Information Technology Articles

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 23rd February 2006 @ 2:56 PM

There's quite an emphasis on security in today's networks, and that's reflected in Cisco's certification tracks. Cisco offers a CCIE Security track and the Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) intermediate-level certification, but there is no real equivalent to the CCNA on the security side. Instead, Cisco offers several different Security Associate certifications. The good news is that you’ve got a lot of security specializations from which to choose; the ba... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By John Morris @ Wednesday, 22nd February 2006 @ 7:10 PM

In our world where data is power, large companies put a high priority on their data back-up and data storage. Unfortunately, this kind of data storage is typically very expensive and impractical for the small home PC user. Luckily, with the introduction of two new formats of digital storage that are now available, there is a solution. With the DLT or Digital Linear Tape and the LTO or Linear Tape Open, the need for data storage has far exceeded past levels (as compared to previous had 8mm or DDS... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Ben Franklin @ Sunday, 19th February 2006 @ 4:08 AM

Need to have a big business meeting in a hurry, but don't want to spend a lot of money on travel expenses and lodging? Maybe you're searching for a cost-effective way to connect employees in different locations for collaborative efforts? Try video conferencing over the Internet. All it takes is two computers, two desktop cameras and you're pretty much good to go. The only thing better would be to never have to attend a meeting in the first place, but since that's not p... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Wednesday, 15th February 2006 @ 8:23 PM

Passing the BSCI exam and earning your CCNP certification demands that you add greatly to the networking skills foundation you created when you studied for your CCNA certification. You learned quite a bit about static routing and default static routing when you passed the CCNA test, and it does seem like that should be all you need to know about static routing, right? One thing you'll learn as you continue to earn Cisco certifications is that there's always something else to le... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Harry Rockwell @ Wednesday, 8th February 2006 @ 6:12 AM

Sir Tim Berners-Lee was the first Web designer and the inventor of the World Wide Web. He launched the first online website in 6 August 1991. He summed up the Internet communication (compiled with emails) with hypertext transfer protocols. Initially the Web designing was based upon the simple markup languages, functionality of these languages was very limited. At that time only the hyper linking between the pages and layout services were available; it became more extensible and rich in co... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Sunday, 5th February 2006 @ 5:57 AM

When you're preparing for success on your CCNA or CCNP certification exams, sooner or later you're going to want to start totally from scratch on your Cisco routers and switches. It's easy enough to type "write erase" and "reload", but there are a few details you have to watch if you want your home lab or rack rental devices to act as though they just came out of the box. The first step is indeed to run the command write erase, and then reload the router. Yo... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 2nd February 2006 @ 11:25 AM

More CCNA and CCNP candidates than ever before are putting together their own home practice labs. It's more affordable than it ever has been, and I receive emails daily from new CCNAs and CCNPs who say it's the best thing they could have done to improve their studies. There are some commands you can configure on your lab routers that won't necessarily be on your CCNA or CCNP exams, but they will make life a lot easier for you. Let's take a look at just a few of these... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Friday, 27th January 2006 @ 3:19 AM

When you're studying to pass the BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification, you're going to be introduced to ISIS. ISIS and OSPF are both link-state protocols, but ISIS works quite differently from OSPF. You must master these details in order to earn your CCNP. One of the major differences between OSPF and ISIS will be evident to you when you first begin your BSCI exam studies, and that is the terminology. ISIS uses terms that no other protocol you've studied to date ... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 26th January 2006 @ 6:20 PM

In preparation for your CCNA and CCNP exam success, you've got to learn to troubleshoot Cisco routers. And while ping is a great basic IP connectivity tool, it doesn't give you all the information you need to diagnose network connectivity issues. Let's say you have six routers between CityA and CityB. You send a ping from A to B, and get this return: R1#ping 172.1.1.1 Type escape sequence to abort. Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.1.1.1, ti... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Thursday, 26th January 2006 @ 1:59 AM

While studying to pass the BSCI exam and preparing to earn your CCNP certification, you'll quickly notice that while OSPF and ISIS are both link-state protocols, there are a lot of differences between the two. One major difference is the way the two protocols handle hello packets. Hello packets are imperative to keeping OSPF and ISIS adjacencies alive. Since they are both link-state protocols, neither of them will send updates at any specified time. Hello packets are the only meth... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 8:40 PM

In baseball, a "utility player" is one who plays more than one position. These players are usually backups, but they have a job in the major leagues because of their value to the team; since they can play more than one position, they have that much more value to their employer. Too often in IT, workers become either LAN or WAN engineers, knowing little if anything about the other side. Many LAN administrators I worked with knew little about routing and switching, while many WAN ... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 3:00 AM

When you start preparing for your CCNP exam, particularly the BSCI exam, you're introduced to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configurations. BGP is unlike any protocol you learned during your CCNA studies, and even the similarities are a little bit different! BGP forms neighbor relationships, much like EIGRP and OSPF do. The interesting thing with BGP is that potential neighbors, or "peers", do not need to be directly connected and can use their loopback interfaces to form the... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By James Hunt @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 6:42 PM

When building large scale database driven web applications which require the development effort of numerous individuals and interoperating teams as well as networked access to a central repository of assets in the form of PHP code, HTML documents, images, source code, media files, and documentation it can help to organize the workflow by keeping track of data and intellectual property assets using specially designed asset management software applications that allow for a meta searchable database... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 9:22 AM

I've seen it happen time and again to programmers, network engineers and administrators, and other IT personnel. They get a solid IT position, a good-paying job, and they get comfortable. They stop keeping up with the latest technologies, they stop studying, they no longer keep their CCNA, MCSE, and other industry certifications up-to-date.... and then one day, their comfortable job is gone. Maybe they get laid off, maybe the company moves and they don't want to move with... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 8:55 AM

I've been active in the Cisco Certification track for four years, working my way from the CCNA to the coveted Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert title, and during that time I've conducted job interviews and casual conversations with hundreds of CCNAs and CCNA candidates. The CCNA is an exciting beginning to your Cisco career, but just having the certification simply isn't enough. A recruiter or interviewer isn't going to be impressed just with the cert you've got... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By James Hunt @

There is so much information that every business needs to have on hand so that they can run successfully. To accumulate and keep track of all this information it’s many times easier to use software and other tools to help with this information management. There are many types of software that you can choose from but probably one of the most popular information management tools is Microsoft Office. Office allows you to manage all of your information in one place using tools such as Access, Exce... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @

When you begin your CCNA studies, you get hit with a lot of different networking terms right away that you might not be familiar with. What makes it a little more confusing is that a lot of these terms sound a lot alike. Here, we're going to discuss the differences between broadcasts, multicasts, and unicasts at both the Data Link (Layer 2) and Network (Layer 3) layers of the OSI model. A broadcast is simply a unit of information that every other device on the segment will receive. A... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @

As you get ready to pass the CCNA or CCNP exams, you can feel quite a bit of stress as you enter your last week of study. Let's take a look at a few ways to reduce that stress. 1. Do not stay up late cramming. The CCNA and CCNP are not exams you're going to pass by cramming. "Cramming" is a study technique best left behind in junior high school. The CCNA can't be passed by memorization - you've got to know how Cisco technologies work. That leads us to the secon... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @

Passing the CCNA, Intro, and ICND exam is all about knowing and noticing the details. (Which makes perfect sense, since becoming a master networking administrator or engineer is also about noticing the details!) One such detail knows the difference between error detection and error recovery. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. Error detection is just that - error detection only. Two common error detection methods are found at the Data... more...

Computers » Information Technology | By Chris Bryant @

When you start studying for your CCNA and CCNP exams, many books will present you with a huge list of keystroke shortcuts for use on Cisco routers. While the 640-801, 811, and 821 exams may ask you about one or two of these, you really have to get hands-on experience with these commands to master them. Even better, there are some key combinations that Cisco routers mention, but then don't tell you what they are! Let's take a look at a few of the more helpful key combinations, and co... more...