Cleaning Procedures for Different Wooden Home Furniture

Wood furniture can be painted, polished or oiled. How you clean your furniture depends on the variety of wood it is made up of. For example, some types of wood are lightly lacquered and do not absorb oil, while others like rosewood and teak do not have any finish and can be handled with annual oil application.

Let us see how you can clean different types of wood home furniture be it wooden beds, almirah, sofa set or cabinets:

Painted Wood
Excessive rubbing and cleaning can damage the decor, colour and finish of furniture. If your wooden beds and other furniture pieces are of painted wood, least care and maintenance is needed for them round the year. You can clean your painted wooden almirah and other furniture regularly with the help of a brush. Wiping occasionally with sponge can help in removing finger marks and smudges. If you feel the need of wax, use of hard paste wax once in a year can serve the purpose.

Oiled Wood
Oiled wood furniture has a soft, warm glow which requires only occasional oil application. For example, if you oil your wooden sofa set once in a year, it will retain the shine for a long time to come. It is important to note that you should never wax an oiled wooden surface. Wax can block the pores making the wood dry and brittle. If there are white spots on your oiled wooden furniture, rub them with tooth paste spread on a soft cloth. You can also use oil and a mild abrasive to rub those white spots. Such abrasives may be pumice, baking soda, salt or ash. The oils that you can use may be cooking oil, olive oil and petroleum jelly.

Polished Wood
Polished wooden furniture pieces are usually finished with wax, lacquer or varnish. Any wood polish can clean a wooden surface quickly. You have to choose the one which is appropriate for the kind of finish done on your wooden furniture. For example, wax in paste form gives a long lasting finish to the furniture, as compared to liquid or spray polish. This kind of finishing is usually recommended for antique wooden pieces.

Always wear cotton gloves while waxing the furniture, as this will not leave any fingerprints on the surface. Sprinkle some corn starch on the recently polished wood surface, and rub it for better gloss. Corn starch absorbs the excess wax or oil from the surface, leaving a glistening wooden surface free from any fingerprints. If there are white spots or rings on your wooden sofa set, you can apply mayonnaise, allow it to sit for around 60 minutes, wipe it off with a cloth and then polish. All these are terrific techniques to keep your wooden furniture glowing like new.

Specialty Wood
Specialty woods can be bamboo, rush, cane, rattan, wicker etc. These woods have natural finish, but some of them may have shellac or varnish coating. You need to vacuum them regularly with a brush attachment.

With all these steps, you can keep your home furniture as shiny as new.

Asia Travel Planning

Asia stretches the imagination and your reflexes as you pass from ultra-modern cities like Tokyo and Singapore through to tiny isolated villages in forests or mountains. Drop south from gargantuan China into the Indian subcontinent or venture through South East Asia’s beautiful countryside and beaches instead.

Considering more than half the world’s population lives in Asia, you’re likely to be blown away by the sheer number of people, and the terrifying differences between the rich and poor. There’s plenty of space though – Asia isn’t so much a destination as a container to hold an amazingly diverse set of cultures and places.

With some of the richest archeological remains in the world, Asia is a culture-lover’s dream destination; at the same time, the cheapest beers on the planet make it a party-goers paradise. Whatever your reason for travelling to Asia, you’re going to love it!

There are numerous countries throughout Asia and these include Japan, Laos and Cambodia among others that are highly exotic and will attract many people every year that are seeking adventure and relaxation, this region definitely has much to offer for everybody. For anyone arriving from a western country it’s a long journey which requires considerable Asia travel planning.

Many people will fly to such locations and there are numerous linked international airports having recurrent routes making travel simple. The best way for locating a flight that is inexpensive would be to search for deals online because there are numerous budget air carriers offering discounts each week.

When someone has arrived in a location of their choosing, travel choices generally incorporate shuttle or train. It is an easy way to view the countryside along with submerging yourself inside the local community plus understanding a little regarding the traditions.

Lodging within Asia is usually highly affordable unless you will be residing in a sizable brand name hotel. Oftentimes a few bucks can get visitors a pleasant clean room particularly on the outskirts of the town or possibly a local village that usually offer the better rates.

You will find great food offered from street vendors, it is where many locals will eat. Apart from being extremely reasonably priced its often as good as what can be found in a restaurant, therefore it’s not only affordable but it’s also highly delicious.

An often overlooked precaution would be guarding against theft, however it’s necessary regardless of whatever country the tourist visits. This could be avoided easily from having a watchful eye plus being extra careful. It’s a great region which is visited by folks all around the world and most are bound to find the area a great place for visiting.

Tips to Secure Your Small Business Network

Just because your business is small, doesn’t mean that hackers won’t target you. The reality is that automated scanning techniques and botnets don’t care whether your company is big or small, they’re only looking for holes in your network security to exploit.

Maintaining a secure small business or home network isn’t easy, and even for an old hand in IT, it still takes time and energy to keep things locked down. Here are 10 of the most critical steps you can take to keep your data from ending up elsewhere, and none of them take much time or effort to accomplish.

  1. Get a Firewall

The first step for any attacker is to find network vulnerabilities by scanning for open ports. Ports are the mechanisms by which your small business network opens up and connects to the wider world of the Internet. A hacker sees an open port to as an irresistible invitation for access and exploitation. A network firewall locks down ports that don’t need to be open.

A properly configured firewall acts as the first line of defense on any network. The network firewall sets the rules for which ports should be open and which ones should be closed. The only ports that should be open are ports for services that you need to run.

Typically, most small business routers include some kind of firewall functionality, so chances are if you have a router sitting behind your service provider or DSL/cable modem, you likely have a firewall already. To check to see if you already have firewall capabilities at the router level in your network, log into your router and see if there are any settings for Firewall or Security. If you don’t know how to log into your router on a Windows PC, find your Network Connection information. The item identified as Default Gateway is likely the IP address for your router.

There are many desktop firewall applications available today as well, but don’t mistake those for a substitute for firewall that sits at the primary entry point to your small business network. You should have a firewall sitting right behind where your network connectivity comes into your business to filter out bad traffic before it can reach any desktop or any other network assets.

  1. Password Protect your Firewall

Great you’ve got a firewall, but it’s never enough to simply drop it into your network and turn it on. One of the most common mistakes in configuring network equipment is keeping the default password.

It’s a trivial matter in many cases for an attacker to identify the brand and model number of a device on a network. It’s equally trivial to simply use Google to obtain the user manual to find the default username and password.

Take the time to make this easy fix. Log into your router/firewall, and you’ll get the option to set a password; typically, you’ll find it under the Administration menu item.

  1. Update Router Firmware

Outdated router or firewall firmware is another common issue. Small business network equipment, just like applications and operating systems, needs to be updated for security and bug fixes. The firmware that your small business router and/or firewall shipped with is likely out-of-date within a year, so it’s critical to make sure you update it.

Some router vendors have a simple dialogue box that lets you check for new firmware versions from within the router’s administration menu. For routers that don’t have automated firmware version checking, find the version number in your router admin screen, and then go to the vendor’s support site to see if you have the latest version.

  1. Block Pings

Most router and firewalls include multiple settings that help to determine how visible your router and/or firewall will be to the outside world. One of the simplest methods that a hacker uses to find a network is by sending a ping request, which is just a network request to see if something will respond. The idea being if a network device responds, there is something there that the hacker can then explore further and potentially exploit. You can make it harder for attackers by simply setting your network router or firewall so that it won’t respond to network pings. Typically, the option to block network pings can be found on the administration menu for a firewall and/or router as a configuration option.

  1. Scan Yourself

One of the best ways to see if you have open ports or visible network vulnerabilities is to do the same thing that an attacker would do – scan your network. By scanning your network with the same tools that security researchers (and attackers) use, you’ll see what they see. Among the most popular network scanning tools is the open source nmap tool). For Windows users, the Nmap download now includes a graphical user interface, so it’s now easier than ever to scan your network with industry standard tools, for free. Scan your network to see what ports are open (that shouldn’t be), and then go back to your firewall to make the necessary changes.

  1. Lock Down IP Addresses

By default, most small business routers use something called DHCP, which automatically allocates IP addresses to computers that connect to the network. DHCP makes it easy for you to let users connect to you network, but if your network is exploited it also makes it easy for attackers to connect to your network. If your small business only has a set number of users, and you don’t routinely have guest users plugging into your network, you might want to consider locking down IP addresses.

The benefit of assigning an IP is that when you check your router logs, you’ll know which IP is associated with a specific PC and/or user. With DHCP, the same PC could potentially have different IPs over a period of time as machines are turned on or off. By knowing what’s on your network, you’ll know where problems are coming from when they do arise.

  1. Use VLANs

Not everyone in your small business necessarily needs access to the same network assets. While you can determine and set access with passwords and permissions on applications, you can also segment your network with VLAN or virtual LANs. VLANs are almost always part of any business class router and let you segment a network based on needs and risks as well as quality of service requirements. For example, with a VLAN setup you could have the finance department on one VLAN, while sales is on another. In another scenario, you could have a VLAN for your employees and then setup another one for contract or guest workers. Mitigating risk is all about providing access to network resources to the people who are authorized and restricting access to those who aren’t.

  1. Get an IPS

A firewall isn’t always enough to protect a small business network. Today’s reality is that the bulk of all network traffic goes over Port 80 for HTTP or Web traffic. So if you leave that port open, you’re still at risk from attacks that target port 80. In addition to the firewall, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) technology can play a key network security role. An IPS does more than simply monitor ports; it monitors the traffic flow for anomalies that could indicate malicious activity. IPS technology can sometimes be bundled in on a router as part of a Unified Threat Management (UTM) device. Depending on the size of your small business network, you might want to consider a separate physical box.

Another option is to leverage open source technologies running on your own servers (or as virtual instances if you are virtualized). On the IPS side, one of the leading open source technologies is called SNORT (which is backed by commercial vendor Sourcefire.

  1. Get a WAF

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is specifically tasked with helping to protect against attacks that are specifically targeted against applications. If you’re not hosting applications within your small business network, the risks that a WAF helps to mitigate are not as pronounced. If you are hosting applications, WAF in front of (or as part of) your Web server is a key technology that you need to look at. Multiple vendors including Barracuda have network WAF boxes. Another option is the open source ModSecurity project, which is backed by security vendor Trustwave.

  1. Use VPN

If you’ve gone through all the trouble of protecting your small business network, it makes sense to extend that protection to your mobile and remotely connected employees as well. A VPN or Virtual Private Network lets your remote workers log into your network with an encrypted tunnel. That tunnel can then be used to effectively shield your remote employees with the same firewall, IPS and WAF technologies that local users benefit from. A VPN also protects your network by not letting users who may be coming in from risky mobile environments connect in an insecure fashion.

Affordable Auto Car Loans – How to Get it Fast

In today’s challenging economy and tight credit market getting the money to purchase a car is extremely hard. Not only you have to worry what to do to get affordable car loans but also you need to worry if you have bad credit. If you happen to be one of the many people with bad credit, car financing might be challenging but not impossible. For one, your loan interest rate will be significantly higher compared to the customer rates that people with great credit usually enjoy. Thankfully, there are some great news for you. Follow easy steps and approval for an auto loan will be much easier.

In this article, you can get the necessary knowledge on how to get a special finance auto loan, as well as a how to get fast approval on your auto loan. Prior to going to a finance office dealer or lender, you have to know exactly how bad your credit is, otherwise you will not be able to bargain with lenders. You should know that auto dealers sometimes add some interest points to whatever loan rate the company of finance chooses to offer, keeping the overall difference to themselves.

The majority of lenders today tend to rely on the FICO score, which is a number from 300 to 850 that predicts your chances of bill defaults. In general, scores higher than 700 are deemed to be excellent; scores from 600 to 700 are acceptable; and scores from 500 to 600 are deemed bad. If you happen to have a low score, do not worry too much. Even with today’s tight markets of credit, it would still be possible to get auto car loans to buy your vehicle.

Finance companies and banks that will be willing to give money still do exist even if you have low score on your credit. Auto dealers and manufacturers that struggle to stay alive will want to obtain any kind of money, giving you the ultimate bargaining power and leverage in the deal. There are only a few dealers out there in great financial condition, so most of them will long to strike deals in order to get rid of their cars and therefore, you will have higher chances of leaving with a similar, if not better, special finance auto loan elsewhere. However, be careful; if you have a low credit score, get ready to pay higher rates on interest.

Also, keep in mind not to leave until your contract and financing terms are all complete. After getting the auto car loans that you want, you should not necessarily settle for several years of ultra high payments. The great thing about this is that a growing and active auto loan refinance does exist. This means that after you have established around a year of payments on time, you should have no trouble finding lenders to refinance the rest of your balance at cheaper rates. Also, there are private foundations and government grants today that small business owners can use for personal matters, like for auto car loans. This money does not have to be paid back and this money can be put to use for various things.

2 / 4Firstprevious1234nextLast