Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with FreeNAS

At it's most basic, Network attached storage, or NAS, is a great way to share files on your local network. But it's also a perfect solution for backing up your computers, streaming media across your home network, or even torrenting files to a central server. If you have an aging computer lying around, you can turn it into a NAS for for free with the open-source FreeNAS operating system. Here's how.

First, we'll take a closer look at what exactly a NAS is and does, then jump into how to set it up. If you want to skip the first part, you can skip straight to the setup section.

What Is Network Attached Storage?

A Network attached storage box is a computer on your network specifically designed to store files. Any computer on the network can access files on a NAS, which makes them great for bigger households, and they're also nice for when you don't want to store a bunch of external drives on your desk. Unlike regular file servers, NAS units are usually built for a specific purpose, like backing up your data or streaming media to other machines. They're also usually quite low power and low cost, and they don't require a monitor, mouse or keyboard—once you've installed the software, you can configure every aspect of your NAS from a web browser on your other computers.

Full size

You can find pre-made NAS units for as low as one or two hundred dollars, and they usually come with their own software. However, if you have an old computer lying around, you can actually turn it into a NAS for free with the aptly-named FreeNAS software. It doesn't need much in terms or resources, any old computer will probably do. Alternatively, you can buy or build a very cheap nettop that fits the specifications of what you want to do (and even hide it in some nice-looking box from IKEA) You could evenstrip down a $50 PogoPlug and install FreeNAS on it. The bottom line is, there's no need to go out and buy a pre-built NAS when you can make one yourself with great, free, open source software and hardware you already have lying around.Heck, if you've got the money, you're better off spending on it on an extra hard drive than you are an entirely new machine.

Here, we'll show you how to set up FreeNAS on the computer of your choice, connect it to your other computers as if it were directly attached to them, and show you a few simple examples of how you could use it for backup, iTunes music streaming, or video streaming to a home theater PC. Photo by Andrew Currie.

Note: FreeNAS recently released a new version (version 8.0), we don't think it's quite ready for prime time yet. It's still missing a lot of the features that make FreeNAS great, so we're going to use the now-legacy version 7 of FreeNAS.

What You'll Need

You can install FreeNAS on a ton of different systems using a number of different methods, but here are the things you'll need for our method:

• A PC with a minimum of 192MB RAM to act as your NAS. It will also need a bootable CD drive in it from which we can install FreeNAS onto one of its hard drives.
• The FreeNAS live CD, available here (more details on that below).
• A network with DHCP reservations or static IP addresses. This isn't required, but it's definitely preferred. If you don't have this, managing your NAS can get pretty annoying, since its IP address will change whenever you reboot it (as will your other computers').

FreeNAS is actually designed to run on a flash drive or compact flash card rather than one of the drives in your computer, but since many computers (especially older ones, like the one you might recycle into a NAS) don't support booting from USB, we're going to install FreeNAS to the hard drive for simplicity. If your computer supports booting from USB, you can actually use the live CD to install FreeNAS to a 2GB flash drive and run FreeNAS from that flash drive instead, keeping it plugged into your NAS at all times.

Installing FreeNAS

To install FreeNAS, you'll need the FreeNAS live CD. Head to this page and click on the latest stable build of FreeNAS 7. Download the live CD image that applies to you—that is, if your NAS has a 64-bit capable processor in it, grab the amd64 version. If not (or if you aren't sure), grab the i386 version. Burn it to disc using something like IMGBurn for Windows or Burn for Mac, and stick it into a computer (any computer, it doesn't matter if its your NAS or not).

Head over to your NAS box and boot up from the live CD. It'll take awhile to boot up, but once you get to the FreeNAS menu, pick option 9: "Install/Upgrade to hard drive/flash device". Pick option 2 on the next screen, "Install embedded OS on HDD/Flash/USB + DATA + SWAP partition" (if you're installing on a flash drive, you can pick option 1 instead). Pick your CD drive and hard drive from the lists it throws at you, and say no to a SWAP partition (unless your computer has less than a few gigs of RAM, in which case it might be a good idea to create a SWAP partition that's twice the size of the RAM in your machine). It will format your drive for you with the UFS file system, and install FreeNAS to a small partition at the beginning of the drive.

Remove the live CD and boot up your computer. You should boot into your new FreeNAS installation, and come up with the same menu the Live CD gave you. This time, pick option 1, "Assign Interfaces". Pick your ethernet port from the list (there's probably only one option), then pick "none, Finish and exit" on the next page. Next, pick option 2, "Set LAN IP Address". Using DHCP should be fine, unless you're using static IPs, in which case you can hit "no" and assign it an address yourself.

When you're done with all the network configuration, it should spit out an IP address for you. This is how you'll access the web interface to configure everything on your NAS, so make a note of it and head over to your desktop computer. You can now unhook the keyboard and monitor from your NAS; you won't need them anymore.

Sharing Your FreeNAS Drive with a Desktop Computer

To access the web interface, open your web browser and type in the IP address you copied down at the end of the installation process. When you first open it up, it'll ask you for a username and password. Type in admin for the username and freenas for the password to gain access.

The first thing we want to do is change these to something a bit more secure. Click on the "System" menu at the top of the page and hit "General". Under WebGUI, change the username to whatever you want, and click save. Go to the Password tab and change your password as well.

Next, we'll add our hard drive(s) to FreeNAS. Hover over the Disks menu at the top of the page and click on Management. Click on the Plus sign to add a new one. On the next page, choose your disk from the "Disk" dropdown menu, type in a description if necessary, and hit Add. The rest of the default settings should be fine for now. Make sure you hit "Apply Settings" back on the Disk Management page when it takes you back there.

If you're running FreeNAS off a flash drive, head to Disks > Format and pick your disk from the dropdown menu. Choose "UFS (GPT and Soft Updates)" and give it a volume label. Hit Format disk. If FreeNAS is installed to your internal hard drive, you can skip this step since you formatted it when you installed FreeNAS.

Next, we need to give that drive a "mount point" in FreeNAS. Head to Disks > Mount Point from the top menu, and click the plus sign. Pick your disk from the dropdown menu. Give the mount point a name, description if you like, and hit Add. Once again, hit Apply Settings on the next page.

We're almost there! The last thing you want to do is share that drive with your other computers on the network. For this example, we're going to use CIFS, since it's compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux machines (If you're in a Mac-only household, I recommend researching AFP instead, since it'll be a bit easier to set up). Head to Services > CIFS/SMB and hit the Enable checkbox in the right corner. You can change its NetBIOS name, workgroup, and description if you so choose, then scroll down and hit "Save and Restart".

Click on the Shares tab at the top of the settings page, and click the plus sign. Give it a name, comment if desired, and hit the "..." button to tell it which of your FreeNAS drives you want to share. The default settings should be fine for most people, so go ahead and hit Add.

That's it! You should be able to access your network-attached drive from any computer. In Windows Explorer, just type \\192.168.0.10 into the navigation bar, using your NAS' IP address in place of the example I've provided. You should see your NAS show up and you can browse it, create folders, add files to it, and so on. For easy access, you can right-click on it and hit Map Network Drive to put it under My Computer. You should be able to do this with every other computer on the network, and easily share files between all of those computers.

Three Cool Ways You Can Use Your NAS

That's all fine and dandy, but you can do more than just store files on the network. Here are a few cool things you can do with your NAS and how to set them up.

Backing Up Data to Your NAS

Since a NAS can hold many large drives, it's a popular option for backing up data. FreeNAS recommends Rsync for backup, but I've found that it's more trouble than it's worth. Instead, I like to use previously mentioned Microsoft SyncToy, which does essentially the same thing. In addition, Mac users can use Time Machine with their NAS as long as one of its drives are formatted as AFP.

Backing Up With SyncToy

To backup a folder or group of folders on Windows, download and install SyncToy and open it up. SyncToy is extremely simple to use: just create a new folder pair, using the "left" folder as the folder from your computer that you want to back up, and the "right" folder as the folder on your NAS to which you're backing up those files. You have three different types of sync: Synchronize, Echo, and Contribute. Synchronize will keep the two folders in sync at all times, so if you change or delete something on one side, it'll sync those changes to the other side. Echo will only sync changes you make from the left side (your computer)—if you change or delete anything on the NAS, those changes won't be synced back. Contribute is my preferred method. It does the same thing as Echo, but won't sync over deletions. This means if I accidentally delete a file from my hard drive, it'll still be on my NAS, and I can go grab it and replace it. When you're done, you can run your first sync and make sure all the files copied over correctly.

SyncToy, unfortunately, only runs when you tell it to, so if we want to automate this process, we'll have to do it ourselves. Open up your Start Menu and type "task scheduler" into the search box, and start up Microsoft's Task Scheduler program. Click "Create New Basic Task" in the right sidebar, give it a name, and set it to run daily (I usually choose around 2am, so it runs while I'm asleep). When asked, tell it you want to start a program. At the next screen, browse into C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.1 folder and choose SyncToyCmd.exe. Type -R into the Arguments box, hit next, and finish setup.

This will run SyncToy in command line mode each day. Note that you can open up SyncToy at any time and add more folders to your backup, and your task will run through them all daily, syncing over any new or changed files to your NAS for safe keeping.

Backing Up With Time Machine

If you want to back up with Time Machine, you'll need one of the drives in your NAS formatted as AFP, as described in the "Sharing Your FreeNAS Drive" section above. If you do, you can head into Services > AFP > Shares on the web interface, edit the settings for that share, and pick "Time Machine" from the "Automatic Disk Discover Mode" dropdown. The next time you open up Time Machine, your NAS drive will be available as a backup disk.

Note that to do this, you'll want to mount the NAS drive at logon, which you can do by opening up System Preferences on your Mac, going to Accounts > Login Items and dragging the NAS drive from your desktop right into the login items window. That way it will always be connected and Time Machine will be able to access it at all times.

Streaming Media to Other Computers From Your NAS

If you have a home theater PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or other UPnP-enabled device, you can stream media straight from your NAS with just a few tweaks. We've talked about UPnP before, so you might already know how easy it is to use—and FreeNAS' setup is no different.
To get started, head into the web configuration for your NAS and go to Services > UPnP. Click the Enable checkbox on the right hand side and give your UPnP server a name. Under "Database Directory", click the "..." button and browse to a folder on your NAS where you want the UPnP configuration file stored (it doesn't really matter where this is). Then, head down to Content and click the "..." button to point FreeNAS to the folders you want to share. In this case, we have a "Media" folder we've created in which we're storing video, so we'll pick that and hit the "Add" button to add it to the list. You can add multiple folders from all over your NAS, and it can stream them as long as they contain movies or music.

Some devices, like the Playstation 3, may require you to transcode your higher-definition videos, so check the "enable transcoding" box if necessary. Then hit Save. If you head over to your UPnP device and search for servers, you should see that your NAS pops up, and you can browse your media folders and watch those videos on your TV.

Downloading Torrents Using Your NAS

One of the coolest features of FreeNAS is the ability to download torrents without the help of another computer. FreeNAS has a version ofTransmission built right in that can watch folders for torrents and download them—you'll never have to worry about keeping your main computer on, logged in, or avoid rebooting it. Your NAS can download all those torrents for you.

To set up BitTorrent support, open up FreeNAS' web configuration and go to Services > BitTorrent. Click the Enable checkbox on the right hand side, and specify a Download Directory. This is where your completed torrents will go. Most of the other settings are fine, though I like to require encryption on the people to whom I connect, so you can tweak that setting if you want. If you want to set up a Watch Directory, that's probably a good idea too—that way, you can drop torrent files right into a specific folder on your NAS and it will immediately start downloading them. Hit Save when you're done.

The last thing you'll need to do is probably change your NAS' DNS servers, otherwise it won't be able to connect to the internet. Head to System > General and change the DNS servers to your ISPs, or, if you don't know them, you can just use Google's (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) since they're easy to remember. Hit Save when you're done.

When you start downloading a torrent, you can monitor it from a web interface by going to192.168.1.10:9091, replacing my IP address with your NAS', of course. That way you can keep an eye on how far your torrents are coming along from any computer on your network.

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These are just a few of the many things you can do with FreeNAS, so be sure to check out FreeNAS' web page for more info (as well as the Legacy Wiki, since the legacy version has even more features). Got a NAS setup in your home that you think is pretty awesome?

DO U STILL WANT TO JOIN NETWORK MARKETING? INFORM YOURSELF USING FACTS, LOGIC & MATH!!!

It has come to my attention that Egypt among other developing countries is practicing a new "marketing" trend called "Network Marketing". Basically, you will be approached by a representative of a certain company offering you to work with them in the business by becoming a marketer yourself. He/She will explain to you the whole process of making money through this scheme.

In this article, I intend to bring awareness to people of what is Network Marketing and how can you get confused by the legal businesses and the illegal businesses using facts, logic  and math!

Okay, so first let me explain what is marketing? "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering (making it available in the market or the shops), and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society (for helping them socially, economically, or politically) at large." as defined by the American Marketing Association [1].

If we examine the definition by the American Marketing Association, we will find that an intended benefit is required for both the customer (by utilizing the product) and the producer (by making profit).

So, what you might be thinking now is what “Network Marketing” is? Okay, hold on, I will have to describe the kinds of marketing that it has derived from it. Legitimate Multi level Marketing (MLM) is the marketing scheme used to confuse new recruiters to join “Network Marketing” along with the Illegal Pyramid schemes.

First, what is a Legitimate Multi Level Marketing? MLM is a marketing scheme whereby the marketing of a product is done through the distribution of it to the general market by recruiters or distributors who will not only buy and sell the products but will recruit others who will do the same. It is very attractive because you don’t only get commission on the products you sell but a percentage on the products sold by the distributors that you recruited into the system.

This process is often confused with the Illegal Pyramid Scheme (It will be described later in the article). Therefore you must ensure that this process satisfy a certain criteria as stated by the US Federal Trade Commission [2]. The criterion is to: 1. Sell a real product 2. to members of the general public 3. without requiring them to pay anything extra to join the MLM system. 4. Commissions may be paid to distributors; however, it is paid for real retail sales NOT for new recruits.

Popular examples of successful MLM are Oriflame[3], Avon[4], and Mary Kay Cosmetics[5]. If you examine those three examples, you will find that they satisfy the criteria stated by the American Federal State of Commission to become a Legitimate Multi Level Marketing, that is—by 1. selling real products (check the website), 2. to members to the general public (you can buy it directly from the website or find in the market like in pharmacies or cosmetic stores) 3. without requiring to pay an extra penny than the market stated price, and finally 4. if you are a distributor you get commission on the retail sales not the number of recruiters (ie: getting the same commission whether you sold 10 products to one person or 1 product to 10 persons).

So, now what is Illegal Pyramid Schemes? Illegal Pyramid Schemes derive their structure from the Legitimate Multi Level Marketing, however, with some minor changes that may confuse new recruiters in making them believe it’s a legal business process. It involves promising participants payments upon recruiting new people into the scheme NOT by selling products or services to the general public. So, the commission here is for recruiting people, and that is not what marketing is about. It is described by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [6] and Federal Trade Commission as a form of FRAUD.

So still, how does it work? First, you will need to buy a product in order to enter the business. Second, you will need to recruit new people to enter the business or market the product. However, you will not receive commission by just recruiting one person; there will be some restrictions like you will have to recruit 6 participants for each commission. The recruiters of this business help new recruiters believe that they will have to work hard for the first few months, and then a river of endless money will be thrown into their laps. However the MATH DOES NOT WORK! Please see the below demonstration [7]. 

PLEASE SEE PICTURES ATTACHED FOR THIS DEMONSTRATION

As stated by World Development Indicators [8], the population of Earth on 2008 was 6,697,254,041. Therefore, if you examine the bolded numbers, you will see that it has EXCEEDED THE POPULATION OF EARTH. So, mathematically and logically speaking there is NOT enough people to make this process infinite.

You will tend to hear from the people convincing you to join the network or the pyramid that they have already made money from this process; most probably they are not lying. Still, the question lies, in which level are you starting? If you started at the top levels then chances are you will be making money off the backs of the recruiters below you, but what if you aren’t? Is there any chance to know where do you stand? The answer is: No!

As you get approached with this kind of business, which nowadays call it “Network Marketing” (I still don’t see where the marketing of products lies here). The recruiter will ask will advise you to recruit the closest friends and family members below you, so that they will make the greatest profit after you. Logically speaking, if you and your family members were in the top levels, then chances are you both will make money and be happy. However, what if, what if you were not on the top levels? You would have convinced the CLOSEST FRIENDS and FAMILY MEMBERS to join the business making them fall in the trap. Socially speaking, how do you think this will affect the relationship with these people? Do you think they will trust you with money again? Do you think they will respect you? Moreover, do you think you will have any kind of relationship with them again? Well, some might say depending on the money they have “invested” and some might say they will forgive him. The question is: will money be any good without those people surrounding you? Given that maybe you were from the levels who earned money and they were from the levels that didn’t.

As I am trying to analyze here, have you noticed that now we are talking about the money that we invested in this business NOT the money we paid to buy a useful product that we actually needed? So now that we speak, is it really a marketing strategy or is it a business model? It’s confusing, isn’t it?

Since I gave examples to the Legitimate Multi Level Marketing, it would be unfair to not give an example to the Illegal Pyramid Schemes. The most popular Pyramid Scheme working under the name of “Network Marketing” is QNET[9].

Some questions arising that make me wonder. Are the products available in the market? No, I wouldn’t find the watch they are selling in any watch store; they want it to be unique products that you will only buy from the distributors (unlike products of Oriflame that you can find them in any pharmacy). Can I buy the product online?No, it has to be through a referral. Can I browse the prices and products online? No, why? I have no idea! Are the products overpriced? Yes, the minimum purchase is for $600. The products are diverse such as travel packages, jewelry, watches and so on. Are they branded products? No. Gucci[10] watches prices start from $300++ . Mmmm… I think I would prefer to buy Gucci, wouldn’t you?

Some people would argue that the product is overpriced because you are not just buying the product, but you are investing your money into the business. Hold on, wait a second, let me check again the criteria that ensures a Legitimate MLM. Oh yes, I remember, it requires me NOT PAY AN EXTRA PENNY for the price of the product.

I then stop for a second and wonder, if I entered this business, would I buy another product? Let’s say, I bought the overpriced non-branded watch to join the business. If I want to buy a new watch, would I still pay this ridiculously high price for that product, or will I go buy it from Gucci, Bvlgari, or Mont Blanc. Come on, at least people would know am wearing a Gucci watch! We all like to showoff don’t we?

Also, the first time I paid extra money was to invest in the business, but do I really have to invest again? No, I am already in the pyramid. Chances are, my first investment was at the top levels of the pyramid (if I am making profit), who is to say I am in which level now? So another question arises, do I buy the product because I really want it, or is it just a business venture?

I can’t help notice that in the website it’s stated that the company has been up and running since 1998 and that the Head Quarters are in Hong Kong. I also can't help notice the countries where they have their offices in such as Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates. Well, anyone approached by this company might think “mmmm… I guess it’s trustworthy”. I thought so too, until I checked the activity of their website through Alexa [11] a web information company. When I checked this company’s activity (SEE ATTACHED PICTURE) [12], I was amazed and not so surprised with what I got. I’d like to share with you what I found out.

For starters (please check the Traffic Stats tab), I was keen to know the peak activity on the website. Since the whole buying and selling process goes through it, then, the more activity on the website, the more sales has been made.  I found out that there was no activity on 2009, and the activity started to boost in midst (June) 2010 which made me think, how come the company has been there since 1998 and the activity started only on 2010?  (The activity of the website was prior to 2009 according to the old websitehttp://www.quest.net )

Secondly the company’s Head Quarters is in Hong Kong! Yaaay, it’s a first world country, which should mean something! Oh, wait they have an office in Singapore as well, that should mean the business is up and running in developed countries. Wait my friend, don’t rush into things. I checked the company’s worldwide traffic rank, meaning I checked the top countries that access and view the website. Since again the whole process is done online, then the countries with the highest rank are the countries that are more actively involved in the “business”. So let me list for you the first 10 countries: Sudan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Malaysia, India, Philippines and the US. Out of the top countries, only three countries have offices as stated. The question that I can’t find an answer to is why don’t all the countries that practice this business have an office? Another question is why are the top countries only developing countries? If this is business if flawless and guarantees profit if you put in effort and hard work, then where is European countries, Australia, Canada, and Singapore for God’s sake. Where is the activity of Head Quarters in HONG KONG! I am trying to use reason and logic here.

Okay, some might think I am a little biased here, so I will present the same information for Oriflame (SEE ATTACHED PICTURE) [13] an example of a Legitimate Multi Level Marketing company.

As you can see, the activity on the website is up and running continuing from 2008, maybe the activity was a bit low in 2009 due to the economic crises, and boosted again since the beginning of 2010.  Although it was low in 2009, it was still there! Well, I personally think that makes sense!

The top active countries are Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithaunia, Azerbaija, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Hyngary, Romania, Portugal, Poland, Serbia and Montegero, Greece, Peru, Chili, Belarus, Turkey, Mexico, Colombia, Spain India, Iran, and the US. As we can see, that there is activity of both developing and developed countries.

Up till now, I have been discussing the participation of this “business” and it’s affect on you personally. But then, this wouldn’t be fair to the society. As stated earlier that marketing should benefit the society as a whole.

Since I am Egyptian, I will try to examine the effect of this process to the economy of my country. Egypt is of course known to be one of the developing countries. We don’t use our currency the Egyptian pound to buy goods from other countries like the US importing using the US dollar, or the European countries in the European Union using the Euro. So, in order to buy any products from abroad, I need to first buy US dollar, a foreign currency, second I will need to transfer the money abroad in that case Hong Kong, third I need to receive the product worthy of the money I paid.

So let me explain it a little bit clearer, if I buy a $1000 worth of gold and I receive it in my country taxed. Then, my country is not losing; you got what you paid for. Nevertheless, this is not the case with “Network Marketing”. You basically pay double if not more the price of what you are buying. So the country here lost half of what you paid. If you paid $1000 and got a watch worth of $500, then the country lost $500 not just you. You might think that’s MY MONEY, I USE IT TO BUY WHATEVER I WANT! Well it’s true. However, if you spend it in the country, then the country will benefit by 1. Businesses in the country making profit from you 2. The goods are being taxed. If you import any good from abroad, let’s say you bought a book from Amazon.com, the country will tax you on that book, making the country profit from you. So, the question here lies, is the goods bought taxed? If the goods are taxed, then the country is losing half of the price you paid. If the goods are not taxed then the country is losing the whole price of what you paid.

Let’s assume that you will get commission for every 6 people you recruit. Meaning that by level 13, you will exceed the population of earth, and by level 11 you will exceed the population of Egypt. So, I am assuming that the business flourished and reached level 10, which will have 60,466,176 people. Let’s assume that all these people will join the business, keeping aside the fact that Egypt is a POOR country and not everyone can pay an average of $1000 to join the business. By level 9, the last level making profit in the country assuming everyone will join, an average of  60,466,176 * $1000 = $60,466,176,000 is sent outside the country  for all members in level 9 to make profit. How much money entered the country for profit? Let’s assume as they tell you that you will make $250 for every 6 people joining the “business”, that will make 60,466,176/6 * $250 = $2,519,424,000 to people’s pockets (the top of the pyramid making profit). Also, let’s assume that the top of the pyramid is in Egypt not in Hong Kong as they claim. That will be about $2,519,424,000 / $60,466,176,000 * 100%  =  4.167% of what is paid outside the country being re-spent again inside the country. Please do keep in mind that this number of people entering the business is almost impossible because a small percentage of Egyptians can actually afford to pay an average of $1000 to join the “business”. (Please do keep in mind that I have neglected the higher levels of the pyramid; I only used the calculations in level 10 for simplicity and demonstration purposes only.)

Once more, you might still wonder, why is this kind of business activity only flourishing in developing countries? Well, I can help you a little if you allow me. Pyramid schemes are considered a kind of fraud and can be sued for it in court in the US. In Singapore [14], you will be fined from $30,000 to $200,000  and might be imprisoned up to 5 years. If you kept on searching policies made by Canada, the UK, or other developed countries, you would understand!

Let me recall the definition of marketing. "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." Help me understand how will that bring VALUE to the customers and SOCIETY at large? With some facts, a little logic, a little reason, and some math we all can make sense of what’s going on.

Technology can be very attractive and the quality of a website can deceive people into trusting it. As an IT professional, I believe that by providing just a web developer or myself for that matter and a domain costing $10, I can present such a classical and attractive window for the Pyramid Scheme. Hell, I can start a Pyramid Scheme myself and call it “Society Marketing” for God’s sake!

Note: I included references used so you can check up on me. If you find this article useful in any way please share it with your friends. We want to increase the awareness of such things penetrating and ruining our society and economy.

Check the article "Why DEVELOPED (1st World) countries are NOT involved with QNET? Let’s find out…" for more facts about Qnet: http://sherwette.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-developed-1st-world-countries-are_07.html

NEW: Please refer to: Is Qnet Scam? Illegal? Desperate justifications by Qnet proved FALSE! Increase your AWARENESS!!!: http://sherwette.blogspot.com/2010/10/is-qnet-scam-illegal-desperate.html

For Religion's View: Anti-Qnet Egyptians 

Check out Start your own Business, Start Freelancing! for alternative creative productive ways to MAKE MONEY!

References:

1. American Marketing Association :http://www.marketingpower.com/aboutama/pages/definitionofmarketing.aspx

(Sept 2010)

2. Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm(Sept 2010)

3 Oriflame: http://www.oriflame.com/ (Sept 2010)

4. Avon: http://www.avon.com/ (Sept 2010)

5. Mary Kay Cosmetics: http://www.marykay.com/ (Sept 2010)

6. Federal Bureau of Investment (FBI):http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm#pyramid  (Sept 2010)

 7. Pyramid Scheme level demonstration:http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/MLM_pyramid.php (Sept 2010)

8. Population of Earth: http://data.worldbank.org/ (Sept 2010)

9. QNET: www.qnet.net (Sept 2010)

10.Gucci: http://www.gucci.com/ (Sept 2010)

11. Alexa: http://www.alexa.com/ (Sept 2010)

12. Qnet.net Traffic: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/qnet.net# (Sept 2010)

13. Oriflame.com Traffic: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/oriflame.com (Sept 2010)

14. Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore: http://app.mti.gov.sg/default.asp?id=567#9 (Sept 2010)