Use Prepaid Calling Cards In Making Long Distance Calls

Each of us wants to have a good means to communicate with others such as family, friends and associate. People would want to have satisfaction and comfort with the product that they are using.

This day and age, knowing that they are lots of people looking for prepaid callings cards for making calls, more and more scammers are out there. But being an alert person can help you gain want you really want and need without being scammed or fooled with others.

Before buying card, you have to check out if they have contact details or not. In having such, at least it could be easy for you to contact them if you have questions, or if anything is wrong, it should be easy for you to contact the company for customer service. Having a customer service available can gives you greater peace of mind in the knowledge that you can easily call or contact them when a problem arises and the likes.

It is recommended that before purchasing your phone card read the terms and conditions. Take note that there are cards that have small charges and hidden fees that can be added onto a calling card, it is best to get better understanding about all of these. All prepaid calling cards have expiration dates and per-use charges that could affect the value of the card. it is best to know all the details needed so it would be easy for you to know if it can suits your needs.

Yes, it may seem like the card is being offered with cheap price but it has hidden charges that can surprise you at the long run. Be sure to check if the card is not been tampered with, if buying a traditional phone card. Check the PIN and make sure that everything is sealed. There are situations that it won't have full minute value or it will not work if it looks like it has been tampered, so you have to look if it is tampered or not, it is for your own good.

Usually, you will gain satisfaction if everything seems to be checked out. In checking all things out can give you assurance that you will gain the worth of what you pay for and not be scammed with some companies out there. Actually, there isn't much more work that needs to be done when comparing shopping for a phone card with most other consumer goods. To avoid wasting money with bad service, you have to check out the details about the card first.

Prepaid Calling Cards - Its History

The idea of the first prepaid card was made in 1975 in Italy, because the vending machine they use was operated by coins, this vending phone was either destroyed or stolen.

Because of this, few months later they released the first phone card. The card they use was made from a thin cardboard with a magnetic strips. They used this as the substitute from the shortage of coins they experienced.

The user of the pay phone card will insert the card from the pay phone machines and in an instant you could make your call and its automatically deducting minutes from your payphone card. They encounter problem with the first phone card because they are so thin and can jammed the payphone machine. In the succeeding year the France, Sweden, Austria adapts the new phone card.

Prepaid phone cards were introduced in Japan on 1982. Having the same problem of coin shortage, the Nippon Telephone and telegraph was the first to the released the prepaid phone cards. Since then, companies continuously improve the quality of the phone card. Smart Card was the first chip base introduced in France in 1984.

A decade after the eastern world used the phone card successfully. The world telecom group introduced it to United States. The General Electric and the Siemens are the one who distribute the cards. With their technology they created "magstripe" This magstripe are the magnetic strip on the backside of the card. This magstripe contain information on card number address including your name.

The Card development continues to grow. In 1988 the first calling card was distributed to prepaid phone card collector in England, the following year AT & T joined the prepaid calling card. They produce mass production of the card.

The New York Regional Bell Operating Company was the first who created the non-magstripes phone cards. This card have PIN (personal identification number) and it require dialing toll free access number. The card is more versatile than phone cards. It can be used any phone nationwide.

The Phone card continues to prosper and they prefer to use the card with an access number and pin than the magstripe. Major telecommunication companies released their own phone card. Sales continue to grow. Its sales reached unpredictable high because of its high in demand. As of today the sales continue to rise soaring over 3 billion of dollars. Even small business and companies had released their own phone cards. There are websites you could select on what kind of calling card you prefer.

Reverse Phone Lookup - Find Out Who Is Calling Your Phone

A lot of people are looking for a free reverse cell phone number lookup service today. When you visit forums or a social networking site, you will likely find the same question asked by users which goes - How can I avail of a cell phone number lookup? Well a lot of websites are offering this service you just need to find one diligently.

A cell phone number lookup service is indeed useful if you have jotted down a phone number but you seem not to remember who owns the number. If the number you have is a landline number then it is most likely that you will be able to do a free phone number lookup. However, when you are searching for a cell phone number you might not be able to find it because the free directories have no access to cell phone numbers. It is because these cell phone numbers are controlled by the mobile carriers. Fax numbers and numbers which are unlisted are also impossible to trace.

On the brighter side, there are actually websites that can give you access to both mobile and residential phone numbers. You can conduct a cell phone number lookup and at the same time perform a background check or do a people search and a whole lot more. You can find information when you search for a certain name, address and phone status and even pagers and unlisted numbers quickly and hassle-free. Other information such as marriage records, business records, birth and death records, people search are now being offered. You are allowed to access or run checks on sex offender records and police records.

In discussion forums and networking sites, some people supply links which they say offer search services for free. However, these sites lead to zero results. Cell-PhoneLookup.info willl have the results people are looking for. Many people have used this method to protect their life and future with cell phone lookup.

Why Use a Backward Phone Lookup?

Also known as reverse phone searches, backward phone searches and inverse phone lookups, backward phone lookups provide a very useful service that is often web-based. The nature of the backward phone lookup is to permit you to use a telephone number with its area code in order to discover the information that is associated with that number. With backward phone lookup websites, it takes only a few seconds to plug in the area code and telephone number and discover the results you want.

Among the most common reasons to use a backward phone lookup is simply to discover whose number has appeared on the Caller ID of your home phone or cell phone. The odds are that it is someone you know, but you simply don't recognize the number.

It also allows you to identify whether a repeated call is a telemarketer or an individual, and allows you to take appropriate action to either contact the person, or make the calls stop - depending on your preference.

Other people use a backward phone lookup when they have the name and telephone number of a friend, family member, or business, but don't have their mailing information or other important piece of contact information. This is useful when an address needs to be confirmed before mailing important documents, when you want to make sure that you have someone's most recent address before sending greeting cards, or to find an exact address before driving to a certain location. Some reverse phone lookup services are especially useful in the latter situation, as they offer driving directions.

Backward phone lookups permit you to search through many different telephone directories all at once, within the span of only a few seconds - a feat that would be impossible to accomplish with published phone books.

Keep in mind that you need to make sure that the backward phone lookup site that you're using - such as www.searchthisphonenumber.com - should be geared toward the right country. For example, if you're looking for a number within the United States, be sure that the site you're searching with includes American phone directories. Remember, the internet is international, so you can't simply assume that the site you find caters to the countries you're looking for.

The Plus Point About Cable TV Bundle Services

Marketing campaigns are very important to any company to sell their products or services effectively. But most of the campaigns tend to go off tangent or overboard with their propoganda. While on the other end there are campaigns which are attractive, beneficial and also serve the purpose. The telecommunication services campaigns offered by may companies to lie in this range of the spectrum.

Comcast in particular and other cable TV companies in general tend to offer better telecommunication services of real value better than the others. They offer packages of good value. One needs to be wary of any company which allies itself with another company in order to offer more than one service.

An example of such a company would be the phone companies. The phone company essentially can only provide good transmission for conversations over the phone lines However as the companies are trying to expand and move into the field of internet and television as well they are choking as the DSL network does not provide enough speed or cannot transfer as much data required for the same leading to slow internet speeds and very slow video streaming.

Hence to cover all bases, the phone company will have to tie up with the satellite phone company and satellite TV company to be able to provide quality services.In addition if a deal is being offered by the satellite TV company with internet and phone services, you can be sure that it is farming the same to other companies as well. Thus a cable TV service is a much better choice for multiple services.

The real trouble with this multiple srevice option is that the customer services can result in being sub par due to the different companies involved. The scenario allows for companies to open the floor to blame game without resorting to a solution of the actual problem.

In contrast to the above, the cable company is the sole incharge of everything and hence the problem of conflicts between the various services does not arise. This solves a major problem regarding customer service. The bundled service method offered by Comcast can be used as a model to understand this better.

Wireless Routers Buying Guide

Router Functionalities

Firewall

Firewalls are ideal for home networks. They help in protecting home use computers by stalling the destructive efforts of other official websites and potential hackers. This software or hardware device filters the information coming through the internet connection, flagging the information that is not to be allowed through. You can find some such models at:

VPN Pass through

VPN pass through feature of routers allows traffic between the endpoints and does not support one of the endpoints. This feature is ideal for routers of home use or small office setups; they are less expensive than a router with full VPN that supports the endpoints.

DHCP server

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers can be implemented for windows based system. The server automatically assigns an IP address to the computer's TCP/IP stack software.

Wireless Access Point

The performance of your network will depend on signal strength of the wireless access point. Before you position it, find out the exact location from where it will give the maximum network range.

DSL Modem

Digital Subscriber Line modems are faster than regular modems and can use the existing phone lines. Both internet connection and phone lines for telephone calls can be used simultaneously.

Voice over IP gateway

VoIP routers have both wireless networking feature and telephone terminal adapters. With this feature the network can access both Internet and voice communications.

Protocols

These are formats for transferring data between the various devices. The protocols determine the various aspects of the data like compression types, delivery and retrieval by devices and error checking. The standard protocols differ in their various features, so in order to communicate with other computers correct protocols must be selected.

Internet Protocol (IP) enables unique addressing for computers.

When used with transport control protocol, it is referred as TCP/IP.

The newer IP version 6 is referred as IPv6. This version addresses 16 bytes in length.DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol assigns dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network.

Routing Protocols

The information packets have to be routed by a series of routers to get to its destination. Latest routers automatically exchange route information with other routers through the use of routing protocols.

While configuring the router on your own, you have to choose what types of routing protocol you have to install and configure.

RIP version-1: It is a dynamic protocol and automatically figures routing tables on its own, thus manual inputs are not required.

Encryption Standards

This feature configures the virtual private network, encryption hardware advanced integration modules and the network modules.

Data Encryption Standard - applies 56-bit key to 64-bit block of data. This is the most commonly used encryption standard. A single key is used which is very difficult to break.

Triple DES (3DES) - applies 3 keys in succession making it more difficult to break the code.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) will be the next encryption standard for commercial transactions in the private sector.

MD5

SHA 1

Modulation

There are many standards of modulation. The most commonly used types are:

QAM: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, a dominant modulation technique for high speed digital signals.

CCK: Complimentary Code Keying is a modulation scheme to operate in data speeds up to 11Mbps in the RF band.

OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency division multiplexing modulation is used for even higher speeds of 54Mbps.

DSSS: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum use wideband signals that are not easy to detect and resists jamming attempts.Security

Today no home and office network is secure. To counter the hacking efforts of hackers, look for good built-in security functionalities. These will ensure that your system doesn't slow down, those within the range of your wireless are not able to view your files, emails, instant messages, usernames and passwords. Depending on the security features you can also block spams, illegal activities with your internet connection and prevent loading of dangerous software.

This however doesn't mean your network is completely secure.

Some steps that can be taken are:

Enable WEP, wired equivalent privacy encryption provides security to WLANS. The WEP keys encrypt the data stream.

Turning on WPA encryption. The Wi-Fi protected access adds on the authentication and encryption features WEP explained above.

TKIP, Temporal Key Integrity Protocol covers up for the encryption weaknesses of WEP. WPA2 protection is the latest one and provides high level of protection. Enable wireless MAC Address filtering.

WEP Encryption length

The WEP encryption is based on a combination of secret user keys and system generated values. The key encrypts and de-encrypts the data that is transferred between the access points and the clients. There are two versions:The earlier version supported 40-bit encryption; the key length was 40 bits and 24 additional bits of system generated data, thus a total of 64 bits.Easy decoding of 40 bit WEP encryption encouraged vendors to go in for 128-bit encryption. 128-bit encryption has a key length of 104 bits.

Antenna Type

The omni directional antenna of routers broadcast 360degrees around the router. Position them in such a way that you can make the most of the radiating signals.

External antennas can add strength significantly, thus giving a wider range and increased network performance when compared with the performance of in-built antennas.

Detachable antennas disable 802.11a lower band communications when detached. On attaching the antenna the lower band is enabled. Thus they can be screwed into the device and can be upgraded easily.

The third type is the internal integrated antennas. These antennas are built-in, and hence cannot be changed or directed.

Brand Name

Wireless routers are still evolving, and at this infant stage it will do good to stick to one brand. Switching between brands can lead to compatibility problems. Linksys and Netgear wireless routers are among the few companies that have the highest wireless router ratings a company can get.

Linksys

Linksys wireless routers are easy to install and are reputed to give good performance and signal range. The various features that the router supports are protection from hackers with NAT technology, VPN pass through, and can encrypt all wireless transmissions. Most of its models have excellent performance and extremely useful support features. Some of the features are the firewall and routing capabilities, MAC address filtering and virtual server support. Most of the models are easy to configure with the browser-based configuration.

Netgear

Netgear wireless routers have not only superior looks but also good signal strength and wider range. Security features are good and are taken care of with WPA-PSK, WEP (128-bit). Netgear markets wide range of wireless routers for home networking as well as business networking. The selling factors are ease of use, reliability, quality and security.

Apple

Customers loyal to this brand can go in for wireless routers of this brand; they are however priced higher than models of other brands with similar features. Security and support features are good.

Are You Listening?

Communication is the way human beings establish and maintain relationships. Communication can be through the spoken or written word or more subtle methods, such as non-verbal communications. Good communication is critical for maintaining satisfying healthy relationships, whether it is with a parent, child, friend, business or intimate partner. The ability to communicate with one another honestly builds intimacy and trust. Most people don't think about how they communicate, if their meaning is understood, or if they understand until there a problem arises.

Effective communication can be extremely difficult. This often comes as a surprise to people. One of my favorite sayings about communication is attributed by some to Robert McCloskey; "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant,"

The first and most important communication skill is listening. Good listening skills are not easy and few people really listen well. Many people are not listening but preparing their response while the other person is talking. This is especially true when tensions are high and people feel they need to defend themselves from real or imagined attack. The less defensive and more secure someone is in the situation the better able they are to listen because they feel confident that they can respond without rehearsing in their head first.

Giving your full attention to what the other person is saying is known as "active" listening. Active listening means paying attention to what the person is actually saying, but also trying to understand where he/she is "coming from." Active listening means hearing not only the words, but also the message behind those words. I always liken this to hearing not only the words, but the music also.

Active listening listening skills are an art that can be learned with time, patience and self-awareness. When you are trying to actively listen , take the time to ask questions to be sure you understand. Questions such as, I am not sure I get what you mean, can you say more, help on at least two levels. They let the person know you are interested, listening and trying to understand. They also provide you with needed data and elaboration.

Remember to try not to interrupt when another person is talking unless it is absolutely necessary. Interrupting is a common problem with many people and often causes escalation of tension. Sometimes you may feel it is necessary to interrupt because the what the person is saying is based on a misinformation. In this case, it might help to say something like; "Can I interrupt to ask you something I feel is important (or tell you something)". Then wait for a response. Try to interrupt only when you feel like it is absolutely necessary, and make an attempt to explain why you are doing it. You can say something like, "I think if you knew this you might feel differently or understand better."

Do not be thinking ahead of what your response will be while you are listening; but do try to remember the important points you want to address. Do not feel like you need to address every point that was made; pick the ones that are critical. Remember your goal is to strengthen the relationship rather then being right. (I am presuming that is the goal, you actually may have a different goal !)

Listening itself is often enough to make the other person feel better, but it also has benefits for you. It can enlighten you about what is going on, and can help you get to know and understand the other person better. Good listening will often help avoid unpleasant confrontations. Try It!

How To Find Out The Owner Of Any Phone Number - Introducing A Free Reverse Phone Search

You have probably had a time where you wanted to know who was the owner of a particular phone number. I thought it would be helpful to quickly show you a way to find out the full name, address and background information of someone by having nothing but their phone number.

As you probably already know, cell phone numbers and unlisted numbers aren't in any phonebook. This means they aren't in any "public domain" so these phone records aren't available to the general public.

Because of this , it used to be next to impossible to find out information about the owner of a phone number when you needed it.

However, as the number of cell phones and unlisted numbers increased, a few smart business people started companies that specialize in gathering information for every type of phone record. They pay money to have access to unlisted and cell phone records and then build databases that people can search through.

This type of search is called a "reverse phone search" and can be done online. You just enter the phone number you are looking for information on, and the owner's full name, address, location details and background information is instantly displayed on your phone.

As you can imagine there is a fee for this service, but it isn't expensive. One thing you should look for is a company that charges a one-time fee for unlimited searches. You are only billed once and can then run as many searches as you want.

We did include a link at the bottom of this article so you can try a free sample reverse phone search. It's neat to see just how much you can find out about someone when all you have is their phone number.

There's a quick trick you can use to see if you can find out the same information for free. It's simple - Just go to Google and type in the phone number in this format: "555-555-5555" and hit search.

If this phone has ever been published on a webpage before Google will bring it up for you. You may be able to find out what you need if the person's name and information are published online with the phone number. Even though the paid services are only a few dollars, you may as well try this trick to see if you can save a couple of bucks!

Using a reverse phone search can come in handy in many different situations. You might want to know who has been calling you without leaving a message or perhaps there's a number on your spouse's cell phone you don't recognize.

The Power of Words

A short time ago I had the occasion to watch a current film version of "The Diary of Anne Frank". I was once again reminded of the power of words to change lives, inspire spirits and challenge our thoughts.

The simple observations of a young 14-year-old girl in a time of great oppression have served to inspire hundreds of thousands of other people who have never set foot upon her homeland or experienced the horrors of war. Yet, Anne Frank's words have survived the bombs, the death camps and the cruelties of the 2nd World War and have somehow connected us to the private thoughts of a girl facing adolescence while trying to grow up in a world gone mad.

So, when people tell me that the "soft skills" have no impact, I think of the power of Anne's words - and how they may have changed the course of history by reaching out and connecting us with the values that we need to drive our countries and our businesses into the future.

When people challenge me that the "soft skills" and learning to connect with each other isn't important in the "real world", I am reminded of her simple yet elegant descriptions, of the way her words helped us to experience her feelings and to understand. Her words, with their honesty and, at times, heart searching questions, have challenged us to put our values to work and stand up for our beliefs before someone else gets to decide what those beliefs are.

What a gift she has left and what a power her words have over us - to lead us, to inspire us, to guide us to be something better than we ever thought possible.

As a businessperson, I ask you this question: what do you want your reputation to be? What legacy do your words leave?

A reputation is based on your values and how your express those values in your everyday words and actions. It's about walking your talk daily and with authenticity. It's about effecting change wisely, with impact, meaning, and responsibility.

Consider this. When you know what your values are, and you dare to speak them to the world, not behind closed doors to only that are "strategically aligned", it will align you with those that share the same values. And that will give you energy and allow your business to grow with more ease, more consistency and with more impact.

And here's the added bonus: it will steer you away from others who will drain your energy and steer you away from your vision, your goals.

The next time you engage in a business conversation, talk to a client or speak to an employee, consider this: what is the legacy of your words, of your work, of your life? How will your words impact the people who hear them or read them? Will they connect us, inspire us and give us the guidance we need to make us better? Or, will they hurt us, accuse us and move us further apart?

Soft skills, your ability to connect & communicate with others, are really the hard skills of this new conceptual age - the age in which connecting and making meaning of the vast amounts of information at hand will determine the success or failure of many businesses - and people.

Effective Ways Of Fighting Prepaid Phone Card Fraud

Prepaid phone cards are commonly-used, convenient and user friendly devices that many individuals use for making international or domestic phone calls. While many have found these devices to be truly useful, some call cards, sadly, have been involved in some manner of phone card fraud.

Phone card fraud refers to the theft of a firm's or users ' telecommunications service, and this has been an ongoing concern for many consumers, government regulators and private telecoms providers. However, if the individual consumer is not vigilant, and does not report fraudulent charges, the fraudsters and scam artists out there will continue to rake in profits, and fool more customers.

Consumers Should Play A Wider Role In Fighting Call Card Fraud

Since most local phone card providers and firms are required by law to bill for other firms that provide telephone services, there is a wider possibility that fraudulent charges or transactions may appear, and could land on your phone bill. Consumers are an important asset in fighting fraud in a ll forms, and should play a larger role in helping eradicate phone fraud, because frequently the first step in detecting a fraudulent transaction or scheme is by identifying and reporting illegal, or unauthorized charges that appear suddenly on your bills, or may suddenly wipe out your card's remaining balance.

Scam Artists Are Still On The Prowl For More Phone Card Victims

Despite frequent crackdowns and ordinances or measures implemented to fight phone-related rip-offs, the scam artists and thieves are still out there, busy creating new methods of committing phone card fraud. These mindless individuals always seem to find newer methods of getting out of reach of regulators and the phone firms that try to close in on them.

You could be a potential victim of a so-called phone company "salesperson," who is out to trick you into switching your prepaid card for something else, or may give you false claims to entice you on transferring to their service, which in the end, could result in you seeing your card's remaining call times to be suddenly wiped off the system.

Fighting Back Against Prepaid Card Fraudsters

If you discover unauthorized charges or other evidence of fraud, you need to quickly report these to your local phone firm, long distance carrier, or through the state public service or utility commission. You may also send in your complaints to the offices of the Federal Communications Commission for proper resolution of your concerns and problems. You also can ask your calling card firm to issue one that does not have your PIN on it, or you may also memorize your PIN and do not write it on the card itself, to prevent it from being seen by others.

The increase in the number of prepaid phone card providers in the market these days has been triggered by low start-up costs. In a large number of of cases, some service providers have taken customers' money and left them with nothing but worthless cards. There also have been other reported forms of unlawful or deceptive marketing methods and practices involving prepaid call cards, and some phone card providers also have been noted to fail to tell consumers about fees, surcharges and other costs, or hide them in small, difficult-to-read print.

How to Have the Prepaid Calling Card for You

If you are traveling a lot because of your work; you are studying far from your parents; you are living abroad, definitely, you have to keep in touch with people dear to you such as your family, relatives, friends and associates. These days, there are lots of ways to communicate with others.

With the use of the internet, there are ways for you to communicate by sending and receiving emails, chatting and so on. But nothing beats hearing their voices, so calling is still the best way to communicate. Making international calls can give you enormous telephone monthly bills, reason why most people prevent themselves to make international calls.

With the use of prepaid calling cards, now you can make international and local calls within the reach of your communication budget. Yes, with these phone cards, you can handle your communication budget, since you can buy these cards with different denominations, so you can buy one depending upon your budget.

In using these phone cards, you can save lots of money since you will no longer have enormous monthly telephone bills. These phone cards offer lower rates in making international calls than with your telephone service providers. You can make international calls any time of the day and every where since you can use these cards in any regular phones, pay phones, cell phones and in the hotels.

Indeed, prepaid calling cards are convenient and great tools to communicate with others. These cards are so thin that you can put it in your pocket, so you can make calls any where you are.

You can see a lot of different phone cards on the market and online, so it can be quite hard for you to choose which you will use in making local or international calls. Of course, you want to make sure that you'll be getting the right card that can give you satisfaction and comfort.

Each card comes with different rates, features and services, so it is best for you to check out few cards before you use one. Definitely, you do not want to be caught surprised with the hidden charges of the card you are using.

You can use the internet in checking out several cards. Yes, it is wiser on your part to check out few cards and compare. In comparing, it can help you find the one that you need and can suit your lifestyle.

It is also a good way to ask for recommendations from family and in order to gain the right card for you. Definitely, they will give you good assessment about certain cards.

Is There An Easy Way To Find Out Who A Phone Number Belongs To?

Whatever your reasons may be for wanting to find out who that phone number belongs to, never feel that they are not legitimate concerns. And, don't worry that you are alone in needing to find this information out. Sadly, many people have concerns that a spouse or a partner may be having an affair because of telephone numbers that keep appearing with no name. Not only that, there are just as many people, usually women, who are being stalked with phone calls from unknown numbers - and that can be frightening.

But, are the phone number trace services legitimate? There are some very unscrupulous people who will take advantage of people's desperation during this time of worry and doubt. When doing your reverse telephone lookup, always make sure that you are dealing with a company that has an accurate database.

Most of the services allow you to enter the phone number for free, which will give you some basic information about the number. You will usually be required to pay a very small fee to get a generated report with complete information, including name and address - some even give a map! A good service will give you the option to upgrade and purchase a lifetime use, instead of charging for every search. That way, if you need the service again in the future, it will be completely free.

Unfortunately, there is a very large market for this kind of service simply because people are not sitting back and hiding behind lies anymore. And, thanks to this technology, anyone who is being stalked by an unknown caller can have answers in minutes and can take the necessary action. Finding out who a phone number belongs to is a very simple process, and it is completely legitimate. You can find the answers you are looking for in minutes - and make any decisions about what to do with the information immediately.