June 19, 2013

Basics of a Virtual Private Network

BUENA PARK, CA - MARCH 25: Overheated homeowne...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

More and more companies today are looking into allowing their employees to work from home. Because of this, virtual private networks, or vpn’s, have become more popular as well. A virtual private network allows a company to give their employees secure access to the company network from their home computer. Depending on the company, or even the industry that you work for, you may already deal with a virtual private network if you work from home. A virtual private network will make sure that all data that is transferred is encrypted. Because of this added security feature, many companies that require confidentiality will require the use of a virtual private network.

If your company has set up a virtual private network, it may make it easier to get them to allow you to work from home, at least part time. Just make sure that while you’re using the vpn network from your home office, you don’t do non-work things like surfing the Internet or investigating top affiliate programs unless you know that it’s acceptable. Keep your private computer use and your work separate and only connect to the vpn if and when you’re working for the company. In fact, in most cases you’ll have to access the vpn with specific log-in information given by the company for work use only — and which allows them to track your use of the system.

There are even options for a mobile virtual private network. If you do most of your work on a laptop or and travel frequently while working, your company may decide that this is the best way to go. Even if you don’t travel for work on work related business all the time, a mobile virtual private network may be beneficial for those times that you do have to be out of your home office and can help make your work hours more productive.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Computers 101

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

There are eight basic parts to a computer:

1. Power supply for providing electricity in a managed and controlled fashion.
2. Heat sink for cooling the processor.
3. Mother board for routing and directing all of the computer functions.
4. Graphics card(s) for translating the computers workings and operations into an interface that can be viewed.
5. External drives like CD-Rom, DVD-Rom, and diskettes or floppy disks for transferring information to the computer or receiving information from the computer onto physical media.
6. Hard drive for storage and operations of data and programs.
7. Memory – There are various kinds if memory offered. You can get as little or as much memory on your computer as you wish. But it’s best to get more memory than you will ever use.
8. Printers, Scanners, Cameras, etc., and all the other peripheral stuff that is seemingly endless in it’s creation.

Today, most of the aspects of our lives have related computerized components. Everything including vacuum cleaners and toasters have microprocessors. A personal computer is a technically advanced tool that is built around a small, thin chunk of plastic (a processor) with LOTS of microscopic electrical pathways etched or burned into a finely layered piece of metal on the surface. This is where the “thinking” is done. It has a big heat sink and a fan (or liquid cooling) connected to it because all of that thinking heats it up.

Personal Computers started back in the 1970s. Most people were surprised when they actually took off. The original thinking of, “We have a typewriter, why would we ever need a computer?” only lasted about four years. A couple years after the original introduction of the computer, Apple Computers came on the scene and the home computer industry started to take-off incredibly. Soon, companies like Commodore, Atari and Texas Instruments were producing their own versions of the personal computer. Then IBM blasted into the market and soon the competition was defined between Apple on one side and IBM with Microsoft software on the other. These two have, from that point on, led the industry.

Enhanced by Zemanta