It is very important to have proper security elements in place for your computer system irrespective of whether you use it for business or personal purposes. The main elements that can help safeguard your computer from dangerous virus attacks generally include anti-virus software and an appropriate firewall that helps keep unwarranted and illegal access at bay. There are all kinds of hackers working round the clock to gain access to information and data stored on various venerable systems and a single breach can prove to be quite harmful especially if you store confidential client information and business plans and policies on your systems.

Most of the Windows based systems these days come equipped with a firewall. In order to check whether the firewall in your system is functioning, you can follow a few simple steps and open the Local Area Network button in the Control Panel. The settings displayed by clicking on this button can allow you to turn on or turn off your firewall. For those who wish to go in for specified firewall protection on account of secret data stored on their systems, it is best to opt for advanced firewall protection by purchasing suitable software for the same.

There are mainly two kinds of identifiable firewalls that are used by corporate companies. These include a hardware based firewall and software based one. In the case of the former, the firewall is embedded into the hardware of the system and it does not use the energy or resources of your system in order to run. Thus, there is no requirement of extra memory or disk space for such a firewall. However, a software firewall, although running on the system’s resources is believed to be more potent as it is highly sophisticated and can ward off even the most complex attacks on your system. If you wish to go in for a software based firewall, you need to make sure that you have enough memory in place so as to enable your system to function smoothly and eliminate the risk of a system crash. Firewalls generally help keep away hackers by closing the internet ports that they may attempt to access.

We at Centex Technologies provide complete IT security and networking solutions for our clients. We also provide SEO and Web Development services. For more information, please contact us at our Killeen (254-213-4740) or Dallas (972-851-7878) Office.

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Firewalls are protective installations on the operating system that can help keep your data safe and prevent virus or other attacks. It is essential to have an effective firewall in place specially if you store confidential data on your system, the loss or leakage of which can cause grave problems. A firewall can be an effective tool to combat malicious content that may invade your computer irrespective of whether you are using the internet at the workplace or at home. There are essentially two kinds of firewalls that can be installed. Internet users can either use the hardware firewall or the software firewall for warding off cyber attacks. It is also possible to use a combination of both of these for the most effective protection.

Although the same kind of broad functions are performed by both hardware and software firewalls, there is a certain degree of difference that separates both from each other. Hardware firewalls are the first to respond to any incoming attack that originates from outside your network and attempts to invade your operating system. They are the first physical equipment in the network that filters the incoming content. One significant advantage of hardware firewalls is that they do not need any special configuration of your system to be used. Any operating system on the local network is automatically protected by these firewalls without repeated installations on each of them.

A hardware firewall is present in the hardware components. Generally, it is present in the router and uses the process of filtration of packets to keep your system safe. There are several aspects of information that are examined by such firewalls including their source, their intended destinations, the headers by which they are known, etc. There are several in built rules with which such data is compared in order to determine whether the incoming packets are safe or not. At this stage, it is decided whether this data should be allowed to come into the system or should be discarded.
A software firewall on the other hand functions in a different manner from a hardware based one. A software firewall has to be installed onto the operating system be it a computer, a laptop, etc. As this kind of firewall is present on the system itself, it is much better at figuring out legitimate data and authentic information than hardware based one. Apart from figuring out the source and destination, it can also determine the port that is being used and the program that is trying to gain entry to your system.

For complete computer system protection, visit us at Centex Technologies. We are located in Dallas and Killeen in Central Texas and can be contacted on our toll free number - (800) 236-1497

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The use of wireless internet technologies for surfing various web pages has been increasing for a long time due to the ease and convenience that it offers to users. People are no longer sticking to fixed broadband lines connected to a fixed operating system and are instead accessing the internet through portable devices like laptops, tablets, phones, etc. Many places these days we have wi-fi connections that can be accessed by procuring the requisite username and password from the owners either by paying a certain fee or even free of cost in some cases.

This kind of free access to the internet at public places is making web surfers more prone to virus attacks that may be made through the openness offered by wireless internet systems. Anyone in the vicinity who is able to receive the wi-fi signal can simply log on to the network especially if it is being offered free of cost. In such a network, there can be all kinds of security lapses that may put your system at the receiving end of virus attacks. There are some tips mentioned below to help you avoid such attacks or at least help reduce their incidence:

• Before logging onto any kind of free internet at a public place, you should ensure that the network is protected by the required firewall and antivirus software so as to build a multi protected layer for your operating system. There should be a strong IT department taking care of such requirements. You should beware of connecting your laptop the internet in the vicinity without checking for security problems that the internet may have.

• It is advisable not to access websites and fill in your username and password at sites that contain private information about you that if stolen, may pose a significant threat to you. You should refrain from opening bank related websites or shopping websites where you need to fill in credit card related information.

• It is essential to have good antivirus software installed on your operating system to help ward off virus attacks. Although not completely fool proof, such software can help reduce the number of attacks that your system may be subjected to.

For complete system and network protection tips, feel free to contact us at Centex Technologies. We serve Central Texas including Killeen, Austin and Dallas.

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With the development in the web technology, the number of web sites that are being hacked is also on the rise. Keeping the website secure is an intricate issue that the web site designers and owners often fail to notice. Here are some important tips that you should always keep in mind to keep your web site safe and secure.

Keep your software updated: To prevent other people from taking advantage of your software ambiguity, make sure you update it from time to time and also download the patch program. If you are using the old version of any software, your web site is likely to be in a state of high insecurity. Thus, instead of manual updating, turn on the automatic updates of the software if it is available.

Use strong passwords to host account, FTP and control panel: Short and simple passwords are likely to be very easily accessed by the hackers. It is advisable to make your password as difficult as possible. The password should never contain your name, date of birth or any relevant information. Try to keep changing your password after every two or three months.

Update your antivirus: Make sure that you have updated antivirus software. Scan your computer frequently for any sort of viruses. It is possible that the hackers gain access to your passwords through any sort of viruses in your computer.

Backup your web site: Always have a complete backup of your web site. Even if it is hacked, you would not lose your files or the web site. Do not expect your web host to guard you if there is any blow. Do not store the backup files in the web servers. Instead, store them in the PC or USB.

Monitor your traffic regularly: Check your log files on a regular basis and monitor the visitors to your site. If there is anyone unusual, you need to be very careful. This could be a hacker.

Choose a trustworthy web host: Always go for a reliable web hosting service providers who offer customer support round the clock.

These are the important steps that you, as a web site owner, must take in order to keep your web site safe and secure. It is better to be cautious than be remorseful afterwards.

To know more how you can keep your website secure, feel free to contact us at Centex Technologies. We provide IT Support, Web Application Development, SEO and Internet Marketing services.

Web Development Austin – Web Design Austin

Many business officials do not understand the significance of attaining an SSL Certificate for their internet site. This is because of the fact that most of the business owners do not know about the technicalities or how to get an SSL certificate for our website. The following article helps to clear the matter up.

Firstly, it may be sensible to describe about what an SSL certificate actually does. SSL is an acronym for the words: Secure Socket Layer Protocol Certificate. The certificate’s function is to permit a high degree of protection between the browsers and the servers. A SSL encrypts the data for ecommerce transactions (or other submitted data) to such a level that the data exchanged over the World Wide Web becomes extremely secure. Every SSL certificate utilizes unique credentials indentifying the certificate owner. The owner’s identity is authenticated before issuance of a SSL certificate. These SSL protocols basically assure that the website is legitimate.

You, as a business owner with an e-commerce site are surely going to acquire SSL certificate in an effort to ensure that all your transactions are extremely secure and safe. By attaining an SSL certificate, what you are basically doing, is not only legitimizing your own business and turning it to be more credible, but also assuring for yourself and the clients that your e-commerce transactions are much safer. For your customer, having a secure place to carry on business can make quite a lot of difference. Not only does an SSL Certificate make substantial sense in order to keep the information secure; it is also necessary when carrying out any money related transaction. We do not recommend users to provide their personal & financial information including SSN, Credit Card details etc on websites that do not have a valid SSL certificate. You can verify the same by looking at the address bar of your browser when you have opened up the page. The address bar should have HTTPS instead of HTTP.

Centex Technologies provides web hosting solutions to various clients across the globe. Contact us for web applications, security services, shopping cart installations, networking solutions, and IT consulting. We are located at 501 N. 4th Street Killeen, TX – 76541. We can be contacted at (800) 236-1497 anytime. Centex Technologies is always ready to assist you with the best we can.

As some business constantly grows, the challenge of setting up and keeping a completely functional network turns more and more complex. The progress of technology has exhibited several new devices, software packages and connection platforms that need total access to the network capabilities.

To make sure that the wireless hubs and substantive wired devices are supplied with maximal speed and accessibility, regular support is essential.

Network Service’s Importance:
Centex Technologies extend a vast range of programs meant to optimize network potential. After carrying on an analysis of the subsisting infrastructure and assessing the networking demands of the business, our IT specialists render answers that will guarantee effective performance, bettered dependability and greater convenience.

Whether this consists of an accomplished design of a fresh local network, supplying another hub, or addressing bottlenecks and redundancies, we provide complete and detailed solutions.

Different Services:
A trusted network functions as the foundation for the exchange of vital info all over the departments and varied locations. To abstain from down time, postponements and pricy repairs, network providers like Centex Technologies extend a lot of vital services that guarantee effective operation:

• Network Set-up: Accomplished design and execution of network architecture comprises of hardware infrastructure, software and cabling. Extended training is rendered including ongoing care and support.
• Monitoring: 24/7 remote surveillance supplies instantaneous alerts to network functionality issues.
• Proactive Upkeep: Troubleshooting and upkeep across the total network is done by Centex Technologies. This includes thorough diagnosis and resolving bandwidth matters as well as regular optimization of servers to maximize speed and productiveness.
• Upgrades: Software upgrades and utility installations are performed across all the platforms.
• Physical maintenance: Replacing and upgrading cabling of damaged or disused network components is necessary.
• Backup: Network services at Centex Technologies comprise of specific data backup solutions. In an event of a ruinous failure or data corruption, back up services assure the restitution of vital info.
• Threat Detection: Regular reassessments of virus, firewall and malware protection guarantees the proceeding operation of the network in a safe environment.

For those business enterprises that need network repair, upkeep or installation, Centex Technologies render superior service with predictable connected costs. Any commercial enterprise that is going through network failures, bandwidth troubles, or contemplating expansion can take advantage of the variety of comprehensive services that we provide.
Contact us today at (254) 213-4740.

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These days, most of the online purchases are made with the help of credit cards. They are becoming increasingly popular due to the ease with which credit cards can be used. However, the number of monetary thefts has also risen considerably along with this. If you are an avid online shopper, there are certain tips and tricks that you can make use of in order to protect your financial information from potential data thieves who can misuse it in whatever manner they choose. Some ways in which you can keep your credit card information safe are:

• The most important step is to acquire adequate protection for your operating system. There must be an appropriate firewall installed that keeps credit card thieves at bay. In case there is not enough protection on your PC or laptop, every time that you fill in your credit card information, you will be putting yourself at grave risk. It is better to refrain from using your card for any purchases on the internet until you take these necessary measures.

• You should only make online purchases from websites that have proper security measures and encryption in place. The server where you access new products and complete the payment process must be a secure and certified one. You should not mindlessly use any website for shopping purposes. Only a select few that are reliable and trusted must be used for retail therapy.

• You can also take a precautionary measure of making use of virtual cards instead of your original credit card. When you exercise this option, you need not fill in the actual credit card number every time you wish to shop as you can simply fill in a fake card number allotted to you. This way, even if this number does get stolen, the thief will not be able to make use of such information.

• If you have registered your email for online banking facilities and frequently receive credit card bills through e mails, you should make it a point to delete all such information from time to time. You can take print outs of the same as soon as you receive them and then immediately delete them so that this confidential information does not remain on the internet or with your mailing service provider.

It is important for ecommerce websites to instill confidence in customers. They need to follow secure coding standards, should incorporate SSL certificates and educate their customers about ways to shop online in secure manner while placing an order.

We at Centex Technologies create custom ecommerce websites. For more information and a quote for your requirement, please feel free to contact us at: 254-213-4740

Web Development Austin – Web Design Austin

Emails have become part and parcel of our lives. It is very difficult these days for anyone to do without emailing as a means of communication. Most of the business related communication tends to take place through emails only as snail mail is becoming increasingly obscure as a reliable means of contact. For sending, receiving and storing emails in a convenient manner, various mail clients are used. In order to send and receive them, you need to first register an email account with a certain domain name for example gmail.com, yahoo.com or yourdomainname.com. Email clients are mainly of two types like web based ones and computer based ones. For the web based ones, you will need to register online and log in every time you wish to use emailing services. For the system based ones like Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you will need to install the appropriate software and then it can be set as your default emailing client that will open up whenever you require it.

Some of the preconditions for choosing an email client that enables you to send information in a safe and secure manner are:

• You should read up on the terms and conditions and the privacy policy followed by the organization that provides the emailing client services. Your choice depends on the level of privacy that you wish to have. You should be completely aware of how the personal information that you provide is being shared and with whom.
• An emailing client that is generally faulty and experiences errors and glitches is likely to pose a variety of problems that can affect your efficiency in a significant way. So you should look for a service that is unproblematic and does not pose any difficulty. A reliable client will keep vital information safe and ensure that it is transmitted to the intended client in a timely manner.
• The service that you use should be armed with the appropriate encryption software and be technically sound so that there is no information stealth. It should be safe from hackers who may try to break into the system by figuring out the passwords of the users. The safety aspect of the email client you are choosing must be fool proof.
• It should not interfere or restrict other system programs.

Email systems are back bone of any business. Choosing a reliable email client with appropriate user and security settings make communication very much easy and manageable. For more information on how to plan your communication network and other IT related services, please feel free to call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740

Security Consultant Central Texas – IT Support Central Texas

Internet has become our second home. Most of the time we are either on a social networking sites busy sharing information or networking with friends, or on online newspaper portal simply reading latest headlines, or on chat messengers or may be  just surfing various online shopping portals for buying products. All this need to share information over the net. As webmasters, it becomes very important to have proper measures in place to protect confidential information of users, specially when you run an online shopping store. In an online shopping store, for successful order placement, it is important to seek personal and financial information from users. This information is to be kept secure at all times.

For online shopping portals, the security threats are even more. People choose products and pay for them through merchants gateways. As confidential information like credit card number, name, address and email id is shared, it is important to protect them. There are two ways of taking payments online.

First option is where when the user clicks on “Buy Now” button, he is taken to a third party website of merchant gateway. The secure gateway webpage asks for personal and financial information and processes the payment. After payment the user is returned back to the original shopping portal. In such a scenario, the information is neither shared nor stored on shopping website. All information is processed by merchant gateway engine. It becomes very important to use only reliable payment gateways who have all security measures in place.

Second option is where personal and financial information is taken on the shopping website itself and payment is processed either by personalized merchant gateway or through third party merchant gateway. Here webmaster’s responsibility gets very high as he needs to make sure that personal and financial information is kept secure and out of reach of any miscreants. As a webmaster, you should choose web servers that are secure and safe. It is a good practice to buy dedicated web hosting servers from reliable company for the same.

In case of shopping websites, webmaster should buy and install SSL on the cart, registration section and payment processing sections of the website. This ensures that only encrypted data is processed.

As a webmaster, you should make sure that only authorized personnel deals with databases. It is a good practice to keep information at different locations and that too in encrypted form. Your web server or physical server should have proper firewalls and security measures installed to counter any cyber attacks. Do make sure that all softwares are regularly updated.

It is a good practice to rope in a cyber security consultant who can plan and help you in setting up completely secure environment for your application. We at Centex Technologies provide consultation and advanced tools to help you prevent any misuse of personal and financial information of your clients. Contact us today at (254) 213-4740

Security Consultant Central Texas – Website Development Consultant Central Texas

Today, we cannot think of life without computers. Be it home or office or any public/ private organization, we need computers for performing our day to day operations. We not only keep our personal data on computers but also use them for business communication and fund transactions. This makes the security of computer systems extremely important. It is required to keep the computers secure for optimum utilization and to safeguard yourself against threats, especially when you are using a network. There are few steps which you require to perform for securing the system.

The first thing which you should do is to have a properly configured firewall and install  a good anti-virus software. It is also a good practice to create back up of files into any external drives like CDs or USB devices. Regular backups make sure that the files will not get lost if there are any external attacks or if the system crashes. Also make sure that you purchase a genuine copy of the anti virus and have the anti virus updated from time to time. Do not download any software, games, MP3 or videos if you do not trust the source. There is a possibility that you may download a virus in your system. Always have a spam guard to protect yourself from unsolicited mails. Do make sure that you are aware of the phishing mails and do not open any attachments from mails that look like spam.

It is extremely important that you never share your personal information online and be aware of hackers. Give a remote desktop access only if you trust the other party. Make sure that you are constantly communicating with the other person and in case of any suspicious activity, discontinue the same.

Above all, it is very much important that you use an updated operating system and never share your passwords with anyone and do not use common words as passwords.

We at Centex Technologies provide wide range of solutions for computer system maintenance and security. For more information on how you can set up a secure computer system or work network, feel free to call us at 254-213-4740

Security Consultant Texas – IT Support