have found what they are
looking for will tend to come back and review what you are offering
more closely.

This is a great way to add another stream of income. For instance,
when your visitor does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on
the advertiser’s bided listings; the advertiser’s account
will be deducted from that click. Therefore, you will be compensated
30% to 80% of the advertisers’ bid amount.

This allows you to generate easy profits and also promote your web
site. Most of these programs commonly allow a kind of exchange system
where you can use your commissions on your own advertising with them
instantly thus receiving more targeted visitors. This will increase
your conversion rates.

What if you combine PPC into your affiliate program?

PPC usually have ready-to-use affiliate tools such as search boxes,
banners, text links and some 404-error pages. All these are common
tools that can be easily integrated into your website. All you need to
do is to copy and paste only a few lines of code into your website.

What are your main benefits?

You will make more money easily on the side. Plus possible multiple
streams of lifetime commissions from referrals made to the engine.

Just imagine. Where can you get all these benefits while already
generating some income for your site? They are rather a way to generate
more income from your existing income.

Start now and use PPC search engines into your affiliate program than miss out on a great opportunity to make more money.

P.S. If you want to know more about how to make
more money using PPC search engines, I suggest you sign up for two
popular programs - Traffic Swarm and Google Adsense. Both of them are
free to join. One provide you revenue while another provide you the
targeted traffic you need to make more money. You can find the link to sign up for Google Adsense under my Recommended Resource on my right sidebar.

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Sleep 90 Minutes And Wake Up Refreshed

Well
maybe not 90 minutes total but it has been found that planning your
sleep in 90 minute increments will help you get a better night sleep.

You may know that when you sleep, your body goes through five
distinct stages, of sleep. These stages last a total of about 90 to 100
minutes, they will then repeat continuously until you wake.

Stage One

This stage is where you transition into wakefulness and sleep. Some
people believe that this stage only happens once, but it will happen
every time that your body enters a state of wakefulness, even if you
are not aware that you are awake and including when waking in the
morning. This stage lasts for about five minutes before you move onto
stage two. People, who suffer from insomnia or apnea, may remain in
this stage for a longer period.

The brain waves during this stage is predominantly Theta waves but
some Alpha waves also occur. Your eyes may begin to roll slowly during
this stage of sleep.

Stage Two

In Stage two, sleep peaks of your brain waves become higher, these
are called sleep spindles. The spindles can be followed by k-complexes
(where the peaks suddenly descend and then pick back up). Theta waves
can also be found in this stage. Stage two is a period of light sleep
and initially only lasts a few minutes. Gradually though, stage two
sleep increases to take most the sleep cycle. During this stage your
heart rate will slow and your body temperature will decrease as your
body prepares to enter a deep sleep.

Stages Three and Four

These two stages make up your Delta sleep and occur when you are at
the deepest sleep. These stages are longest in the first two sleep
cycles and are when your body achieves the greatest amount of
restoration. If you have not slept in a while, then this is the sleep
that your body will crave. Delta waves will be most prevalent in these
stages; however theta waves are also present. It is believed that Stage
three is extremely short and will transition into stage four very
quickly.

In children, delta sleep takes up about 40% of their sleep time and it will be very difficult to wake them from this stage.

Stage four will then move to stage three and then to stage two before moving onto the next stage.

Stage Five

During this stage your brain becomes very active. Your eyes begin to
move rapidly from side to side, your heart rate and respiration speed
up, and your muscles (face, fingers, and legs) may twitch. Groups of
voluntary muscles may also become paralysed during this stage and due
to increased brain activity, you may begin to hallucinate, or dream.
The first period of this stage five can last ten minutes but this can
gradually increase. Beta waves, which are in high occurrences while
awake, are most prevalent here during the sleep cycle.

After Stage five the body will usually move on to stage two.

Sleep specialists have named the first four stages as Non-REM or
NREM and the last stage as REM. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement and
is named due to the increase eye movement during stage five.

Your sleep cycle is pretty variable and can be affected by stress
levels or certain medication which you may take. If you are not
consistent with when you go to sleep and how long you sleep, your body
might vary the cycles during sleep or even the length of certain
stages. It is very important to stick to a schedule, such as going to
sleep at midnight and always waking up at 6AM. This is about four sleep
cycles and should be enough sleep for your body.

If you have sustained some type of injury or think you may be coming
down with a sickness, you may require more sleep, but always make sure
to try wake up during stage two sleep.

If you wake during any other stage, especially delta sleep, you will most probably feel as though you have not slept at all.

Tags:
Personal Growth,
Self Improvement,
Personal Success

filed under Personal Growth, Self Improvement, Personal Success. 

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Why Would Advanced Website Traffic Tactics Sucks?

Yes. You heard that right. Advanced website traffic tactics sucks
because some viewed advanced as being expensive and hard to learn and
apply.

But what if I told you that you can make a win-win situation once
you can make it low cost? Yes, by using low cost advanced website
traffic tactics and you are going to be enjoying the spoils of war for
success.

So have you got any idea what these low cost advanced website
traffic tactics are? You will be surprised at what you are about to
discover that you can apply some of these tactics without having to
spend a single dime!

1. Article Writing

Write an article, include your link in your resource box, and submit
it to ezine directories to attract targeted traffic. Simple? Well,
don’t stop at only one site, make sure you get your site exposed
anywhere and everywhere possible! Who knows how much sales this low
cost advanced website traffic tactic will bring!

2. Links Exchange

Never underrate the power of link exchange. Most often, people
overlook this effective low cost advanced website traffic tactic. How
do you perform an effective link exchange? Simple. Type in your
keywords into any major search engine and visit every one of the top
results and contact the website owners for the link exchange.

3. Forum Interaction

This is an effective but subtle advanced website traffic tactic. You
just look for forums related to your business and interact with the
forum people. Make friends with them and let them know about your
website. Most important thing of all, this does not cost you anything
at all!

4. Advanced Website Traffic Tools

There are lots of marketing tools lying around the internet. Some
are free and some are paid. Most of the time, you will need software to
automate the process so that the rest of the marketing job will be easy!

5. Meta Tags Booster

Search engines love these meta tags that are inside your site as
they place them in their results page. This seemingly simple act of
inserting a few meta tags in your HTML code is actually a very
effective advanced website traffic tactic. Plus it’s low cost!

6. Directories Submission

Make sure your website is directories worthy – meaning that it
must not be poorly done. After that, keep submitting your website to
tons of directories like there’s no tomorrow!

7. Get Your Surveys

Go to a similar site and tell them you have a survey that they can answer. Both their sites and yours will benefit.

There are plenty of websites out there that specializes in low cost
advanced website traffic tactics. You can just search for them online
through search engines. Apply these tactics and see your traffic
skyrocket!

If you have been wondering how to get more traffic, then you will
have to check out the page when you click on the link below. This guy
does NONE of the tactics that I showed you in this post but is still
able to get huge amount of traffic to his website.

Check out his page where he reveals that secret method which he has
been using to get tons of highly targeted traffic that converts like
crazy.

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Business Networking For Stronger Sales

Every business depends on networking between employees and other
stakeholders in the company to accomplish the goals of management. To
be effective in a small business, you have to take a look at the way a
corporation builds its network of clients and recruits their employees.
Effective networking practices assure the highest profitability for a
business. This is why human resources is such a high priority in the
corporate world. A corporation draws its strength from its client base
and the reputation it builds by recruiting the best and brightest
employees.

If you are a small business owner, you have probably thought of
expanding your business. The way to increase sales is done through
either leveraging capital or human resources. To leverage capital, you
would borrow money and invest it in your means of production. This
might be better equipment, more employees or anything that would
increase your productivity.

Most small businesses choose to leverage human resources. A good
example of this is an affiliate program. The idea behind running an
affiliate program is to offer other companies or individuals a monetary
incentive for acting as agents to sell your products to the public.

Imagine having a small army of affiliates selling your products. The
best part is that you only pay them a commission after they sell your
product. You have no paid salespeople at all. Basically, you just
receive the orders, process the payments and ship the goods to the
customer.

This is a good example of effective networking because you have a
built-in loyal workforce once you have hired your affiliates. The
benefits to the merchant are increased sales, market share and product
visibility.

Another popular form of networking is direct sponsorship in a
Multi-Level Marketing organization. In this type of marketing plan, an
individual sponsors many other people into an organization. Then he
trains this group of people on how to sponsor more people into the
organization themselves. This method results in a very large base of
marketers working to sell products for the company. The original
sponsor gets paid for his efforts by the volume of sales his team
produces. The profit trickles down through the organization based on
the number of people each group leader has sponsored and the sales
volume achieved by each member of the group for the sales period.

Affiliate programs and MLM are not for every company. There are
costs of maintenance, and a payroll to meet every month. The biggest
advantage of using these programs is that a non-employee of the company
makes every sale. This way the company does not have to pay the
worker’s benefits and Social Security taxes. Each affiliate or
network marketer is an independent taxable entity. They are not
employees of the company from a legal standpoint.

Business owners must decide for themselves the best way to expand
their business when it comes time to do so. It all comes down to a cost
per sale analysis. Finding the best way to capitalize your business
always includes market research and weighing the benefits of your
available options.

If you decide to use one of the methods outlined above, it is best
to discuss this move with a qualified marketing specialist. Also hire a
qualified accountant for taxes and payroll purposes. You may want to
talk to other business people who have successfully made this change
for more information.

Tags:
Marketing,
Small Business,
Home Business,
Business Success

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The biggest network battle you don't know about

A little-known fight may
determine whether we'll see a continually innovating wireless Internet,
or whether the future instead belongs to the telco and wireless
dinosaurs.

 

By the end of the year, the FCC will auction off a wireless frequency
band that could be used to spawn low-cost, innovative applications
-- or instead can be used by existing wireless carriers to gain a
stranglehold over the wireless future.

 

The frequency is currently used by UHF TV stations, which will no
longer be able to use the frequency when all TV broadcasting becomes
digital in 2009. The FCC plans to auction off that frequency by the end
of 2007, for use in 2009 and after.

 

A variety of groups are asking that whoever wins the auction, anyone
should be able to lease space on it, and that public safety officers
get access to it. Consumer groups, a Google-led consortium, and the
Silicon Valley startup Frontline Wireless are all asking for that.

 

On the other side, Verizon and pals want to squash the idea, for
obvious reasons. If anyone can lease space on the spectrum, real
wireless competition can blossom, and there's nothing that telcos and
wireless carriers hate more than competition.

 

The FCC has yet to weigh in on the matter and has already postponed two
meetings at which it was supposed to discuss the issue. It may discuss
it at a meeting at the end of June.

 

Given that the FCC seems to be in the back pocket of the telcos and
wireless carriers, I don't have high hopes it will do the right thing.
But there's a long way to go, and public pressure counts for a lot.
Stay tuned to see what happens.

Filed under : Government/Regulations | Mobile/Wireless | Networking | Internet

Preston Gralla's blog

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business ,internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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Shark Tank: Gooooal!

It's not long ago at World Cup
time, and for this soccer-fan maintenance guy, his building's Internet
connection is everything he could ask for, reports an IT support pilot
fish.

"He worked at one of our remote sites, and he found that if you
disconnected the cable Internet connection from the modem and connected
it straight into a TV, you'd be able to watch the games," fish says."

That's because the cable TV company hasn't done anything special for
this connection -- like residential cable connections, it's a standard
cable connection that also supports Internet access.

At the time, fish is new to his support job, and his departing
predecessor is walking him around the site when they come across the
maintenance guy.

And he's watching a World Cup game.

Fish says nothing for a moment. Neither does his predecessor.

That's when the maintenance guy's radio crackles with an urgent call
from the office. The Internet connection is down, the radio says.

Maintenance guy: "Yes, I know. It will take about another hour or so."

Says fish, "Thankfully, when his team scored, we didn't shout too loud or we'd get caught.

"In any event, when my boss heard, he turned purple -- so hard was he laughing!"

Submit your own true tales of IT life to sharky@computerworld.com.
If Sharky uses it, you'll snag a snazzy Shark Tank shirt! You can also
add comments by using the form at the bottom of this page.

See more Shark Tank stories at the Sharkives.

Join Shark Bait

Now you can post your own stories of IT ridiculousness. Join
Shark Bait today and vent your IT frustrations to people who've been
there.

Go to the

Shark Bait homepage

or

Post a story now

Filed under : Networking | Cool Stuff | Internet

Sharky's blog

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Google: Do no evil ... except in China

The news that Google has won a
contract to provide news to Internet users in China is one more example
of the search giant's hypocrisy. It claims not merely to be a
profit-making machine, but a force for good in the world. When it comes
to China, though, it's on the side of censorship, authoritarians,
Communists, and would-be dictators.

Reuters reports that Google has just won a license to provide news
in China. Of course, what China calls "news" and what we call "news"
are entirely separate things. China heavily censors all Internet
content, and has built what's called the Great Firewall around the
country, to try and keep out any information the Communist government
doesn't want people to read.

Reuters recently ran a story
detailing just how extreme censorship is in China, and how effective
the Great Wall is. News is censored, of course, and news stories are
blocked. But it goes far beyond that. The entire Flickr site is
blocked, for example, because photos of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
massacre were posted on it.

Google knows all about the censorship first hand. It already censors
its Chinese search site at the behest of the Communist government.

That's bad enough. But providing heavily censored "news" goes one
step further. By doing it, Google will in essence become a propaganda
arm of the government. But Google has made it clear that's perfectly
fine. All it cares about is its pursuit of the almighty dollar...or
yuan.

Filed under : Government/Regulations | Networking | Security | Internet

Preston Gralla's blog

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Broadband Vs. Dial-up

With broadband you don't need to dial in to connect to
the Internet-it's always on. And with all types of broadband, the time
it takes to download video clips, music or files is dramatically
faster. In fact, depending on a variety of factors, broadband access is
usually around 10 times faster than a standard dial-up connection.
Things that take 30 seconds to download with your dial-up connection
take about three seconds with a broadband connection. When you're
sitting there waiting for a page to draw, that's a huge difference.

Broadband can also save you money. It's true that in most cases the
cost of broadband access will be higher than a dial-up Internet service
provider would charge. However, after a few months of having to choose
between being online and being able to use the phone, many people with
dial-up ISPs will get a second phone line installed. You see where
we're going with this. Since most types of broadband access don't
require a phone line, it usually ends up being cheaper than a dial-up
connection with its own line.

The Need For Speed
So we've established that broadband makes
accessing the Internet faster, more convenient and even economical, but
once you've fallen in love with how fast you can download web pages
(and you will), you may start to wonder what else you can do with all
that speed.

MP3 downloads: The speed with which broadband brings your favorite songs to your computer is positively addictive.

Internet gaming: There are a variety of games you can play online with other people, but only if you have a connection fast enough to keep up.

Video conferencing cameras: Imagine being able to
have a face-to-face conversation with a friend or relative anywhere in
the world. broadband makes it possible.

Digital images: Digital cameras have become the
medium of choice for those wanting to share pictures of the things that
are most important to them. Downloading is quicker with broadband

Type of Broadband Connection

There's more than one kind of broadband connection. As
a matter of fact, there are three ways to get broadband Internet access
into your home.

Cable
DSL
Satellite

We offer both cable and DSL broadband services here on our website. The Product Specialists in any of our stores nationwide will gladly answer your questions and address broadband availability where you live.

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Can't get cable broadband or DSL? Try high-speed satellite

Stay connected

High-speed Internet via satellite delivers the web to your PC much
like DIRECTV—from satellites in orbit over the earth. Mount
a 38" dish in a place with a clear view of the southern sky and be
on your way to cyberspace. The current two-way service offers faster
uploads than the older one-way service because it uses the satellite
to send data, whereas one-way service sent data over your phone line.
With two-way service, you're always on, always connected, and because
it doesn't use your phone line, you can talk on the phone and explore
the Internet at the same time.

Great advantages

Available anywhere in the continental United States to anyone who
has a clear view of the southern sky
Fast downloads of websites, data, large files, video, and music
Always-on connection; there's no need to dial up for access
Digital encryption provides exceptional security
Antenna can be upgraded to receive DIRECTV service (DIRECTV receivers
and service sold separately)

What's included

Dish
LNB and transmitter
2 USB modems (one to send, one to receive)
Cable supplied by installer

PC requirements

Pentium II 333MHz or faster

- 64MB RAM (Windows 98SE and Windows Me)

- 128MB RAM (Windows 2000 and Windows XP) 20 MB of free hard drive
space

Analog modem (Used only once for commissioning service.)

One available USB port CD-ROM drive

Operating Systems supported by the DIRECWAY System

- Windows 98SE

- Windows Me

- Windows 2000

- Windows XP

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All about fax machines

Convenience and flexibility

Facsimile,
or fax machines, allow you to send a copy of a document across a phone
line to a similar device. Today, many fax machines are combined with
other office machines, such as printers and scanners. Plus, nearly
all of fax machines can now be used as photocopiers.

Plain paper fax machines

A plain paper fax uses the same paper that you would use in a copier
or laser printer to print out faxes. Because it uses regular paper,
the results look similar to a photocopier. Film technology

Film printing, uses a film wrapped around a drum. Film technology
is simple, effective and inexpensive.

Ink jet

An ink jet fax uses the exact same technology as an ink jet printer
to create an image. When printing a fax, a print cartridge blows tiny
pinpoints of ink onto the page.

Laser

A laser technology fax works similar to an office copier. Laser
faxes are usually used for high volume and high quality fax output.

Features

Automatic cover page

This lets you store a standard cover page inside the fax machine's
memory. This cover page is automatically added to each fax that you
send out from your machine

Broadcast fax

With broadcast fax, you can send the same document to a series of
phone numbers.

Distinctive ring

Distinctive Ring is a service provided by your local telephone company.
It lets you have two separate phone numbers for the same phone line.
Each number makes your phone ring differently. If you have a fax machine
and a phone that respond to Distinctive Ring, you can have the fax
machine answer when one number rings and have your regular phone ring
for the other number. In order to do this, the fax machine has to
support the distinctive ring feature.

Memory transmission

Fax machines with memory transmission can store entire documents to
save you time or allow you to send them later.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX100 (silver

The good: Wide-angle 3.6x optical zoom lens; Intelligent ISO mode; optical image stabilization.
The bad: Noisy images above ISO 400; sluggish shot-to-shot and startup-to-first-shot times.
The bottom line: If
you absolutely must have a 12-megapixel compact camera, the DMC-FX100
isn't a bad choice, but you can find better performing cameras with
lower pixel counts for the same money.

Superslim cameras, such as Casio's Exilim EX-Z75 or Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-T20
get a lot of attention on morning TV shows and in slick print
magazines, but some people find their ultracompact bodies difficult to
use. For those people, a camera with a bit more to hold on to makes
more sense. Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FX100 is a perfect example. It also
happens to be their entry into this year's 12-megapixel compact camera
derby, joining the likes of Sony's Cyber-shot DMC-W200 and Casio's Exilim EX-Z1200.
This Panasonic distinguishes itself from those other two by including a
zoom lens with a wider wide-angle setting--28mm (equivalent) instead of
36mm or 37mm. While it doesn't look as impressive as a larger telephoto
zoom number, it'll be more useful when you're out shooting with your
back to the wall.

Panasonic follows the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it logic by keeping
the body design essentially the same as that of their other FX-series
cameras. The 3.6x optical, 28mm-to-100mm (equivalent), f/2.8-to-f/5.6
zoom lens extends from the front of the body when you turn the camera
on and the zoom control takes the form of a ring around the shutter
button with a nub on front that you can operate with your forefinger.
The mode dial is built into the upper-right corner of the camera back,
putting it out of the way but still convenient to use. Five small
buttons, located to the right of the 2.5-inch, 207,000-pixel LCD on the
camera back, double as menu controls and quick controls for functions
including exposure compensation (plus or minus 2EV in one-third-stop
steps), self-timer, flash, and review (in case you don't want to switch
to full-on playback mode on the mode dial). Below these buttons are two
small, round buttons for display controls and function/trash. The only
other hard controls are the on/off slider and E.Zoom button, both on
the camera top. This last one brings you to the far end of the optical
zoom with the first press, adds digital zoom to bring you to a 7x zoom
on the second press, and back to the widest angle on the third press.
Of course, if you start at the far end of the zoom, then the first
press will bring you to the 7x (with digital) zoom, and so on. Be
careful though, since this button will cycle through the digital zoom
even if you have it turned off in the menus.

Like a lot of compact cameras, the FX100 doesn't have manual exposure
controls, though it does include 20 preset scene modes to help you deal
with tough--or just plain unusual--shooting conditions. A pair of
features helps you deal with blur. Panasonic's Mega OIS lens-shift
stabilization helps combat hand shake, while Intelligent ISO control--a
separate shooting mode available on the mode dial--analyzes motion in
your subject and automatically raises the ISO to a limit you select in
the menu to help prevent blur caused by a fast moving subject. This can
come in handy if you don't want to manually set ISO to boost your
shutter speed; the camera will keep the ISO as low as possible if your
subject is still, thereby minimizing noise in your images when the
lighting is suboptimal. Like past FX models, you can also choose from
4:3, 3:2, or 16:9 aspect ratios in case you prefer to view your images
on a TV or a digital photo frame instead of making prints. You can also
select 4:3 or 16:9 ratios when capturing movies, though you're limited
to 15 frames per second if you opt for 1,280x720-pixel video.

The DMC-FX100 showed good shutter lag times but was otherwise no more
than average in our lab-based performance tests. The camera took a
slightly sluggish 2.4 seconds to start up and capture its first JPG
image. Subsequent JPGs took 2.3 seconds between shots with the flash
turned off, slowing a bit further to 2.9 seconds with the flash on.
Shutter lag measured 0.6 second in our high-contrast test and 1.1
seconds under low-contrast conditions, which mimic bright and dim
shooting conditions, respectfully. At 12 megapixels, the burst mode
clocked an average of 1.3 frames per second, but rose to 4.4fps when we
lowered the pixel resolution to VGA.

Image quality is generally good, with sharp images, accurate-looking
colors, a healthy amount of shadow detail, and consistently accurate
white balance and exposures. However, noise remains one of Panasonic's
weakest points. Even at the camera's lowest sensitivity setting of ISO
80, I saw noise in our test images. The noise is minimized in prints
but is readily noticeable when viewing images at full size on computer
monitors. The noise is less obvious on subjects with texture, such as
the plush ape in our test scene, but creates a mottled look on dark
colored smooth surfaces, such as the navy-blue toy car in the same
scene. Panasonic's noise reduction algorithms manage to keep noise
under control through ISO 200 with only very slight falloffs in
sharpness and shadow detail. At ISO 400, noise bumps up, colors start
to wash out, and shadow detail begins to decline, but images are
definitely still usable. At ISO 800, conditions worsen as both
sharpness and shadow detail deteriorate, though you'll likely still be
able to get pleasing 4x6-inch prints. At both ISO 1,250 and ISO 1,600,
noise becomes very heavy and sharpness and shadow detail take a nose
dive. I suggest staying below ISO 800 whenever possible and below ISO
1,250 altogether. That said, Panasonic is doing a much better job at
combatting noise than it did even a couple of years ago. Given that
this is a 12-megapixel compact camera, I was surprised at the results
it produced.

Considering the usefulness of the 28mm wide-angle lens, the convenience
of the Intelligent ISO mode, and the FX100's impressive white balance
and metering, this camera is a good choice if you feel you absolutely
must have a 12-megapixel compact camera. However, you probably don't
need so many pixels. If you don't plan on cropping heavily or making
extremely large prints, you'd be better served going for a camera with
a lower megapixel count and better noise results, such as the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS or if you don't mind ultracompacts, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-T100, both of which cost around the same price as this Panasonic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

2007 Mitsubishi Outlander

The good: The 2007
Mitsubishi Outlander's V-6 produces solid power, decent mileage, and
very low emissions. On-the-fly four-wheel-drive gives the car traction
in slippery conditions. It also offers better and more complete cabin
technology, including hard-drive-based navigation and standard
Bluetooth cell phone integration, than any car in its price range.
The bad: The Bluetooth system can't access your cell phone's phone book, and the stereo can overwhelm its own speakers.
The bottom line: The
2007 Mitsubishi Outlander offers great technology without getting too
expensive while striking a near-perfect compromise between emissions,
power, and mileage. It's a practical car for a wide variety of uses.

Editor's note:
This is an update to a previously published review. We had originally
reviewed a preproduction version of the 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander.
However, after reviewing the production version and having seen the
optional navigation system in the Mitsubishi Lancer, we have upgraded
the ratings for the 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander and given it an Editors'
Choice award.

In the car technology world, Mitsubishi is the company to watch,
distinguishing itself by making Bluetooth cell phone integration
standard in the 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander and offering a
hard-drive-based navigation system with a music server. In fact,
Mitsubishi's technology outstrips that found in much more expensive
cars. And the Outlander does very well as a small SUV, combining an
advanced four-wheel-drive system with a powerful yet economical power
train.

From the outside, the Outlander is a very good-looking SUV, with sporty
lines and nicely molded lighting. The front has a prominent skid plate
coming up from underneath, indicating a good approach angle for
off-roading. The bumper bisects the grille's honeycombed top and bottom
to give it a strong performance look. The prominent wheel arches are
pretty common these days, but the clearance inside the wheel wells
suggest the Outlander is ready for bigger wheels. We were surprised to
find a third-row seat in the cargo area. It folds neatly into the
floor, but its minimal padding makes it appropriate mainly as a torture
device.

Our review car, a top-of-the-line 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander XLS, didn't
come with the navigation option, but we saw a similar system on the Mitsubishi Lancer.
What we did get in ours was the standard Bluetooth cell phone
integration and the premium stereo, a raucous 650-watt Rockford Fosgate
system with eight speakers and a 10-inch subwoofer. It plays MP3 CDs
and satellite radio and has an oddly placed auxiliary audio input.

Test the tech: Sound field measurement

Because of its massive wattage, we were intrigued by the Rockford
Fosgate stereo. We couldn't miss the massive subwoofer mounted in the
cargo area or the neat little tweeters next to the A-pillars. While
trying out the audio settings, we found equalizer presets for different
types of music, including rock, jazz, and classical.

We also found a setting for Sound Field, which let us choose between
Normal, Stage, Live, and Hall. The car's manual told us that Stage is
designed to place the sound source in front of you, as if you are
watching musicians play. Live is a surround-sound effect, while Hall
maximizes reverb, adding an echo-effect to the sound.

For our test, we measured the decibels using each sound field from the
front and back seats. We played a steady tone through the stereo and
had the volume up at 15. We first put our sound meter on the console
between the two front seats, then placed it in the center of the back
seat.

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Nokia 6086 (T-Mobile)

The good: The Nokia 6086
has a solid, easy-to-use design with a decent array of features that
include Bluetooth, a VGA camera, a music player, and a speakerphone. It
also supports T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service that lets you make calls
over Wi-Fi as well as regular cellular airwaves.
The bad: The Nokia 6086 has a lackluster display and mediocre photo quality.
The bottom line: The
Nokia 6086 is a well-built, basic camera phone with good call quality,
but its most impressive feature is its ability to make calls via Wi-Fi.

The Nokia 6086 is one of two cell phones that T-Mobile has rolled out in conjunction with its new HotSpot @Home
service--the other one being the Samsung SGH-T409. The HotSpot @Home
service lets you make calls via Wi-Fi without taking up any of your
plan's minutes, plus it greatly enhances the phone's reception. Because
the Nokia 6086
is a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) phone, it is able to automatically
switch calls between regular GSM cellular airwaves and preconfigured
wireless networks. Other than that, the Nokia 6086 has a decent set of
features--it has a VGA camera, a music player, Bluetooth, a
speakerphone, and not much else. It has a very solid design with one of
the best keypads we've seen, and is a pretty good option for those who
want to try out the HotSpot @Home service. It's available for $49.99
with a two-year contract.

Design

Even though it's a tad bulky at 1.8 inches wide by 3.6 inches tall by
0.9 inch thick, the Nokia 6086 has a pretty attractive design. Covered
in a coat of faux brushed aluminum, the 6086 has smooth clean lines and
curved edges, making it nice to hold in the hand. It weighs around 2.9
ounces, which isn't too heavy, and can be pocketed easily without
weighing you down. On the front of the phone is a tiny 1-inch diagonal
monochrome external display that shows all the essentials like time,
battery life, signal strength, and caller ID. The tiny LCD doesn't
support photo caller ID, and you won't be able to use it as a camera
viewfinder for self-portraits. The left spine is home to a volume
rocker plus a dedicated camera key, while there's a microSD card slot
on the right.

Flip open the phone and you'll see a very lackluster 1.75-inch diagonal
display. Even though it supports 262,000 colors, it only has up to
128x160 pixel resolution, so images and menu icons ended up looking
washed out and blurry. You can't change the brightness or backlight
time, but you can change the font size for messaging, the contacts
list, and the Web browser. The Nokia 6086 supports T-Mobile's MyFaves,
so you'll be presented with five contact thumbnails to scroll through
directly on the main display if you so choose.

Underneath the main display is the navigation array that consists of
two soft keys, a four-way toggle with a middle OK key, and the Talk and
End/Power buttons. The four-way toggle also doubles as four
user-defined shortcuts. A dedicated speakerphone key is unfortunately
missing. Overall, the keypad on the Nokia 6080 is one of the best
keypads we've ever had the pleasure to use. All the keys from the
navigation array to the alphanumeric keypad are large, spacious, and
have a bubbled texture that makes it impossible to press a key by
mistake.

Features

Other than the HotSpot @Home support, the Nokia 6086 is a pretty basic
camera phone. It has a 500-contact phone book with room in each entry
for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, notes, a birthday, and a Web
and street address. They can also be categorized into groups, paired
with any of 17 polyphonic ringtones, or a photo for caller ID (although
do remember that they won't show up on the external screen). You can
also select up to five entries to be your MyFaves contacts. Other
features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia
messaging, instant messaging (with support for Windows Live, AIM, ICQ,
and Yahoo), an alarm clock, a calendar, a task list, a voice recorder,
a calculator, a timer, a stopwatch, Bluetooth, and a wireless web
browser via T-Mobile's t-Zones.
Of course, the most important feature in the Nokia 6086 is its
support for T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service. The service lets you
connect to any wireless network to make, answer, and receive calls.
Additionally, calls made via Wi-Fi will not be deducted from your
plan's minutes. You can read more about HotSpot @Home in our review of the service.

Even though the Nokia 6086 has a few multimedia features such as a
camera and a music player, they're pretty bare-bones. It has a VGA
camera with only three resolution settings (640x480, 320x240, 160x120),
three quality settings, several color effects, and a self-timer. The
built-in camcorder has pretty much the same settings, with two
different lengths--30 seconds or so for video mail, and as much as the
available memory. Photo quality was pretty disappointing, and video
quality was mediocre as well, with a lot of blurry and overcast images.
The phone's music player is also pretty basic, and has the standard
play, pause, and track shuttle controls. There is an equalizer with six
different presets, however. You can upload songs from your PC via a
microSD card.

There are quite a few personalization options with the Nokia 6086. You
can customize your wallpaper, screensavers, themes, sound alerts, and
ringtones, plus you have the option to buy and download more from
T-Mobile. A few games are included in the phone--Brain Challenge, Golf Tour, Highroller, Sudoku, and World Poker Tour--and you can always download more as well.

Performance

We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Nokia 6086 in San Francisco using the T-Mobile
service plus with a few wireless networks thanks to the T-Mobile
HotSpot @Home service. Call quality was surprisingly good--voices
sounded natural and clear, even when in speakerphone mode. This was the
same with both GSM cellular airwaves and when using Wi-Fi. The signal
strength also improves remarkably when using the 6086 within a wireless
network, which makes us think the HotSpot @Home service is definitely a
great feature. We also paired the Nokia 6086 with the Cardo S-640 Bluetooth headset
without any problems. Sound quality of the music player was OK but
rather subpar. Music sounded tinny, with not a lot of bass at all.

The Nokia 6086 has a rated talk time of five hours and a rated standby time of four days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Nokia 6086 has a digital SAR rating of 1.15 watts per kilogram.

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LaCie Biggest FW800 (2 terabyte

The good: Four connection
options: USB 2.0, FW400, FW800, and serial/RS-232; front-mounted LCD
advises you of the status of the drive; supports several RAID arrays;
supports a variety of file systems; drives are hot-swappable.
The bad: To
hot-swap drives, you'll need to purchase LaCie's preinstalled drive
trays; no backup utility; has fewer features and is more expensive than
comparably sized NAS drives with RAID arrays.
The bottom line: If
you need the fast throughput of a locally connected RAID array, the
LaCie Biggest FW800 is a good choice, but if you don't mind the slower
transfer speeds of Ethernet, a NAS RAID array can be less expensive and
offer more features.

The LaCie Biggest FW800 is a four-bay external SATA RAID drive that
supports several levels of RAID, hot-swapping, and a variety of
connection options. It comes in two capacities: 1 terabyte ($1,050) and
2 terabytes ($1,530). Connection options include USB 2.0, FireWire 800,
and FireWire 400 (using a FW400-to-FW800 cable). The included
documentation walks you through the simple setup procedure, which does
not require you to install drivers. A two-line text LCD sits on the
front of the drive and relays information such as the drive's status
and RAID level. Two LEDs on each drive bay blink or glow different
colors, depending on the drive's status. The Biggest FW800 supports
HFS+, FAT32, UNIX, and NTFS file systems, which makes it appropriate
for various combinations of operating systems. The only major feature
the FW800 lacks is a backup utility, which is odd, considering LaCie
does have a proprietary utility in the form of the LaCie 1-Click Backup
for Windows PCs and SilverKeeper for Macs.
Most multidisk hard drives of this size and price are
network-attached storage drives, making the non-networked Biggest FW800
an expensive option by comparison. For example, the Buffalo Terastation Home Server
offers 1 terabyte storage, a media server and print server, and
external USB ports, plus a gigabit Ethernet connection--for $900. Our
inclination is to spend the money on a NAS drive that offers more
features, but LaCie is targeting the professional audio/video producer
market that needs local backup and fast throughput for quickly moving
large AV files. (Fast Ethernet has a maximum throughput of 100Mbps,
while USB 2.0's theoretical max throughput is 480Mbps and FireWire
400's max is 400Mbps.)

Almost all the RAID-capable drives we've tested and reviewed are NAS
drives, so we can't make direct comparisons with the LaCie FW800. We
tested the drive in its default RAID 5 mode (quick explanation here
Using the USB 2.0 connection, the drive wrote our 10GB test folder in
25 minutes, 11 seconds, or 6.78Mbps. It read back the same folder in 9
minutes, 48 seconds, or 17.42Mbps. The FireWire 400 results were very
similar: 25 minutes, 27 seconds to write (6.71Mbps) and 9 minutes, 8
seconds (18.71Mbps) to read. These numbers are slower than those for
non-RAID hard drives, but that's to be expected. RAID 5 implementations
are also slower than RAID 0 or RAID 1 arrays.
Although the FW800 is advertised as hot-swappable, LaCie
recommends not replacing the hard disk drive yourself in case of
failure (that is, separating the hard drive from the drawer that slides
into the drive bay); doing so will void the warranty. LaCie does sell
replacement preinstalled hard disks, i.e., the hard drive plus the
drive drawer, that you can hot swap on your own. The 250GB version
costs $200, and the 500GB version costs $350. The other alternative is
to contact LaCie customer support. This setup isn't nearly as
convenient as that of the Drobo,
which allows you to install naked hard disks directly into the
enclosure. Drobo also offers data protection using some of the same
techniques RAID uses, but includes some proprietary schemes as well. We
found Drobo simple to use, but it has limited connection options. So
far, only a USB 2.0 connection is available, though Data Robotics is
working on an Ethernet version. Also, Drobo is on the expensive side:
$500 without drives.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, July 16, 2007

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