Adelante Newsletter - July 2009 Issue

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GRAND OPENINGS & RIBBON CUTTINGS

A ribbon cutting & grand opening celebration was held for RE/MAX Lone Star on June 4, 2009 in celebration of their new office location. It was conducted by the Harlingen Hispanic Chamber and Harlingen Area Chamber. Everyone enjoyed great food, music, tours of the office, goodie bags and great networking. RE/MAX Lone Star's new office is located downtown at 315 E. Jackson. Stop by and meet the friendly staff or for more info call 956-428-9900.

Valley Federal Credit Union held a grand opening celebration on June 25, 2009 in celebration of their new building. It was conducted by the Harlingen Hispanic Chamber, Harlingen Area Chamber, Harlingen City Commissioners, VFCU staff and members. Everyone enjoyed morning refreshments and networking. Valley Federal Credit Union is located at 1613 Filmore Ave. in Harlingen. For more info about their services, contact Bonnie Mejia at 956-425-5668.

2ND RGV ALL-STAR SPORTS AWARDS

It was an ALL-STAR night at Marine Military Academy's Yeckel Auditorium, as the Harlingen Hispanic Chambr and RGVSports.com hosted the 2nd RGV All-Star Sports Awards. Hundreds of guests including athletes, coaches, parents, and members of the community gathered to honor the Valley's top high school athletes and programs. Keynot speaker for the evening was Rio Grande City Athletic Director, Rey Ramirez.

Awards for Male and Female Athlete of the Year went to Rio Grande City's Stephen Saenz and Hidalgo's Victoria Gonzalez. The Robert Vela Lifetime Achievement Award went to Earl Scott. Earl Scott led the 1961 Donna Redskins to win the first and only public high school state football championship. Other award recipients were: Male and Female Team of the Year - Hidalgo Boys Soccer, Hidalgo Girls Basketball; Athletic Program of the Year - Sharyland; Coach of the Year - Johnny Cipriano; Moment of the Year - "Olvera's free throws sends Hidalgo to state tournament". Thank you to our sponsors: Nolan E. Perez, M.D., Law Office of Jim Solis, Trinity Funeral Home, Texas Gas Service Co., and State Farm.

COMING SOON! 10.02.09 - 10TH ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT

The Harlingen Hispanic Chamber will begin planning for one of the BIGGEST events of the year. We had an amazing turnout last hear and we could not have done it without the help of our golf committee and volunteers. We encourage all of our members to join in on the fun and festivities by joining this year's golf committee. If you are interested in participating, please call Crystal or Joanna at 956-421-2400 or email your information to hhcoc@harlingenchamber.com.

HARLINGEN CENTENNIAL BOOK NOW ON SALE

Harlingen Centennial Book " At the Crossroads: Harlingen's First 100 Years" is now on sale with a pre-publication price of $31.50. Take advantage of this offer before July 31, 2009. Order forms are available at the Harlingen Hispanic Chamber, Harlingen Area Chamber, City Hall, Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum, Downtown office, Harlingen Public Library, and online at www.myharlingen.us.

USE OpenDNS TO PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS NETWORK

If you aren't already using Open Domain Name System (DNS) to protect your small business network, you should take a few minutes now to set it up. The security benefits are well worth the time investment; OpenDNS is free, it has contributed significantly to combat against the Conflicker worm, and it will protect you from any number of future attacks. As a bonus, it may enable your network's users to experience better browsing performance.

Before I describe how to do this, let's review what the Domain Name System is. Much as a phone book lets you look up people's phone numbers by looking up their names, the DNS provides a unique address registry for computers: Type in 'google.com' and DNS translates that name into a sequence of four numbers called an IP address (for google.com its 72.14.207.99).

In the overall internet infrastructure, various public, semipublic, and private providers maintain a series of master phone books, or DNS root servers, at strategic places around the world. The root servers talk to each other regularly to ensure taht they remain in sync as users add new domains. If interested parties want to "poison" an entry or misdirect internet traffice to a phony domain, they can do so with the right amount of subterfuge. Last year, for example, an internet provider in Pakistan managed to block access to all or YouTube when it attempted to prevent Pakistani citizens from viewing a video it deemed offensive.

Here's where OpenDNS cames to play. Normally when you set up your network you don't give your DNS seetings another thought. If you have a cable or DSL modem, you hook it up and it automatically gets its DNS settings from the cable or phone companys' DNS servers.

I recommend, however, that you change these settings to reflect the DNS severs at OpenDNS. This free service makes its money by serving ads when a user types in a domain that doesn't exist. The OpenDNS web site provides instructions for altering your DNS settings, based on the router you use on your network. The whole process-reading through the instructions and implementing the changes-should take you only a couple of minutes.

Using OpenDNS has several benefits. First, you can set it up to block objectionable domains, thereby protecting your business from lawsuits. Second, OpenDNS blocks known exploit domains, so you have a better chance to avoid getting trapped by some hacker. You also get superior DNS service thanks to OpenDNS's servers, which reportedly return OpenDNS domains faster than ones from the general internet. And finally the service catches common typos in domains - a big plus for people who make more than their share of mistakes when typing domain names into their browsers.

Adopting OpenDNS is just the first step to securing your DNS resources. If you're interested in learning more about how to strengthen your defense, a good place to start is with "Not a Guessing Game" by Paul Vixie. Vixie, one of the original wise men of the internet, has been involved in authoring numerous requests for proposals (RFPs) and protocols. He is currently participating in a substantial effort to create a new series of secure DNS protocol extensions, along with products to support thos extensions. How to Story by david Strom. Strom is a forner editor-in-chief of Network Comuting, Tom's Hardware.com and DigitalLanding.com and an independent consultant, blogger, podcaster and professional speaker based in St. Louis. He also writes for PCWorld.com. Source: El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce E-Newsletter.

EXCLUSIVE TO OUR MEMBERS

Want to advertise your employment opportunities? Hispanic Chamber members can post job opportunities by simply submitting the information by email to hhcoc@harlingenchamber.com or by fax to 956-364-1879. Take advantage of this feature service available exclusively to HHCC members at no additional cost. Visit www.harlingenchamber.com for current member job postings.