How Cloud Computing can make a small company look big

Using Cloud Computing can make you company look larger than what it really is. If a small company wants to have a website they can. There are many different companies that will host your website and if you need them to design it they will do that also. It is also nice to have your domain and email address match. This allows a company in a small town to reach all over the world for a small cost. The company can have a toll free fax line for less than a basic phone line.  With this fax line you can send faxes from your computer or receive faxes to you email or check it on the internet. With this fax system you can check your faxes as long as you have access to the internet or check you email.  You can also have your faxes sent to more than one email address. Most companies use a Post Office Box that does not tell you the size of the company.

When a small business is just starting out, they want to look bigger that what they are. These are just a few things that they can do to reach more people and look larger than what they are for a small coast. When a company large or small looks professional customers feel secure about doing business with that company.

RIPv2 vs EIGRP

RIPv2 improves upon RIPv1 with the ability to use VLSM, with support for route authentication, and with multicasting of route updates. RIPv2 supports CIDR. It still sends updates every 30 seconds and retains the 15-hop limit; it also uses triggered updates. RIPv2 still uses UDP port 520; the RIP process is responsible for checking the version number. It retains the loop-prevention strategies of poison reverse and counting to infinity. On Cisco routers, RIPv2 has the same administrative distance as RIPv1, which are 120. Finally, RIPv2 uses the IP address 224.0.0.9 when multicasting route updates to other RIP routers. As in RIPv1, RIPv2 will, by default, summarize IP networks at network boundaries. You can disable auto summarization if required.

 EIGRP in the early 1990s as an evolution of IGRP toward a more scalable routing protocol for large internetworks. EIGRP is a classless protocol that permits the use of VLSMs and that supports CIDR for the scalable allocation of IP addresses. EIGRP does not send routing updates periodically, as does IGRP. EIGRP allows for authentication with simple passwords or with MD5. EIGRP auto summarizes networks at network borders and can load-balance over unequal–cost paths. Packets using EIGRP use IP protocol 88. Only Cisco routers can use EIGRP.

EIGRP is an advanced distance-vector protocol that implements some characteristics similar to those of link-state protocols. Some Cisco documentation refers to EIGRP as a hybrid protocol. EIGRP advertises its routing table to its neighbors as distance-vector protocols do, but it uses hellos and forms neighbor relationships as link-state protocols do. EIGRP sends partial updates when a metric or the topology changes on the network. It does not send full routing-table updates in periodic fashion as do distance-vector protocols. EIGRP uses DUAL to determine loop-free paths to destinations. This section discusses DUAL.

Remember RIPv2 is for small network and EIGRP is for large networks.  RIPv2 update every 30 sec and EIGRP only update when there is a change saving on bandwidth

Layer 3 protocols (Network Layer)

IS-IS-Intermediate System-to Intermediate System is a routing protocol designed to move information efficiently within a computer network, a group of physically connected computers or similar devices. It accomplishes this by determining the best route for datagrams through a packet-switched network. The protocol was defined in ISO/IEC 10589:2002 as an international standard within the internet standard (OSI) reference design.

OSPF- Open Shortest Path First is an adaptive routing protocol for internet protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing algorithm and falls into the group of interior routing protocols, operating within a single autonomous system (AS). It is defined as OSPF Version 2 in  for Ipv4. There is an  updates for Ipv6 that is specified as OSPF Version 3

BGP- Border Gateway Protocol is the protocol backing the core routing decisions on the internet. It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reach ability among autonomous systems

RIPv1 Routing  Information Protocol is a dynamic routing protocol  used in local and wide area networks

Easy Subneting

128      64        32        16        8          4          2          1

To calculate the number of hosts or the number of networks for a given subnet mask, use the following formula:

2^(number of bits used) - 2 = number of networks/hosts (The ‘^’ means ‘raised to the power of’.)

So, given the fact that we have borrowed 2 bits to extend our network, we have 2^2 - 2 = 2 networks (remember, we are excluding the all 1 and all 0 networks).

We have 14 bits left to describe the hosts on each network; therefore we have 2^14 - 2 = 16,382 hosts per network (remember we are excluding host addresses with all 0s or all 1s).

The value of the lowest order bit in the subnet mask tells you two things: a) it tells you the first network ID for the subnets created by the extended subnet mask, b) it tells you the value that you can add to one network ID to arrive at the next possible network ID.

Let’s take our example extended subnet mask of 255.255.192.0. The 3rd octet expressed in binary with the decimal equivalents is:

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

The value of the lowest order bit is 64. Therefore, our first network ID is 172.16.64.0/18. The next and last network ID is 172.16.128.0/18 (64 + 64 = 128)

VLAN

By default, all switches are configured to be VTP servers. This configuration is suitable for small-scale networks in which the size of the VLAN information is small and the information is easily stored in all switches (in NVRAM). In a large network, the network administrator must make a judgment call at some point, when the NVRAM storage that is necessary is wasteful because it is duplicated on every switch. At this point, the network administrator must choose a few well-equipped switches and keep them as VTP servers. Everything else that participates in VTP can be turned into a client. The number of VTP servers should be chosen in order to provide the degree of redundancy that is desired in the network.

VLAN is a software concept, identifiers and configurations for a VLAN must be properly prepared for it to function as expected. Frame coloring is the process used to ensure that VLAN members or groups are properly identified and handled. With frame coloring, packets are given the proper VLAN ID at their origin so that they may be properly processed as they pass through the network. The VLAN ID is then used to enable switching and routing engines to make the appropriate decisions as defined in the VLAN configuration.If the VLAN is not properly configured that part of the network will be down.

RIPv1 vs RIPv2

The main difference between RIPv1 and RIPv2 is classless routing. RIPv2 incorporates the addition of the network mask in the update to allow classless routing advertisements. This is extremely important for the flexibility needed to efficiently utilize network assignments for an ever-shrinking pool of IP addresses.

There are other differences, as well. In RIPv2, the destination address for the updates is multicast, instead of broadcast, as in RIPv1. This reduces the burden on the network devices that do not need to listen to RIP updates. With broadcast, every device on the broadcast domain must at least open the IP packet and process the initial information to determine relevance. With multicast addressing, if a device needs that information, it will listen to that specific address. If it does not need the RIP information, it does not have to process the multicast address. The multicast address RIPv2 sends to is 224.0.0.9.

NAT

With the explosion of the Internet and the increase in home networks and business networks, the number of available IP addresses is simply not enough. The obvious solution is to redesign the address format to allow for more possible addresses. This is being developed (called IPv6), but will take several years to implement because it requires modification of the entire infrastructure of the Internet.

­ This is where NAT comes to the rescue. Network Address Translation allows a single device, such as a router, to act as an agent between the Internet ( "public network") and a local (or "private") network. This means that only a single, unique IP address is required to represent an entire group of computers.

NAT also blocks your private network from the world.

Be ready to your Cisco test

Select the path that best fits your experience and career goals. Paths include routers, service providers and field technicians. General and specialist tracks are available to fit anyone.Identify the certification level consistent with your current position.

Associate certification is the beginner level designed for new hires. Professional is the second level offered and is targeted to journeymen and middle managers with access to more specialized certifications. Specialist certification provides expert level exams with deeper security knowledge.

Study the exam requirements at Cisco's website under "Training and Events" to verify a good fit with experience and knowledge. Assessment tests are a good way to ensure success before registration. Professional and specialist exams require considerable expertise, preparation classes are often required prior to registration.

Go over all training and exam material carefully. Start a study group to assist in going over material that may be difficult or outside your normal range of knowledge. This also offers a great chance to network with other people in the industry
Arrive at your test location 15 minutes prior to test time. Bring two forms of ID along with scratch paper and pen. Tests vary in length depending on the course of study.

How to get CCNS certified

dfd

Frame Relay

The Frame Relay frames are transmitted to the destination by virtual circuits to the destination point. Virtual circuits may be permanent (PVCs) or switched (SVCs). PVCs are set up administratively by the network manager for a dedicated point-to-point connection; SVCs are set up on a call-by-call basis.

Frame Relay offers an alternative to both dedicated lines and X.25 networks for connecting LANs to switches and routers. The success of the Frame Relay protocol is based on the following two underlying factors:

Because virtual circuits consume bandwidth only when they transport data; many virtual circuits can exist simultaneously across a given transmission line. Also each device can use as much of the bandwidth as necessary, and can operate at higher speeds.

The improved reliability of communication lines and increased error-handling sophistication at end stations allows the Frame Relay protocol to discard erroneous frames and eliminate time consuming error handling processing.

These two factors make Frame Relay a desirable choice for data transmission; however, they also necessitate testing to determine that the system works properly and that data is not lost

ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)

Asynchronous Transfer mode (ATM) is a high speed network that support voice and data communications. ATM operates on data link layer (Layer 2 in the OSI model); it runs over fiber or twisted pair copper cable.

ATM differs from more common data link technologies like Ethernet in several ways.  ATM does not use routing protocols. Hardware devices known as ATM switches establish point-to-point connections between the sources and destination. ATM does not use variable length packets, it uses fixed sized cells. ATM cells are made up of 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes for the header information totaling 53 bytes.

ATM technology is designed to improve utilization and quality of service (QoS) on high-traffic networks. Without routing and with fixed-size cells, networks can better manage bandwidth under ATM than under Ethernet. Because of the high cost of ATM compared to Ethernet, ATM is used for the backbone and other high performance, specialized networks.

ATM is designed to be easily implemented by hardware and, faster processing and switch speeds are possible. The bit rates are either 155.520 Mbps or 622.080 Mbps. Speeds on ATM networks can reach 10 Gbps. Along with Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and several other technologies, ATM is a key component of broadband ISDN (BISDN).

How does DNS work

Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system that translates a computer’s fully qualified domain name into an IP address. Network computer use IP address to locate and connect to computers.  What DNS servers do is it converts a user friendly name like Yahoo.com to a numeric IP address of 209.191.122.70. It is easier to for humans to remember the domain name that the IP address. Reverse DNS (rDNS) does just the opposite of DNS; it takes the IP address and converter it to friendly user names.

Any organization that maintains a computer network will have at least one Name server that handles the DNS queries. The name server holds a list of all IP address within the network, along with cache of IP address from other domain names. When a computer requests an IP address there is three things that can happen.

1.      If the request is a local IP address then the request goes to the Name server that is configured on you work station. Your response will be quickly almost instantly.

2.      If the request is not one of the local address, but someone in the network has requested the information recently. The request will be for filled from the cache on the name server. Then you will receive you information will be a quit response.

3.      If the request is not a local IP address, and no one has requested the IP address. The name server will perform a search on behalf of the workstation this search may involve querying two or more other name servers at are at remote locations. These queries can take anywhere from a second or two up to a minutes.

If you are trying to get to a website and you keep getting an error message your DNS may have old data. The website may have had changes and the cache in your DNS server needs to be cleared. It is import to clear the cash in the name server for this reason.

iPad 2 for High School students

The iPad2 is 33% thinner and 15% lighter than the old iPad the old iPad weight is 1.5 pounds How could this work in the school system in helping it to become greener, cut the coast of text book, and lighten the back packs of the students.

The text books could be viewed on line as a PDF file. This will also eliminate the excurse of that the students saying that they forgot their books. The student would not have to keep up with multiple text books. The children would also be able to keep their notes on the iPad. The teachers would be able to send the students their assignments and notes electronically. This will eliminate a lot of paper. If the student needs to have meeting with the student with the iPad2 they would be able to do a web conference. The iPad has two cameras that will allow you to talk and see the person at the same time.

The coast of the iPad starting coast is $499.00 and by buying in bulk you will get a discounst also with any software that you will need for the students. The coast could be spread over four years along with insurance that would cover in the event of it being lost or damaged. The coast of school books are about $30-$40 per book. Once the books are printed there is no changing. When the books become outdated then you will have to print more. By viewing it online in a PDF file keeping the student in current books would be cheaper.

How Cloud Computing can make a small company look big

Using Cloud Computing can make you company look larger than what it really is. If a small company wants to have a website they can. There are many different companies that will host your website and if you need them to design it they will do that also. It is also nice to have your domain and email address match. This allows a company in a small town to reach all over the world for a small cost. The company can have a toll free fax line for less than a basic phone line.  With this fax line you can send faxes from your computer or receive faxes to you email or check it on the internet. With this fax system you can check your faxes as long as you have access to the internet or check you email.  You can also have your faxes sent to more than one email address. Most companies use a Post Office Box that does not tell you the size of the company.

When a small business is just starting out, they want to look bigger that what they are. These are just a few things that they can do to reach more people and look larger than what they are for a small coast. When a company large or small looks professional customers feel secure about doing business with that company.

Healthy Computer means Healthy Network

It is important to keep a healthy computer and network. It is also important to keep current version antivirus software and malware. I was working on my computer checking my email, and a program open and started scanning my laptop. I let the software scan my laptop, because I thought it was my antivirus software. When the program finished scanning I clicked the remove button. The screen went out to a website called System Tool and it wanted me to buy the software. I closed the browsers and every time I tried to open a program I would get a warning message from system tool. It would open not let me open any program. I spent over an hour trying to remove that software. I could not even open my antivirus software so I could run it.

After trying for over an hour to remove the software, I booted my laptop up in safe mode. In safe mode I could run different programs. I downloaded Malware Bytes and then I installed it. While in safe mode the malware found two viruses and removed them.  I rebooted my laptop and ran the malware again and it did not find any viruses. I also ran my antivirus software and the antivirus software found no viruses. Now my computer is clean and I want to keep it clean.

 Some things you can do to keep my computer and your network healthy. Do a disk clean, then and disk defragmenter once a week. This will help keep your files organized and your computer will run faster. Secondly do a full antivirus scan they will help to keep your computer and network healthy. Some ISP offers some kind of antivirus software for free. Finally back up of your computers at least once a month, to an external hard drive. If you have tried everything to fix your computer and you still cannot correct the problem, or if your computer has crash, you will be able to restore everything from the last backup.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Monitoring Software

Companies monitor their network for many reasons; they want to keep track of traffic and the devices on the network. There are various different monitoring tools that can be used.  Monitoring your network is very importing it keeps you on top of what is going on your network. Monitoring your network will also allow you to determine the amount of bandwidth that is being used. You will also be able to ascertain what programs are running and you how much bandwidth it is using. Knowing what programs are running and how much resource it is using then you can manage your network better. Knowing how much resource is needed for different programs is very important. If you have a program that is a resource hug; running it during high peak time will slow down your network or crash it.

There are many different programs that you can use to monitor your network. Each company is different, and the monitoring system that is used depends on the needs of the company. If your company has network equipment that needs to me up and running you need to know as soon as possible when it goes down. Know when a device goes down you will need to know what caused it to go down. If there is too much traffic going to a device it could cause the device to crash or you will not be able to get data.

Another thing you will need to know if you want to monitor you network remotely or just on site. Some things you should look for in monitoring software are PC monitoring and administrative control. You will need to be able to filter and block websites, and ports. A very important feature of any program is to be able to retrieve reports. Below are some website that

http://monitoring-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://www.spiceworks.com/

Basic Information on IPv4 and IPv6

IPv4 is running out of IP addresses there are more things using IP address then before. More people have computers, network printers, wireless devices that require an IP. The internet is growing and each Domain name needs an IP address. With IPv4 there are five IP groups, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E. 

Class	Address Range	Supports
Class A	1.0.0.0    to 126.255.255.255	16 million hosts on each of 127 networks
Class B	128.1.0.1    to 191.255.255.254	65,000 hosts on each of 16,000 networks.
Class C	192.0.1.1    to 223.255.254.254	254 hosts on each of 2 million networks
Class D	224.0.0.0    to 239.255.255.255	This is reserved for multicast groups
Class E	240.0.0.0    to 254.255.255.254	This is reserved for research and development

IPv4 only uses 28 bits but with IPv6 it uses 128 bits.The differences between IPv6 and IPv4 are in five major areas: addressing and routing, security, network address translation, administrative workload, and support for mobile devices. IPv6 also includes an important feature: a set of possible migration and transition plans from IPv4. IPv4 has 4,294,967,296 IP addresses and IPv6 has about 340,282,366,920,938,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. IPv6 is a classless scheme. Classless means that you do not have to include the subnet mask. IPv6 is structured with the first 64 bits are used for network identification and the last 64 bits are for the host identification.

http://www.ipv6vsipv4.com/

http://www.xibl.com/general-articles/ipv4-vs-ipv6/

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/i/ip.htm

http://www.bing.com/search?q=ipv4+vs+ipv6&src=IE-SearchBox&first=21&FORM=PERE1

Two types of Network Address

There are 2 different types of network addresses, one is a MAC (Media Access Control) address and the other one is an IP (Internet Protocol) address. The MAC address is a physical address and it exists on the Layer 2 (Data Link) of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection). Layer 2 is also known as the Data Link Layer.  The IP address is a virtual address and it operates on Layer 3 (Network).

MAC addresses are unique address it is burnt into the hardware by the manufacture at the time it is made.  MAC addresses are also known as Burned In Addresses (BIA). MAC address are used by many different Layer 2 devices some are Ethernet, Token Ring, Bluetooth, and Fibre Channel.

MAC address is 48 bits in length and there are 281,474,976,710,656 possible addresses. A MAC address would look like this 00-23-4E-47-21-01. The first three bytes of any MAC address will tell you who the manufacture of that device is. The manufacture of this address 00-23-4E is Hon Hai Precision Inc. Co., Ltd., 66 Chung Shan RD. Tu-Cheng, Taipei Hsien Taiwan 236. The first three bytes of a MAC address are assigned by the IEEE Standards Association to a company (http://www.tech-faq.com/mac-address.html).

 IP address is an Internet Protocol address. The IP address is used to identify the different computers and websites on the internet or intranet. Each device must have a unique IP address. If not it will cause problem on your network. The IP address allows you chat, send email, and it allows you to use the internet

An IP address is made up of 4 separate numbers, each between 0 and 255, and arranged with dots in between them.  All websites have an IP address. It is easier for humans to remember a name instead of an IP, so a DNS (Domain Name System) matches the name with an IP address. One of Yahoo.com’s IP addresses is 209.161.122.70. IP address is controlled by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). The website for them is http://icann.org.

The internet is growing so fast that we are running out of IPv4 address. Soon we will be out of IP and we will need to use IPv6.

How to install a LAN Network

The first thing is to have the right equipment. If you have the internet then you have most of what you need. You will need a computer, printer, hub or switch, Ethernet cable, and sometimes modem or router. If you have access to the internet then your ISP (internet service provider) has provided you with a modem or a router.  

If you have a fairly new laptop then you would want to have a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). A wireless network will give you the freedom to move around freely. The equipment that you would need for the WLAN is a Wi-Fi router. There are four different types of wireless access point A, B, G and N. N protocol has the longer range. B and G is about 100 feet for in unobstructed area. N has a range of about 700 feet.

Connect your computers, printers, to your hub or switch using an Ethernet cable. If you want to connect to the internet then you will need to connect you hub or switch to the ISP’s modem. If you have a Wi-Fi router, you will need to install it. Connect the switch or hub to the Ethernet port on the router using your Ethernet cable. Using an Ethernet cable plug one end of the cable into the internet port on the router, and the other end of the cable to the Ethernet port of the modem connect the router to the modem. Now you have set up your LAN.   

What is a Network (Computer Network)

Computer network is also: two or more computers that are connected together to share resources such as hardware, data, and software. Most common are the local area network (LAN) and the wide area network (WAN). A LAN can range from a few computers in a small office to several thousand computers spread throughout dozens of buildings on a school campus or in an industrial park. Expand this latter scenario to encompass multiple geographic locations, possibly on different continents, and you have a WAN

Networks (Computer Network) is two or more computers that are connected together for the purpose to share resources, information, or software. There are different types of Networks, LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), and SAN (Storage Area Network, System Area Network, Server Area Network, or even Small Area Network)

 Everyone uses some kind of network today it may be a LAN, WAN or the one that is becoming very popular today the WLAN. Today children are using computers in elementary school and to get school assignments, and to do school assignments. A computer today is almost like MP3s and DVDs all most every American family owns at least one of them.

So because you have a computer does that mean you are a part of a network? If you have at least one child chances are you have internet access. If you have internet access you are using a WAN. You are connecting to the WWW (World Wide Web) maybe to play games, or go to Facebook. You may also have a desktop, printer, and a laptop. Both computers are sharing the printer that means they are on a LAN. You are sharing resources on a LAN.