CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Assembling Your Cisco Home Lab by Chris Bryant
A CCNA or CCNP candidate who wants to be totally prepared for their exams is going to put together a home lab to practice on. With used Cisco routers and switches more affordable and plentiful then ever before, there's really no excuse to not have one! ... (There is no problem with using a lab router as both your frame relay switch and a practice router; for a frame relay switch sample configuration, visit my website!) My pods consist of five routers and two switches, and three of the five routers are 2520s, due to their versatility.

How Hackers Gain Control of Your Computer by Richard Rogers
Your PC has many "ports" which are vulnerable to attack from a hacker. These ports are used to communicate internally with your monitor or printer or externally to the internet. For example, Port 25 is used for receiving incoming email and Port 80 is used to connect to the internet. ... Hackers use "port scanning" software to hunt for for vulnerable computers with open ports using your computer's IP address. ... - Remember to switch off your broadband connection if you are away from your computer for a long period of time.

Multi-Monitor Madness by Nathan Kartchner
In today’s multitasking computing world, it’s not unusual to see people constantly switching from window to window trying to transfer data form one program to the other. I myself have gotten fairly adept at the Alt-Tab window-switching hotkey sequence. ... These cards generally have a DVI and a VGA port, both of which can be hooked to any monitor with the use of adapters. ... The VTBook gives you an additional DVI-out port on your computer, which can be plugged into a high-def display. ... If you crave even more monitor madness, you can buy a VTBook Dualhead Cable, which splits the out...

Reformatting USB Flash Memory by Victor Epand
Flash memory or USB memory is similar to disk drives. In fact it is recommended you 'reformat' them often in order to keep the entire memory clean and workable. I would recommend you reformat your 256MB flash memory with the software that came with it. ... Well, if your flash drive is still functioning fine then it would be the motherboard or even the port coming from the motherboard or card, depending on the location of the USB port. ... The new 4GB SanDisk Compact Flash card features a three-position switch located in the left-hand area of the card so consumers can switch between either...

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Buying And Configuring An Access Server by Chris Bryant
A Cisco access server is generally the last item a CCNA or CCNP candidate has on their mind when they're putting together a home lab. The thinking tends to be that since this router isn't really doing anything in the production part of your practice lab, it's not really important. ... These connectors are numbered 1 - 8 and will be connected to the console port on each router and switch. ... That's why it is important to note the number on a given connector you place in the console port of a router or switch.

Setting Up Your PC for Dual-monitors: It's Easier Than You Think by Preston Wily
The traditional view of a "PC" If you ask just about anybody what their idea of a "PC system" is they will probably list a tower, a keyboard, a mouse and a monitor. While it is true that these are the essential elements of using a personal computer, it is becoming more and more popular to use... VGA For some reason most dual-port video cards have one VGA port and one DVI port. ... I am not saying that dual-port VGA or dual-port DVI cards don't exist, but I have never seen one. ... Do not try to use two single-port video cards - you will probably have IRQ conflicts that will keep you...

Passing Your CCNA and CCNP: Configuring And Troubleshooting Router-On-A-Stick by Chris Bryant
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. ... 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. ... 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...

Cisco Certification: Suggested Toplogies For Your Home CCNA / CCNP Lab by Chris Bryant
When you make the decision to put your own home lab together for your CCNA and CCNP studies (a very wise decision, if I may say so!), the hardest part is figuring out how to spend your budget. Do you spend it all on the routers and go with a cheaper 1900 switch, knowing that the 640-801 (CCNA),... If you simply can't afford it right now, a 1900 switch is certainly better than no switch at all! ... An access server prevents you from having to continually move the rollover cable into the console port of the router or switch you need to configure.

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) by Chris Bryant
The Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) sure looks simple enough, but there are quite a few details to know for success on the CCNA exam. In your CCNP studies, you'll be introduced to additional uses for CDP, but for now it's enough to know that CDP is designed to give you information regarding... SW2#show cdp neighbor detail ------------------------- Device ID: R4 Entry address(es): IP address: 172.12.23.4 Platform: cisco 2520, Capabilities: Router Interface: FastEthernet0/4, Port ID (outgoing port): Ethernet0 Holdtime : 158 sec The details of CDP are important to you on the job and in...

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Defining Collision Domains by Chris Bryant
CCNA exam success depends on mastering the fundamentals, and two important fundamentals are knowing exactly what the terms "collision domain" and "broadcast domain" mean. In this free Cisco tutorial, we'll take a look at the term "collision domain" and how a collision domain is defined. ... If we connect each of these four hosts to their own separate switch port, we would now have four separate collision domains, each with one host; each switch port actually acts as a single collision domain, making collisions between these four hosts impossible.