The Wiser Customer Weblog

There are 2 fundamental things to chew over when laying your hands on a new telly. First, what size TV are you wanting to obtain, and secondly whether to acquire an LCD, Plasma or LED telly. Find a diverse assortment of technology products such as; TVs, iPod Classic and 32 LCD TVs from leading brands online.

The first thing to think about is the particular size of the TV you are interested in. Nowadays a great number of people are deciding to get their hands on flat panel products; regardless that the older bulky televisions are still currently sold in a few stores. The screen size is one of the most key attributes to contemplate when procuring a television. A 22″ TV might not be a good idea for a spacious room; whereas a 72 inch product is possibly a terrible pick for a smaller room. What’s more, if you put a large television into a small room the resolution will be affected. This is caused by the fact that bigger screens aren’t supposed to be looked at up close. Another critical consideration is the viewing ratio. Many prefer 16:9 or wide screen, while others favour the 4:3 customary viewing ratios.

Once you have decided what size TV is suitable for you, you must select what exact type of television you are after. The 3 most popular choices are LCD, Plasma, or LED. LCD tellies are definitely one of the most popular choices to be had. The asking price of both LCD and Plasma tellies has decreased in the past couple years. LED televisions on the contrary are still very expensive, regardless of the fact that they are definitely the most energy efficient option. LCD and Plasma tellies both have pluses and negatives. Plasma TVs can only be procured in sizes greater than forty-two inches, so if you choose a smaller TV you will have to opt for an LCD or LED unit. LCD tellies use a considerable amount less electricity than that of a similar sized plasma model; yet Plasmas have significantly better viewing angles. The quality might also differ depending on the make of the unit. For instance, a Sony LCD might look better than a Samsung LCD TV; but Samsung Plasma TVs might look better than Sony Plasma TVs. The product life of both LCD and Plasma TVs is understood to be in the region of fifteen years. The costs are almost the same, although recently Plasma units have seemed to be a bite cheaper.

Television quality can be different from brand to brand plus by product size. Price also changes significantly even within one size. Overall, the acquisition of a TV is a personal decision. The ideal way to select a TV is to compare the televisions side by side.

With a huge debt of £453 million and a continuously deteriorating state of operations putting its survival under question, Tiscali is again making efforts to sell its UK arm. Earlier efforts of reaching a deal had failed after all interested buyers declined the offer citing the initial price of £600 million set by Tiscali as too high.

The Carphone Warehouse, which most observers feel is the most likely candidate to clinch a deal, had earlier refused to buy Tiscali UK saying that the price was not right. Carphone had recently made news by announcing that it was planning to demerge from TalkTalk, a broadband service provider. Click for more info on broadband providers.

Tiscali has now brought down its price to a dismal £250 million, amounting to less than half of what it was initially hoping to get. Talks are once again being held with most of the potential buyers with Tiscali desperate to pay off its debt.

Although, the price is much lower than expectations, the company’s shareholders, suppliers, and management will heave a sigh of relief at the fact that at least some money can be raised to lower the debt burden.

With the economy showing some signs of improvement, the company would be hoping that its operations can soon get back on track and it can resolve some of its troubles.

It’s tempting. There are so many companies offering cut-rate hosting – loaded with astounding post-futuristic techno-gizmo features ! – that it just makes sense to save a few dollars, right?

Think again. First, consider how much you would be saving. If you run a business site, saving $5, $10 or even $15 a month is not a big saving. No going concern will become a stopping concern on account of even $15 a month. But the wrong web host can stop a business cold.

Here are three reasons to look beyond price when choosing your web host.

1. Usability. Confession time: I chose my first website host based on price. The control panel was not easy to use, and I often found myself traveling in circles trying to enter it. I switched to my second web host based not just on price, but on usability, and I instantly became a pro. Well, not quite. But I was able to manage my email accounts and learn about CGI, and check my traffic stats and edit my html files right on the server. Not bad for a newbie who couldn’t even find his files on his previous host’s server.

2. Service. I thought my second host had great service. They even answered my emails. Until the dreaded day that some guy with a chip on his shoulder filed a phony spam complaint. I was out in the cold. In fact, they would not answer my emails or even speak to me at all. Meanwhile, my ISP responded to the same phony complaint immediately, sharing with me a copy and giving me a chance to deal with it. That ISP is now my third web host. I pay a little more, but the personal service is worth it. I have no hesitation recommending http://www.phastnet.com to anybody who wants the assurance that they won’t be hung out to dry at the first whiff of somebody in a bad mood.

3. Reliability. When that phony spam complaint struck, my website was down for four days. Ouch! But there are many other things that can bring down a site. What is your web host’s uptime? And how reliable is its reporting? Other things can happen, like a form not functioning – meaning lost sales. Worse still, what if Google comes crawling just when your site is down? Search engines don’t like sending people to unreliable sites. Companies like http://www.dotcom-monitor.com monitor websites for a variety of measures, and the cost is nothing compared to the cost of lost sales.

Sure, save a few bucks on hosting, and pay a whole lot more in lost sales and increased stress. Your web host is your Internet landlord. Take as much time choosing your web host as you would the place you live in. Price alone just is not enough.

About the Author

David Leonhardt is an online and offline publicity specialist. To get your website optimized for the search engines, email him at info@thehappyguy.com. For a copy of Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines: http://thehappyguy.com/SEO.html. For a copy of Get In The News: http://thehappyguy.com/publicity-self-promotion-report.html.

Maximizing the life of your hard drive

If I asked you the question: which part of your computer is the most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked: which part is most important to you?
Often, the answer to both of these questions is your Hard Drive.

Your hard drive is likely one the most important things you own. It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information, etc… Incidentally, the hard drive is also one of only two moving components in your computer (the other being your optical drive). The following is a list of important maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.

Hard drives are physically fragile – handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a failure of a portable drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your hard disk is a very delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Any vibration, shock, and other careless operation may damage your drive and cause or contribute to the possibility of a failure. This is especially relevant for notebook users, as they are most at risk of drive failure due to physical damage, theft, and other causes beyond their control. That’s why we recommend regular backup of notebook hard drives, as often as possible.
Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup at a data center through the web.

Hard drives write data in a non-linear way forcing it to become fragmented.

When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files in small pieces and scatters them over the surface. The fuller your hard drive becomes and the more files you save and delete the worse file fragmentation can be. Hard drive access times increase with fragmentation since your drive must work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented your data is, the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.

A case in point: Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook Express and database software. Each time outlook saves new mail, it does so in a different physical location from the previous time. This results in extreme fragmentation, causing longer hard drive access times and forcing more strain on the heads. This strain can eventually lead to a head crash, and often that means a virtually unrecoverable drive.Finally, in the event of a total crash, a fragmented drive is much more difficult to recover then a healthy defragged drive.

Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably easy to defrag your hard drive, simply launch the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools), choose which disk or partition you’d like to defragment and set it to work overnight or while you are not actively using your computer. Defragmentation will speed up your computer and ensure a longer life for your hard drive.

A very small power surge can fry a hard drive – use a UPS and turn off your computer when you can

Another little-known fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical failure. An electrical failure can be caused by a power surge, lightening strikes, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, a faulty or old power supply, and many other factors. If a power surge enters your computer, it may do an unpredictable amount of damage, including destroying your hard drive’s electronics or crashing the heads and possibly resulting in total data loss.
The best way to protect your computer from such dangers is to use a highly rated protected power bar or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although these devices won’t eliminate the chances of a crash, they will serve as effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce wear of your hard drive by turning off your computer or using power-save modes whenever possible. It’s a known fact that 100% of drives fail, the question is when will it happen and will you be prepared? Make sure to check out the knowledgebase section of our website for more detailed information on how electrical power affects your computer.

Be SMART, monitor the health of your drive to prevent unexpected crashes

All modern hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology). What most people don’t realize is that the majority of hard drive failures do not have to be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems which can be predicted. By regularly monitoring disk health and performance, you can know about potential hard drive problems before you lose any of your data.

Several excellent utilities are available, including DiskView and Stellar SMART for standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are tools that monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array systems. Ariolic Software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.

The only fool-proof way to prevent data loss is… Backup!

If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, let it be this one: always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and all the prevention measures are in place, one fact still remains: all hard drives fail. Backing up regularly will ensure that you’re never caught without your critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions include external portable hard drives, dvd’s, and online storage. For businesses, we recommend renting space at a secure data centre and implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of your business.

I hope that the above techniques give you some idea of the importance of hard drive maintenance and provide some insights in how you can protect yourself from data loss.

Alex Bezborodov is the technical writer for Accurate Data Recovery, specializing in data recovery solutions and research.
Let ADR bring your data back to life!

Technology is great and it allows mankind to do so much more. One of the coolest technologies I think is NIMA. I am very impressed with the NIMA (National Imagery and Map Agency) Infotech Project. Not only does this give the US the edge from CIA, NSA and NRO but the implications for business are unbelievable.

The map imagery is great and combined with software available with ERSI and programs like ArcView and ArcData and ArcBiz we can do multi-layered can do unbelievable things for environmental mitigation, Target Marketing and when compiled with the declassified DMA-Defense Mapping Agency data it is more powerful than ever before. We can use this to prevent forest fires, estimate fresh water needs in regions, predict weather, droughts.

The military of course has their own experts in the Central Imagery Office and DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) which interprets data and imagery analysis. Satellite Spot and LandSat are used in both civil and commercial applications. Every inch of the Earth is being surveyed and anytime anyone changes any thing over three feet high in the way of putting in buildings will be noticed and areas of major concern can spot a truck parked where it was never before or a block wall that has changed shape.

These technologies will help business also and within a few years we can have a major advantage by doing aerial surveying in 3D from space. This is going to be rather incredible and it will change many of the ways we build things in the future and how we market to different area and how we study traffic and water, and Earthquakes and everything you can think of in the physical world.

Now that Hurricane Season is here, it is great to have the ability to see and assess damage immediately so we can plan how to best respond and restore power, roads and distribution of aid and supplies. Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Microsoft Certifications are one of the most widely acclaimed, pursued, and achieved technical certifications in the IT industry. The demand for Microsoft Certified Professionals in the job market is increasing every year.

Microsoft offers a number of certification levels depending on specific areas of proficiency and nature of job. Some of the certifications pertaining to networking are:

1. Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

2. Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA)

3. Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)

Each certification level has certain exams associated with it. You can decide the appropriate certification exam based on your experience, skills, and interests.

Benefits of Microsoft Certifications

1. Microsoft Certifications provide a standard method for testing employee skills. The certifications provide employers a valid benchmark for evaluating the employee’s abilities. This will provide you the recognition and reward as per your expertise.

2. Microsoft Certifications offer prospective employers a baseline to judge your knowledge, skill, and expertise in the field. Certifications can provide added advantage if you are at the same level of experience as another person without certifications.

3. Certifications are a valuable tool if you have no or very little experience. The certifications that you hold can prove and reassure your employers and consultants about your knowledge in the field. This will help you secure good job as well as negotiate a good salary.

Pre-Requisite Experience (Recommended) for Microsoft Certifications

To pursue this certification you should have at least 1 year of experience in:

1. Implementing and administering a network operating system in environments with 50 to 26,000 supported users, in approximately 3 to 150 physical locations.

2. Implementing network services and applications such as file and print services, database services, messaging services, proxy server or firewall services, dial-in server services, and Web hosting.

3. Implementing and administering a desktop operating system.

4. Designing a network infrastructure with 3 or more domain controllers.

Significance of Microsoft Certifications for Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Microsoft has developed independent certification requirements for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. An aspirant can certify directly for MCSE/MCSA in Windows 2003 if they are new to certification process. If the aspirant is already a certified MCSE /MCSA in Windows 2000, then they can follow the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows 2000 to secure Windows 2003 Certifications. If the aspirant certifies in MCSE for Windows NT4.0, they can earn MCSE in Windows 2003 by following the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows NT4.0.

The exams are slightly more challenging than their Windows 2000 counterparts, but they will actually test your hands-on knowledge since that is the most important part of ensuring that a certification is credible.

Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70-290 is the first in the series of the core exams for MCSE certifications.

When you pass the Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment (MCSE 70-290) exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

• Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

• Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

MCSE 70-290 exam objectives are:

Objective 1: Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices

In this objective you will need to demonstrate expertise in managing and maintaining physical and logical devices. As an administrator, you should understand Basic and Dynamic disks, RAID configuration and troubleshooting, driver signing, and the use of tools, such as Device Manager and Hardware Troubleshooting Wizard. Familiarize yourself with Device Manager and the warning and disabled icons found when problems are present on installed devices.

Objective 2: Managing Users, Computers, and Groups

This objective includes many topics, so you should be prepared to face many questions that fall into this category. Have a healthy introduction to profile management, user and group accounts, permissions, and troubleshooting. Practice a lot on GPOs and perform a variety of administrative tasks, including configuration of desktop settings, control of security settings, assignment of scripts, redirection of folders, and software distribution. Also, get a clear understanding on inheritance and filtering.

Objective 3: Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources

Knowing how to configure, monitor, audit and troubleshoot NTFS permissions based issues are one of those most important areas that you need to know this concept thoroughly and also be sure to brush up on your share permissions and share/NTFS permissions interaction. Do not forget to brush up on how folder and file permissions can change or stay the same when copying or moving within a drive or between drives.

Objective 4: Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment

In this objective you’ll find questions from topics, such as Event Viewer, System Monitor, software updates (including the functionality of Microsoft’s Software Update Service or SUS), Remote Assistance, disk quotas, print queues, performance objects and IIS 6.0. Spend time understanding IIS topics around Web sites, Virtual and physical directories, files and host and cname records in DNS. New to Windows Server 2003 is SUS. Understand clearly how SUS is used for deploying and managing client and server critical updates.

Objective 5: Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery

In this objective you’ll find questions on ASR, VSS, backing up files and system state data, configuring security for backup operators, verifying backup jobs, managing media, restoring and scheduling backups and recovering from server hardware failures. You should take some extra time to get familiar with the various types of backups that Windows Server 2003 supports, as well as the various configuration options that are available to you. Practice making backups of different types and then practice restoring them.

MCSE 70-290 Exam Model

Most of the questions in the MCSE 70-290 exam are multiple choice type. The questions require the “best” answer from several close responses. Other questions may present an implementation scenario, requirements, and a proposed solution and then ask if the solution meets all of the requirements or combinations of the primary and secondary requirements. Microsoft has introduced some testing innovations for the certification exams. These question types present a more realistic visual representation of the tasks a MCSE would do in future. These are:

• Hot Area Questions – This type of question requires indicating the correct answer by selecting one or more elements within a graphic.

• Active Screen Questions – This type of question asks you to configure a dialog box by changing one or more elements.

• Drag and Drop Questions – This type of question asks you to drag source objects to appropriate targets within a work area.

• Build List and Reorder Questions – This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by building an answer list. In a Build List and Reorder question, you need to build a list by dragging the appropriate source objects to the answer list and then placing them in the correct order based on criteria defined in the question.

• Create a Tree Questions – This type of question asks you to create a tree structure. You indicate the correct answer by dragging source nodes to the correct locations in the answer tree. Nodes consist of text and a small icon.

• Windows Simulation Questions – This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by performing specific tasks such as configuring and installing network adapters or drivers, configuring and controlling access to files, and managing hardware devices. Many of the tasks that systems administrators and systems engineers perform can be presented more accurately in simulations than in most traditional exam question types.

You can get hands-on experience on new set of questions that are available in Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator. This will help you plan your study regime to ensure success.

Passing Score

Microsoft has normalized scoring for all MCP exams, so the same passing score applies to all exams. 700 is now the minimum passing score for all MCP exams. However, the maximum score (which used to top out at 1000) varies per exam, depending on the complexity of the skills measured.

Time Limit

The exam duration is 175 minutes with 45 questions. You will have plenty of time to answer the exam questions, so there is no need to rush. If you have spare time available, you can double check the questions and ensure that you have read them correctly and actually answered the question as intended.

Exam Result

Instead of reporting results based on major categories for exam objectives as it used to, Microsoft is now providing numerical scores and bar graphs for “skills clusters”. Visually, the bars in the exam report show you how well you fare in each skills cluster. If bars that represent cluster scores are close to one end of the graph, they indicate stronger skills; bars near the other end indicate weaker skills. Please store your exam results in both paper and electronic format for later reference.

Sample Questions

Question 1

You are a systems administrator for TicTacToe Toy Manufacturers. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The company’s Active Directory infrastructure consists of a single domain hosted on two domain controllers named Tic1 and Tic2.

Tic2 experienced a hard disk failure, and hence has been taken offline. Tic2 remained offline for some days while all Active Directory updates were made to Tic1. You proceed to restore the data from backup while ensuring that the latest Active Directory changes are replicated to Tic2.

How should you restore the lost data from backup?

Choices:

1. Perform authoritative restore on Tic1.

2. Perform normal restore on Tic2.

3. Perform primary restore on Tic2.

4. Perform authoritative restore onTic2.

Correct Choice: B

Explanation:

Choice B is the correct answer.

During a normal restore operation; Backup operates in non-authoritative restore mode. That is, any data that you restore, including Active Directory objects, will have their original update sequence number. The Active Directory replication system uses this number to detect and propagate Active Directory changes among the servers in your organization. Because of this, any data that is restored non-authoritatively will appear to the Active Directory replication system as though it is old, which means the data will never be replicated to your other servers. Instead, if newer data is available from your other domain controllers, the Active Directory replication will update the restored data. Hence, choices A, C, and D are incorrect.

Question 2

You are a systems administrator for Blueberry Packaging Industries. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

You create a folder named Custom Package on the company’s file server to contain the company’s files. You share this folder as Custom Package. The folder is configured with default NTFS permissions and default share permissions. The file server is located in a secure room.

Within the shared folder, Managers should be able to add and change files and subfolders. Employees in the Sales and Packers department should be able to change and delete files and subfolders. All other employees should only be able to view the files.

All Sales employees are members of the Sales domain local security group. All Managers are members of the Managers domain local security group. The Packers are members of the Packers global security group.

How should you modify share level permissions on the Custom Package folder so that the appropriate users have the minimum required privileges? (Choose all that apply)

Choices:

1. Grant Change share permissions to Managers.

2. Deny Full Control share permissions to Managers.

3. Grant Change share permissions to Sales.

4. Grant Full Control share permissions to Sales.

5. Grant Change share permissions to Packers.

6. Grant Full Control share permissions to Packers.

7. Deny Full Control share permissions to Everyone.

8. Remove Everyone from the share permissions list.

Correct Choices: A, C, and E

Explanation:

Choices A, C, and E are the correct answers.

Change permissions allow the users to create, delete, and change any files and folders in the shared folder, provided the users have appropriate NTFS permissions on the files and folders. The default NTFS permission in Windows Server 2003 is Read for Everyone and the default share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone. You should not remove Everyone from the share permission list. By default, share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone.

How to Prepare for Microsoft Certification?

Following are the steps to prepare for Microsoft certification.

1. MCSE exams are not easy, as advertised on many websites. The MCSE Certifications are tough, so plan to put in a lot of time and effort getting ready for your certification exams. Get all information you can about the certification exams and then start working towards your goal.

2. Get hands on experience. The first step in the preparation for any Microsoft Certification is hands on experience with the related product. For MCSE, the aspirant needs to have at least a year of working experience and for MCSA, the minimum recommended time of experience is 6 months. If you are not working anywhere, it will help, if you can volunteer your IT skill services to gain valuable experience.

3. You can set up a small network at home to practice. Setting up the home network will give a great opportunity to learn. You can practice the lab exercises in the home network as and when you study. This will give you a better understanding of the theories than just studying the exam guides.

4. Get trained in the related product. If possible, try to get training in the related product in a Microsoft Authorized Training Center. You can use training resources to supplement your skills and experience. You can also use the Microsoft Official Curriculum for the related exam as well as Microsoft Press books that are available for the exam.

5. For Exam 70-290, the main areas that you need to concentrate are

   • Automated System Recovery (ASR)

   • Diskpart utility

   • Diskraid utility

   • Emergency Management Services (EMS)

   • File Replication Service (FRS)

   • Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)

   • Open File Backup

   • Password Backup and Restore Wizard

   • Remote Assistance

   • Remote Desktop

   • Shadow copying of shared folders

   • Software Update Services (SUS)

   • Virtual disk service

   • Permissions -Share and NTFS

   • Users, Computers, and Groups

6. Use the preparation guide of the exam that you want to take and read it thoroughly. You should know all the exam objectives of MCSE 70-290 covered in the exam preparation guide.

7. Use practice test software packages. Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator is an example.

8. Do NOT use Braindumps. Braindumps might help you get the certification, but you will lack important practical knowledge about the product. Hence, your prospects of landing a good IT job will be less. Some brain dumps deliberately mislead you. So BEWARE!

9. You can participate in any online discussion forum, where you can participate in an ongoing dialogue and even ask doubts if you have any. You are sure to get the right guidance.

You’ve learned the details about the MCSE 70-290 Exam, its pattern, objectives etc. Download the MCSE Exam Preparation Guide to learn how Whizlabs can help you achieve the MCSE credential.

Resources

Exam simulators

Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator

Besides identifying your weak areas and giving you a feel of the exam environment, Whizlabs Exam Simulator nurtures your potential to acquire domain expertise so that you not only succeed in your certification exam but succeed in your career too.

Articles on Windows 2003

1. Microsoft’s Windows 2003 Server Home Page

2. What’s New in Active Directory

3. Windows Server 2003 Demos

4. Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition

Microsoft Online Resources

1. TechNet : Designed for IT professionals, this resource includes Howto’s, best practices, downloads, technical chats, and much more.

2. MSDN : The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a reference for developers, featuring code samples, technical articles, newsgroups, chats, and more.

3. Training & Certification Newsgroups : A newsgroup exists for every Microsoft certification. By participating in the ongoing dialogue, you take advantage of a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with and ask questions of others, including more than 750 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) worldwide.

About The Author

Whizlabs (http://www.whizlabs.com), an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, is a leading provider of IT skill assessment and certification exam preparation tools. Whizlabs’ suite of offerings include “IT Certification Exam simulators and Instructor-led, Online Trainings” for various exams by Sun, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, PMI, BEA, Cisco, and other leading IT vendors. Whizlabs also offers “IT Skill Assessment Management Solution” for Corporations, Training Institutes, and Universities.

Whizlabs provides “24×7 customer support” to be able to assist its clients at all times. The customer care team at Whizlabs is dedicatedly working towards achieving ‘total customer satisfaction’. The clients can get in touch with this team through phone, e-mail (support@whizlabs.com), and online chat (LIVE CHAT feature provided at www.whizlabs.com). This would help the clients get a real time solution to their queries.

In its first three years of inception, Whizlabs has helped over 380,000 software professionals in realizing their dream of acquiring IT Certifications of their interest.

Whizlabs offerings have fuelled the career growth of IT professionals working in 321 Fortune 500 companies spread in 118 countries across the globe.

To pass the CCNA exam, you’ve got to create a study plan. Part of that plan is scheduling your study time, and making that study time count.

You’ve scheduled your exam you’ve created a document to track your study time you’ve planned exactly when you’re going to study. Now the plan must be carried out, without exception.

What exceptions do I mean? Cell phones. Televisions. IPods. Significant others. The list can go on and on.

It’s one thing to have a plan, and an important thing now you’ve got to make sure you carry it out to its fullest potential. That’s easy to say until you’re studying and a friend calls, or you remember that TV show you wanted to watch is on tonight, or you start surfing the Web for Cisco information and end up playing a game.

You MUST make these small sacrifices in order to achieve your main goal, the CCNA. Any worthwhile accomplishment requires some small sacrifice.

TV will be there when you’re done studying. Your significant other will be there when you’re done studying. And believe it or not, people once existed without cell phones! Turn the phone off. Turn your instant messenger service off. Turn your text pager off. Despite what we think, the world can do without communicating with us for 90 minutes. Remember, it’s better to have 90 minutes of great study than 180 minutes of constantly interrupted study. Studies show that while a single phone call causes an 11-minute interruption on average, it takes well over 20 minutes to get back to what you were doing with the proper mental focus. This is true at the office and at your home!

How To Spend Your Study Time CCNA candidates generally spend their time split between book study, practice exams, and lab time on real Cisco equipment. The best study is done by a combination of these, not by overly relying on one. Let’s take a look at each method.

Book study – I’ve never understood why some people (usually the trolls we were talking about earlier) talk about book study like it’s a bad thing. “You can’t learn about technology from books.” What a load of manure. You have to learn the theory before you can understand how a router or switch operates. The best way to learn the theory is to read a good book.

At the CCNA level, you doubtless know that you have dozens of choices when it comes to books. Some of the better-known books really do gloss over some important topics, such as binary math and subnetting. Make sure to pick a book or books that go beyond just explaining the theory and that give you a lot of explanation of router configs and real-world examples as well.

Practice Exams: Practice exams are good in moderation, but don’t use them as your main focus of study. Occasionally, I’m asked for study tips by candidates who have taken the exam a few times and not passed yet. I ask them what they’re doing to prepare, and they give a list of companies they bought practice exams from. (You see a lot of this on Internet forums as well.)

Don’t fall into this trap. Practice exams are fine if used as a readiness check, but some candidates just take them over and over again, which renders them basically useless.

On top of that, some of them cost hundreds of dollars. That’s money you’d be much better off spending on Cisco equipment to practice on.

Again, I’m not against practice exams as a supplement to your studies. Just don’t make them the main focus of your study. Taking practice exams over and over and hoping the exam will be just like the practice exam is a recipe for disaster. As I tell my students, when you’re in front of a rack of routers and switches during a job interview (or at 2AM when you’ve been called in to fix a problem), the correct answer is not “D”. You’ve got to know what to do.

And how do you learn these skills? Funny you should ask…. Lab Time On Real Cisco Equipment. Again, speaking from experience: This is the most important part of getting your CCNA, succeeding on the job, and going on to get your CCNP.

Getting hands-on experience is critical to developing your networking skills, especially your troubleshooting skills. Although simulators are better than they used to be, they’re still not Cisco routers, and they never will be.

You do your best learning not only when you’re configuring your routers, but when you screw something up.

That’s so important, I want to repeat it – loudly: You do your best learning when you screw something up. Why? Because then you have to fix it that’s how you develop your troubleshooting skills. You can read about all the debug and show commands in the world, but you don’t really understand how they work until you’re figuring out why your Frame Relay connection isn’t working, or your RIP configuration isn’t working.

This is true at every level of the Cisco Learning Pyramid. I can show you the show ip protocols output or what you get when you run debug ip rip, and you might remember it for a little while. But when you use it to troubleshoot a lab configuration, you WILL remember it.

Putting your own practice lab together will also help get you over what I call “simulator question anxiety”. If you spend any time on CCNA Internet forums, you’ll see discussion after discussion about these exam questions. To a certain point, this discussion is justified. The simulator questions carry more weight on your exam than any other question while you can earn partial credit on them, you’ve got to get them right or you will most likely fail the exam.

There’s no reason to be anxious about them if you’re prepared. You don’t want to be the person who walks into the testing room that’s scared to have to create a VLAN or an access list you want to be the person who walks into the testing room confident of their ability to perform any CCNA task. The best way to be that confident is to know you’ve done it – on real Cisco equipment.

There are several vendors that sell routers and switches on ebay most of them sell CCNA and CCNP kits that include all the cables and transceivers that you’ll need as well. (And how is a simulator going to help you learn about cables and transceivers?) Keep in mind that you can always sell the equipment after you’re done with the CCNA, or you can add a little equipment to it to go after your CCNP.

Whichever of these methods you use (and I hope you’ll use all of them), make sure to keep them in balance with each other. Don’t depend too much on just one.

On the topic of learning how to troubleshoot… as you run labs on your Cisco equipment, you’ll run into questions or problems that you don’t know the answer to yet. Get used to using Google (or your favorite search engine) to find the answer to these problems – but try to figure it our yourself first!

There’s nothing wrong with asking questions of someone else if you’re not able to find the answer yourself. Trying to find the answer yourself is another important troubleshooting skill you need to start developing today. Don’t be one of these people who posts a simple question on a forum without trying to find the answer on your own. Besides, you get more satisfaction and build more confidence when you determine the answer yourself.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your CCNA study guide with The Bryant Advantage!

I got my eyes set on a iPod mini, as it looked good for quite some reasons: it’s small enough to put inside a pant’s pocket, it has a lot of accessories to choose from and it obviously has enough hype you begin to wonder what all the fuss is about.

But you really have to see the cons of it and cut all the hype. It looked good from the start; it’s small and simple, easy to use and has that nice Apple logo. But quickly the downsides surfaced, and they sure are annoying.

Firstly, the headphones are horrible: they are so uncomfortable they are totally unusable, and also they do not sound good at all. Well, any other $5 headphone will do, so that’s not that bad. (It’s also not advisable to use them, as the white color alerts any potential muggers you have an easy sellable item.)

The interface seems a good idea, with the scroll being able to be controlled with a circular motion. For scrolling fast it’s great, but for selecting carefully one item, it’s difficult. Also, for ‘marking’ a song for how many stars, it sometimes works, sometimes you spend a full minute twiddling it to get it right. Any other player with a sensible scroller works much better.

I was excited to know it had games to play, so when I’m bored waiting in line or on a bus, it could be a great way to pass the time; but even the breakout rip-off is only entertaining for about 5 minutes.

I even thought that maybe I could upload some text files to read some e-book, but the screen is not big enough for that, and reading is so cramped it’s just not worth it.

The biggest gripe is that you cannot change the volume, unless you are on the ‘Now Playing’ menu! Any other player has dedicated buttons for this basic function, but in its decidedly minimalist point of view, it’s a pain to go search for that specific menu just to adjust for a small change in a song. It supposedly was thought out carefully, but I see a lot of problems in the interface.

Also, there seems to be a big problem with the duration of its internal, non-replaceable battery. After 2 months of use, I did notice, it does not hold a charge for long now. After two house of continuous play, it just shuts down. Other reports on the web also say the battery fails, and has to be replaced.

I have also read on the web that the headphone connector is badly soldered and you eventually have to open it up and resolder it again.

I wouldn’t buy it again. The iriver or the Creative seem to be a lot better options.

For more reviews, news and updates on the latest and best mp3 players, go to http://www.mp3playerguide.info

For CCNA and CCNP candidates, it’s hard not to laugh the first time you hear the phrase “router on a stick”. Let’s face it, that’s a pretty silly term. But as those who have passed the CCNA and CCNP exams know, this is a vital exam topic that you must know how to configure and troubleshoot.

Basic Cisco theory states that for hosts in different VLANs to communicate, a Layer 3 device must be involved to handle the routing between the VLANs. That device is a router, and there are special considerations that must be taken into account for both the physical router itself and the configuration you’ll be writing.

The router will be connected to a switch via a FastEthernet port (or higher). The router port cannot be a regular Ethernet port, since the router port will need the ability to send and receive data at the same time.

The configuration of the interface is where things get interesting. Let’s say we have two VLANs that will be using router-on-a-stick to communicate. Here is the VLAN information:

VLAN 20: 20.20.20.0 /24

VLAN 40: 40.40.40.0 /24

The port on the switch that will be connected to the router’s FastEthernet port must be in trunking mode, and you must know the trunking protocol in use. We’ll go with the Cisco-proprietary ISL here.

The physical FE port on the router will not have an IP address. The use of router-on-a-stick mandates the use of logical subinterfaces. While we don’t have to use the VLAN numbers for the subinterface numbers, I’ve found this helps you keep the interfaces straight. One subinterface must be given an IP address in VLAN 20, and the other will have an IP address in VLAN 40.

After creating subinterfaces fast 0.20 and fast 0.40, the config looks like this:

interface fastethernet0
no ip address

interface FastEthernet 0.20
ip address 20.20.20.1 255.255.255.0

interface FastEthernet 0.40
ip address 40.40.40.1 255.255.255.0

Believe it or not, you’re almost done! Now we need the encapsulation statement under each subinterface. The subinterface statement must reflect both the VLAN number and the encapsulation type being used. When we’re finished, the config would look like this:

interface fastethernet0
no ip address

interface FastEthernet 0.20
ip address 20.20.20.1 255.255.255.0
encapsulation isl 20

interface FastEthernet 0.40
ip address 40.40.40.1 255.255.255.0
encapsulation isl 40

And that’s it! Your hosts in VLAN 20 should now be able to communicate with hosts in VLAN 40, and vice versa.

A couple of final troubleshooting points – the most common error with router-on-a-stick is to put the wrong vlan number in the encapsulation statement. Also, make sure you have configured the router’s IP address in VLAN 20 as the default gateway for hosts in VLAN 20, and do the same for VLAN 40.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at router-on-a-stick. While the name may get a chuckle out of you, it’s still used in quite a few networks out there, and knowing how to configure and troubleshoot it will get you that much closer to earning your CCNA and CCNP.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!

As our civilization becomes more technologically advanced we will reach a point where we will definitely need more sharper and brighter minds to run all the systems, computers and equipment. No dummies allowed will be the new paradigm. In other words only the crme of the crop will be able to run things. But then who does this leave for the advances in research? Well that would be the crme de la crme of course, but where are these new brilliant minds coming from?

We will need a better brain recruiting system to bring those most gifted minds to our nation to work in our research facilities. But if we make it difficult to get here or get a student or work Visa we may be giving away a great recruiting asset and tool and jeopardizing our selves in the future.

Many Corporations on the leading edge of innovation and research have already noticed this and made mention of it. Microsoft’s Bill Gates in fact has said if we do not streamline our work Visas and Student Visas for smart immigrants and workers that they will be forced to outsource.

Meaning all or more jobs will move offshore and probably stay there too. Additionally if the United States loses its edge then we all lose in the technological future, as we will be unable to compete in something we have led the world in for over 100 years and that would truly be a shame indeed. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/