Career – Page 6 – CCNA training CCIE training

EU antitrust regulators give Microsoft-Skype deal green light

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE

Antitrust regulators in the European Union today approved Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, the online telephone and chat giant.

“The Commission considers that there are no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous players, including Google, are present,” the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust agency, said in a statement today, referring to competition concerns for consumers, who make up the bulk of Skype’s customers.

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The commission also dismissed concerns that the deal would stifle competition in the enterprise communication market.

“The investigation confirmed that Skype has a limited market presence for these products and does not compete directly with Microsoft’s enterprise communication product Lync, which is used mostly by large enterprises,” the commission added.

Microsoft announced the proposed purchase of Skype last May, saying then that it would pay $8.5 billion to the investment group that acquired a majority interest in the Internet telephony company from eBay in 2009.

“We’re committed to optimizing Skype for the TV, with Xbox and Kinect, for the Windows Phone, and the Windows PC,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a May 10 news conference that unveiled the deal. “At the same time, we want to extend the reach of Skype by connecting Skype users with users of our Outlook products, our Lync enterprise unified communications product, Xbox LIVE, and other opportunities like Messenger and Hotmail.”

Microsoft applauded the EU antitrust watchdog’s decision.

“This is an important milestone, as we’ve now received clearance from both the United States and the European Union,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s lead lawyer, in a Friday statement. “We look forward to completing soon the final steps needed to close the acquisition.”

In June, U.S. regulators at the Department of Justice gave Microsoft the green light after also deciding that there was sufficient competition from other major players, including Google.

The Commission’s decision stymies a complaint submitted by Messagenet, an Italian rival to Skype, which last month asked regulators to block the deal unless Microsoft agreed not to bundle Skype with its Office products.

Lync, formerly Microsoft Office Communicator, is composed of both server and client pieces, and is under the general Office umbrella.

Messagenet’s complaint resurrected arguments that the EU had used against Microsoft for years in a case over the bundling of a media player with Windows. That action ended in 2007 when Microsoft lost on appeal; it paid a $1.4 billion fine the following year.

Later, Norwegian browser maker Opera complained that Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer gave IE an unfair advantage. Under pressure from the EU, Microsoft agreed to display a “browser ballot screen” that let users choose which browser they installed on their Windows PCs.

Messagenet did not reply to a request for comment on the EU Commission’s decision today.

In May, Ballmer promised that if it acquired Skype, Microsoft would continue to develop and support the software on rival operating systems, including Apple’s Mac OS X and Google’s Android.

How Open Source Development Is Becoming More Social

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Amazon, Apple, Career, Cisco, Google, Java, Microsoft, Tech

Most people do not think of software developers as being high on the “social” scale. In fact, the (misinformed) stereotype for a typical developer is that of the introverted geek. But in many ways, particularly with open source developers, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Contributing to open source software is a profoundly social activity. Some of open source’s main tenets are collaboration, transparency and meritocracy, which require developers to collaborate and share at a highly productive level. And with over 500,000 open source projects on the Internet, there’s a lot of collaboration going on. It’s clear that by participating in open source communities, developers are engaging in productive social behavior.

While some people may picture open source developers as working quietly and in isolation, the reality is they may work on large projects with a wide community of collaborators. For example, Linux has nearly 10,000 contributors. Others may focus on small, personal projects, which may or may not draw the attention of the larger development community.

But even developers working on small projects are still working with other people. And virtually all new open source projects derive from those projects and the developers that preceded them, creating a vast body of work that accelerates innovation and fuels further collaboration.

Today’s open source developers are contributing to projects in very different ways than just a few years ago. What has changed?
Search + Social Media = Social Development

Two developments — search and social media — have changed the way coders work to create “social development,” a new style of software collaboration. Let’s look first at social media’s influence on it.

Social media’s impact has forced change (some good and some bad) in nearly every sector of the economy — including open source development. While communities such as Slashdot and Stack Overflow provided an early glimpse of social media’s impact on development in the FOSS community and encouraged developers to become more active within these and other communities, the effect took some time to achieve.

Today, it’s not unusual to see enterprise software developers more active in social media circles, even as enterprises themselves are evolving socially. According to a recent study by Forrester, developers are engaging socially; they’re joining communities to connect with experts, seeking answers to business problems and, like many people, networking for career advancement. The figure above shows the leading reasons developers join communities: to connect with thought leaders, gain expertise and engage in high quality discussions.

Web search has also enhanced the importance of social media among open source developers, affecting this new style of development. My company recently commissioned a study with Forrester to investigate the social habits of developers. As shown above, contributors to open source projects turn to online search first for information about development technologies, followed by social sites like networks, forums and other online communities.

Developers also share search results via open source or project forums, communities and more general social media tools like Twitter.

As a result, today’s “social developer,” even if not an employee of a large enterprise, is participating more than ever with enterprises – or more specifically, with developers in those enterprises who are increasingly involved with FOSS communities of various types.

Social development arms corporate developers with a new toolset for producing innovative and high quality software at enterprise scale faster than ever before. This style of development wasn’t possible just a few years ago before search, social media tools and online collaboration tools made it possible to create software using social development techniques. Nevertheless, the evolution has been crucial to the success of businesses and individual developers.

Another pivotal change is the fact that enterprise IT organizations are now discovering the need to “go social” and join communities as a strategy for leveraging and using more open source software, especially mission-critical components. This significant trend reflects the reality that open source use is becoming a competitive requirement. Even within the firewall of an enterprise, the trend toward collaborative development to share best practices, facilitate code reuse, and enhance developer productivity is escalating rapidly.

Other environmental and technical changes have supported the emergence of social development. Communications between project committers — which until recently were conducted through IRC channels and wikis — have expanded with the increased number of social communities. And today more than ever, FOSS developers are actively seeking enterprise adoption of their code.

Another change is the emergence of sites like Ohloh, a free community resource, which was specifically designed to support and encourage social development and to allow developers to give each other kudos (literally). The figure above also lists the contributors for a project called Restlet, a Java REST framework for web developers. Shown on the page are the developer profiles, kudos and code commitments to the project.

While social development isn’t a challenge for Gen Y developers, it still presents management challenges for enterprises, especially larger ones. Moving at web speed and using social tools still requires some adjustment. For example, new college hires expect to be community participants, yet large enterprises may not be comfortable with this level of transparency. Although open source projects are based on the notion of transparency, collaboration and meritocracy, some corporate policies may prohibit or limit this philosophy, just like some corporate cultures may resist the trend toward openness in development.

Social interaction and social development offer tremendous new opportunities for developers and enterprises. The advent of social media tools has changed the nature of community participation as much as search. If you and your organization have not joined the growing number of “social developers,” now is the time to start.

10 Most Hated Jobs

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Tech

At one time or another, we have all known at least one person who has hated his or her job. That person may have suffered silently or vented constantly, but at the end of the day there was no question this person was truly unhappy with where they spent at least 40 of his or her waking hours every week, for 51 weeks a year Cisco CCNA Certification 640-802 Exam Training.

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The reasons for job dissatisfaction vary. Low pay, irregular hours, and lack of a window seat are all assumed to be culprits, and to be sure they can all contribute to a bad attitude on the job. These are actually not the primary factors driving a worker to regard tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock sharp with dread and ill will, however, according to one resource.

CareerBliss is an online resource that bases job satisfaction on multiple factors, including workplace culture, coworkers, and the boss.

According a survey of hundreds of thousands of employees conducted in 2011, CareerBliss determined the 10 most hated jobs, rated on a scale of 1 to 10. In almost all cases, respondents reported that the factors causing the most job dissatisfaction were not lousy pay or a desk near the bathroom. CareerBliss found that limited growth opportunities and lack of reward drove the misery index up more than anything else.

Read about the 10 jobs with the highest levels of employee unhappiness. The results may surprise you.

1. Director of Information Technology
For all the press that teachers and nurses get for their long hours, low pay and thankless tasks, it may be surprising to see the most hated job was that of information technology director, according to CareerBliss. After all, the salary’s pretty good and with information technology such a prevalent part of everyday business, an IT director can hold almost as much sway over the fate of some companies as a chief executive.

Still, IT directors reported the highest level of dissatisfaction with their jobs, far surpassing that of any waitress, janitor, or bellhop. Of those who responded to the survey, one simple, five-word response summed up the antipathy very well: “Nepotism, cronyism, disrespect for workers.”

2. Director of Sales and Marketing
A director of sales and marketing plans implements efforts to promote companies and generate business. Responsibilities often include budget management, public relations, and employee training.

Sales and marketing directors reported the second-highest level of job dissatisfaction of all survey respondents. The majority who responded negatively cited a lack of direction from upper management and an absence of room for growth as the main sources of their ire.

3. Product Manager
“Product manager” is a wide-ranging job title that takes on many meanings, depending on the company and its sector. In some cases, the job requires simply evaluating what products are best suited to a company’s business model, and in others marketing, resource management, and scheduling are involved.

The level of job dissatisfaction was very high for this position. One respondent complained that it restricted growth, saying that it was “very hard to grow up the ranks.” Another was less polite and said “the work is boring and there’s a lot of clerical work still at my level.”

4. Senior Web Developer
Senior web developers design, maintain, and develop applications for the Internet. With every business expected to have some kind of Internet presence these days, developers are found working in every type of company, in a full-time, part-time, or freelance capacity.

A senior developer is expected to be fluent in client-side and server-side contexts, and know his or her way around Python, Ruby, or whatever other arcane technology requires taming. Senior developers reported a high degree of unhappiness in their jobs, attributable to a perception their employers are unable to communicate coherently, and lack an understanding of the technology.

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5. Technical Specialist
A technical specialist “leads the analysis, definition, design, construction, testing, installation, and modification of medium to large infrastructures,” according to CareerBliss. This means that if a company wants to design a project, the technical specialist evaluates it to see what’s possible and what isn’t.

The job is a lead position that requires intimate knowledge of engineering; familiarity with Linux helps, too. However, technical specialists reported that for all their expertise, they were treated with a palpable level of disrespect. They cited a “lack of communication from upper management” and felt their “input was not taken seriously.”

6. Electronics Technician
Electronics technicians maintain, troubleshoot and collect monthly measurement data for electronic systems. They work in every sector and can be employed with the phone company, a chain of fast-food restaurants, or the U.S. Navy. Whatever the case, technicians work on-site and off-site, have constant contact with clients, and must have an ability to quickly solve complex technical problems under intense pressure.

Employee dissatisfaction in this job is attributable to several factors. One respondent complained of having “too little control,” while another had a litany of complaints: “Work schedule, lack of accomplishment, no real opportunity for growth, peers have no motivation to work hard, no say in how things are done, hostility from peers towards other employees.”

7. Law Clerk
Clerkships are among the most highly sought-after positions in the legal profession. A law clerk assists judges as they write opinions, and the ones who get the job are almost always near the top of their class at law school. Six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, including Elena Kagan and current Chief Justice John Roberts, were all law clerks early in their careers.

The job clearly beefs up a resume. Yet law clerks still report high levels of dissatisfaction. The hours are long and grueling, and the clerk is subject to the whims of sometimes mercurial personalities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported the job brings in a median salary of $39,780 a year—not exactly striking it rich—and those looking for advancement within the position simply will not find it.

8. Technical Support Analyst
Technical support analysts help people with their computer issues. This typically amounts to calmly communicating technical advice to panicked individuals, often over the phone, and then going on site to find the client simply hadn’t turned the printer on.

Technical support analysts often work in a variety of environments, and they may be required to travel at a moment’s notice, sometimes on holidays or weekends. After all, there’s no telling when a client’s computer-whiz nephew might make a minor tweak to his machine, with disastrous results.

In the words of one of the respondents, “You can do better, really.”

9. CNC Machinist
CNC machinists operate computer numerical control machines. For the uninitiated, this is a machine that operates a lathe or a mill. On the upside, it renders obsolete processes that used to be performed by hand, at a slow pace and with high risk to the operator’s life and limb.

Now that the CNC operator has had most of the physical hazards of manufacturing replaced by a machine, there’s not a lot to do but push buttons and perform equipment inspections to make sure the coolant is at a safe level. Since it’s a specialized skill, the job offers no room for advancement, which caused respondents to report a high degree of dissatisfaction.

10. Marketing Manager
A marketing manager is responsible for overseeing advertising and promotion. This involves developing strategies to meet sales objectives, based on the study of such factors as customer surveys and market behavior.

According to CareerBliss, respondents in this position most often cited a lack of direction as the primary reason for job dissatisfaction. The most optimistic respondent described it as “tolerable,” and gave it the faintest praise possible by saying, “It’s a job.” (In this labor market, that’s not such a bad thing.)

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CCNA Salary

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCNA, Tech

The CCNA salary range is very similar in nature to the CCNP salary levels, because previous experience, education and other skill sets can play a significant role in the salary you can qualify for. Generally speaking, the Cisco Certified Network Associate pays less than the CCNP designation, and is cited in more junior network IT positions.

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The CCNA salary survey shows that yearly income can more than double, depending on geographic location, the college degrees you have, and other factors.

Let’s look at the 2011 CCNA salary data and see what Cisco IT professionals are getting paid.
USA CCNA Salary Rates

As mentioned, CCNA salary levels in the USA can vary a lot, based on where you live and who you work for. Let’s look at some regions and see the going CCNA salary rates for New York, Dallas and other IT centers in the USA, as reported by Pay Scale:
CCNA Salary New York: Low $43,500 High $123,000

New York is one of the places in the US with the biggest range of salaries for CCNA qualified employees. The top end, at over $123,000 is one of the highest salaries in all of the USA.
CCNA Salary Dallas and Houston

Dallas and Houston are fairly competitive, with salaries in Dallas generally being 5%-10% higher than Houston. Here’s the current CCNA salaries being reported:

Dallas: Low $39,000 High $106,000

Houston: Low $35,000 High $102,000
Atlanta CCNA Salary

The CCNA salary reports from Atlanta suggest the pay is close to Texas, with salaries ranging from $39,000 up to $112,000
Chicago CCNA Salary Levels

If you work in the CCNA salary Chicago data indicates the range to be from $40,000 to $106,000 in 2011, with salary levels growing at 4-5% annually.
CCNA Salary UK Data, Including London

The CCNA salary for the UK is divided into two groups: all of the UK, and everything excluding the London area, because in the London area, CCNA salaries are generally significantly higher.

Looking at the ITJobsWatch site, we see the current CCNA salary rate is £37,000, and if you take all the UK CCNA salary information excluding London, the average rate drops to £35,000.

The average annual salary growth rate averages around 5% for all of the UK, but only about 3% if you exclude the London area.
CCNA Salary Australia – Sydney, Adelaide

The CCNA Salary data for Australia suggests the pay is on par with America, with entry level positions offering around AU$40,000 and senior positions exceeding AU$100,000. Your educations, skills and experience will influence the offers you get, along with your geographic location and the employers you target.
CCNA Salary In India

The current CCNA salary rates in India are significantly lower than the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. In fact, many levels of careers in India ask for the CCNA designation, including everything from network engineer to IT Director. Generally speaking, the entry level with little or no experience apart from the CCNA designation will earn you a salary starting around Rs 94,567, according to payscale, and the salary can increase more than 500%, up to Rs 501,923, depending on previous work experience and education.

Generally speaking, if you come from a top school, like Mumbai university, your salary will be higher, even as much as Rs 120,000 for a starting position. Likewise, other schools, like IGNOU can lower your starting salary, down to as little as Rs 60,000.
CCNA Requirements

Here are what you need to do to get your CCNA and qualify for CCNA salary levels, as referenced on Wikipedia:

CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) is the certification from Cisco.CCNA certification is a second-level Cisco Career certification. CCNA certification validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size routed and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN.

To achieve CCNA certification, one must earn a passing score on Cisco exam #640-802, or combined passing scores on both the ICND1 #640-822 and ICND2 #640-816 exams.

Passing the ICND1 grants one the Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) certification.

Passing scores are set by using statistical analysis and are subject to change. At the completion of the exam, candidates receive a score report along with a score breakout by exam section and the passing score for the given exam.

Cisco does not publish exam passing scores because exam questions and passing scores are subject to change without notice.

The use of IP, EIGRP, Frame Relay, RIPv2, VLANs, Ethernet, and access control lists is all included within the curriculum.

CISCO produce a breakdown of the CCNA topics on their website.

The exams themselves include a mixture of question types including Multiple choice, drag and drop, Testlets and simulations.

Additional CCNA Salary Information

For additional CCNA Salary data, consult the local online job listings, as well as the CCNA salary surveys being published online.

If you want to comment on your knowledge of CCNA salary rates around the world, leave a comment below.
Incoming search terms:

entry level CCNA salary new york

6 useful Windows tricks

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Jobs, Microsoft, Tech, Windows

You know that feeling you get when your friends or family see you do something on your computer that they’ve never seen before? If you’ve had this experience, you know that “world’s coolest power-user” feeling. But if you haven’t, start here. Knowledge is power!

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Read these six tips for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP that will keep you schoolin’ your friends and family.
1. Don’t just maximize your windows—go full screen

When you need a really big window for viewing photos and videos, don’t just maximize it: go full screen! This tip works great for viewing photos and videos at maximum size in Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player, utilizing screen space usually occupied by the header at the top of the screen and the taskbar at the bottom. Here’s how:

Open any photo in Windows Explorer, or open a photo or video clip in Windows Media Player. Do one of the following:

In Windows 7 and Windows XP, click the F11 key at the top of your keyboard.

The photo or video image enlarges to its maximum size and the title bar and taskbar are hidden.
Viewing a photo in Windows Explorer standard view

Viewing a photo in Windows Explorer standard view

To undue full-screen mode and restore the window to its normal view, press the Esc (Escape) key at the top of your keyboard
2. Customize the Navigation pane

You can use the navigation pane (the left pane) to find files and folders and display links to frequently used folders and other items. You can also move or copy items to a destination in the navigation pane.

If you don’t see the navigation pane on the left side of an open folder window, click Organize, point to Layout, and then click Navigation pane to display it.
To customize the navigation pane in Windows 7

In an open folder or library window, click Organize, and then click Folder and search options.

In the Folder Options dialog box, click the General tab, and then do one or both of the following:

To show all the folders on your computer in the navigation pane, including your personal folder, select the Show all folders check box, click Apply to see the change, and then click OK.

To automatically expand the navigation pane to the folder that’s selected in the folder window, select the Automatically expand to current folder check box, and then click OK.

Customizing the navigation pane in Windows 7

Customizing the navigation pane in Windows 7
More ways to customize your favorites in Windows 7

To add a folder, a saved search, a library, or even a drive as a favorite, drag it to the Favorites section in the navigation pane. Note: You can’t add individual file to Favorites, but you can add them to any folder in Favorites.

To change the order of favorites, drag a favorite to a new position in the list.

To restore the default favorites in the navigation pane, right-click Favorites, and then click Restore Favorite Links.

To view the folder where your favorites are stored, click Favorites in the navigation pane. Favorites are stored as shortcuts.

To remove a favorite, right-click the favorite, and then click Remove. This removes the favorite from the navigation pane—it doesn’t delete the files or folders that the shortcut points to.

The Favorites area of the navigation pane in Windows 7

The Favorites area of the navigation pane in Windows 7
Add folders and files in Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, you can add folders to Favorite Links in the navigation pane so that you can open them from any folder window at any time. To do this, first open the folder that contains the subfolder you want to add. Then simply drag its icon from the original folder to where you want it in the navigation pane. You can also click Folders at the bottom of the pane and drag a folder from the folder list up into the Favorite Links section of the pane. Note: You can’t add individual files to Favorite Links, but you can add them to any folder in Favorite Links.
Pictures folder in Windows

Pictures folder in Windows
3. Pin a program or items to the Windows 7 taskbar

You know what would make a great taskbar? One where you could pin your favorite applications or files so that you could open them quickly from any window at any time. Guess what? You can.

In Windows 7, you can also pin shortcuts for favorite or frequently used files, folders, and websites to the Jump Lists for each of those programs to the taskbar. Learn more about Jump Lists.

Pin a program to the taskbar

To pin a program shortcut to the taskbar, do one of the following:

If the program is already running, right-click the program’s button on the taskbar (or drag the button toward the desktop) to open the program’s Jump List, and then click Pin this program to taskbar.

Or if the program isn’t running, click Start, find the program’s icon, right-click the icon, and then click Pin to Taskbar.

You can also pin a program by dragging the program’s shortcut from the desktop or Start menu to the taskbar.

Pinning a program to the taskbar

Pinning a program to the taskbar
Using Jump Lists in Windows 7
4. Customize the Quick Launch Bar in Windows XP

In Windows XP, the customizable Quick Launch Bar also gives you convenient shortcuts to your favorite programs, folders, and files. The Quick Launch Bar remains accessible from most windows, so it’s a handy way to open the applications and files you use frequently.

If the Quick Launch Bar isn’t already visible to the right of the Start button Start button, you’ll need to turn it on. To do that, right-click an open area of the taskbar. Hover your mouse pointer over Toolbars, then click Quick Launch. The Quick Launch Bar appears on your taskbar.
The Quick Launch Bar on the Windows XP taskbar

The Quick Launch Bar on the Windows XP taskbar

To add a program shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar, click the Start buttonStart button, click All Programs, then click and drag the application you want to the Quick Launch Bar. Release the mouse button and the application’s icon appears in the Quick Launch Bar.

To add a folder or file shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar, open Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder, subfolder, or individual file you want, click and drag the folder or file you want to the Quick Launch Bar. Release the mouse button and the icon for the folder or file appears in the Quick Launch Bar.

To remove a shortcut from the Quick Launch Bar, right-click on the icon in the Quick Launch Bar of the application, folder, or file you want to remove and right-click it, click Delete, and then click Yes when asked if you’re sure you want to delete the shortcut. Note: Although the shortcut is removed from the Quick Launch Bar, the actual application, folder, or file has not been deleted from your computer.
5. Arrange windows on your desktop

In Windows, you can arrange windows side by side, which can be especially helpful when comparing two documents or when moving files from one place to another. Note: If you’re using a nonstandard setup (such as dual monitors), the tricks below may not work as expected.
Windows 7

Drag the title bar of a window to the left or right side of the screen until an outline of the expanded window appears.

Release the mouse to expand the window.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 with another window to arrange the windows side by side.

To return a window to its original size click the Maximize button in the window’s title bar and the window expands to full size.
The Maximize button

The Maximize button

Learn more about managing multiple windows in Windows 7.

Tip: To snap an active window to the side of the desktop by using the keyboard, press Windows logo key Windows logo key +Left Arrow or Windows logo key Windows logo key +Right Arrow.
Viewing windows side by side in Windows

Viewing windows side by side in Windows
Windows Vista and Windows XP

In Windows Vista and Windows XP, it’s easy to display any two (or more) windows side by side on the desktop, all equally sized. Press and hold the Ctrl key and click two or more of the window buttons on the taskbar that you want to open. Release the Ctrl key, right-click, and then do one of the following:

Windows Vista users, click Show Windows Side by Side.

Windows Vista, Show Windows Side by Side command.

Windows Vista, Show Windows Side by Side command.
Windows XP, Tile Vertically command.

Windows XP, Tile Vertically command.
6. Organize your files into groups

Windows offers a variety of options for organizing folders and files in the ways that work best for you.
Windows 7

The easiest and most effective way to organize your stuff in Windows 7 is to use file arrangements in your libraries.

You can arrange files in the Documents library by author, for example, or you can arrange the Music library by artist if you’re looking for an album or song by a particular band.

To arrange a library

In the taskbar, click the Windows Explorer button Windows Explorer button.

In the navigation pane (the left pane), click a library (such as Music).

In the library pane (above the file list), click the Arrange by menu, and then choose a property. For example, in the Music library, you can choose Artist to quickly arrange your music collection by artist.
The ‘Arrange by’ menu

The “Arrange by” menu

When you arrange your files, Windows doesn’t just put your files in a different order. Instead, they are presented in a completely different way. The arrangements work differently depending on which one you choose. For example, arranging your pictures by month puts your pictures into stacks, like this:
Files arranged in ‘stacks’

Files arranged in “stacks”

Arranging by day puts them into groups, like this:
Files arranged in ‘groups’

Files arranged in “groups”

There are four default libraries in Windows 7, each with its own specific arrangements. You can also create new libraries and choose which arrangements are available for them.

For more information about libraries, see Working with libraries.

Windows Vista

Open a folder that contains several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window’s contents pane, point to Group By, and then click your grouping choice.
Windows Vista Group by command.

Windows Vista Group by command.
Windows XP

Open a folder that contains several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window’s contents pane, point to Arrange Icons By, and then click Show in Groups. To arrange the window’s contents, right-click again in any empty space on the window’s contents pane, point to Arrange Icons By, and click Name, Size, Type, or Modified (the choices may vary depending on the contents).
Windows XP Arrange icons by command.

Windows XP Arrange icons by command.

Some of these tips are from the book, Windows XP Killer Tips by Kleber Stephenson, ISBN 073571357X. Published here with the permission of Pearson Education, Inc.

Speed Subnetting for Success in the CCENT and CCNA Exams

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Tech

Subnetting is an absolutely critical component for CCNA success. In this article, we are first going to review how subnetting works, ensure you master the “longhand” method and understand the mathematics behind this networking principle. Once this is done, we are going to look at some shortcuts that can be used in the exam to ensure that we can solve the many subnetting challenges quickly and accurately.

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Subnetting is an absolutely critical component for CCNA success. The skill must be demonstrated in the CCENT (ICND1) and CCNA (ICND2) exams. Should you take the composite CCNA exam option, you need to be even better and faster at subnetting in order to achieve success.

In this article, we are first going to review how subnetting works and ensure you master the “longhand” method and understand the mathematics behind this networking principle. Then we will look at some shortcuts that can be used in the exam to ensure that we can solve the many subnetting challenges quickly and accurately. I believe it is critical that students understand the how’s and why’s behind this topic. It is unacceptable, in my opinion, to master subnetting if you only know the shortcuts. We need to fully understand why we are doing something in the network, and how it truly works before we can start seeking exam shortcuts.

NOTE

This article assumes you have a basic working knowledge of IP addressing and subnet masks. Also, this article assumes you can manually convert a binary octet to decimal, and vice versa.
Why Subnetting?

Why do we even need this concept of subnetting? Well, we need to break up our networks into smaller networks all of the time. Breaking the network up allows the network to be more efficient and more secure and more easily managed.

When you look at a Class B private address like 172.16.0.0/16 (255.255.0.0), you can calculate the number of hosts that can live in this network. You take the number of bits used for host addressing (16), and you raise 2 to this power and then subtract 2. So the formula is 2^h-2 where h is the number of host bits. We need a calculator for this one because the number is so big! It turns out that 65,534 can live in this network. That’s great, that’s amazing, and…it also turns out that this is impossible! In a typical TCP/IP network of today, you are going to have big problems if you start placing 500 or more systems in the same network (subnet), never mind 65,000 or more!
Number of Subnets and Number of Hosts

So if we want to use the 172.16.0.0 private address space, we need to “subnetwork” this address space in order create more network addresses that can each accommodate an appropriate number of host systems. When we subnetwork, we play a balancing act. As we “borrow” bits for subnetting from the host bits, we can create more subnets, but we do so at the cost of being able to support fewer and fewer host systems per network. The formula for how many hosts you can have always remains the same— it is 2^h-2. The formula for how many networks we can create is very similar. It is 2^n where n is the number of bits we borrow from the host bits.

Let us study an example. If we have 172.16.0.0/16 and we decide to borrow 8 bits for subnetting, we can create 2^8 or 256 different subnetworks. How many hosts can each of these subnetworks accommodate? Well, there are now 8 bits left for host addressing. 2^8-2 gives us 254 hosts per subnetwork.
A Sample Subnetting Scenario

Let us stick with the example where we begin with the private IP address space of a Class B address of 172.16.0.0. We examine our networking needs and realize that we need to accommodate 100 different subnetworks in our organization. From the previous information in this article, we know that in order to create 100 subnets, we need to borrow 7 bits (2^7 = 128). This is perfect; we have the number of subnetworks that we need, plus a few extra that we can call upon when the network inevitably grows.

What will the subnet mask be in this scenario? This mask will be the one that is used by all of the hosts in all of the different subnetworks. It is critical that we calculate this number correctly, of course.

Notice that our Class B address originally had 16 bits that made up the network ID portion. In this sample scenario we are going to borrow 7 bits. Now we have a network ID that is made up of 23 (16+7). We can write out the 23 bits of the subnet mask now:

11111111.11111111.11111110.00000000

So converting to our convenient dotted decimal notation, we can see our mask:

255.255.254.0

A cooler way to write the mask is just /23 after the IP address. This is called prefix notation.

So what would the first subnetwork network ID be? Well, we know it will start 172.16, but what will the value be in that third octet where we have some bits (7) representing the subnet and one bit representing the host portion.

To answer this in the longhand method, we write out the mask and the address from that octet in binary and do some analysis.

Mask: 11111110

IP: 00000000

Notice the first subnetwork will be 172.16.0.0. We can use all zeros in the first 7 bit positions of the third octet, and we have a zero in the last bit position which is used to identify hosts.

What would the first host address be in this network? Let’s write those last two octets out longhand:

00000000.00000001

The first host address on the 172.16.0.0 network would be:

172.16.0.1

What would the broadcast address be for that network? To get this you fill all the host bits with a 1:

00000001.111111111

172.16.1.255

How about the last usable host address on this subnetwork? Easy. We will turn all the host bits to 1, except for the last one.

00000001.11111110

172.16.1.254

What is the next subnetwork in this scheme? Well, let us turn one of those subnetwork bits on. We will start with the least significant (rightmost):

Mask: 11111110

IP: 00000010

Ahh, so the next network is 172.16.2.0/23.
Exam Shortcuts

It is wonderful to see how all of this works longhand, but in the lab exam environment, we are VERY pressed for time. We need powerful shortcuts. Here we will walk through my preferred shortcuts against the backdrop of sample exam questions.

NOTE

There are many different shortcut approaches that are all valid. This is the one that I prefer, but you might be taught another by some other Cisco trainer. Go with whatever works for you in the exam!
Sample Question 1:

What is the last usable address in the subnet of a host with the address 192.168.1.136 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.240?

Step 1 Upon arriving at my first subnetting question in the exam environment, I build a Powers of Two reference chart on the scratch paper Cisco provides.

2^7=128 | 2^6=64 | 2^5=32 | 2^4=16 | 2^3=8 | 2^2-=4 | 2 ^1=2 | 2^0=1

Step 2 How many bits of subnetting are used in the fourth octet here? My Powers of Two chart tells me. 1 bit = 128; 2 bits = 192; 3 bits = 224; 4 bits = 240. Yes, the forth octet of the subnet mask looks like this in binary—11110000.

Step 3 Now the magic of the shortcut—we go four bits deep (from left to right) in the Powers of Two chart. This tells us the value that the subnets increment on. In our example it is 16:

So our subnets are:
o 192.168.1.0
o 192.168.1.16
o 192.168.1.32
o 192.168.1.48
o 192.168.1.64
o 192.168.1.80
o 192.168.1.96
o 192.168.1.112
o 192.168.1.128
o 192.168.1.144

Step 4 This host, with the address of 192.168.1.136 must live on the 192.168.1.128 subnet. The broadcast address for this subnet is one less than the next subnet of 144, so that is 143. The last usable address is 142. We have arrived at our answer—192.168.1.142.

Sample Question 2

Your IT Junior Administrator has provided you with the address and mask of 192.168.20.102 and 255.255.255.224. You Junior Admin has asked you to tell him how many hosts can be created on your subnet?

Step 1 Here I begin by referencing the Powers of Two chart I created on my scratch paper. Adding 128 + 64 + 32, I get the 224 value used in the fourth octet of the subnet mask. Therefore, I can see that there are 3 bits used for subnetting in that octet. This leaves 5 bits for host addressing.

2^7=128 | 2^6=64 | 2^5=32 | 2^4=16 | 2^3=8 | 2^2-=4 | 2 ^1=2 | 2^0=1

Step 2 As we discussed earlier, the equation for the number of hosts per subnet is 2^h – 2 where h is the number of host bits. From the chart I see that 2^5 = 32. 32-2 = 30 hosts per subnet.

Conclusion

Initially, the subnetting related questions strike fear in the hearts of CCNA candidates. Sure enough, with study and practice, and the many shortcut methods that exist, these questions become the favorites in the Certification Exam environment. They can be solved easily and quickly, and candidates know they solved them correctly. Thanks to the power of mathematics, there are certainly no “grey” areas in questions like these.

Cisco Injects New Life Into Catalyst 6500 Switch

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Tech

Cisco Tuesday took dead aim at HP and its own shrinking profit margins by introducing a major refresh to its venerable Catalyst 6500 Ethernet switching platform.

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The company announced at Cisco Live in Las Vegas the Supervisor 2T engine for the 10-year-old Catalyst 6500, which delivers 2 Terabits of bandwidth to the system. This is almost three times the scale of the previous Supervisor 720, and like with that offering, 2T bandwidth can be doubled when configured into what Cisco calls a Virtual Switching System.

Cisco also announced a new generation of 10G line cards for the Sup 2T and didn’t mince words when describing the system’s purpose: to marginalize competitive offerings from Brocade, Juniper and most significantly HP, which has been gaining share on Cisco of late with lower cost platforms.

NINE LIVES: Catalyst 6500 has another decade or more left, Cisco hints

“We reject ‘good enough’ networks” which are marketed mostly on low price and drive commoditization, says John MCool, senior vice president and general management of Cisco’s Core Technology Group. “Our market share has hovered around 70%, or 50% of intelligent ports. We’ve been able to maintain share, and grow our core share, by delivering value to our customers.”

At $38,000, the Sup 2T is priced at one-third that of HP’s A9508 switch yet is 3X the performance and supports 200+ features or services, claims Scott Gainey, Cisco director of marketing for Unified Access Solutions. Cisco says it also almost doubles the amount HP spends on R&D — $5.3 billion vs. $3 billion — even though Cisco is half HP’s size in terms of revenue.

HP, citing data from Dell’Oro Group, says it captured 12% of total worldwide Ethernet switching revenue market share in Q1, up 2.5 percentage points year-over- year. Cisco’s share fell 5.8 points in the same period, HP claims.

But Cisco is also facing a troublesome switching product transition in which the high margin Catalyst 6500 is being squeezed by the lower margin, higher performing Nexus 7000 line. This is lowering switching profits for Cisco, which doesn’t sit well with the company or Wall Street.

So the introduction of the Sup 2T may be a way for Cisco to maintain Catalyst margins in the face of the Nexus transition; or it may indicate that a large swath of the Catalyst 6500 base, especially in the enterprise campus, is resisting the migration to the Nexus.

McCool, however, says it’s simply a case where the market is “bifurcating” into separate requirements for the enterprise campus vs. the data center.

Cisco will be leaner, faster, more attentive, Chambers pledges

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Tech

Discusses streamlining during keynote but dodges huge layoff expected

LAS VEGAS — Cisco CEO John Chambers briefly addressed the company’s current challenges, restructuring and imminent layoffs during his keynote address at this week’s Cisco Live customer conference.

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Cisco may shed 5,000 and perhaps up to 10,000 positions early in its fiscal year 2012, which begins in August. The company is looking to cut $1 billion in expenses and dump unproductive or non-core product operations after consecutive quarters of uninspiring performance.

Cisco has lost share and profits in switching, and its foray into consumer electronics has been disappointing. Many blame ambitious incursions into adjacent markets through 145 acquisitions over two decades, which distracted the company from its core routing and switching business, as well as a bloated management structure that stalled decision making.

Chambers promised the audience changes.

“We are continuing to reinvent ourselves,” he said during his address. “We are looking at how to streamline to move a bit faster in the future. We were too complex (in innovation). We are making changes to move at a faster pace.”

The changes will help Cisco innovate faster, Chambers said. That means new products should get into the hands of customers faster. He also promised a Cisco that’s easier to do business with and more attentive to customers.

Cisco has come under fire recently for being heavy handed in customer relations.

“You ask, we deliver,” Chambers told the customer-heavy audience of 15,000. “We’ve got to be easier to do business with, include you in driving our product direction, share our roadmaps, have an easy to use product portfolio. But innovation is the buzzword on where we’re going to go.”

In the past six months, Cisco announced 85 new products. But it also streamlined its operations and re-focused the company on five core areas of product development: Routing, Switching, Security and Services; Video; Collaboration; Data Center/Virtualization/Cloud; and Architectures.

Routing and switching is the bedrock of the company but, why these five?

“Collaboration will be the driver of productivity,” Chambers said. “Data center/virtualization/cloud is the most network-centric architecture. Architectures are the way you tie products together. And video is the next voice.”

Chambers said there are 20 million meetings per month hosted on Cisco’s WebEx application, and that the company is “putting video into everything we do architecturally.”

CCNA Lab Part 8: How Many Switches, and Which Ones?

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCNA, Cisco, Jobs, Tech

The Last Post in this Year’s CCNA Series
It’s time to wrap up (hoorah!) this spring’s foray into the question of what to put in your CCNA lab. I hope that you’ve found the series useful. Today, I’ll touch on a few final points with switches, looking at two questions. First, how many do you really need for CCNA study, and can you mix the switch models?

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How Many Switches

The short answer is that you need 1, could really use 2, get some benefit from 3, and 4 or more is probably overkill. All that is my opinion, but it’s worth some discussion.

First, I hate to repeat what’s already easily read elsewhere, and I did actually write about this very issue in early 2010. The CCNA exam hasn’t revved since that time, so all those comments still apply. But let me summarize the main points here in one place:

With 1 switch, you can practice:

* basic administration and CLI practice (passwords, hostnames, banners)
* VLANs
* Interfaces (speed, duplex, auto-n)
* IP access to switch
* 802.1Q trunking with a router
* Voice VLAN
* STP portfast

With a 2nd switch, you can then also practice:

* VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)
* Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
* Switch-switch 802.1Q trunking
* Etherchannel

Then, with a third switch, you can also practice:

* Much more interesting STP topologies for more meaningful practice
* More meaningful VTP experiments (e.g., one each server, client, transparent)

Basically, the big hitters are that a 2nd switch gets you VTP and STP, and a 3rd switch gets you more meaningful STP, because STP with just two switches is pretty dull. But you can do it – check out yet this other post, specifically about how to do STP with a pair of switches.

So, back to the main topic: how many switches should you buy? Well, you do get a big bump in benefit to get at least one, a pretty good bump in benefit to get a 2nd, a little more benefit to get a 3rd, and then pretty much diminishing returns after that. (I’d probably say buy another router before getting a 4th switch, for instance.) The sweet spot is to get at least 2, possibly 3 switches.
2950, 2900XL – But Can I Mix Them?

Last time out, I suggested that the best switch model today, all things considered, was likely the 2950 with standard software image. That gives you command syntax and features very close to switches you would buy today, and the price is pretty low ($50ish US) in our admittedly conservative price checks. But, if you really want to save some cash, the 2900XL series, older, some command differences, and some feature differences, is a cheaper option as well.

To be honest, I almost didn’t go here in the post today, ignoring the question. I don’t have a 2900XL in my lab, so any comment I make here about it is from reading, not doing. But since I brought it up, at least take what I write here with a grain of salt. If you’ve used both 2950 and 2900XL in the same lab, and want to comment, I’d love to hear.

The 2900XL models support 802.1Q trunking, and so does the 2950. The big deal there? VTP does not work at all without trunking first working. STP can be interesting without VLAN trunking, but it is much more interesting with it working. So, the biggest hurdle to mixing these two particular models does not appear to be a big deal.

It does appear that you would not have any 802.1W RSTP support on the 2900XLs, but like anything when building the lab, sometimes you have to lose a little to save some cash.
Final Thoughts

So, what’s the perfect world? Get two or three 2950s. If the budget does not allow, get one 2950, and at least one 2900XL. (Hey, at $20, it’s not that big a risk!) And get in there and try some configs!

That’s all I plan to do for this year’s CCNA lab series. Last chance to jump in before I move on to something else!

Interview Tips For Those Possessing New CCNA Certificates

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Lindsay Posted in Career, CCNA, Cisco, Jobs, Tech Leave a comment

Okay, you did it! Working for one of those CCNA Certificates proved to be a lot tougher than you thought.

Now what?

Folks who pass the exam for CCNA gnerally fall into one of 3 categories. The first category: people just getting a feel for the IT realm. Within this second category, you have people who want to move from the LAN side of Networking over to the WAN side. WAN engineers and administrators make the 3rd category. If they just got their CCNA certification, it’s because they yearn to move up the ladder.

Regardless, you’re going to have to come to terms with the dreaded job interview. CCNA newbies can sometimes do really well in job interviews, and other times, really poor. Below are some pointers that can definitely assist you:

Start by being confident, but not cocky. Without a doubt, CCNA Certificates can be outstanding to have. Furthermore, many of us rely on them to get our careers started. However, do not walk into the interview thinking you know everything just because you have that certificate. Some of Cisco’s certified experts will even have trouble throughout interviews.

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Answer questions as if you’re 100% sure. This is extremely important if the answer isn’t coming to mind right away. If you prepared for your exam the right away, got some hands-on experience, and understood tough topics like the various WAN protocols and access-lists, then your interview should go fairly smoothly. Sometimes, the questions will be beyond your level of knowledge or certification. If that’s the case, then you could tell them that you learn very quickly and are always seeking self-improvement.

Don’t stop studying once you’ve earned your certification. Folks typically forget things they know if they don’t use that knowledge regularly. It’s okay to take a day or two off and celebrate, but you have to get back to work after that. Make sure to review your CCNA topics and shortly thereafter, get started on your CCNP. Many new CCNAs will forget what they learned because they stopped studying or felt no need to progress after that.

Get ready for your interview as if it’s another CCNA exam – because in reality, it is. The only thing different is that you don’t get multiple choice.

Start getting ready for your job interview prior to even taking the exam. How do you do it? Learn and prepare for your exam the proper way. Build up your experience by doing labs and simulations on actual routers and switches. Alternatively, you can invest in a good software simulator. Get a quality Cisco education. Don’t be afraid to send your questions towards other folks in that field. Do these things now and you won’t just be one of the many holding CCNA certificates. You’ll be a high-quality candidate and one step closer to getting that job.

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