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Understand how the web works and how HTML serves as the foundation of most basic
web pages
Understand the fundamentals of building a page to post on the web
Add links to make a web page useful and navigable
Include images and multimedia to a web page
Change the look and feel of web page text
Publish your web page
In most cases, your options are to outsource specific tasks or hire an IT staff person. Each has
its strengths and weaknesses, and selecting one over the other involves many considerations.
This quick lesson is designed for small to medium-size business (SMB) owners and decision
makers who don't have a lot of time or money to dedicate to technology.
In this quick lesson, you'll learn to recognize common indicators that signal the need for
additional IT support resources. You'll also understand outsourcing pros and cons—the types of
IT tasks that are ideal for outsourcing and those that aren't—and analyze the costs and benefits
of hiring a full-time IT staff person.
By the end, you should be able to make a decision based on your particular environment and
needs. That decision might be outsourcing, making a full-time hire or a hybrid approach. First,
let's take a look at the signals that indicate you need additional IT resources
This class is a primer for those who are unfamiliar with the Linux
operating system. You'll learn the concepts and issues around
Linux, as well as how to accomplish basic software installation,
desktop use and administration tasks. The Linux distribution used
throughout the class for purposes of illustration and example is
Debian 5 (aka Lenny).
Welcome
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Wi-Fi is an abbreviation for wireless fidelity and is used to generically refer to any type of
wireless network based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. This includes a variety of networks such
as 802.11b or 802.11g, which are two popular forms of Wi-Fi; 802.11a; and 802.11n, a multi-
streaming modulation technique.
Wi-Fi internet access is offered for free or at a low cost by many companies and organizations
across the United States, such as coffee shops and restaurants, airports and public libraries. In
addition, many companies are incorporating Wi-Fi into their internal, wired networks to offer
convenience for employees, extend the network at a low cost and for ease of setup and
administration. Although convenient and inexpensive, these connections lacked adequate
security when the technology was first introduced, and even today are often unsecure by their
nature (such as free Wi-Fi for public use) or because of a lack of knowledge of proper security
configuration.
Security is essential for the public sector, which is one reason why many government agencies,
healthcare organizations and educational facilities haven't implemented internal Wi-Fi networks.
A security breach can compromise data privacy, and even lead to loss of life, political instability
and so on. However, savvy managers and IT professionals can make safe and effective use of
802.11 technology by fully understanding today's wireless environments, selecting the right
solution for their organization and using the technology to their advantage.
This quick lesson is designed to help you understand the risks associated with Wi-Fi and
discover the best security tools available, should you decide to implement Wi-Fi in your
workplace or enable mobile employees to use Wi-Fi access on the road.
Understanding Wi -Fi components and security risks: Learn the differences between
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and put the pieces of the
Wi-Fi puzzle together with information on topics like authentication and public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Improving Wi-Fi security: protocols and methodologies: Understand the different security
methodologies and technologies that are recommended, including more secure forms of key
exchange and encryption, more secure protocols, virtual private networks and authentication.
Applying best practices to Wi-Fi networking: Take a quick look at best practices for
securing Wi-Fi networks, which include ensuring authentication, confidentiality, access control
and integrity.
Complying with government security requirements and regulations: Learn how security
requirements and regulations affect the use of wireless technologies.
Configuring Wi-Fi security: Review how particular user needs map to proper wireless
security solutions.
Now that you know what to expect in this quick lesson, let's get started with the topics in the
next section: Wi-Fi components and security risks.
Understand the basic differences between servers and PCs, and the concept of a
client/server network
Determine whether your company would benefit from a server system, and select and
acquire the components that meet your needs
Implement file and print sharing on your network
Select and set up a database server
Select and set up an email server
Host your own web server
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Introduction
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In today's internet age, the chances of your computer and your data being compromised are
fairly high. Luckily, there are ways you can secure your computer and protect your data. In this
brief, you'll learn six simple steps that will help you protect and secure everything you've worked
so hard to store on your computer. The six steps are as follows:
What is Bluetooth?
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The origin of the name Bluetooth is a bit unusual. In the late tenth-century, the Viking king of
Denmark and Norway was Harald Blaatand (or Bluetooth). His claim to fame was unifying the
warring tribes of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Centuries later and in keeping with the spirit of
unification, a prominent Swedish telecom company called Ericsson developed the Bluetooth
technology in 1994 to unify conflicting mobile phone and computer technologies to enhance
connectivity among mobile devices.
Wireless connectivity issues can arise between differing electronic devices all speaking different
"languages," which can impact consumers who depend heavily on uninterrupted, seamless
connections. Bluetooth enables you to conduct business in a cable-free, on-the-go manner, at
any time and from anywhere.
Today, as the popularity and demand for mobile devices and cable-free connections continues
to increase, the need to make all of these technologies communicate and work together is
vitally important. As a result, Bluetooth's automatic and wireless capabilities satisfy many of our
connectivity needs.
File transfers: You can exchange photos and documents between handheld devices, and
between those devices and computers, over Bluetooth connections.
Printing: A Bluetooth-enabled printer enables you to print documents or images directly from
a notebook PC, camera phone or digital camera, without the need for a cable.
Keyboards and mice: You can use a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard and mouse with your
computer to eliminate a few cables.
Wireless headsets: A wireless headset enables you to safely talk on the phone while driving,
keeping both hands on the wheel. You can place and receive calls with the push of a button or
using voice commands, depending on your headset and phone model.
Wireless headsets are also popular for hands-free phone conversations in and out of the office.
For example, the convenience of a headset enables you to take notes or check information on
your computer or handheld device during a phone conversation.
Car kits: Several manufacturers offer hands-free car kits, which enable you to voice-operate
your cell phone and talk on the phone through your car's audio system. Many car kits display
caller IDs, pictures and other information on a screen mounted on the dashboard.
The use of wireless devices and their accessories may be prohibited or restricted in certain
areas. Always obey the laws and regulations regarding the use of these products.
Handheld navigation: Portable global positioning system (GPS) devices are available with
Bluetooth built in, enabling you connect to a personal digital assistant (PDA), a Smartphone or
notebook PC running navigation software.
Wireless access points: With Bluetooth wireless access points you can use a notebook PC
or PDA to access the internet and send and receive email. Some models include a universal
serial bus (USB) port to enable printing to a USB-connected printer.
Automatic
Inexpensive
Wireless
But Bluetooth isn't the only wireless technology available—infrared (IR) and Wi-Fi technologies
play a significant role also.
Understanding Bluetooth and infrared
IR refers to light waves of a lower frequency than the human eye can receive and interpret
signals. You encounter infrared each time you use your television remote control, for example.
Although IR wireless communications are inexpensive and easy for manufacturers to
incorporate into devices, this technology has its downsides. For example:
IR generally works only between two devices at a time—you can't simultaneously send
information from one IR-enabled device to many IR-enabled devices.
IR is a "line-of-sight" technology that cannot penetrate walls, requiring an open path between
devices. For example, you have to point your remote control to your DVD player or your
television for it to operate the device.
Bluetooth solves problems that are inherent with IR technology. By using Bluetooth, you can
communicate with multiple devices that are within range, without being in a direct line of sight to
operate.
Although Bluetooth and Wi-Fi operate on the same frequency range, they use different
multiplexing schemes to avoid communication collisions.
Now that you understand common uses of Bluetooth technology and how it differs from IR and
Wi-Fi, read on to learn about the evolution of Bluetooth's specification and features.
Welcome to "Create marketing materials that align with your goals." This quick lesson is
designed to help you create customized marketing solutions that align with your small business
marketing goals. By taking this quick lesson, you'll:
Along the way, you'll encounter plenty of helpful, practical tips to align your marketing materials
and small business marketing plan. By the end of the lesson, you'll have a good overview of the
benefits of each type of marketing document, as well as some helpful tips and ideas to make
them work for your small business over the long run.
Small businesses often need to develop a variety of marketing materials (sometimes referred to
as "collateral"). But deciding which ones to focus on first can be a bit overwhelming. These are
the most common, most effective types of printed documents for small business marketing:
Backgrounder/fact sheet
Brochures
Business cards
Letterhead
Note cards
Envelopes
Marketing letters and direct mailers
Management biographies
Presentation slides
Product sheets
15) Creating an interactive marketing
brochure (quick lesson)
Creating an interactive marketing brochure (quick lesson)
Take your marketing efforts to the next level. In this quick lesson,
you'll learn how to create a small website that acts as a marketing
brochure. You can add links to existing collateral materials, or
create new content—even photo galleries. Put it all together on a
USB flash drive with your company logo to give your prospects an
interactive, memorable leave-behind. As this is an on-demand
class, all lessons are available when the class enrolls.
Welcome
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If you're like most companies, you want to maximize your marketing budget by making your
small business products and services stand out in the crowd. In today's digital age, marketing
has expanded into new avenues, using electronic tools and techniques to reach out to
customers.
Creating a mini marketing website to use as an interactive brochure with links to your existing
marketing collateral provides a new tool to work alongside your printed materials and website.
And handing out your materials on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive is a great way to
distribute unlimited quantities of your literature to as many customers as you want—from trade
shows to one-on-one meetings.
This lesson is designed to give you basic advice on creating an interactive marketing brochure.
It can't cover every scenario, so be sure to research similar topics on the web if you need
assistance.
First, you'll learn more about finding and working with templates.
Taking the time to create an internet use policy for your kids, explaining it to them and getting
them to sign off on it can lay out expectations effectively and help protect them from content you
consider inappropriate wherever they are.
This quick lesson will help you craft an internet use policy that everyone in your family can live
with and follow in a wide variety of situations
Individuals who seek to get work done away from an external power source cite usable battery
life as one of the key factors involved in how much work they can get done while on the go. Yet
many of those same individuals don't know how much latitude they have in controlling power
consumption while operating on battery power, nor do they always take the steps necessary to
maximize battery lifetime. Over the long term, proper storage of your battery when not in active
use can also extend its lifetime significantly.
Many of the figures and examples in this quick lesson focus on the Microsoft Windows Vista
operating system.
Figure 1: The power icon looks like a battery with a wall plug to its left.
When you click this icon, an information window opens, as shown in Figure 2. This window
indicates how much charge remains in the battery and enables you to select a power plan to
manage how your laptop PC uses battery power.
Figure 2: The power icon provides information about battery charge and power plan in use.
Another option is to use the HP Battery Check utility. You need to download this tool, and then
run it with your laptop PC plugged into an AC power source.
Balanced: Offers as much power as the laptop PC can deliver during periods of activity but
significantly reduces power consumption during idle periods.
Power saver: Saves power by reducing system performance whenever possible. Use this
setting if you want to squeeze as much life out of your battery as possible.
High performance: Maximizes system performance and responsiveness to user input.
Battery life can be reduced by as much as 50 percent from Balanced values when the PC
uses this power scheme while running on battery power.
HP notebooks generally ship with the following power plans defined, among others:
HP Recommended: Offers slightly different settings from those for Power saver when running
off the battery but with faster time-outs when running plugged in to an external power source.
See Table 1 for the details.
Power saver: Same as the Windows Vista default power plan of the same name.
High performance: Same as the Windows default power plan of the same name.
The HP Recommended plan replaces the Windows default Balanced power plan. It makes
sense to select HP Recommended for most situations in which the laptop PC switches between
plugged-in and battery-powered usage. The following table lists default power plan settings.
Power Plan
HP Power High
Recommended saver performance
Turn off Battery
display (minutes) 5 3 10
Plugged-
in
(minutes) 15 20 15
Sleep Battery
(minutes) 10 15 60
Plugged-
in
(minutes) 25 60 never
Brightness Battery
(percent) 40 40 100
Plugged-
in
(percent) 100 100 100
There are many other settings associated with individual power plans users may want to
investigate. These include time-outs for hard disks, wireless network adapters, USB (universal
serial bus) devices, processor power management, and more. To dig into this level of detail,
select Start > Control Panel. In Classic view, double-click Power Options. For any of the
power plans shown, click Change plan settings,and then click Change advanced power
settings. The Power Options dialog box opens, displaying individual power plans in complete
detail, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: The Power Options dialog box.
HP provides a well documented website focused on mobile PC battery care and usage.
Visit Wireless and mobility -- maximize your battery life and browse the links for more
information.
In this brief, you'll dig into key components and issues related to
maintaining and troubleshooting laptop PC wireless connections.
You'll learn how to set up and configure wireless network settings,
including important properties such as authentication and
encryption, and how to work with Microsoft® Windows® and HP
tools to manage wireless networking. You'll also learn how to
troubleshoot wireless internet, network and router issues. As this
is an on-demand class, all lessons are available when the class
enrolls.
These days, the vast majority of laptop PCs come equipped with wireless network adapters that
let users make network connections without having to connect a cable to their computers.
However, taking advantage of this convenience means understanding how to set up and use
wireless network connections. Wireless networks have substantial capabilities, so it's necessary
to understand how they work.
The network icon in the system tray, shown in Figure 1, enables you to view a list of local
networks that Windows Vista detects. Notice that the network icon in this figure is marked with a
red X, which indicates no network connection is currently established.
Figure 1: A red X indicates no network connection is active.
When you click this icon, a window opens indicating you're not connected to a wireless network,
as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The detail window for the network icon provides a link to create a network connection.
The window also includes two hyperlinks: Connect to a network and Network and Sharing
Center. Click the Connect to a network link to open the Connect to a network window, shown
in Figure 3.
Enlarge image
Network name: On the left is a list of wireless networks in the area. Any network that appears
as "Unnamed Network" requires you to supply its name as part of establishing a connection.
Security status: The center column indicates network security status. Security-enabled
means the network uses encryption that requires users to have a special key or passphrase to
establish a connection. Unsecured means the network is available to all users without any
restrictions. This is typical for many hotspots at hotels, coffee shops, and other public
locations.
Signal strength: On the right is a signal strength indicator. Five green bars indicate maximum
signal strength and quality, whereas one green bar indicates minimum signal strength and
quality. You generally need at least two bars to make effective use of a network connection.
Many open source programs, such as NetStumbler, work with most wireless network adapters
on laptop PCs and can easily discover SSIDs for unsecured wireless networks. Therefore,
when you set up a wireless network, always use strong encryption and consider turning off
SSID broadcasts as a security measure.
A common synonym for 802.11 is Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), which is actually short for 802.11b
Wireless Fidelity but now commonly stands for all forms of 802.11 wireless networking.
Network name (SSID): If the SSID is broadcast, it's in plain sight for all to see and use. If it's
not broadcast, you must know this case-sensitive name to access any network that shows up
as "Unnamed Network" inside the WNC.
Shared security scheme and key: If a network uses an encryption scheme, you must know
which scheme it uses and the associated network key or passphrase. 802.11 networks may
use WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), or WPA2 (version 2) for
encryption. WEP is the least secure whereas WPA2 offer the most security.
Always use the strongest security scheme your router or wireless AP and wireless network
adapters can share.
More sophisticated networks use a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Server) server
to supply keys to users with the proper credentials. Most home, hotspot, and small office
networks use PSKs (pre-shared keys) instead. That's why you see options in Windows Vista for
WPA-Personal and WPA-Enterprise. Personal means you use a PSK,
whereas enterprise means you access a RADIUS server.
Shared encryption: This is TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, formerly known as WEP2)
or AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).
Most 802.11 adapters offer Auto as configuration option, as well as TKIP and AES, so the
adapter can use whatever the wireless router or AP uses. AES is more secure and thus
preferable to TKIP.
A web-connected printer can connect to the internet wirelessly and perform most of the printing
functions you need without the need for a PC. All on its own, it connects to the internet and
allows you to get tons of information and entertainment that you can print right in your own
kitchen or any other room of your choice.
The next time you need to entertain child a play date, get dinner on the table in thirty minutes or
remember your mother-in-law's birthday, think how much easier it would be if you had help
keeping it all straight. TheHP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer is web-
connected and allows you to:
Plus, you can still fax, scan, copy and print lab-quality photos.