Publications

Why Is My Site Not Showing Up In Google?

by

More and more websites are failing to show up in the world's biggest search engine and increasingly businesses are feeling frustrated with their websites.To solve this problem, leading internet marketing company WebEfforts, suggests five easy steps to improve your ranking.

Birmingham, United Kingdom (PRWEB) February 5, 2008 — More and more websites are failing to show up in the world's biggest search engine and increasingly businesses are feeling frustrated with their websites.To solve this problem, leading internet marketing company WebEfforts, suggests five easy steps to improve your ranking.
News Image

  • Step one: choose your keywords carefully.

Many people fall into the trap of competing for the same keywords. For example, there are over 10 millions searches performed each year on Google for the keyword 'internet marketing'.

However, our research shows that the search term 'internet marketing company' attracts 300,000 searches a year on Google. Often, this longer search term has less competition and reaches your target market more effectively. Hence your chances of ranking on it are higher in Google, and more importantly, achieving online sales.

  • Step two: embed keywords into your website.

Once you have decided on your keywords, you need to make sure they appear throughout your website's text. This communicates to Google that your site is a highly relevant match to the term searched for.

For example, to rank on Google for the term 'internet marketing company' this keyword phrase needs to appear at least three times within one page on your website. You also have technical tags on your website, known as 'Meta Tags', which need to contain this keyword too. We suggest contacting a professional company if you are unfamiliar with changing these.

  • Step three: uncover competitors' online strategies.

So, you may think you have found the best search term and all the text is embedded within your website. But, will it actually work?

Well, look at your top competitor's website and scan across their pages to see what search terms that are continually repeating in their text. Look at the top of the browser on their home page, what keywords appear there? The text there is the 'Title Meta Tag' text, which is very important to Google for ranking purposes.

There are automated ways to research your competitors using internet tools, but these can be expensive to buy for a one-off job. We suggest buying an internet marketing report, which is an affordable way to share the cost of using the tools.

  • Step four: get your keywords noticed.

If any step should be given more emphasis, this is the one. To rank on Google for a search term, Google's search engine won't just take your word for it because it is written on your site. Google wants additional confirmation that you are telling the truth. As a result, Google needs to see other sites pointing to your site for that keyword.

To do this you need to write content for your site and include links to your site on the keyword you want to rank in Google for. For example, to promote Web Effort's on the keyword 'internet marketing company' the content should include a link like:-

"……leading internet marketing company WebEfforts produce the best selling internet marketing report that includes professional keyword research, a web site assessment and powerful competitor research…"

However, you may need hundreds of links pointing to your site to compete against your competitors for that keyword.

In an extract from our report, we noticed that a top competitor had over 1,000 links. If this is the case for your search term, it is best to outsource the work to a professional company with experience in this area. Avoid using cheap services, as the techniques they use can be automated and leave you completely blacklisted from the search engine.

  • Step five: create viral content through online publicity.

To add the icing on the cake, you could get your website noticed on some of the largest News wires such as paid inclusion sites like Yahoo News and Google News. This method normally gives you exposure for 30 days and can provide an excellent source of traffic within days. We suggest using an online distribution service for this.

However, the key is to create viral content, which is content that is likely to be passed on because it is useful. Once this is achieved people will start posting links, from say forums or blogs, allowing the link building work to be done all by itself.

Following these five easy steps will not only improve your ranking on Google, but also drive traffic to your website and potentially increase sales.

For more information, please contact Max Worton at WebEfforts on 01562 884 388 or max.worton@webefforts.co.uk

About WebEfforts
WebEfforts helps website owners on small budgets drive targeted traffic to their website, see our results. The company is known for its best-selling internet marketing report, which can be viewed online at http://www.webefforts.co.uk.

Services include: Web Site Management and Administration, Professional Keyword Research, Web Site Assessments, Competitor intelligence, Link Building and Online Publicity.

###

How to Prepare Taxes for Your Small Business

by

As tax day approaches, Paul Stappas had devised tips for small businesses to file with ease this year.

Paramus, NJ (PRWEB) February 2, 2008 — As tax day approaches, businesses around the country will be turning their books over for tax preparation. Some will be well prepared but most small business owners may get “that sinking feeling,” hoping that their accountants can help piece things together. With a little foresight and some planning, however, small business owners can easily adopt smart bookkeeping practices that will make tax time much less stressful and their bottom lines more robust.

“The key is in the set-up,” says Paul Stappas, owner of Bookkeeping Administration Management, a service that implements bookkeeping systems for small-sized companies around the country. “Most businesses use Quick Books. But if the entries are faulty, Quick Books won’t produce accurate profit and loss statements and balance sheets. The adage, ‘garbage in, garbage out’ definitely applies.” Amazingly, of the thousands of businesses Stappas has counseled, less than two percent were using Quick Books to its potential. Stappas says he has also found inconsistencies and incorrect data from every company that has requested his help.

Here are tips Stappas says business owners should follow to maximize their accounting efforts and make tax time as painless as possible whether they use Quick Books or not:

 

  • A bookkeeper should never make adjustments to your books entry system without specific authority from you or your accountant. Stappas says that most company bookkeepers will frequently make adjustments to their books and never inform the owner or the owners’ accounting firm. The way information is entered into Quick Books or another program will definitely affect the outcome. If the entry system is changed, you may not get accurate profit-and-loss statements or balance sheet at year’s end.

 

  • Make certain your entries are recorded accurately. Even simple entries can be incorrect if they are not logged properly. The interest and principal on a car loan payment, for example, must be separated for proper accounting purposes. For manufacturing firms, the cost of goods must be properly logged. Service companies must properly record hours worked by each employee. Liabilities are frequently not recorded correctly, resulting in improper payments to the IRS.

 

  • Spend time planning for the year ahead. Even if your books are not up-to-par this year, don’t hide from the problem. Spend some real time now to correct your books, implementing new entry systems if necessary and resolve to stop the bad habits that can put unnecessary stress on even successful businesses and their owners.

 

  • Hire an expert to fix the problem. Bookkeepers might not have the training necessary to correct inconsistent and inaccurate entries. And, accountants might not have the time budgeted to overhaul your books. Find a true Quick Books expert who knows business to repair the damage.

It’s never too late to start over where bookkeeping is concerned. “If your systems seem substandard, don’t despair,” says Stappas. “With a few simple changes, any company can adopt end-of-year bookkeeping and accounting practices that are easy to follow and accurate to a fault.”

Bookkeeping Administration Management is a turn-key bookkeeping service that handles monthly or semi-monthly accounts receivables, accounts payable and payroll needs for businesses of any size. The company is based in Neshanic Station, New Jersey. For more information visit: http://www.bookkeepingadmin.com/

Backups in a Linux Environment

by

Backups are an important task within any environment. While there are multiple options for performing backups on a Windows network, you may not be aware of the  options available for a Linux environment. Given the fact that I work strictly in the Linux world, both at home and at the office, I can offer some suggestions as to what options are available. We’ll stick with open source (free) solutions here, although there are many commercial products available.

             Bacula (http://www.bacula.org/) is the big player in the enterprise level network backup game. Setup and configuration of Bacula is a job for intermediate/advanced Linux users, although once installed and configured there is a very easy-to-use web GUI for administration.

             Another good product is Mondo Rescue (http://www.mondorescue.org/). While this application can be used for backup, it is designed more as a disaster recovery tool. Mondo Rescue creates bootable CD/DVD’s that contain snapshots of a complete system (ala Ghost or True Image) which can be used to restore a system from bare metal.  It’s administered from a simple text-based GUI and packages are available for most Linux distributions. Installation and use is simple enough for the average Linux user.

             Next up is Amanda (http://www.amanda.org/). The source code is available at the Amanda web site, but a quick Google search will net you a package in the proper format for your particular flavor of Linux. This is strictly a command line tool, so it’s best left to those power users that are comfortable working without a GUI. This is a very powerful and flexible backup application.

             Of course if you are not looking for a network type solution and just want something to backup your own machine, almost all Linux distributions come prepackaged with some type of easy-to-use GUI based software. The KDat application included with the KDE desktop is one example. Several folks have written their own and made it freely available to us all.  http://simplelinuxbkup.sourceforge.net/ for example.

             While I am by no means a code-monkey, I have learned enough basic shell scripting to write my own backup software. It works equally well for stand alone machines or as a network solution. You can find it here (you’ll have to be a registered member):

http://www.theforcefield.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=911&Itemid=53  


             My backup software consists of a simple script that runs as a scheduled job and uses ‘tar’ to create compressed backup files. The default is to backup the /home directory daily and perform a full backup weekly. A copy of the backup is stored on the local machine (so that you may manually burn it to CD/DVD, archive it to a tape drive, copy to a USB stick, FTP it somewhere, etc.). This software can optionally use ‘rsync’ to automatically push a copy of the backup to a network storage device. I use an old server with a multiple scsi disk array, but you could use an external enclosure with a large hard drive attached to another Linux machine or even push the backup across the WAN to an off-site storage device running Linux. Another option would be to automatically FTP the tar files to any local or remote FTP server (although you will have to learn a bit of shell scripting and write this code yourself).  *NOTE: If you choose the preceding FTP option, PLEASE consider security and use SFTP or tunnel through a VPN! Full restores can be done simply by partitioning and formatting a new hard drive and then extracting the compressed tar file onto the disk. If you delete something important from your home directory, you can simply extract the /home tar file stored on the local machine back into your existing /home directory. Basic instructions are in the README, and the scripts are liberally commented.

             As always, if you have any questions, comments, problems, or want to erect a statue in my likeness, please feel free to contact me at thughes@fwpm.com .

 

Copyright 2008 Todd Hughes

Anatomy of a rootkill: Hunting down and destroying undetectable malware

by

Anatomy of a rootkill: Hunting down and destroying undetectable malware

by Chris Bequeath

 

(The following is a true story, documented during an actual detection and removal of an unknown rootkit)

A computer arrived in my shop with the usual symptoms of malware – running slow, website redirections. It was running Windows Live OneCare for antivirus, and Webroot Spysweeper. The customer had already tried tools like Spybot S&D to fix the problem. When that didn’t fix their problem they took it to one of the big box stores, where they said the only way to fix it was to wipe the drive and reload the data. This was unacceptable to the customer, and that’s how I ended up with the PC. 

A quick inspection in Safe Mode revealed one of the newer smitfraud variants, along with other malware of various sorts. A quick run through of the registry and filesystem took care of those. Opening HiJackThis to clean up any leftovers showed a suspicious entry under WinLogon named frvemmei. Killing it and rerunning HJT showed the entry re-spawning instantly.

So I opened up the trusty windows registry editor and searched out all entries for frvemmei. Unfortunately, the malware had locked the entry so it couldn’t be deleted. I tried changing permissions, and even tried regedt32 just in case.

 Registry Editor


 

A quick boot to UBCD4Win to delete the files and registry entries showed the registry entry, but no sign of the file ‘ccbaccb.dll’ in system32 where it was visible, but unable to delete while Windows was running. Rebooting windows showed both the file and the registry entries were back. So figuring this machine had a rootkit I ran RootkitRevealer, Sophos antirootkit and a few other tools, all which showed clean. I removed the Webroot and OneCare software, then installed AVG virus and spyware software. Surfing to the system32 folder and doing a shell scan on ccbaccb.dll with AVG showed obfustat.vyg, but it was unable to clean.

 

Object Details

 

Researching the registry entry, the dll file and the AVG result turned up no information. So this looked like an unknown rootkit.  Now the fun begins! 

First off I had to find what was loading the files. Firing up Process Explorer from Sysinternals
( http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx ) and searching for the file ccbaccb.dll came up with the following:

 

Process Explorer Search

 

So now we can see the rootkit has hooked into the kernel at bootup in the explorer.exe file, meaning it has complete control over the OS and how software operates – including antivirus software. Any machine that is compromised in this fashion, either from a system file, a driver dll or any other file loaded before the operating system boots cannot be trusted with scans that run on the machine. This includes online scans which load applets, file definitions and other things needed for the test onto the host PC.

It’s a sure bet that the explorer file is what is reloading the frvemmei and ccbaccb.dll. So this will be a fairly easy one to fix not only the infection but the corrupted Windows files.

But now that we know how to kill the rootkit, it’s a good idea to find out what first infected it in the first place. Booting into normal mode and running regmon and filemon (available at Sysinternals site) shows something unusual. Every few seconds a file is loaded called lighthouse.wma. At the same time a registry entry is created. Searching the registry shows only the one instance of the file. Searching the PC shows the file is located in the LimeWire Shared directory. The registry entry it creates is for our old friend frvemmei in the RUN key. So it appears the lighthouse.wma file was the progenitor. Once run, it created keys in the registry and created the ccbaccb.dll file. Upon reboot the dll file (really an exe disguised) modified explorer.exe which would ensure that it was always recreated if it was deleted. 

Now for the cleaning. Boot to your favorite boot disk with a remote registry editor. Find all instances of ccbaccb.dll, frvemmei, and lighthouse.wma on the drive and in the registry and delete them. Also delete explorer.exe from the drive. Insert the correct Windows disk (or use system recovery) and perform a system repair. This will replace explorer.exe with a clean copy, along with any other modified windows files. Retest the PC, check with HJT to make sure there are no rogue entries and your done! 

Summary:

This process if performed straight through, would take a couple of hours with the longest time for the repair install of Windows. While researching this issue to make sure that no software would detect it, I ran Trend Micro’s Housecall, PandaScan, F-Secure, BitDefender,  SpySweeper, AVG and AVGAS, McAfee, Spybot S&D, AdAware, SuperAntiSpyware and some standalone tools such as CWS Shredder. All tested the PC as being clean after the initial malware removal of smitfraud, vundo and other minor malware infections. The PC was put through at least 30 reboots to make sure the processes didn’t return.

 

Copyright 2007 Chris Bequeath. All rights reserved

 

{mos_fb_discuss:184} 

 

 

Ultimate Linux Server Part 1: Web Proxy

by
Ultimate Linux Server
Part 1: Web Proxy

    What is the “Ultimate Linux Server”? I suppose that if you asked ten different people you would get just as many different answers. My definition is a basic server running a stripped down operating system to which services can be added as necessary. Simplicity and security go hand-in-hand; the fewer services or “bells and whistles” a server is running, the more secure and reliable it will be.

    My version of the “Ultimate Linux Server” starts with a minimal install of Debian Linux and an application called Webmin. Webmin is a web based administrative interface for managing all aspects of a Linux server.

    This article is the first in a series of several installments. For now, we will build the basic server and install a web proxy application on it. Future articles will explain how to build upon this base server, adding services such as a mail server, anti-spam filter, DHCP server, DNS server, etc. The Webmin application also contains features to manage the server itself, such as back up, service monitoring and alerts to email and SMS, etc. These features will also be covered in future articles.

    As the title of this article infers, we will be installing a web proxy application. Why do you need a web proxy? A question was posed by a colleague recently concerning how to monitor web traffic and report on which users were going to what sites on the internet. A web proxy can be used to intercept all HTTP traffic destined for the internet and log which computers are going where. In addition, the web proxy we are going to install (Squid) acts as a caching web proxy which can speed up the loading of previously accessed web sites. An additional application called “SARG” produces very nice reports of all web traffic based upon such criteria as source IP, destination web site, the time frame web sites were accessed, the most active users of HTTP, etc.

    In an attempt to make the installation and configuration as easy as possible, we will use a method where-by the server is accessed remotely from your own desktop PC and commands are run on the server via a terminal application (with the exception of the initial installation of the operating system which must be done using a keyboard and monitor attached directly to the server).  These commands are presented in bold type and can simply be copied and pasted into the terminal window. This server is designed to run “lights out” without a monitor or keyboard attached during normal operation.

    The recommended minimum hardware configuration would be a P4 1.5 GHz (or equivalent), 512Mb RAM, and a 40 GB (or bigger) hard drive. Linux isn’t as resource intensive as some other operating systems so the above recommendations should work very nicely. Feel free to add more RAM as you install additional services.

    Let’s begin by getting the operating system installed. Download and burn a copy of Debian Linux. I recommend getting the network install image; it’s very small and you only need a very few basic packages anyway. Go here: Debian and download the appropriate “netinst” image (i386 for most of you). Make sure you burn this as an ISO “image” and then boot your new server to this CD. Go ahead and install Debian, making sure that you are plugged into the network and the internet is accessible. You can safely accept the defaults most of the way through, with the following exceptions:

1.    If your server grabs a DHCP address, use the tab key to choose “go back”, then choose “configure network manually” and assign an appropriate static IP.
2.    When you get to the “Software selection” screen, unselect everything (trust me). This is done by using the space bar to toggle your selection and the “down” arrow key to move through the menu. Once you have deselected all options, use the “tab” key to choose continue and hit “enter”.

    After it installs grub (the boot loader), it will spit the CD out at you and you simply hit “enter” to continue and boot into your new Debian system.

    At this point, you should be staring at a login prompt (yes, it’s all text based, no “point and click” here). Simply type root, hit “enter”, and then the password you chose for root when you installed the OS. Now, we’re going to do some basic setup:

1.    Type nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list. This will open a file up in an editor.
2.    Using your arrow keys to move around, put a “#” sign in front of the second line that starts with “deb cdrom” (this is called a “comment” and it means that the line will be ignored). Then move the cursor to the end of the first line that starts with “deb http” and add “contrib” and “non-free”. It should look something like this:
“deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free”
3.    Do the same for the remaining lines.
4.    Hit “ctrl o” (the ctrl button and the letter “o” at the same time), then “enter”, and then “ctrl x” to save and exit.
5.    Type the command apt-get update.
6.    Type the command apt-get install openssh-server (just hit enter when it asks you if you want to continue).

    It is a very bad idea to allow root logins via SSH so we need to edit the SSH configuration file to prevent this

1.    Enter the command nano -w /etc/ssh/sshd_config, this will open up a file in an editor. Using the same method that you used earlier to edit the “apt” file, look for the line that reads “PermitRootLogin Yes”, change “yes” to “no”, and save your changes (crtl o/enter/crtl x).
2.    Enter the command etc/init.d/ssh restart and hit enter.

    We can now finish the install remotely from our desktop by simply cutting and pasting commands into a terminal window connected to the Debian box. Linux users can simply open a terminal and connect to the Debian box using SSH. Windows users will need to download a small program that will allow terminal connections to a Linux box. This program, called “putty”, allows a Windows box to use SSH (the secure shell protocol) and can be found here: putty (just grab “putty.exe” and save it to your desktop). Open up putty, enter the IP address of your Debian box, the “regular user” name (that you created when you installed Debian), and the corresponding password.

    Once you have connected to the server via SSH, you can simply copy and paste the remaining commands (one line at a time unless otherwise noted, followed by hitting the “enter” key) into the terminal window to complete the installation and configuration.

    The next step is to add an additional repository to our /etc/apt/sources.list file and then perform a quick upgrade (“apt” is the package manager for Debian, it is used to download and install any of the tens of thousands of freely available software applications). Use the code below:

su
(enter root password)
nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list
(cut and paste the following on a new line at the bottom of the file)
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
save your changes (crtl o/enter/crtl x)
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade (choose “yes” when asked if you want to continue, if any dialog boxes pop up, hit “tab” and then “enter”)
reboot

    The reboot will knock you out of the remote session, so wait a minute for the box to reboot, then reconnect with SSH (or putty). We will now install Squid (the web proxy application) and SARG (Squid Analysis Report Generator). Use the code below:

su
(enter root password)
apt-get install squid sarg
(answer “yes” to any questions asked)

    If all went well, Squid and SARG are now installed but we need to edit the Squid configuration file to allow our local network to use the proxy server. While this can be accomplished through the Webmin interface, it involves several detailed steps to do it that way and it is much easier just to edit the underlying configuration file on the command line. Use the code below:

nano -w /etc/squid/squid.conf
(scroll waayyyy down to “# INSERT YOUR OWN RULE(S) HERE TO ALLOW ACCESS FROM YOUR CLIENTS” and uncomment “acl our_networks” by removing the “#” at the beginning of the line and then adapt as necessary for your network)
(mine looks like this: “acl our_networks src 192.168.12.0/24”)
(uncomment the  “http_access allow our_networks” line)
save your changes (crtl o/enter/crtl x)
/etc/init.d/squid restart

    Now we need to install Webmin and any other packages that it depends upon to function properly. Use the code below:

apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl mailx webmin (NOTE: this command should all be on one line!)
(choose “yes” to any questions asked)

    That should do it as far as the installation and configuration goes, now it’s time to log into Webmin and have a look around. Open up a browser and point it to:

 https://the_IP_address_of_your_new_Debian_server:10000

    Log in as “root” with the same root password that you use to log into the server itself. You should now be looking at the Webmin interface. Take some time and explore a bit; you’ll get an idea of how powerful this interface really is! You will also discover that quite a few options are either unavailable or not installed/configured yet. We’ll get to those in a future article.

    Expand “Servers” in the left side panel, then click on “Squid Analysis Report Generator”.  Now, click on “Generate Report Now”. Whoops! Error, no records found. This is because there is no information in the log files to report. We now need to configure the web browsers on all the PC’s on our LAN to use our new proxy server to get to the internet. Configure the settings in the web browsers of your LAN machines to use a proxy (but ONLY for HTTP!). Enter the IP address of the new server as a proxy and 3128 as the proxy port. (The specifics on how to do this depend on which browser you use.) I also recommend checking the “do not use proxy for local connections” setting.  If you are a Microsoft shop and use IE, you should be able to push this out with a GPO. Now, hit a few web sites from a LAN PC then go back to Webmin and click on “Generate Report Now”. Click on “View completed report”, then click on the date under “FILE/PERIOD”. You should see some data. Everything in blue is a link to detailed data, the tiny icons are clickable too. Use the browser “back” button to return to the previous page. (Cool stuff, huh?)

    I must advise you that there is a bug with the software: If you click the “Log Source and Report Destination” icon, there is an option to enter an email address to have reports sent to. When you enable this particular option and enter an email address, subsequent report generation will fail. Bottom line is do not enable the “Email report to” option. (This is really no big deal because the emailed reports are nothing but a simple text message with very little useful information anyway). Otherwise, feel free to play with the other settings for SARG.

    One last note: savvy users will probably catch on to the fact that you are watching them and will change their proxy settings back to “connect to internet directly” to avoid being monitored. To prevent this, you should create an egress (outbound) rule on your firewall that will only allow outbound HTTP traffic if it originates from the proxy server IP (heh heh).

    As always, if you have any questions, comments, problems, or want to make a large charitable donation in my name, please feel free to contact me at thughes@fwpm.com.

RESOURCES:
Squid: http://www.squid-cache.org/

SARG: http://sarg.sourceforge.net/sarg.php

Webmin: http://www.webmin.com/

Debian: http://www.debian.org/

Putty: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Burning CD images: http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

Copyright 2007 Todd Hughes
 
{mos_fb_discuss:no_discuss} 

IPCop Installation Guide

by
IPCop Installation Guide
-Eric J. Vititoe

IPCop “is a complete Linux distribution whose sole purpose is to protect the networks on which it is installed”.  It is very easy to install.  It is very easy to configure.  And, best of all, it is FREE.

IPCop and its add-ons include DHCP routing, VPN capabilities, anti-spyware, anti-spam, anti-virus, proxy, URL filtering, and much more.

IPCop is able to run on hardware that we would normally think of as being obsolete.  I have personally never installed it on a machine with anything slower than a 700MHz CPU, but others have installed it on 200-233MHz machines with only 32Mb RAM.  Even at slower speeds, it is very robust.

Today, I will show you how to set up a basic configuration of IPCop.  My example configuration assumes:
    a) you have a static IP from your ISP
    b) you need to use DHCP for your LAN
    c) you need VPN capabilities for roaming users
    d) that the users above have Windows
    e) that you know a little bit about computers and networking

The rig I am using is a 1.3GHz AMD with 256Mb of RAM and a 20Gb hard drive.  I have two network cards installed, one for the WAN, and another for the LAN.  The computer also has a floppy drive and CD-ROM.

Section 1 – Installing IPCop

Go to www.ipcop.org and download the ISO image.  It’s approximately 45Mb in size.  Use your favorite burning software to put the ISO to CD and load it into your CD drive.

Turn your machine on and we’ll begin the tutorial.  I will walk you through the install, step by step.  Keep in mind that your mouse will not function with IPCop.  You will use the tab, space, and enter keys to move the cursor and select an item.

Note: Connect the LAN cable, but do NOT connect the WAN interface cable yet.  I will let you know when to connect the WAN cable.

1) The first menu is the boot menu.  Simply press enter to boot.

2) Select your language, move to and select OK.

3) The installation will erase all information on your hard drive.  If this is OK, move to and select OK.  Not selecting OK will cancel the installation.

4) Since we burned a CD for installing, we will select the CD-ROM as our installation media.  Move to and select OK.

5) You are now at the disk prep dialogue.    Select OK to continue.

At this point, you will see several dialogues appear and disappear, such as partitioning, installing log file system and root file system, installing files, swap space, etc.  Just be patient.

6) The next step asks if you would like to make a backup.  I see no need to backup yet, so I just skip this step.  You can backup if you like.

7) Now we are going to configure our green interface.  The green interface is going to be used on the LAN, or local, side of the IPCop box.   To configure the green interface, move to and select Probe.  It will detect which network interface is connected and use that one for your green interface.  Select OK after it has been detected.

8) Enter your green interface IP address.  Normally, you would enter 192.168.1.1 as this is going to be acting as our new router, as well.  You could enter a different address for now and change it later, in case your new IPCop box isn’t going live just yet.  Select OK.

9) At this point, the installer will install GRUB bootloader and then eject the install CD.  Place the CD in a safe location.

10) “Congratulations!”  The initial setup is almost complete.  Select OK.

11) Choose your keyboard layout and select OK.

12) Now, select your time zone and select OK.

13) For host name, just use “ipcop” (without the quotes).  That will make it easy to remember.  Select OK.

14) Unless you know what you are doing, just use the default domain name and select OK.

15) Most do not use ISDN, so select disabled.

16) Now, we are at the network configuration menu.  For this example, we will choose “Green + Red”.  Select OK.  IPCop will now push down the local network.

17) Choose Drivers & Card Assignments, then select OK when prompted to change settings.  IPCop will once again push down the network.

18) IPCop will prompt that it has found an unclaimed network card and will ask if you want to assign it to the red interface.  Select OK to assign it.  It will prompt that All cards have been successfully allocated.

19) Back at the menu, choose address settings, then green interface and OK.  Read the warning, change numbers if needed, and choose OK.

20) Select red interface.  Input your settings for DHCP, static addresses and select done.

21) Now, select DNS & Gateway settings.  Input parameters and select OK.

22) Choose DHCP Server Configuration, input settings, and select OK.

23) The next few dialogues will prompt you for various passwords.  For simplicity, you can enter them all the same.  However, if you have more than one network admin, you may want to use different passwords for each.  You will have to enter each twice, but won’t be able to see what you are typing.

24) Now, you can connect your WAN interface cable.  Choose OK to reboot.  After IPCop has rebooted, do not touch anything at the boot menu.

Now that IPCop has been set up, you can remove the keyboard and mouse from the computer.  IPCop can now run headless. *Exception: if you entered a different IP address in step eight, you will need to run setup locally again from the IPCop machine to change the address.

From another machine on your LAN, open your web browser and visit https://192.168.1.1:445 (or whatever address you entered in step 8).  Notice we’re using secure http.  If you prefer, you can use the unsecured address http://192.168.1.1:81.

Enter the admin username and password when prompted.  From the drop down menu, you need to enable SSH.  Click system > SSH Access then check SSH Access.  Now click on Save.

You have now configured your IPCop router.

Section 2 – Installing VPN

If you want to take things even further, you can now install Zerina as your VPN server to give roaming users the ability to see and use local resources remotely, while keeping your data secure.

To install Zerina from a Windows box, you will first need to download a few things.  

First is Zerina itself.  Download Zerina from http://www.zerina.de/zerina/?q=download .  

Secondly, download WinSCP from http://winscp.net/eng/index.php .  

Last, download Putty from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html .  

If one or more of these addresses no longer work, simply search for them using your favorite internet search engine.

A great animated installation guide for Zerina can be found at http://www.zerina.de/zerina/files/flash/ZERINA-Install.htm .

Section 3 – Configuring Your VPN Server

Once you have installed Zerina, you will need to create the host certificate.  From the menu, go to VPN > OpenVPN.  Click the box called “Generate Root/Host Certificate”.  Enter all information and click generate.  This may take a few minutes.

Now, we can create certificates for your VPN users. From the OpenVPN menu, under client status, click add.  Select host-to-net VPN > add.  Now, fill in all relevant information, including password, and click save.  After a moment, you will now see that user’s account.  Repeat for all VPN users.

NOTE: Be sure to click the “enable VPN on red” check box on the OpenVPN menu.

Section 4 – Installing and Configuring Your VPN Client

As a client, you will need to download OpenVPN’s client software from “http://openvpn.net/download.html”.  Install using all default options.  If you are using Windows XP, you will receive a prompt that the drive has not passed Microsoft testing.  Just click continue anyway.  The client is now installed.

To configure the client, we need to download the PKCS12 file that was generated from the server.  Browse to the IPCop GUI > VPN > OpenVPN.  Locate the user’s file.  It is the blue button to the right of the user name labeled “O VPN”.  Click on this button to download the user’s package file.

Once downloaded, transfer the package file to the client machine and unzip.  It should contain two files.  Both of these files should be moved to the “C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config” directory on the client machine.

To connect the client to the remote VPN, click on the OpenVPN GUI from the program menu.  You will see a new network icon with two red screens in your system tray.  Right click on that icon, then left click on connect.  You will be prompted to enter your password.

You are now connected!

Good luck and happy installing!

Email Troubleshooting: Back to Basics

by

Email has undergone a major transformation in the past decade . What began as a simple means to send a quick message has evolved into a business critical application.  This increased use of email as a primary communication method has placed an emphasis on maintaining the availability of this service to the users. One of the best methods for diagnosing problems with email is what I refer to as “getting back to the basics”.

    Getting back to the basics means separating the email application software from the protocol itself.  Application software can be either an MUA (Mail User Agent) such as Outlook or Thunderbird, or an MTA (Mail Transport Agent) such as Exchange or Postfix. We will concentrate on working with the underlying protocols only.  Troubleshooting  software beyond basic configuration (proper user name and password, correct mail server IP and port number, mailbox setup, etc.) is beyond the scope of this article.

    There are 3 main protocols we will deal with when troubleshooting email. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used to send email. The SMTP protocol “pushes” messages, whether it's from the desktop to the internal email server, or from one email server to another. It is important to keep in mind that this is a “best effort” or “store and forward” protocol which means that there is no guarantee of successful delivery. POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) are used to retrieve email. POP3 and IMAP “pull” messages from an email server to the desktop. POP3 downloads the entire message to the desktop when an email is read. IMAP downloads only the email header information when a mail check is performed, the message itself is actually opened and read right on the mail server (making IMAP a bit more bandwidth friendly). Both of these protocols send login credentials to the mail server in clear text unless the secure version of the protocol (POP3S or IMAPS) is used. While there are other proprietary email protocols in use, we will concentrate on the aforementioned 3 which are considered the standards for internet email transport.

    The most important tip I can give is to pay very close attention to any error messages you may receive related to mail delivery. If a user states “I sent an email, but I got an error message back”, you need to tell that user to copy the error message down verbatim. Email error messages are usually very specific about what the problem is. Here's an example:

This is the Postfix program at host mail.mydomain.com.

 

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not

be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

 

For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>

 

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can

delete your own text from the attached returned message.

 

         The Postfix program

 

<joeshmoe@budweiser.com>: host mail1.synacor.com[64.8.70.127] said: 553 sorry,

  your envelope recipient is in rejected. either it has been deactivated or

  does not exist (#5.7.1) (in reply to RCPT TO command)

 

    The above message comes from my mail server (mail.mydomain.com) and is telling me that my message to joeshmoe@budweiser.com could not be delivered. Specifically, the mail server for “budweiser.com” (mail1.synacor.com[64.8.70.127]) said that the recipient (joeshmoe) either doesn't exist or his account has been deactivated. Note the “553”, this is an SMTP reply code. Anything in the 500 range means “permanent error”, the 400 range means “temporary error/will try again”, and anything in the 200 range means “success/OK”.

    Troubleshooting sending (SMTP) errors is done on the command line using the SMTP commands. If you suspect a problem between the desktop and the internal mail server you should do this from the desktop, if the issue is suspected to be outside of your network you need do this from the mail server itself. We'll make a connection to the recipients mail server and attempt to send a message “by hand” using some basic SMTP commands and see what happens. If you are testing from the desktop, you already know what the mail server's IP of FQDN is, if you are testing from your internal mail server to an outside server, you need to look up the name or IP of the recipient's mail server. This can be done with “nslookup” (Windows) or the “dig” command (Linux). Once we know how to get to the recipient's server, we'll make a telnet connection to port 25 (SMTP), then we'll introduce ourselves (the “helo” or “ehlo” command), and finally we will send an email and see what type of reply codes we get. Open up a terminal or command prompt and let's get started!

Look up the mail server:

thughes@thughes:~$ dig mydomain.com mx
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mydomain.com.                        IN      MX
;; ANSWER SECTION:
mydomain.com.         736     IN      MX      5 mail.mydomain.com.

Make a connection (telnet) to that mail server on port 25 :

thughes@thughes:~$ telnet mail.mydomain.com 25
Trying 73.42.65.188…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.mydomain.com at your service ESMTP NO UCE  

(notice the 220…that means OK)       

Now, introduce yourself by typing “ehlo <something>” (I typed “ehlo howdy!”):

Trying 74.41.65.188…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.mydomain.com at your service ESMTP NO UCE
ehlo howdy!
250-mail.mydomain.com
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 10240000
250-ETRN
250-STARTTLS
250 8BITMIME

If you get an error when using the “ehlo” (extended helo) command, the server probably doesn't support the extended version of the command so just use the standard “helo” command. Again, notice all the 250 codes, these mean that this server supports all of the listed options.

Let's send an email:

Type “mail from: <your email address>” (the “<” and “>” are necessary in this command)

Trying 74.41.65.188…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.mydomain.com at your service ESMTP NO UCE
ehlo test
250-mail.mydomain.com
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 10240000
250-ETRN
250-STARTTLS
250 8BITMIME
mail from: <thughes@fwpm.com>
250 Ok

(There's that 250 again)

Type “rcpt to: <recipient's email address>”

Trying 74.41.65.188…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.mydomain.com at your service ESMTP NO UCE
mail from: <thughes@someotherdomain.com>
250 Ok
rcpt to: <thughes@mydomain.com>
250 Ok

(250 again)

Now we need to add some data to the email, so type “data” and hit the “enter” key,  then type “SUBJECT:” (add a subject), hit “enter”, type “FROM:” (type the from address), hit “enter”, type “TO:” (type the to address), hit “enter” twice, and then type the body of your email. When you're done typing your message, hit the “.” key and you should get a message that the email was sent (“queued”) on the recipient's server, then type “quit”. All of the commands that I typed in the following example are in bold type:

Trying 74.41.65.188…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.mydomain.com at your service ESMTP NO UCE
mail from: <thughes@someotherdomain.com>
250 Ok
rcpt to: <thughes@mydomain.com>
250 Ok
data
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
FROM: mickeymouse@donaldduck.com
TO: thughes@mydomain.com
SUBJECT: test email

This is a test email
.
250 Ok: queued as 56CBE3B018E
quit
221 Bye
Connection closed by foreign host.

This message was sent successfully (“250 Ok: queued as 56CBE3B018E”). If there was a problem, the reply code would have told me exactly what the problem was. You may also have noticed that when I typed in the “FROM:” field, I used an address other than the one that I used in the initial “mail from:” command, this is because the “FROM:” in the headers of the email do NOT have to match the original connecting (“envelope”) sender. This is how spammers spoof email (heh heh).

    Alright, delivery works, now we need to test mail retrieval. Let's do some POP command line magic next. First, we need to telnet to our internal mail server on port 110 (995 for POPS):

thughes@thughes:~$ telnet mail.mydomain.com 110
Trying 192.168.12.80…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK dovecot ready.

Now we need to authenticate by typing “user <username>”, hit “enter”, then type “pass <your password>” and hit “enter” again:

thughes@thughes:~$ telnet mail.fwpm.com 110
Trying 192.168.12.80…
Connected to mail.fwpm.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK dovecot ready.
user thughes
+OK
pass *********
+OK Logged in.

We're in!  Now type “list” to see all the emails (they are listed numerically, the first number  is the message number, the second number is the message size), type “retr (message #)”  and hit “enter”, and your message will be displayed. Type “quit” to disconnect from the POP server.

    Finally, let's try email retrieval using IMAP. Telnet to the internal mail server on port 143 (993 for IMAPS) and log in by typing “a01 login <user name> <password>”:

thughes@thughes:~$ telnet mail.mydomain.com 143
Trying 192.168.12.80…
Connected to mail.mydomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK dovecot ready.
a01 login thughes ********
a01 OK Logged in.

Next, lets list our mailboxes. Type “a02 list “” “*”” and hit “enter”:

ao2 list "" "*"
* LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" INBOX
* LIST (\NoInferiors \UnMarked) "/" "Trash"
* LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" "Ebay"
* LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" "Sent"
ao2 OK List completed.

Now we can enter a mailbox:

a02 select INBOX
* FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft Junk $Label1 $Label2 $Label3 $Label4 $Label5 NonJunk)
* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft Junk $Label1 $Label2 $Label3 $Label4 $Label5 NonJunk \*)] Flags permitted.
* 1142 EXISTS
* 3 RECENT
* OK [UNSEEN 1131] First unseen.
* OK [UIDVALIDITY 1157335433] UIDs valid
* OK [UIDNEXT 26939] Predicted next UID
a02 OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed.

Fetch the headers for the first email in the list:

ao2 fetch 1 all
* 1 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) INTERNALDATE "18-Aug-2006 09:43:33 -0400" RFC822.SIZE 21975 ENVELOPE ("Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:06:55 -0400" "Official: Jul-Aug 2006 (ISC)2 Newsletter" (("(ISC)2 Management" NIL "management" "isc2.org")) (("(ISC)2 Management" NIL "management" "isc2.org")) (("(ISC)2 Management" NIL "management" "isc2.org")) ((NIL NIL "thughes" "mydomain.com")) NIL NIL NIL "<LYRIS-1619473-1789-2006.08.17-16.13.08–thughes#mydomain.com@isc16.isc2.org>"))
ao2 OK Fetch completed.

Read some mail:

ao2 fetch 1 body[text]

(This should show you the message body)

Close the connection by typing “ao2 logout”:

a02 logout
* BYE Logging out
a02 OK Logout completed.
Connection closed by foreign host.

   
    That's about it for command line troubleshooting using the basic protocols. The point of the preceding exercises is to confirm that mail can be sent and received. If you are successful using the command line to send/retrieve mail but it doesn't work when using applications such as Outlook or Thunderbird, you can now concentrate your efforts on troubleshooting the software application and configuration.

    The logs on your mail server can provide a wealth of information to aid you in diagnosing problems. Becoming proficient in reading the logs is one of the most important things you can do. Take a look at the mail logs and learn how to read them. Try to follow an email through the logs from the time it hit the server until it was delivered to the recipient.  

    Email headers are also a valuable source of information. You can view the complete headers in most email clients by choosing an option such as “view > all headers”, right clicking the email and choosing “view internet headers”, etc. The exact method depends on which client you are using, Google it if you can't figure out how. Headers are read from the bottom up (use the time stamps as a reference). Below is an example of a full set of headers (I added the comments in bold):

Return-Path: <apache@isc18.isc2.org>
 X-Original-To: thughes@fwpm.com
 Delivered-To: thughes@fwpm.com

This is my mail gateway delivering the message to my mail server:

 Received: from fw.fwpm.com (unknown [192.168.12.1])
by mail.fwpm.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 280A23B019E
for <thughes@fwpm.com>; Mon,  1 Oct 2007 10:51:03 -0400 (EDT)

This is my mail gateway processing the mail internally:

 Received: from fw.fwpm.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by fw.fwpm.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 4E54FAC07F
for <thughes@fwpm.com>; Mon,  1 Oct 2007 11:08:13 -0400 (EDT)

This is the spam processing and scoring on my mail gateway (spamassassin):

(sender vscan@fw.fwpm.com)
 X-Spam-Checker-Version: mailDefender 3.1.3 (2006-06-01)
 X-Spam-Level: S
 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.9 reqd=5.0 tests=NO_REAL_NAME=0.55,
SPF_HELO_SOFTFAIL=0.1,SPF_SOFTFAIL=0.1,XD_DYNAMIC_IP=0.9, XD_MULTIPART=0.2
Bayes=0.5
 X-Spam-Report: *  0.9 XD_DYNAMIC_IP At least one relay is a dynamic IP *  0.6
NO_REAL_NAME From: does not include a real name *  0.2 XD_MULTIPART Email
contain several alternative views *  0.1 SPF_SOFTFAIL SPF: sender does not
match SPF record (softfail) *      [SPF failed: ] *  0.1 SPF_HELO_SOFTFAIL
SPF: HELO does not match SPF record (softfail) *      [SPF failed: ]

This is my mail gateway receiving the email from the sender's server:

 Received: from isc18.isc2.org (isc18.isc2.org [216.12.146.142]) (using TLSv1
with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate
requested) by fw.fwpm.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5E2BAC07E for
<thughes@fwpm.com>; Mon,  1 Oct 2007 11:07:48 -0400 (EDT)

This is the sender's server receiving the mail from an internal process:

 Received: from isc18.isc2.org (isc18.isc2.org [127.0.0.1]) by isc18.isc2.org
(8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id l91F7mL0022786 for <thughes@fwpm.com>; Mon, 1
Oct 2007 10:07:48 -0500

Here's the message:

 Message-Id: <200710011507.l91F7mmV022784@isc18.isc2.org>
 Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_———-=_1191251268227820"
 MIME-Version: 1.0
 X-Mailer: MIME::Lite 3.01 (F2.73; B3.07; Q3.07)
 Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 15:07:48 UT
 To: thughes@fwpm.com
 From: service@isc2.org
 Subject: (ISC)2: Confirmation of change to CISSP CPE Record
 X-AVAS-Signature: pfilter.pl Version 1.73
 X-AVAS-EmailID: 20070901-110749-7603
 Status: RO
 X-UID: 26809
 Content-Length: 761
 X-Keywords:
 X-Length: 3068
 
=== This is a system generated message from (ISC)2 ===

Dear T. Hughes:

This email message is blah…blah…blah.

    As you can see, the headers provide a detailed record of mail routing. You can use the time stamps at each hop to determine where any latency in delivery may be. Another trick is to use the header information to verify a spoofed email. If an email appears to come from somebody you know but looks suspicious, view the headers to determine the IP address of the original sending server. Perform a “whois” lookup on that IP address; if it comes back as registered to a Chinese or Eastern European domain (for example) you can be certain it is a spoof.

    Lastly, I want to comment about email security. Today's users tend to send anything (including very sensitive or personal information) via email without any thoughts of security or confidentiality. Email is not secure! As mentioned earlier, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP are all clear text protocols. This is akin to sending your snail mail on postcards instead of inside an envelope, safe from prying eyes. There are a few basic precautions you can take to secure your email. One would be to use POP3S and IMAPS to retrieve mail. Secondly, you should configure your mail server to support TLS (Transport Layer Security). TLS will allow encrypted SMTP communication with any recipient's server that also supports TLS. It should be noted that you must configure TLS to be optional, if the receiving server does not support TSL the communication will fall back to plain text.
Thirdly, I would suggest the use of an email encryption application (such as Zix mail) to ensure sensitive information is transmitted securely. Finally, user training is a must. Your users need to have a basic understanding of how email works. They need to know that it is neither secure (in it's default configuration) nor guaranteed to be delivered to the intended recipient.

    I hope you have found the information and tips in this article interesting and informative. Feel free to contact me if you if you have additional input or would like further information about the techniques I have presented.

Todd Hughes is a Network Security Analyst and long time Linux fan in the Upstate New York area. Send your Questions, comments or feedback to: thughes@fwpm.com.

Copyright  Todd Hughes  2007. Printed by permission.

 

{mos_fb_discuss:174} 

How to Determine If Your Activity Is a Business Or a Hobby For Tax Purposes?

by

If you have a valid business, you report your income on Schedule C.  If you have a hobby, you report your activities on Schedule A, with limitations. 

How to Determine If Your Activity Is a Business Or a Hobby For Tax Purposes?
By Cassandra Ingraham

IRS usually allows 5 years of business activity before they question if your activity is a business or a hobby. You must show a profit during at least three of the last five years, including the current year. There are exceptions to the basic rules.

If your business activity does not show a profit then, it is considered; not for profit and the losses from your activity may not be used to offset your income.

In order to make this determination if your activity is a hobby or a business, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is the time and effort you put into the activity indicate your intention to make a profit?

2. Do depend upon the income from the activity?

3. If there are losses, are they due to circumstances beyond your control or did they occur in the start-up phase of the business?

4. Have you changed methods of operation to improve profitability?

5. Are you qualified to run/operate the activity, or do you have advisors who have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business?

6. Have you made a profit in similar activities in the past?

7. Does your activity make a profit in some years?

8. Can expect to make a profit in the future from the appreciation of assets used in your activity?

If you answer "yes" to the above questions, then you more then likely have a valid business and not a hobby. If you are not sure, you should contact your tax professional. Each of these points have additional legal jargon attached to them, for legal tax codes, go to: irs.gov and read Publication 535, Business Expenses.

If you have a valid business, you report your income on Schedule C. If you have a hobby, you report your activities on Schedule A, with limitations.

There are companies out there selling home business as a legal tax deduction. Before you make such an investment, remember question number five. Are you qualified to run/operate the activity or do you have advisors who have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business?

Again, IRS presumes that an activity is carried on for profit if it makes a profit during at least three of the last five tax years, including the current year.

Cassandra Ingraham is a Tax Accountant and Instructor for Basic Tax Classes in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the balance of the year she can be found at http://www.taxeswilltravel.com providing Formal Introductions to Lenders for Accounts Receivable Funding (Factoring) and Purchase Order Funding.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cassandra_Ingraham
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Determine-If-Your-Activity-Is-a-Business-Or-a-Hobby-For-Tax-Purposes?&id=712068

Partnership Agreements

by

A partnership agreement is a relationship between individuals or organizations. Parties involved should be in close cooperation and share responsibilities. A partnership agreement isn't necessarily a legal contractual relationship but a relationship where you come in union to accomplish common goals and purposes that will benefit both parties. 

 Partnership Agreements
By Nick Fagan

A partnership agreement is a relationship between individuals or organizations. Parties involved should be in close cooperation and share responsibilities. A partnership agreement isn't necessarily a legal contractual relationship but a relationship where you come in union to accomplish common goals and purposes that will benefit both parties. A partnership agreement is basically one where you both try striving to meet success.

These partnerships could include federal/state/local government, educational institutions, trade associations, or other organizations. A partnership is defined as a "working relationship" which means mutual participation and joint interest.

Partnership agreements are a good way to achieve goals that would otherwise be to far out of your reach. When people and/or organizations come together you can share responsibility and therefore focus harder on things you feel need the most attention. Partnerships can be effective ways to re-stabilize unorganized businesses, expand, go global, go national, increase customer base, increase sales through referrals, provide even more services your customers may desire, and much more.

Often times partnerships are used when resources are limited, partnerships are a way of maximizing your resources to achieve goals and strengthen existing relationships through consumer protection, etc.

Also, companies in need of skilled, talented workers will often times partner with a company/organization that has the talented, skilled, experienced employees you need to train workers and keep your business on the right track.

The requirements to file and sign a partnership agreement form usually are:

– You both must be at least 18 years old.
– Both partners must be present when filing the partnership agreement
– A legal picture I.D. card is required from each partner.
– If you had a previous partnership you must file a notice for ending the partnership with the County Clerk or Notary Public before you can file a new partnership agreement.
– Usually there’s a filing fee of 10-50 dollars often times and they usually accept all forms of payment.

This article was brought to you by Legal Forms Bank .Biz where you can download your state's Partnership Agreement Form.

We also provide your state's specific Personal Bankruptcy form and Promissory Note Form.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Fagan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Partnership-Agreements&id=509961

 

{mos_fb_discuss:196}