The Cybermagic of Whitelists

The Cybermagic of Whitelists

by: Niall Roche

Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article itกs important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense.

An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet.

A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam.

A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist.

A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don’t want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook.

To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world if you ain’t on the list you ain’t getting in. Simple but very effective.

A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends.

The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.

If youกd like to learn more about spam then drop by http://www.spamsite.com today.

About The Author

http://www.spamsite.com reviews and tests spam filtering software for the business and end user. Niall Roche is the content author and owner of spamsite.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 09, 2004

by Niall Roche

VoIP 101: Voice over IP for Beginners

VoIP 101: Voice over IP for Beginners

by: Rich McIver

For those who have never heard about the potential of VoIP, be prepared to radically change the way you think about your current longdistance calling plan. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is very simply, a method for taking ordinary analog audio signals and turning them into digital signals that can be sent over the Internet.

So what? Well, for those of you who are already paying a monthly fee for an Internet connection, this means that you can use that same connection to place free long distance phone calls. This process works by using already available VoIP software to make phone calls over the Internet, essentially circumventing phone companies and their service charges.

Interestingly, VoIP is not an entirely new thing. In fact, a number of providing companies have been around for some time. But it has only been with the more recent explosion of highspeed internet access usage, that VoIP has gotten any attention. Now the major telephone carriers are setting up their own VoIP calling plans throughout the US, another testament to the potential of the technology.

How VoIP Is Used

While there are a number of ways that VoIP is currently being used, most individual callers fall into one of three categories: ATA, IP Phones, and ComputertoComputer.

ATA or Analog Telephone Adaptor, is the most common way of using VoIP. This adaptor actually allows you to hook up the phone that is already in your house, to your computer, and then your Internet connection. What the ATA does, is turn the analog signals your phone sends out into digital signals that can be sent over the Internet. Setting up this system is quite simple. It simply requires that you order an ATA (its an adaptor remember), plug the cable from your phone which would normally go into the wall socket into the ATA, and then the ATA gets plugged into your computer, which is connected to the internet. Some ATAs include software that has to be installed on your computer before its ready, but basically itกs quite a simple process. Then you are ready to make some calls.

The next type of VoIP usage utilizes IP Phones instead of your home phone. The IP Phone looks just like a normal phone, with all the same buttons and cradle, the only difference is that instead of having a normal wall jack connector, it has an Ethernet connector. This means, that instead of plugging in your IP phone to the wall jack like you would with a regular analog phone, it gets plugged directly into your router. This option allows you to circumvent your personal computer, and it also means that you will not have to install any software, because its all built in to the handset. In addition, the fact that WiFi IP phones will soon be available, which will allow subscribing callers to make VoIP calls from any WiFi hot spot, make this option an exciting possibility.

The simplest and cheapest way to use VoIP is through computertocomputer calls. These calls are entirely free, meaning no calling plan whatsoever. The only thing you need, is the software which can be found for free on the internet, a good internet connection, a microphone, speakers, and a sound card. Except for your monthly internet service fee, there is literally no cost for making these calls, no matter how many you make.

For large companies, VoIP also offers some very unique possibilities. Some larger companies are already utilizing the technology by conducting all intraoffice calls through a VoIP network. Because the quality of sound is comparable to and in some cases surpasses that of analog service, some international companies are using VoIP to route international calls through the branch of their company nearest the callกs destination and then completing it on an analog system. This allows them to pay local rates internationally and still utilize the same intraoffice VoIP network that they would if they were calling someone in the next cubicle over.

Other Advantages of VoIP

While your current longdistance plan covers you for only one location, say calls made from your office, with VoIP, you can make a call anywhere that you can get a broadband connection. That is because all three methods above, unlike analog calls, send the call information via the Internet. This means you can make calls from home, on vacation, on business trips, and almost anywhere else. Anywhere you go, with VoIP you can bring your home phone along with you. In the same way, computertocomputer connections mean that as long as you have your laptop and a connection, you’re ready to go.

There are also some nifty benefits to having your calls transmitted over the Internet. For example, some VoIP service providers allow you to check your voicemail via your email, while others allow you to attach voice messages to your emails.

How VoIP Works

The current phone system relies on a reliable but largely inefficient method for connecting calls known as circuit switching. This technique, which has been used for over 100 years, means that when a call is made between two people a connection is maintained in both directions between callers for the duration of the call. This dual directional characteristic gives the system the name circuit.

If, for example, you made a 30minute call the circuit would be continuously open, and thus used, between the two phones. Up until about 1960, this meant that every call had to have an actual dedicated wire connecting the two phones. Thus a long distance call cost so much, because you were paying for pieces of copper wire to be connected all the way from your phone to the destination phone, and for that connection to remain constant throughout the call. Today, however, your analog call is converted after leaving your house to a digital signal, where your call can be combined with many others on a single fiber optic cable. While this system is certainly an improvement over the past copper wire system, it is still quite inefficient. This inefficiency is due in part to the fact that the telephone line can’t distinguish between useful talking and unneeded silences. For example, in a typical conversation while one person is talking the other person is listening. Thus the current analog system uses roughly half its space sending useless messages like this silence. But there is also more information, even down to pauses in speech, which under a more efficient system can be effectively cut out rather than wasting the circuit space. This idea of only transmitting the noisy bits of a telephone call and saving a great deal on circuit space, is the basis of PacketSwitching, the alternative method to circuit switching that the VoIP phone system uses.

PacketSwitching is the same method that you use when you view a website. For example, as you read this website, your computer is not maintaining a constant connection to the site, but rather making connections to send and receive information only on an as needed basis (such as when you click on a link). Just as this system allows the transfer of information over the Internet to work so quickly, so also does it work in the VoIP system. While circuit switching maintains a constant and open connection, packet switching opens connections just long enough to send bits of data called packets from one computer to another. This allows the network to send your call (in packets) along the least congested and cheapest lines available, while also keeping your computer or IP phone, free to send and receive messages and calls with other computers. This way of sending information, not to mention data compression, makes the amount of information which must be transmitted for every call at least 34 times less for VoIP than the exact same call in a conventional telephone system. For this reason, VoIP is so much cheaper than conventional calling plans.

The Future of VoIP

While most analysts believe it will be at least a decade before companies and telephone providers make the full switch to VoIP, the potential for the technologyกs use today is already quite astounding. A report by the Forrester Research Group predicts that by the end of 2006, nearly 5 million U.S. households will be using VoIP phone service. With the savings and flexibility that the technology already offers, and new advances just ahead on the horizon, we can expect those numbers will only increase in the future.

About The Author

Rich McIver is a contributing writer for VoIP Now: Voice over IP News ( http://www.voipnow.org ).

This article was posted on March 15, 2005

by Rich McIver

What is Broadband Phone?

What is Broadband Phone?

by: Aki Majima

A broadband phone is one that makes phone calls over the Internet using the IP protocol. Several large broadband phone companies have come to the forefront in recent months offering the ability to make phone calls with a regular phone, that are routed over Internet Protocol using broadband Internet access. The most popular method of using voice over IP among the household users of this technology is connection to IP telephony via a digital adapter. This is the device that is connected between a broadband modem and a normal house phone to gain access to the broadband phone line. The digital adapter unscrambles the digital voice data that is received via the Internet and converts it to an analogue signal that can be heard and understood with regular nondigital phones.

Without a doubt, voice over IP is the future in telecommunications and long distance communication. Making phone calls over IP is much cheaper than either conventional phones or cellular communication. The technology is extremely efficient and it is very easy to implement due to the fact that it uses the infrastructure of the Internet, a communications structure that already exists.

As internet telephony and its surrounding technology become more and more refined over the coming years, so will the technology that gives us access to it. Even over the coming twelve months, we will see a change from the use of a digital adapter to convert digital data from the web into analogue. Instead, we will see an increase in the availability of digital telephones and USB phones that plug directly into a USB port and that can make and receive phone calls digitally. You will also notice other mediums produce products that will attempt to bridge the gap between old technology and new. While other companies will keep their eye on the digital future and come up with more advanced variations of voice over IP to take us into the future.

The above article is copyright 2005 by Aki Majima.

About The Author

Aki Majima is a successful author and publisher of http://www.phoneserviceexplained.com. Informing and recommending the best route to take when dealing with your phone service needs.

This article was posted on January 24

by Aki Majima

Take Advantage Of Internet Phone Calls (VOIP)

Take Advantage Of Internet Phone Calls (VOIP)

by: Colin Brin

Voice Over IP (VOIP) is a relatively new technology. Voice Over IP allows people to leave behind the old and very traditional analogue phone networks and now adapt in favor of the very new and very progressive Internetbased calling system infrastructure. Using this technology for your communications actually works out cheaper for you in the long run as it means you won’t need to pay for calls if the people you are calling and speaking to are also using the same VOIP system.

Voice Over IP runs on several different types of infrastructure. This is the main reason why you should take the time to do your homework and find out how it works and what is involved, before you even consider setting up a Voice Over IP network at your home or place of business. When you do your homework you will see that invariably VOIP offers lots of advantages over and above the standard traditional telephone based analogue service that most people are currently using. Letกs take a moment to examine some of the advantages of using Voice Over IP.

The main advantage of Voice Over IP is to be honest the cost the cost benefit goes directly back into your pocket. And because Voice Over IP uses the infrastructure of the Internet to make outgoing calls, you will never need to pay your traditional phone provider to maintain a telephone line or for phone and line rental. In addition, many Voice Over IP service providers allow customers to make long distance calls that attract minimal or no long distance charges at all. Many service providers even offer customer VOIP packages that allow you to opt for discounted internet call rates so you can save even more.

But what about this for a benefit? If you have Voice Over IP software installed on your PC and you want to speak to someone who is also uses Voice Over IP, then you are able to talk for as long as you want without having to pay a single cent. This is because your voice is actually transformed into digital data packets rather than audio, and the data is transferred in a similar fashion to that of email. Voice Over IP also makes it very easy and cheap to conduct conference calls and video calls.

There are, of course, some minor disadvantages to using Voice Over IP and you should consider these before you embark on setting up Voice Over IP. Since Voice Over IP is a relatively recent and largely untapped technology, Voice Over IP is prone to experience more errors than using a normal phone would. In addition, if you experience a power failure, then you would be unable to make a call, like you could with a traditional analogue phone. In any event, Voice Over IP is something that you should investigate for your own home and business needs and you should consider it soon while the rates are cheap and the deals are good.

About The Author

Colin Brin is the owner of AB Voip which is a premier source of information about Voip. For more information, go to: http://abvoip.com

This article was posted on August 08

by Colin Brin

Know How DNS Works

Know How DNS Works

by: Pawan Bangar

Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets. The method user to represent these IP addresses is known as dotted decimal Notationก. A typical address looks like this: 199.249.150.4

It is very difficult to keep in mind the IP addresses of all the websites we visit daily, because itกs not easy to remember strings of numbers. However, we do remember words. This is where domain names come into the picture. If you want to connect to a particular site, you need to know its IP address but do need to know its URL. The DNS gets the mappings of the IP addresses and the corresponding names.

Names and numbers

DNS converts the machine names (such as www.xyz.com) to IP addresses (such as 199.249.150.9). Basically, it translates from a name to an address and from an address to a name.

The mapping from the IP address to the machine name is called reverse mapping .when you type http://www.xyz.com into your browser, the browser first needs to get the IP address of www.xyz.com. The machine uses a directory service to look up IP addresses and this service is called DNS. When you type www.xyz.com your machines firsts contacts a DNS server, asking it to find the IP address for www.xyz.com. This DNS server might then contact other DNS servers on the internet. DNS is therefore is considered as the global network of servers. The great advantage of DNS is that no organization is responsible for updating it. It is what is known as distributed database.

The three letter codes

A DNS server is just a computer thatกs running the DNS software. The most popular DNS software is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) DNS is hierarchical, treestructured system. The top is donated byก.ก. And is known as the root of the system. Below the root there are seven immediate sub domain nodes and these are กcomก, กorgก, กgovก, กmilก, กnetก, กeduก, กIntก, etc.

DNS consists of two components

Nameserver

Resolver

Nameserver:

This performs the task of looking up the names. Usually, there is one nameserver for a cluster of machines. If the nameserver does not contain the requested information, it will contact another nameserver. But it is not required for every server to know how to contact every other server. Every nameserver will know how to contact the root nameserver, and this in turn will know the location of every authoritative nameserver for all the second level domains.

Resolver:

This runs on a client machine to initiate DNS lookups. It contains a list of nameservers to use. As we have read, the function of each of these nameservers is to resolve name queries. There are three types of nameserversprimary nameserver, secondary nameserver, and caching nameserver. The secondary nameservers are configured for backup purposes. Caching nameservers only resolve name queries but do not maintain any DNS database files. It is important to note here that any change to primary nameservers needs to be propagated to secondary nameservers. This is because primary nameservers own the database records. The changes are propagated via a กzone transferก.

HOW กCACHINGกWORKS

DNS uses principle of กcachingก for its operation. When a nameservers receives Information about a mapping, it caches this information .further queries for the same mapping will use this cached result, thereby reducing the search cost. The nameservers don’t cache forever. The caching has a component called time to live (TTL) and the TTL determines how long a server will cache a piece of information. So when the nameservers caches receive an IP address, it receives the TTL with it. The nameserver caches the IP address for the period of time then discards it.

When a process needs to determine an IP address given a DNS address, it calls upon the local host to resolve the address. This can be done in variety of ways:

Table look up. On UNIX hosts, the table is /etc/hosts.

The process communicates with a local nameservers. This is named on a UNIX system.

By sending a massage to the remote system that is identified from the information in the file/etc/resolve.conf.

When a nameserver receives a query for a domain that is does not serve, it may send back a referral to the client by specifying better nameservers. Typically operate in the recursive manner wherein any DNS server passes requests it cannot handle to higher level server and so on, until either the request can be handled or until the root of the DNS name space is reached.

The nameservers contain pointers to other nameserver with the help of which it is possible to traverse the entire domain naming hierarchy. A host with the initial nameserver addresses has to be configured. After this, it is able to use DNS protocols to locate the nameserver responsible for any part or the DNS naming hierarchy.

Thus when a nameserver receives a request, it can do one of the following:

It can answer the request with an IP address. This method is called iterative. In this, the client simply asks the server to resolve a domain name. The server accesses its database, finds its IP address and sends that back. If the server does not find the address, it sends back an error ;DNS not foundก). Contact another nameserver and try to find the IP address for the requested name. Send back a referral to the client specifying the IP address of better nameservers.

A popular user interface, called กnslookupกis available on the UNIX system. With this, you can perform any DNS function. This program also displays the result to the user. Using is nslookup, you can obtain a listing of all the hosts in a zone. In order to do this, you first need to identify the nameserver for the zone.

The threats that are associated with the DNS are due to the lack of integrity and authenticity checking of the data held within the DNS. Also, other protocols can use host names as an access control mechanism. The internet engineering task force (IETF) has come up with DNS security (DNSSEC) extensions to DNS protocol. The main objective to DNSSEC is to provide authentication and integrity to the DNS. These are provided through the use of cryptographicก

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,

Technical Director,

Birbals, Ebirbals, SeoBirbals, Hbirbals

India.

Visit us at:

www.birbals.com

www.ebirbals.com

www.hbirbals.com

www.seobirbals.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 22, 2003

by Pawan Bangar

My Emails Are Not Being Delivered. Black Lists and

My Emails Are Not Being Delivered. Black Lists and White Lists Explained.

by: Karen Fegarty

Over 40% of all emails within your marketing campaign are not being delivered. You may not even be aware of this, as many ISPs will not send back a bounce message. In fact if you are sending messages to AOL customers, AOL is now blocking over 80% of the messages that come into their servers.

One of the main reasons that this is occurring is that your IP or Domain may be Black Listed. All major ISPกs and many corporate email systems now check against Black Lists and will refuse to deliver any emails that come from an IP that is Black Listed.

But what exactly is a Black List?

DNS black lists are lists of domains and IPกs that are known to originate Spam. Many antispam software programs used by corporations and ISPกs use these lists to control Spam by refusing any email that originates from one of these domains or IPs.

Unfortunately there are many instances of false positives as there are few checks and often little objectivity when listing a particular IP. In order for a black list to know that a domain is sending Spam, the offence must be reported . It may take only one report via a web form for you to be listed.

You may be listed maliciously through one complaint of a client, or that of a competitor. Many Black Lists, as well, will list not only the IP that is suspected as spamming, but will list any IPs in that range of addresses. If someone using the same Internet provider as you is accused of spamming and is placed on a Black List, you may be listed as well.

DNS blacklists are usually maintained by antispam organizations or by individuals.

What are some of the most popular Black Lists that ISPs are using?

Some of these include:

MAPS http://www.mailabuse.com/

Spam Cop http://www.spamcop.net/

SpamHaus http://www.spamhaus.org/

SPEWS.org http://www.spews.org/

ORDB.org Open Relay Database http://www.ordb.org/

How do I know if I am on a Black List?

Unfortunately, you really can’t be 100% sure if you have been black listed. You may be on someoneกs black list and not even know it. There are, however, ways to check most of the lists.

One way is to check your server log when sending your campaigns. You will often see an email bounce notice indicating that the message has bounced because you are on a particular black list.

Many of the major black lists also allow you to enter your IP into a form on their site. These checks will tell you whether you appear, or not, on their list.

A useful tool, is the Black List Monitor. http://www.blacklistmonitor.com It automatically checks your IP against most of the major Black Lists and tells you which ones you are listed on. It also gives you help in getting removed. All your IPs are constantly monitored for any changes, listings, or delistings.

But what is a White List and how can this help?

Many corporations and ISPs will create a white list. This is a list of trusted IP addresses that they feel confident will not send spam to their customers. If your IP is listed on a particular white list then your email messages will be delivered to the destination email address. It is important for reputable marketers to work with the major ISPกs such as AOL to ensure that you are on their white list. For most, it can be a lengthy process, but well worth your efforts.

Other thirdparty email certification programs now exist. Bonded sender www.bondedsender.com is one such agency. By joining Bonded Sender, senders improve deliverability rates and differentiate their brand. Senders go through a formal application process, adhere to email standards and post a bond against potential complaints. Major ISPs such as MSN/Hotmail now check against Bond Senderกs white list and allow these email to pass.

Knowing if you are on a black list, getting removed if you are and getting established on white lists is critical if you are email marketing. The more messages delivered equals more sales!

About The Author

Author Karen Fegarty is with MailWorkZ the creator of Black List Monitor advanced service that continuously checks all the major blacklists for you, and then some. Don’t be treated unfairly! Keep a handle on who may have you blacklisted. Get a free trial and find out more at http://www.blacklistmonitor.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 11, 2004

by Karen Fegarty

Denial Of Service Attack

Denial Of Service Attack

by: Edwin Gonzalez

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is an attack on a network which is designed to bring it to a halt. This is done by sending useless traffic to a specific service/port on a server. The amount of traffic sent would overwhelm the service, so that legitimate traffic would be dropped or ignored.

DDoS attacks have developed from the basic DoS attacks that were in the wild in 1997. These attacks originate from one source and can emerge from 100’s of locations around the world. The most visible attacks were those in February 2000, where high traffic sites (eBay/Amazon/Yahoo/CNN/Buy.Com/Datek/ZDNet) were faced with the task of handling huge amounts of spoofed traffic. In recent days, there have been attacks on Cisco which resulted in considerable downtime. Some public blacklist have also been targeted by spammers and taken out of business.

The following are different types of attacks.

Smurfing: The culprit sends a large amount of ICMP echo traffic at IP Broadcast addresses, all of it having a spoofed source address of a victim. This multiplies the traffic by the number of hosts.

Fraggle: This is the cousin of the smurf attack. This attack uses UDP echo packets in the same was as the ICMP echo traffic.

Ping Flood: The culprit attempts to disrupt service by sending ping request directly to the victim.

Syn Flood: Exploiting the flaw in the TCP threeway handshake, the culprit will create connection requests aimed at the victim. These requests are made with packets of unreachable source addresses. The server/device is not able to complete the connection and as a result the server ends up using the majority of its network resources trying to acknowledge each SYN.

Land: The culprit sends a forged packet with the same source and destination IP address. The victims system will be confused and crash or reboot.

Teardrop: The culprit sends two fragments that cannot be reassembled properly by manipulating the offset value of the packet and cause a reboot or halt of the victim’s system.

Bonk: This attack usually affects Windows OS machines. The culprit sends corrupted UDP Packets to DNS port 53. The system gets confused and crashes.

Boink: This is similar to the Bonk attack; accept that it targets multiple ports instead of only 53.

Worming: The worm sends a large amount of data to remote servers. It then verifies that a connection is active by attempting to contact a website outside the network. If successful, an attack is initiated. This would be in conjunction with a massmailing of some sort.

With the current TCP/IP implementation, there is very little that companies can do to prevent their network from being DDoSed. Some companies can be proactive and make sure all their systems are patched and are only running services they need. Also implementing, Egress/Ingress filtering and enable logging on all routers will disable some DDoS attacks.

ขEgress filtering is the process of examining all packet headers leaving a subnet for address validity. If the packetกs source IP address originates inside the subnet that the router serves, then the packet is forwarded. If the packet has an illegal source address, then the packet is simply dropped. There is very little overhead involved, therefore there is no degradation to network performance.ข

Cisco Website

Below you will find a simple SYN attack detection script that could be set to run every 5 minutes via a cronjob. In case of an attack you would receive and email with IP information; remember the IP information is usually spoofed.

#!/usr/bin/perl w

#Simple Script to monitor syn attacks.

$syn_alert=15;

$hostname=`hostname`;

chomp($hostname);

$num_of_syn=`netstat an | grep c SYN`;

if($num_of_syn > $syn_alert)

{

`netstat an | grep SYN | mail s กSYN ATTACK DETECTED ON $hostnameก admin\@yourcompany.com`;

}

else {

}

exit;

Conclusion: DDoS attacks are very difficult to trace and stop. New hardware appliances are being manufactured specifically for these types of attacks. Many dedicated server providers simply unplug the server that is being attacked until the attack has stopped. This is not a solution this is a careless and temporary fix. The culprit will still exist and has not been held accountable for their actions. Once an attack is detected hosts should immediately engage their upstream providers.

About The Author

Edwin Gonzalez is the founder of Datums Internet Solutions, LLC (http://www.datums.net) based out of New York. In addition to dealing with daytoday operations, he works on building his library of shell oneliners.

This article was posted on November 11, 2004

by Edwin Gonzalez

PayPerClick Fraud Exposed

PayPerClick Fraud Exposed

by: Dean Phillips

Has anyone else noticed a disturbing pattern in your payperclick advertising campaign, of the same IP addresses clicking on your ad, spending one or two seconds on your website and then leaving?

Thatกs called click fraud and itกs a major problem among all of the payperclick search engines.

Click fraud is a scheme that takes advantage of online advertising programs like those offered by Google, Yahoo/Overture, Findwhat and others. A fraudulent website is set up and participates in programs like Googleกs AdSense program. Unlike legitimate websites that attract human visitors to the site, fraudsters use software กhitbotsก or employ boilerrooms of lowwage employees from other countries to generate clicks on ads, and then collect commission from payperclick programs.

In June, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Michael Anthony Bradley 32, of Oak Park California who was charged with fraud and extortion for a scheme involving Googleกs payperclick program. Believe it or not, Bradley actually tried to extort Google into paying $100,000 for click fraud software he created called กGoogle Clique.ก

Click fraud hurts advertisers by driving up the cost of each click because many online advertising programs adjust the price of each click based on the popularity of a particular keyword and the number of competing advertisers. And depending on how popular your keyword is, it can take just a few minutes to register hundreds of clicks. Click fraud can quickly deplete your payperclick account and leave you with little or nothing to show for your expentiture.

In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, กWe are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members.ก

Now, in all fairness to the payperclick companies Iกve used in the past, I have to give credit where credit is due. Whenever I complained of click fraud, which was often, all of the payperclick companies, without exception, did the right thing and credited the stolen funds back into to my account. Ironically, I have not had a click fraud problem with Google.

You can reduce your risk of being victimized by click fraud, by regularly auditing your website’s log files and immediately reporting suspicious traffic to the payperclick companies. If you are unfamiliar with analyzing your site’s log files, there are some excellent software products available to assist you like ClickTracks, WebTrends, and AWStats. These products make it fairly easy to identify patterns in your websiteกs traffic.

Recently, I noticed the same IP number clicking on my ad over and over againoften many times within just a few minutes. I did some basic detective work and discovered it was actually a competitor of mine devouring my payperclick dollars. I approached him with my findings and threatened him with law enforcement intervention, if he didn’t cease and desist. He denied any involvement, of course. But I haven’t had any problems with that individual since.

So, how did I find out who the culprit was? Easy.

When checking your log files, if you notice a lot of clicks from one IP address, you can trace its origin by visiting the American Registry of Internet Numbers. By feeding the IP address into their กWhoisก search, they will tell you who has been assigned that IP address, and whether itกs an actual IP or another business entity.

Should the IP address not be assigned to the Americas, you can verify RIPE Network Coordination Center for all Russian, European, and Middle Eastern registries, or the Asia Pacific Network Information Center. There are only three such sites, so you should be able to track the source.

However, if someone is using sophisticated software to generate clicks on your ad, it will probably be impossible for you to trace the IP address yourself. For example, according to alleged Google extortionist, Michael Bradley, กHolland Engine software was originaly written to allow spammers to conceal their orginating IP address from mailservers and to keep it from apearing in email headers.

Holland Engine is the core of LincolnSX, the most powerful massemailing software, running at rates of 5 million e mails per day per machine. Holland Engine will actually tunnel through the internet and connect to the desired IP address from, not your IP but rather from another, the one at the end of the tunnel.ก

In conclusion, if you choose to use payperclick search engines to advertise, watch your log files closely and report improprieties immediately.

Also don’t put all of your eggs into one basket, by depending solely on payperclick advertising. Utilize a variety of ways to attract traffic to your website, such as ezines, newsletters, writing articles, offline advertising, etc.

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected]

Make Money Online! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will help you make money online, starting today…Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.

Website: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on September 27, 2004

by Dean Phillips

What is a domain name and why would I want one?

What is a domain name and why would I want one?

by: Ewan Bain

In this article we will cover the basics of what a domain name is, how they work and why you need to have at least one. I am going to try and avoid complicated computer terms and stick to explanations that should be easily understood by someone without a computer science degree.

What is a Domain Name? Before we can go into what a domain name is Iกm going to tell you why we need them as the answers compliment each other. The Internet is just a really big collection of connected computers (a network). For the purpose of explaining domain names you can think of the Internet a bit like the phone system and just like the phone system every computer on the Internet has itกs own phone number except an Internet phone number is called an IP addresses. This address is made up of up to 12 digits in the form 123.123.123.123, computers use these IP addresses to send information to each other over the Internet.

When the Internet was first created it quickly became clear that these IP addresses were not easy to remember and another method was need to make these addresses more human friendly. The solution to this was the Domain Name System (DNS). Basically the DNS is a really really big phone book for computers. When you type a web site address into your web browser it checks the DNS for that website name and finds the IP address. Once it has the IP address it can then send a message to that computer and ask it for the web page you wanted.

Ok so you know a domain name is part of a web site address but which part? Lets look at a website address so we can identify and discuss what bit of it is a domain name.

http://www.itxcel.com/index.html

The above address is the home page of the itXcel web site. It can be split into 3 main parts. The first part is http:// this just tells your web browser what kind of information it is going to get and how to get it. The last part is /index.html this is name of the files on the remote computer that you want your browser to get. The bit in the middle www.itxcel.com is a domain name. This is the name that your computer sends to the DNS to get back the IP address.

So you know what a domain name is and that there is a phone book called the DNS to change your easy to remember domain name into an IP address that you computer can understand. The Internet phone book (DNS) is special in that everyone on the Internet needs to be able to use it. This makes the DNS very very big (100+ million addresses big). Due to the size of this phone book it needed to have a carefully organised and managed structure.

Domain names themselves are split into different levels like a hierarchy. The DNS system uses this hierarchy to search the DNS for the IP address of the domain name it is trying to find. The last bit of a domain, in the previous example the com part is called the top level domain. There are a large selection of top level domains like com, net, org and info. There are also very similar endings called country level domains like uk and de. Each of the top level and country level domains are managed by a different organization, sometimes these are companies or non profit organizations and sometimes governments. In the domain business these organisations are referred to as the registries. Each registry looks after itกs own part of the domain name system.

If you decide you want to use a domain name in the top level domain com, like mycompany.com you would have to have this name assigned by the registry that manages that top level domain (for .com a US company called VeriSign). The process of being assigned a domain name is called domain registration.

Domain registration is more like a lease than a purchase. You are renting the second level domain (the mycompany bit) from Verisign for a specific amount of time normally between 1 and 10 years at a time. Most of the organizations that allow you to register a second level domain charge a fee for each year that you register the domain for. With almost all domain names you are also given the option to renew your registration (lease) when it is close to running out (expiring).

Once you have registered a second level domain you are free to create as many third level domains (sometimes called sub domains) as you like. In our previous example the www is a sub domain of itxcel.com

Most of the registries that manage these top level domain names do not allow individuals or businesses to register domains directly with them. To register a domain you need to use a company like itXcel. We act as a registrar and send all the required information and the registration fee to the registry. Registrars are useful as they hide the differences that exist in each of the registries from the customer and provide a simple step by step process for registering a domain. A registrar also allows you to manage and track all your domains from one place rather than having to deal with a different company for each top level domain.

OK so I know what a domain name is, Why do need one? Can you image what a nightmare it would be if you had an email address like [email protected] or a web site address http://123.246.128.255/. These addresses are possible but not very easy to remember. Now if you register a domain name you could create an email address like [email protected] and a web site address like http://mycompany.com These are much easier to remember and look 100 times more professional.

One of the important points about registering a domain is that once done you have an exclusive right to use that domain for as long as you keep the domain registered in your name. If you do not renew a domain at the end of itกs registration period it will again become available for registration by someone else. For this reason even if you don’t want or need a web site at the moment, itกs still a good idea to register a domain as soon as possible. Just imagine if your competition registered the domain name of your company or product. Although there is a process in place to retrieve these domain it can be long and complicated. It is definitely simpler to spend a little money up front to secure your chosen domain names.

To find out what domains are available and to quickly and cheaply register them visit http://www.itxcel.com now and enter your desired name in the domain search box.

About The Author

Ewan Bain is the general manager at itXcel Internet Limited Based in the UK itXcel provide Internet services, including domain name registration and web site hosting to small to medium sized businesses and home users. For more information visit Our Website.

This article was posted on September 17, 2004

by Ewan Bain

World On IP Community versus Telecomsก Monopoly

World On IP Community versus Telecomsก Monopoly

by: Patrizia Demaria

World on IP community versus the TELECOMSก monopoly or a dream of a visionary

Why VOIP will grow over the usual telephony

Without qualification, if one had to choose between usual telephone lines or IP telephony for carrying the voice, the first would be a better fit for the needs of voice communications. Also, IP telephony is generally subject to transmission delays.

Voice communications is highly sensitive to delays or irregularities in the transmission of voice signal components.

Even when transmitted in digital form, not only must the transmission delay be small (so as to be imperceptible to the listener), but also the time between the arrival of digital signal samples at the receiving end of a transmission must be at regular intervals. Any significant form of delay, whether delay of all samples or one sample relative to the other, can significantly degrade the quality of the voice signal recreated at the far end of the transmission.

Besides, Ip telephony during network congestion is subject to the loss of กpacketsก and with them part of the words of a conversation.

In the usual telephone lines, this doesn’t occure, because new calls are blocked from entering the network and there is no network congestion.

Why so much activity was spent in the last few years to overcome these problems?

Now, we are definetly able to offer a very good and reliable VOIP , with phones that can be used also on a Modem or ISDN connection. ( very attractive for the countries that are mostly penalized with high cost of telephone charges: India, Africa and rural zones in general.) A high compression and a new algorithm for it will allow the transmission of voice without any delay, the priority given to the voice packets will kill the congestion, all this resulting in a gorgeous quality of voice.

Although voice communications continues to dominate the market today, this will ultimately change as data communications grows at 100% per year, ( in Italy last year we had a 250% growth of DSL lines and they say next year will even be better) while voice only increases by 8 to 10% per year. Thus, the doubling of the existing lines ( creation of voice over IP world ) only makes sense in the case the data customers want to use the data line for voice communications as well. For example, a multilocation user that uses a commercial data network service to connect those customer locations might want to cut down expenses by using that same network for voice communications, as well. It has been estimated that companies can lower their communications costs by as much as 80% by placing their voice traffic through the unused space in their data networks .

How we plan to compete with the giant Telecoms of today

Entering the market against the Telecoms is downright dangerous and potentially fatal in todayกs capital environment. The net revenue derived from investment should be small relatively to the size of the investment. A single large business may generate many thousands of dollars per month in revenues for an investor , while a big residential consumers investment would generate very little revenue compared to the infrastructures required.

That considered, it should not surprise us if firms try and serve large businesses rather than residential customers.

If competition is less likely when the revenue is small relative to the size of the investment, there are three ways to increase competition in a market:

a) increase revenue

b) reduce the investment required

c) do both.

What has all this to do with being a Utopistic dreamer or visionary as many defined me while I explained my project?

I have an exciting project, which, if succesfull, will allow all the people who own a DSL line to be able to call the world with a portable IP phone. I will try to explain it as much as possible ( you can also see my web pages at http://www.worldonip.com/community. )

It is very simple.

Instead of sharing the bandwidth to download illegal MP3 or movies, we share it to telephone for free.

You need to connect to your DSL line an Access Point, to place the antenna on a window. You do not even need to have the computer on 24 hours a day, just connecting the access point. You will create a ก Hot Spotก that every other member of the community will be able to use. You will then need a (real) portable IP phone, you will connect to the Net either through your own Hot Spot or through the hot spot of any other member, wherever you will be ( all the continents will have people sharing hot spots. )

A call with our device consumes maximum 20 k, thanks to to high compression of the voice and the quality is absolutely gorgeous.

Our telephone will have a price around 200 250 US dollars. An access point costs not more than 100 US dollars. The value of the investment highly overcomes the amount.

Imagine, being able to call for free for the rest of your life!!! And imagine what kind of doors opens a connection like that!

Going back to the market competition.

In my particular case

a) Increase the revenue. Every member would have enormous revenues under the voiceก Free call wherever he wantsก.

b) Reduce the investment. Being a shared investment, every member will invest in the enterprise the cost of an Access point ( around $100 or even less). Considering that in the beginning we will have members who already have a DSL line with a flat rate, and already use it for other purposes, also the cost of running the system and relative bandwidth will amount to almost zero. The cost of the phone is irrilevant compared to the benefit of having FREE CALLS.

Not only does the Community reduce the investment required to provide a competitive service to almost ZERO, it also significantly reduces the risk involved in funding a telecom startup venture. The Community allows an entrant to begin a new service at minimal sunk capital cost.

Further, once a critical mass of customers is signed up on the Community, it becomes far more cost effective for the entrant to build a new ก Hot Spotก.

To the unskilled eye, it appears as if the competition envisioned by the authors of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for residential and small business markets was not much more than a dream an unrealized and unrealizable nirvana.

The project of the Community is making that dream a reality and offers the potential for building a really strong TELECOM able to compete against the World Telecomsก monopoly.

Our model is easy to realize ( because the infrastructure already exists), brings enormous revenues to the members of the Community and the investment is really minimal.

Without considering the NONPolluting system that will be created in competition to a Highly polluting system existing.

World on Ip community versus Telecomsก monopoly. A real challenge?

Patrizia Demaria

About The Author

Patrizia is an italian pharmacyst, fond of Internet and Internet related subjects. She is also an ebooks publisher with a website of more than 700 free classic literature ebooks in English, French, Italian, German http://www.easymediabroadcast.com all personally published by her.

Her english is not always perfect, but the temperament and passion with which she espouse a cause overcome her (eventual) mistakes. Lately all her efforts are devolved to the creation of the World on IP community.

http://www.worldonip.com/community

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 09, 2003

by Patrizia Demaria

Avoiding กBadก Web Hosts

Avoiding กBadก Web Hosts

by: Jim Edwards

The Internet represents the most powerful communication revolution since the dawn of mankind.

Its communication power can literally create business empires faster and with less startup capital than in all human history.

Yet, with all this power at their fingertips, it amazes me that most businesses and entrepreneurs will put their business in jeopardy just to save a couple of bucks.

Would you build a luxury home on a foundation made for a doublewide trailer?

Would you mount a race car body and engine on a chassis built for a gocart?

If not, then why would you try to build a legitimate online business to support your family and contribute to your livelihood using $4 a month hosting?

It doesn’t make sense, but people do it every day and, unfortunately, the consequences can often cost you a hundred times or more of what you กsaved.ก

When you go to choose a web host, you need to think in terms of the purpose for your website(s).

If you want a little family site or a noncommercial blog, then $5 a month hosting may be just what you need.

If you want to host a basic, but dependable website to sell your own, or someone elseกs products, then plan on $920 a month, depending on how much handholding you need from your web hostกs technical support staff.

If you want to host multiple sites to generate search engine traffic, sell your own products online, and get a moderate amount of traffic, then plan to spend $15$50 a month, depending on which options you choose.

If you plan to operate a serious ecommerce site and need the flexibility to grow, then a dedicated server for $100 $200 a month may fit the bill.

When evaluating a web host, keep the following in mind.

Will you run scripts on your website?

If yes, then make sure the web host offers a cgibin and mysql database. Those allow you to run almost any kind of script youกll need on a basic to intermediate level site.

Will you have your own กdedicated IP address?ก

All domain names correspond to an IP address, which is just a series of numbers.

Just like a phone number dials up the correct phone anywhere on earth, each domain has its own number.

However, depending on how your host sets up their server, your domain can actually share an IP address with dozens, even hundreds, of other websites.

If one of those websites misbehaves, it can adversely affect everyone on that same IP address.

My advice: pay a little extra to make sure you get your own dedicated IP.

How much space will you need?

Make sure you get at least 100 megabytes of space from your web host.

Also, make sure you get at least 10 email forwarding accounts and 10 gigabytes of data transfer per month.

Also, the hosting market is so competitive now that you should never pay a setup fee.

If in doubt, shop around, compare and always ask someone you trust or check up on what others have to say about a specific hosting service by visiting sites like http://www.webhostingtalk.com

The moral here?

Understand that your web hosting account is literally the กfoundationก for your online business, so don’t skimp. You’re only hurting yourself in the long run if you do.

© Jim Edwards All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the coauthor of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple ‘traffic Machineก brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

This article was posted on August 13

by Jim Edwards

The Click Fraud Problem

The Click Fraud Problem

by: Christos Varsamis

Click fraud has become a major problem for online marketers. If you participate on Google adwords campaigns or Overture, you must already pay a lot for your campaigns.

What is click fraud?

Click fraud is the deliberate clicks to PPC search engine ads for completely other reasons than expressing interest for buying the related products or services.

Overture defines click fraud as clicks arising for reasons other than the goodfaith intention of an Internet user to visit a web site to purchase goods or services or to obtain information.

Google defines click fraud, or invalid clicks, as any method used to artificially and/or maliciously generate clicks or page impressions.

In simple words, Click fraud means that someone is cheating you and that you pay too much for your pay per click campaigns.

Who is doing that?

Three main groups click on pay per click ads, without real interest in the offered goods:

People who joined Google AdSense or other per click affiliate programs click on the ads on their own web site to make a little income. Often, these people cooperate with other webmasters to click on each otherกs ads.

Some unethical companies click on the pay per click ads of competitors to drive up their advertising costs.

Companies (often in India, Russia and China) hire people who are paid to click on ads.

Google and other search networks provide refunds to advertisers when click fraud has been discovered.

Google and Overture employ กfraud squads,ก or teams of people dedicated to fighting click schemes. But at least two marketing executives say such countermeasures are missing fraudulent clicks that are responsible for between 5 percent and 20 percent of advertising fees paid to all search networks.

This is a huge problem. There is no ขpay per clickข Company denying that click fraud exists. Web analytics companies estimates that the 50% of all click activity is fraudulent.

This means that your pay per click marketing activities are half effective as they could be because of click fraud.

Overture spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens refutes that estimate, saying that the numbers likely represent acts of fraud that are ultimately caught. She added that Overture filters most fraudulent clicks with the best antifraud system in the industry, which combines technology and human analysis.

Most advertisers are aware of the clickfraud issue but have not delved into it because of the technical complexities involved. Others are concerned that they could jeopardize their relationships with the powerful search networks if they complain too loudly.

One of the best ways to eliminate click fraud is using anti click fraud services such as ppctrax (www.ppctrax.com). They provide services like the below:

IP address capture.

IP address geographic Location.

User Agent (browser, bot etc.)

See exactly what keywords are generating your clicks

Date and Time stamp

System detects sudden click spikes from one or more IP addresses

Realtime email alerts at 80% and 100% of your accountกs transaction utilization

IP address history alert you to prior offenders

Another similar service is ขwho is clicking whoข:

http://www.whosclickingwho.com

Other ways is the click fraud capture software like Click Auditor:

http://www.keywordmax.com/click_auditor.html

About The Author

Christos Varsamis is an internet marketing consultant. He is the creator and publisher of http://www.settinglifegoals.com & http://www.internetmarketingsuccesstips.com.

This article was posted on March 07

by Christos Varsamis