Having been an avid VoIP user for for a good few years I was perplexed as to why all of a sudden I had been having lots of issues. The quality of sound has reduced and latency issues have become markedly noticeable. Users on VoIP online forums in the US and other countries, including France and Mexico, having issues since last year. For a while VoIP might seem like a good deal for the average person, more established interests in the telecoms industry see it differently - and are doing something about it.

Consultation

knowledgeable of what has happened in the rest of the world the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom took the unusual step in February of announcing that it will look at the growing Voice over IP industry and report next month on whether new laws are needed to shield it. The consultation document says: “VoIP service providers have expressed concern that their ability to provide a reliable service may be impacted by internet access providers (ISPs) selectively degrading or blocking their VoIP traffic.”

Ofcom says it has no proof this is happening in the UK; only about 000 customers use it. But the prediction is for that to go up by 4m in the next six months.

And VoIP barring happens in other countries, often those where there is still only a single telecoms company. In Saudi Arabia, for instance national carrier Saudi Telecom is using software from US supplier Narus to bar all Voice over IP phone calls.

Telcos in the US as well as other countries are hesitant to have their bandwidth encroached on by traffic from which they receive no funds and have been challenged over similar alleged incidents of internet telephony barring. Blocking VoIP traffic is a challenge but not illegal and barring specific kinds of internet traffic is going up.

The European based VoIP giant Skype who are now owned by eBay has been particularly controversial. Skype is used by over 75m people. But increasingly a lot of people do not want Skype on their network.

Skype is considered by many to pose a potential security risk as it creates an encrypted channel out of the network and forms supernodes that sit on a network and connect VoIP calls. There is huge debate about how much bandwidth such supernodes consume. There have been warnings that in supernode mode, Skype may even saturate a 100 Mbps line.

In my view gaming notebooks have lost their once sustained niche title. I can think back to when they were not so popular. Basically as I recall they were never the best selling notebook computers but as they were more significantly costly they were the greatest money generating units. Regardless of that everybody probably wanted one. They the the newest technology and simply the best laptops. They probably were not fast sellers though because I believe most of us buy laptops that we can effortlessly afford. Greater known companies have recently released their own gaming notebooks so its all changing as I write this.

In contrast to the littler retailers these companies know they can make even more margin. Margins have been so thin lately that this is a excellent chance to make more money by selling computers. International Brands of that magnitude are aware they can sway consumers to buy laptops at any price providing they represent it well. I’m rather sure that littler retailers will have to reduce their prices in order to compete. With the money at their disposal they can simply get rid of littler competition. I reckon potential purchaser would trust the larger companies more if they get something high priced.

The companies new notebook computers are receiving a fair amount of accolades as being the best laptops from the press. This is in fact the core competitive edge that remains for the unestablished system builders. This is a large selling proposition that has to be said. This type of purchaser is normally well versed in the technology and can compare the specs. If comparing specifications and looks, these buyers will favour the former. This can be rather beneficial from the customers view. Premium technology will be acquirable to everyone when prices are pushed lower. I’m not too sure any of that would take place however. Mobile technology is constantly evolving and the new stuff will often be high priced on release. It’s difficult to tell what will occur now that the global brands have become involved in producing gaming notebooks.

Demand for notebooks is soaring at present. I am concerned that like last year we will have problems getting our hands on the latest technology too. This is one business which I don’t think will be affected with all the financial peril that seems to be going on. It’s a fast changing business that is witnessing new trends all the time.

Laptop computers are becoming more apt for gaming due to continuing speed increases. These notebooks are also in value because of the stiff competition faced from low priced laptops. In my opinion notebooks are pretty good for gaming. Performance is far better than it used to be. I also feel that a few gaming notebooks look really trendy, with some sleek, dominating features. Gaming speed between notebooks and desktops should forever be partial to desktops though, simply because desktops are always going to be considerably bigger and more powerful. Could gaming notebooks ever become extremely slim? I feel this is a market to observe.

Power portables are generally custom built to the users spec. With major companies you commonly don’t have an idea what they fit into the system. Choosing what you require simply is the core benefit. Pre configured notebooks are designed for normal uses and not upto doing more intensive activies. Hardcore users need custom notebooks for this reason. There are plenty of small notebook resellers here and there that offer great service. Once again an additional coudos to custom laptops.

It’s exciting to see fresh notebooks being released every year. The portable £200 notebooks are going like hot cakes at at minute. Its strange how technology designed for the 3rd world countries have become a craze in the developed countries. I want to see a bigger edition of these budget ultraportables. I feel it could be a great success. This is something that can be produced even now if we sacrificed performance. I can expect its not too long before we start encountering gaming notebooks that weigh nothing. New notebooks are typically not mentioned of before their introduction so theres no knowing what new innovations we will see.

Check out a few gaming notebooks at http://www.rizeon.com/gaming_laptops/page.php

At a basic level animation can be thought of as a flicker of life in objects. For example a flying bird is an “animate” object while a glass vase is an “inanimate” object. In real life inanimate objects move because of external forces, but in the virtual world, technology and imagination work together to create movement. Animation has become popular because real life has movement and the human eye is naturally attracted to movement.
Over the last 100 years animation has developed into a huge industry.

Computer animation has advanced rapidly, and is now approaching the point where movies can be created with characters so lifelike as to be hard to distinguish from real actors. This involved a move from 2D to 3D, the difference being that in 2D animation the effect of perspective is created artistically, but in 3D objects are modeled in an internal 3D representation within the computer, and are then ‘lit’ and ’shot’ from chosen angles, just as in real life, before being ‘rendered’ to a 2D bitmapped frame. There were predictions that famous dead actors might even be brought back to life to play in new movies.

Animations can be used in various ways on a web page such as making a log presentation more interesting by activating charts that dynamically show changes over time. Again animated games are very popular on the Web, especially 3D games. Animation attracts the attention as it is dynamic. For example animated buttons on a web page attract more attention than the static buttons.

When we speak of types of animations, the simplest type is an animated GIF. Animated GIFs are popular because they are easy to create and don’t require special software for viewing. Another type is the animated text where the text changes color, blinks, or even explodes like a firework. Rollover effects changes the state of an object when the mouse cursor is moved over the object.

Flash is widely used to create animations for the Web because Flash animations are usually small in size and most Web users have the Flash player installed in their web browsers. In the future the animations on the Web will be more interactive and 3D animations will be widely used. Web animations will be used widely for education and entertainment. The gaming industry will increase its presence on the Web and support 3D and interactive animations. Animations that use simulations will be used for training and education. A lot of focus will be on multi user interactions and 3D animations and on making the Web more and more interactive.

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As a provider of computer consulting services, you will want to communicate to prospects and/or clients that anyone, even with the most rudimentary PC skills, who has physical access to a peer-to-peer server, usually has access to every file and folder on that server.

Although many people mistakenly think that the Microsoft Windows 9x/Me logon dialog box provides protection, they are wrong and that misperception can be extremely dangerous.

Address Client Skepticism about Protecting their Files

If your computer consulting services prospect or client is in disbelief, this vulnerability is very easy to demonstrate in about 90 seconds. With a boot disk, a press of the Escape key, or a boot up into Safe Mode, an unauthorized user with no operating system knowledge can “compromise” the entire Microsoft Windows 9x/Me server in just a few seconds.

For your computer consulting services, clients a dedicated server system can enforce a mandatory logon and provide local file level security. In addition, each user account that needs interactive logon access to the server must be explicitly granted that right.

A dedicated server console can also be “locked” when you walk away from the server, either manually or through a time activated screen saver.

Auditing Shared File and Printer Resources

With very minimal effort and no additional software, your computer consulting services clients can use a dedicated server operating system to audit usage of any shared file, folder or printer. Auditing can be especially helpful for tracking use of sensitive files such as payroll, credit card data, R&D documents and proprietary plans.

Auditing is also valuable for tracking usage of expensive-to-operate resources such as a color laser printer or check printer. A Microsoft Windows 9x/Me peer-to-peer server does not have these integrated auditing capabilities.

The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting Services

As a provider of computer consulting services, it is important to address the importance of protecting and auditing sensitive information when meeting with prospects or clients.

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An extranet is an extension of your company’s internal network that allows outside users to provide and access information in a secure environment.

Like an intranet, it is web browser based, making information available on any computer without any special equipment. However, an extranet does require extensive security and may need special software to provide user authentication and to encrypt data.

Extranets are used to extend your business applications to suppliers, clients, vendors, customers or other businesses. They make sharing data simpler and more cost effective. Extranets have even allowed companies to save money from an unexpected source — allowing employees to telecommute. As a result, a company can save on the cost of maintaining on-premises offices and equipment for these employees.

Some uses of extranets include:

Supporting day-to-day collaboration by service companies who need to share and organize documents with their clients

- Exchanging billing invoices and payments through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
- Sharing online catalogs with suppliers, vendors and customers to eliminate printing costs
- Entering into joint ventures with other businesses
- Collaborating with other companies to develop training materials
- Providing online services to customers

One of the best known extranets in the word is the UPS package tracking system. Most people don’t realize that they are using an extranet to track their packages, but they are. The customer, whether business or individual, logs in to the UPS network over the internet to see where their package is and when it will be delivered.

Like intranets, large companies have been using extranets for years. The need for special software, firewalls, and trained personnel put them beyond the means of smaller businesses. However, like intranets, extranets can be purchased from application service providers who will host and maintain the extranet software and “rent” access at a cost substantially lower than implementing and maintaining an internal system.

Rick Mosenkis is CEO of Trichys, providers of easy-to-use
extranet intranet solutions for online collaboration and document sharing.

Delivering Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions is Visibility
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Visibility Corporation (www.visibility.com) is a leading
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The last 12 months has been focused towards the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii but a lot of interest has been seen in new PC titles.

Even though some manufacturers have tried, gaming computers are usually labelled big, beastly, loud, expensive and they are always stuck in the corner of the bedroom. That laptop computer however is changing things…

Consumers have driven up laptop sales in the last couple of years. Notebook sales now account for around half of all PC’s sold. Although most users don’t require mobility there’s something about being able to move a computer from one location to another and being wire free that we all find is a must have part of our lifestyle. The only complaint for pc gamers was that the majority laptops were useless for playing games.

Any laptop meant for gaming was also big, beastly, loud and just expensive. A lot is different now. First the Intel Core Duo processors ensured that the mobile processors caught up with their desktop counterparts. Intel have done a super job marketing centrino and being the market leader but AMD has pushed them enough to excel in the notebook sector. Another organisation that has really been making gaming notebooks a reality is Nvidia. Things are moving in the right direction. Intel release the quad core processor in 2008. Nvidia will release the Geforce nine series after having success with the eight series.

Check out laptopsfor gaming here.

When I first started studying for my CCNP, some of the concepts of OSPF really confused me. This was especially true for the ASBR, stub areas, and total stub areas. Sure, I could memorize the LSA types associated with these devices and area types, but there just weren’t any illustrations that explained exactly what was going on.

This CCNP tutorial shows an ASBR in operation, and also introduces you to a basic example of route redistribution. Don’t worry, it gets more complicated.

Here’s the network we’ll be working with in this tutorial:

R5

|

R1

/

R2 R3

Networks:

R1 - R5 Ethernet Segment: 10.1.1.0 /24

R1 - R2 - R3 Serial Segment: 172.16.123.0 /24 (Preconfigured with OSPF)

R1 and R5 are running RIP over their common Ethernet segment, 10.1.1.0 /24. R5 has three loopbacks it will be advertising into the RIP domain.

R1 is also running OSPF, with R2 and R3 as neighbors. Even though R1 knows about the loopbacks on R5, its OSPF neighbors do not. R1 has these routes in its RIP routing table, and for OSPF neighbors to learn of these routes, route redistribution must be manually configured.

R5#conf t
R5(config)#router rip
R5(config-router)#version 2
R5(config-router)#no auto-summary
R5(config-router)#network 5.0.0.0
R5(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0

R1#conf t
R1(config)#router rip
R1(config-router)#version 2
R1(config-router)#no auto-summary
R1(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0

R1#show ip route rip
5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 3 subnets
R 5.1.1.0 [120/1] via 10.1.1.5, 00:00:10, Ethernet0
R 5.2.1.0 [120/1] via 10.1.1.5, 00:00:10, Ethernet0
R 5.3.1.0 [120/1] via 10.1.1.5, 00:00:10, Ethernet0

R1 has a route for all three of R5’s loopback interfaces, learned via RIP. R1 is also running OSPF, but its neighbors R2 and R3 don’t know about these RIP routes:

R2#show ip route ospf

R2# < no output from show command means no routes! >

R3#show ip route ospf

R3#

Be careful when configuring redistribution use IOS Help to make sure you’re not missing any vital options. IOS Help shows that there is a “subnets” option when redistributing RIP into OSPF. If that is left off, only classful networks are redistributed (as the router is kind enough to tell us). In this case, we have no classful networks, so there will be no redistribution. R2 will not see the RIP routes.

R1(config)#router ospf 1
R1(config-router)#redistribute rip?

metric Metric for redistributed routes
metric-type OSPF/IS-IS exterior metric type for redistributed routes
route-map Route map reference
subnets Consider subnets for redistribution into OSPF
tag Set tag for routes redistributed into OSPF

R1(config-router)#redistribute rip
% Only classful networks will be redistributed

R2#show ip route ospf

R2#clear ip route *

R2#show ip route ospf

R2#

On R1, we’ll now use the “subnets” option, and the RIP subnets are successfully redistributed into OSPF.

R1(config)#router ospf 1

R1(config-router)#redistribute rip subnets

R2 now sees the redistributed routes.

R2#show ip route ospf

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 3 subnets

O E2 5.1.1.0 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:08, Serial0.123

O E2 5.2.1.0 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:08, Serial0.123

O E2 5.3.1.0 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:08, Serial0.123

10.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O E2 10.1.1.0 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:08, Serial0.123

Notice that the routes are marked as “E2″. The E indicates that these are external routes these are routes that were learned by OSPF via redistribution.

Naturally, you’ll want to ping these networks to make sure you have two-way communication. Even though the routes to these loopbacks are in the routing table, pings fail:

R2#ping 5.1.1.1

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 5.1.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:

…..

Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)

Keep this in mind when troubleshooting: It’s not enough to have a route to a destination for pings to succeed there’s got to be a path back. At this point, R5 doesn’t know where the 172.12.123.0 network is, so there’s no way the ping can get back. More route redistribution is necessary on R1.

Your first instinct may be to redistribute OSPF routes into RIP to make this work, but remember that the 172.12.123.0 /24 network isn’t known to R1 via OSPF it’s a directly connected network. We can redistribute connected networks into RIP to give R5 a route to 172.12.123.0 /24, which will give the ICMP packets a path back to R2, which will allow pings to succeed.

R1(config)#router rip

R1(config-router)#redistribute connected

R5#show ip route rip

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 1.1.1.1 [120/1] via 10.1.1.1, 00:00:02, Ethernet0

172.12.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 172.12.123.0 [120/1] via 10.1.1.1, 00:00:02, Ethernet0

R2#ping 5.1.1.1

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 5.1.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:

!!!!!

Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 68/69/76 ms

Performing this redistribution makes R1 an ASBR, as shown here with show ip ospf. This command even shows you what protocol(s) are being redistributed into OSPF.

R1#show ip ospf

Routing Process “ospf 1″ with ID 1.1.1.1

Supports only single TOS(TOS0) routes

Supports opaque LSA

It is an autonomous system boundary router

Redistributing External Routes from,

rip, includes subnets in redistribution

Knowing exactly what the ASBR does and how to configure route redistribution are just a few of the many OSPF skills you’ll need to earn your CCNP. Like any other Cisco skill, breaking a complex topic like OSPF down into smaller, manageable pieces is the best way to master these topics and pass the CCNP exams.

Keep watching The Bryant Advantage website for more free CCNA and CCNP tutorials!

To your success,

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. Video courses and training, binary and subnetting help, and corporate training are also available. Pass the CCNA exam with Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933!

As a CCNP candidate and a CCNA, you may be tempted to skip or just browse the many details of Spanning Tree Protocol. After all, you learned all of that in your CCNA studies, right? That’s right, but it never hurts to review STP for a switching exam! Besides, many of us think of the four STP port states - but officially, there’s a fifth one!

Disabled isn’t generally thought of as an STP port state, but Cisco does officially consider this to be an STP state. A disabled port is one that is administratively shut down.

Once the port is opened, the port will go into blocking state. As the name implies, the port can’t do much in this state - no frame forwarding, no frame receiving, and therefore no learning of MAC addresses. About the only thing this port can do is accept BPDUs from neighboring switches.

A port will then go from blocking mode into listening mode. The obvious question is “listening for what?” Listening for BPDUs - and this port can now send BPDUs as well. The port still can’t forward or receive data frames.

When the port goes from listening mode to learning mode, it’s getting ready to send and receive frames. In learning mode, the port begins to learn MAC addresses in preparation for adding them to its MAC address table.

Finally, a port can go into forwarding mode. This allows a port to forward and receive data frames, send and receive BPDUs, and place MAC addresses in its MAC table.

To see the STP mode of a given interface, use the show spanning-tree interface command.

SW1#show spanning-tree interface fast 0/11

Vlan Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type

—————- —- — ——— ——– ———-

VLAN0001 Desg FWD 19 128.11 P2p

To see these states in action, shut a port down in your CCNA / CCNP home lab and continually run the show spanning interface command. Once you see this in action on real Cisco equipment, you’ll have no problem with BCMSN exam questions. Just don’t practice this or any other Cisco command on a production network!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA 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”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNP exam with The Bryant Advantage!