In easy language, a network can be termed as a collection of computers and devices connected to each other to assist communication for sharing data and resources with other computers. Networks can be of different types, here are some of the commonly used network types.

• Personal Area Network:  This is the most basic network type which is used very commonly by almost every individual. We use this type of network at our homes too like connecting a printer with the computer or a fax machine with the computer. This kind of network can be a wired or wireless network.
• Local Area Network:  Local Area Network or LAN is basically used in offices, schools and cyber cafes. This kind of network is used to connect computers with computers using Ethernet technology. LAN is generally used within the same building area and each device or computer is treated as a node.
• Metropolitan Area Network: This kind of network generally connects two or more LANs together within a city or a town.  Routers, hubs and switches are used to create MAN.
• Wide Area Network:  Wide Area Network or WAN is used to connect larger geographical areas like cities and even countries.  Communication channels like telephone lines and air waves are used to create connectivity under WAN.
• Intranets and Extranets: Intranet is a set of networks using Internet protocol to communicate with each other.  It is said to be the internal network of an organization and generally will have a web server to provide information to users. Extranet is referred to as a network connection which is open to customers and clients outside the organization. It can be Wan or MAN but with at least one external connection.
• Internet: This is the most widely used network based on internet protocol suite.  This is the biggest of all network  accessed using WWW ( World Wide Web)

At Centex Tech we provide all kinds of networking services in Killeen, and surrounding areas in Central Texas. We can setup LAN/ WAN and other networks without any hassle and help you save time and money by providing experts who have experience in troubleshooting all network related problems. Right from initial setup to providing support, Centex Technologies will help you in sorting all your networking related issues.

Website Development is believed to be a cumbersome process by many, which deters many businesses to employ it but to be true, no one living in USA can afford to ignore its importance in our lives.  A web development process would generally include web designing and development and the process can differ according to the need of each business.  Every business in general would have different needs from their website and would surely like it to look different from competition. Some businesses may require an ecommerce solution on the other hand some may just require a Content Management System. Some others may still want the website to just have a simple contact form.

A website should be considered as your office where a visitor can get exactly what he is looking for. Even a slightest of mistake or mismatch would enable the customer to move to your competitors which of course are not difficult to search for using Google.  It is important that you should put in some effort while building your website. You must choose the right partners to do that for you.

Centex Technologies located in Killeen, Central Texas is a web development company where we make sure that your website is developed following the right processes. We make sure that we study your competition and build a website which is in line with competition. We take care of all your SEO needs as well. At Centex Technologies, we analyse your needs and accordingly develop your website. We can build complete ecommerce solutions, content based solutions and dynamic and static websites, flash websites and more based on your requirements. We make sure that your site is developed with latest tools and is built in a way where you are quickly indexed by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, thereby bringing you more business than ever.

At Centex Technologies, you can be assured of quality web design service at an affordable cost. True value for money! Really!

Central Texas Web Development - SEO Central Texas

Choosing a reliable web hosting company is very important. Whether you are a start up or a well established company, quality of web hosting services provided by your web host will definitely affect productivity and profits of your company. With little or no knowledge about technical aspects of web hosting, it can be hard to choose the right provider. Here we have summed up few tips that will help in choosing the right web host.

1. Check for the uptime guarantee and look out for feedback about the company on the web.
2. Do find out the servers used by the web hosting company and compare them. You can do so by searching about it on Google.
3. Free web hosting sites are not reliable and most of the times they have default advertisements that will show up with your website. For a professional company, free web hosts are not recommended.
4. Do find out what is your requirement and jot it down on paper. You may need web hosting, email hosting, SSL, and other software integrated with your hosting. Once you have jotted it down, you can compare offers from various companies.
5. If you plan to host an Ecommerce website, you may need SSL and shopping cart integrated.
6. Check various features offered by the hosting company.
7. Check out for bandwidth (data transfer) that a particular plan will offer. If your website attracts high traffic, then low bandwidth could be an issue.
8. Find out and compare the disc space allocation with your requirements.
9. Do check up Technical support assistance.
10. Check out and compare the prices offered by the web hosting companies. Find out about the Monthly, Quarterly, Half yearly or yearly plans offered and discounts on the same.
11. Do check out about Money Back guarantee offered by web hosting companies

These few tips will help you to choose the right web hosting provider for your business. Centex Technologies, located in Texas, provides web hosting solutions to clients across the globe. Contact for web applications, dot net programming, shopping cart installations, networking solutions, and IT consulting.

Computer security is of utmost concern now days. With advancements in technologies, newer and more sophisticated computer viruses, Trojans and spywares have come up. Attackers are using almost all mediums to spread the malwares and affect computers. Starting from a simple file download to accessing a website, anything can affect your PC.

Here are few tips on protecting your PC:

• Have a trusted Anti-Virus installed on your PC.
• Restrict user privileges for others who access your PC at home or office. It is advised to create a seperate guest account for other users with absolutely no privileges for downloading or installations on PC.
• Use firewalls to restrict viruses. If other people access internet through your PC, you can restrict theharmful websites through firewall settings.
• Always download files from trusted sources/ websites.
• Do not click on links in email from non-trusted sources. Clicking on links can trigger a malware download to your system.
• Run a regular scan on your PC.
• Restrict browser’s privileges.
• Do scan pen drives/ external discs etc thoroughly before you use them.
• Update your anti-virus software with latest online updates available.
• Do not accept files or click on links that appear to have viruses or are from un-trusted sources/ persons on online messengers.

Viruses, Trojans and spywares not only affects PCs performance but can also cause data loss, files to get corrupted, mal-functioning of peripheral devices like printers, scanners etc. Spy wares are particularly known for extraction of vital information from your system. They transfer information like passwords to different account etc to other locations, which can be easily misused.

It is important to secure your PC after seeking professional help. Depending on your usage/ requirement, your PC security is planned out. For more information on keeping your PC secure, you can contact us at Centex Technologies.

Local Business Listing (LBL) marketing is the marketing buzz word now days. Companies are focusing up on providing the best local business results to users. After tremendous success of Google Maps and Google’s Local Business Listings, other search engines and advertisement networks are working round the clock to come up with the even improved local business solutions.

Even though, prior to Google’s LBLs there were many sites like Local.com, YellowPages.com, CitySearch.com, MagicYellow.com etc listing businesses according to the city/ area but they were not so popular among the masses. With advanced geo-targeting technology, Local Business Listings have become a convenient and accurate way to get information. Now you can find pasta restaurants, saloons, clinics, plumbers, real estate agents, car wash etc (the list is endless) in your area within seconds. Such an ease of finding information has made LBLs hot favorites.

For a business like that of a specialized doctor, florist, a pizza shop or a hotel, it is now important to be listed on as many local business networks as possible. It is estimated that being listed on local business networks can boost up revenues by 5 to 10 %. If you are among featured listings or listing through paid advertisements, then depending on your business, the number of enquiries generated through LBLs can be incredible.

Advertizing giants are not only working to grab online market share for LBL but are also targeting mobile and handheld devices. Various local business apps are already in market for IPhone. On 16th Dec, Microsoft launched Bing App for Iphone enabling users to do voice search, view local business listings and find directions.

With fast changing scenario of high tech marketing, it becomes mandatory to keep up pace with the innovations. For a specialized business targeting certain area, it is extremely important to be listed on local business listings. We at CentexTech, not only list business for clients on various LBL networks but also work to optimize them to generate higher revenues for our clients. To know more, please feel free to contact us.

In the tough competitive world, the future and profit of any business depends on the marketing and the economic growth of the company. And as far as marketing is concerned, in present situation advertisements play an equally important role in the marketing of a product. Among other mediums, online advertizing is one of the most effective and profitable method to generate results. Google Adwords is one of the advertising programs used worldwide to generate effective sales or business leads.

AdWords is Google's flagship advertising product. It is also the main source of revenue for Google. AdWords program includes local, national, and international advertisement distribution through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Through Pay-per-click system, an advertiser is charged certain (bid) amount every time a user clicks on the advertisement. Advertisers have flexibility of choosing their daily campaign spending limit.

An advertiser can display advertisements on Google Search or Google Content Network. Advertisers can selectively target their marketing campaigns with keywords, language selection and region selection. Effective tracking system of Google Adwords allows advertisers to keep a track on advertisement performance and calculate the ROI. You can view detailed demographics of your site visitors thorough advertisements displayed on Google search/ Google website network, when you couple Google Analytics with the website.

Through Google Adwords, you can choose advertisement in text format, banner format, or video format. You can use various tools present in Adwords account to fine tune your advertizing campaign. Google’s state of the art system allows only relevant and genuine clicks to be charged. With continuous improvements in Adwords technology, Google AdWords is one of the most rewarding online advertizing programs.

You can hire Google Adwords campaign management professional to set up and manage your Google Adwords account.

Centex Technologies and Cetiport are excited to announce a new certification exam entitled IC³Critical Thinking - Powered by ETS.  This exam is designed to assess and demonstrate individual cognitive skills in a technology-enabled education or work environment.  We will be conducting a beta test for this exam beginning in the middle of August and ending in the middle of September.

IC³Critical Thinking - Powered by ETS Exam

The IC³Critical Thinking is one-hour exam which will cover seven Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy content areas.  The exam is suitable for high school students’ grades 10-12 through college, as well as for working adults.  The seven ICT Literacy content areas include:

• Define
• Access
• Evaluate
• Manage
• Integrate
• Create
• Communicate

Please feel free to contact Centex Technologies with more information on the IC³Critical Thinking course.   

By:
Danielle Spring 
Testing & Training Administrator
Centex Technologies
254-213-4740
254-634-3998 Fax
dspring@centextech.com

Ever thought about a career in Computer Technology? Well Centex Technologies has the solution to jumpstart your IT profession. Cetiport’s Internet and Computing Certification (IC³) is the ideal for anyone who wants to demonstrate critical computer and Internet skills which are valued in today’s academic and professional environments.

IC³ Certification:

IC³ Certification offers you the opportunity to learn and demonstrate computer and Internet literacy that accurately validates skills and productivity in the workplace.

• Provides core skills and knowledge necessary to use some computer applications and the Internet.

• Effectively tests computing knowledge and skills to ensure mastery are achieved.
  
• Gives a resume-building standard certification as proof of successful completion of the program.
  
•  Provides the foundation necessary to further enhance productivity and marketability with other desktop application-specific certifications.

IC³ Certification helps you learn and demonstrate Internet and digital literacy through a worldwide industry standard. To become IC³ certified, you must pass the following three exams. Each exam will take less than an hour to complete.

About IC³ Exams:

Certiport Certification is an inexpensive way to start you on the right career path in computer technology. For those who feel the need to find alternate study area, Centex Technologies offers a clean and quite work space Monday thru Friday from 8am to 5pm. 

By:

Danielle Spring 
Testing & Training Administrator
Centex Technologies
254-213-4740
254-634-3998 Fax
dspring@centextech.com

Target: All users of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

If you’re worried about the Conficker worm striking on April 1st, don’t be.

On April 1st the Conficker worm will simply start taking more steps to protect itself. Beginning on April 1st the worm will use a communications system that is more difficult for security researchers to interrupt.

The Conficker worm, sometimes called Downadup or Kido has managed to infect a large number of computers. Specifics are hard to come by, but some researchers estimate that millions of computers have been infected with this threat since January.

What does the Conficker worm do?

The Conficker worm has created secure infrastructure for cybercrime. The worm allows its creators to remotely install software on infected machines. What will that software do? We don’t know. Most likely the worm will be used to create a botnet that will be rented out to criminals who want to send SPAM, steal IDs and direct users to online scams and phishing sites.

The Conficker worm mostly spreads across networks. If it finds a vulnerable computer, it turns off the automatic backup service, deletes previous restore points, disables many security services, blocks access to a number of security web sites and opens infected machines to receive additional programs from the malware’s creator. The worm then tries to spread itself to other computers on the same network.

How does the worm infect a computer?

The Downadup worm tries to take advantage of a problem with Windows (a vulnerability) called MS08-067 to quietly install itself. Users who automatically receive updates from Microsoft are already protected from this. The worm also tries to spread by copying itself into shared folders on networks and by infecting USB devices such as memory sticks.

How does the Conficker worm work? 



How do I remove the Conficker worm?

1) Try using the Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner

2) Try using the Symantec Removal Tool



For more infomration, please visit the following sites:

Microsoft Support

Symantec Support

 

 Centex Technologies, an IT Consulting company announced today that its commitment to quality service and professionalism has been recognized by the leading trade association for the world’s information technology (IT) industry.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has designated Centex Technologies as a CompTIA A+ Authorized Service Center™.

“Designation as a CompTIA A+ Authorized Service Center is validation that a computer service center has achieved the technology industry’s highest recognized level of competence,” said Richard Rysiewicz, vice president, Services, CompTIA. “It is a strong sign that the professionals of Centex Technologies take pride in their work and are committed to advancing the quality of their operations and service.”

The CompTIA Authorized Service Center program recognizes computer, network and server support businesses that employ technicians who have achieved CompTIA professional certifications. These certifications are recognized around the world and throughout the IT industry as the foundation-level skills standards for technology professionals.

To achieve status as a CompTIA A+ Authorized Service Center, at least 50 percent of the service center’s technical staff must be CompTIA A+ certified. CompTIA A+ certification is the IT industry’s recognized skills benchmark for entry into a technology career. Earning CompTIA A+ certification demonstrates a technician has a broad base of knowledge and competency in core hardware and operating system technologies, including installation, configuration, diagnosing, preventive maintenance, and basic networking.

For more information on CompTIA, please visit www.comptia.org .