Cisco Exam Demo

Are you considering getting Cisco certified? 

A lot of Cisco students attempting the CCNA exams fall into a trap. They learn the theory and a little bit of troubleshooting, but they have no idea what the CCNA exam will be like when they go to the testing center.

Luckily Cisco have a little known demo which shows you what types of questions you will encounter on the exam and lets you try them out. Once you are familiar with the different types of exam questions, you'll be much more confident going into the exam.

Go to the Cisco Exam demo

To your success..

Fwd: Make Space for Love :) Valentine's clearance sale

In the run up to Valentine's Day Creative are having a stock clearance sale.
Here is a run down of just a few offers that you might appreciate:

►Hitz WP380 Twin Pack now AU$159.95 reduced from AU$199.95 Free Shipping
http://au.creative.com/p/bundled-offers/hitz-wp380-twin-pack
The perfect Valentine's day gift for your significant other and yourself!

►ZiiSound D5 wireless Hi-Fi speaker now AU$ 149.95 reduced from $ 369.95
http://au.creative.com/p/speakers/ziisound-d5

►Sound BlasterAxx SBX 20. Now AU$ 129.95 reduced from AU$ 279.59.
http://au.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blasteraxx-sbx-20

►Aurvana In-Ear 3. AU$ 99.95 to be reduced from AU$ 229.95 on Feb, 5.
http://au.creative.com/p/headphones-headsets/aurvana-in-ear3

For more deals, please see our special offers page
►http://au.creative.com/store

To save up to 50% on product bundles visit:
►http://au.creative.com/p/bundled-offers

Best wishes,

Owning your online presence - food for though.

Most of us know to secure our home networks, and to be wise in choosing when to connect to wireless networks when we’re out and about.  But did you know your device can be broadcasting your position even when it is not connected to a wireless network?


All WiFi-capable devices broadcast a unique ID called a media access control (MAC) address, when they're looking for networks, and so long as WiFi is enabled they are always looking for networks.  This means that if you walk around carrying a mobile device with WiFi enabled, then you are broadcasting your own unique radio beacon and it's easy to track your movements.

This GPS and Location-based information can be useful for the following:

•More accurate directions when using maps and directions.
•Customized information from shopping apps (showing nearest locations, deals in your area, etc.).
•Safety and peace of mind from “Find my Friends” (iOS) or “Guardian” (Windows) apps.  Apps like these can enable families to be aware of each other’s locations.  Guardian enables users to call for help through an 'SOS' alert button and also connect to security agencies, police and hospitals easily in times of crisis.  

This is not a comprehensive list, however it does show these features offer wonderful benefits.  But you want to make sure you are in control of the information you are broadcasting to the cyber world.

Is your smartphone broadcasting your movements when you shop?

Some retailers are taking advantage of the signal sent by WiFi-enabled devices. You might see a sign in a shopping center that reads:  “To provide a better shopping experience for our customers we anonymously survey the movement of mobile phones to help show us how the centre is used. No personal data is recorded at any time.”

This raises some security concerns such as claims the collected data would be de-identified and de-personalized, but “anonymous” data can still provide a lot of information and similar to other cookies and tracking methods, retailers want to use location information to produce personal profiles and targeted advertising.  But if retailers can use this information, so can phishers and social engineers.
This movement tracking is even speading to your car, with BMW developing similar technology which will allow businesses to market their products through the German car maker’s built-in satellite navigation system.
The easiest way to defeat the anonymous tracking -- simply turn off WiFi and Bluetooth on your mobile device when away from home.

Another tracking method expanding rapidly is Google’s Location History Browser, which gives a minute-by-minute map of your life.

Location History allows Google to store a history of your location data from all devices where you are logged into your Google Account and have enabled Location Reporting.  So if you have a device that uses a Google-driven operating system (e.g. an Android phone or tablet), there’s a good chance you had to answer a prompt about location history during device set-up.  And if you opted-in to this tracking, Google might have a pretty comprehensive history of where you’ve been.

This long-term tracking of location data can give deep insight into your habits and patterns.  On one hand, this can be eerie or even creepy.  But it can also be kind of fun and nifty to review.

To get around this, Google allows you to manage your privacy in two ways:  either by clearing your history, or by opting out of the service altogether.  Learn how here:  Manage Location in Google Settings

In Summary: Some tips to own your Online Presence

•When you’re not at home, consider turning off WiFi and Bluetooth.  This will both conserve your device’s battery life and also protect you from continually broadcasting your location.  Turn it on again when you want to connect to a wireless network.

•Review the privacy settings on your devices.  Be intentional about the apps you allow to access your location.  Consider turning permissions off when you are not actively using an app.

•Periodically clear your history.  This certainly applies to location history, but it applies to other kinds of history too -- this site offers practical tips for managing brower history and other private data

Contemplating a career in Information Technology?

It's not easy trying to get your first job in IT, you have to compete against candidates who have years of experience. However many of these experienced candidates don't have certifications or a college degree to back up their on-the-job experience, as an older IT professional I find myself in this category.

Unfortunately it is an employers market, where they can pick and choose who they hire. IT graduates sometimes find themselves in a catch 22 position where they can't get a job without experience without getting a job in the first place.

However, a good certification such as the CCNA and a relevant college degree is still the best way to position yourself for your future career, or to expand your career as I am doing.

Certifications provide you with some hands-on configuration experience that will be a step in the right direction to getting the experience you need, however in order to get the commercial experience employers want, you'll have to start from the bottom and work your way up to those high-paying IT positions.

Remember that employers generally like to promote from within their company, so don't be disheartened if you have to start in an entry-level help desk position. Remember nobody starts out at the top. Work hard and seek the promotion when it becomes available.

If an employer offers a 6-month contract don't dismiss the opportunity to show your worth. If you are good they are likely to employ you on a full-time basis when the contract ends.  The same goes for temporary roles, try and get your foot in the door and impress.

Don't forget the local computer support companies. These companies can provide you with invaluable experience and their hiring requirements are generally less than big corporations. You my even find that they are willing to sub-contract jobs to workers.

Non-profit organizations such as churches and charities need IT support too, and volunteering is another route to getting valuable experience. This will look great on your resume and hopefully you'll get glowing references too.

Craft a resume that doesn't sell yourself short, you want your resume to stand out from the crowd. Include all your relevant IT skills and emphasize industry buzzwords that employers are asking for on job adverts if you have those skills. Add any relevant experience with certain technologies should be added.

Remember, you may not have a wealth of experience that other job candidates have, but this is only one attribute employers look for. If you can demonstrate your professionalism, passion for technology as well as being able to communicate as well as relevant qualifications you will eventually succeed in breaking into IT.

Good luck in your job search and career in information technology.

Fibre optic spectral efficiency trial achieves 1.4Tbps - Telco/ISP - Technology - News - iTnews.com.au

 



Fibre optic spectral efficiency trial achieves 1.4Tbps









Seven alien wavelength channels, each with 200 gigabit per second
capacity, were bonded into a super channel for a total of 1.4Tbps
running on top of BT's existing optical network for the trial.

 Reference: ITU-T G.698.2

Amplified multichannel dense wavelength
division multiplexing applications with single
channel optical interfaces

Electronics Weekly News | General | Electronics patent of the month: Inductance sensing circuit monitors scrap metal

Electronics Weekly News | General | Electronics patent of the month: Inductance sensing circuit monitors scrap metal

Keep your Networks and Data Safe.

Home Wireless Devices: 


Most wireless access points are ready-to-go right out of the box, but from a security perspective, they are wide open and insecure. This means that anyone driving (or walking) by your house or living in close proximity to your house can instantly connect to your wireless access point. Without proper security configurations enabled, your neighbors can even connect to the Internet through your network at no cost to them and could possibly access files on your home systems which reside on your PC or network.


We urge you to follow and apply the guidelines below where possible.


Protect Your Personal Information:

•Remember that everyone can view data in the airspace. Protect it appropriately by encrypting the data by using Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and preferably WPA2).
•Install personal firewalls and Anti-Malware software on all devices and have the most up-to-date signature files installed. You should also have the latest security patches (such as Microsoft Windows updates and Adobe Reader updates) installed on your system.
•Change the administration password on the Access Point to something other than the default one assigned by the manufacturer.
•The Service Set ID (SSID) is the name of your wireless network. For example, a Linksys router most commonly has a default SSID of "linksys." You should change your SSID from the manufacturer default, but not to something that is easily guessable.  Avoid using mailing addresses, street names, or your last name.  This can give away too much information about your physical location or identity. Suggestions might include: "homenet8273" or "h563."

Keep a Clean Machine:

•Make sure you’re using the latest firmware update for your specific Access Point / Wireless Router. Not only will you benefit from hardware bug fixes, you may also gain improved security features as well. Firmware updates are usually freely available from the manufacturer’s website and include instructions on how to perform the upgrade.
•Using Internet Security all-in-one tools are also recommended as they usually have Host Intrusion Prevention tools which are not dependent on signature files and are more behavior based.

Connect with Care:

•For the more technically savvy, you can filter, by Media Access Control (MAC) address, what devices/computers can connect and obtain an IP address from your wireless Access Point. There is a table where you can enter the MAC address from each device/computer on your network that you want to allow to communicate.
•Disable "remote administration" for the Access Point (usually the default setting). This is different from local administration, which is always enabled. Remote administration can potentially allow untrusted users on the Internet to connect to your wireless access point and administer it.

LearnSecurityOnline.com is a highly interactive online security training experience. We do this by utilizing simulators, security games, challenge servers, and hacking competitions to give you both the technical knowledge and hands-on experience required to be a competent IT & IT Security Professional all in a safe and legal environment.

NASA sets space communications speed record

NASA said its Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft reached 622 megabit per second download speeds by using a pulsed focused light beam, covering a distance of some 385,000 kilometres.


NASA sets space communications speed record - Telco/ISP - Technology - News - iTnews.com.au

Cisco based Networking Questions part xiii

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

 –Steve Jobs

Random Cisco based networking questions and answers to help with accreditation or just for fun :-)

1. What is the function of asymmetric switching?

A) To prioritise bandwidth to nodes that need it
B) To prevent bottlenecks on the port a server is connected to
C) To allow RAS clients to connect to the network

2. What Cisco IOS command executes the configuration stored in NVRAM.

A) config t
B) config mem
C) config net
D) config start

3. How would you disable an interface (Cisco command)?

A) Router(config-if)#shutdown
B) Router(config-if)#disconnect
C) Router(config-if)#disable
D) Router(config-if)#close
E) Router(config-if)#stop

4. What will be the IP address of the second subnet given the following?

172.16.0.0
255.255.224.0
(Assume ip subnet-zero is enabled)

A) 172.16.0.0
B) 172.16.8.0
C) 172.16.16.0
D) 172.16.32.0
E) 172.16.64.0

5, Given the IP address 192.168.10.0 
What subnet mask should you use to create 16 subnets?
(Assume ip subnet-zero is enabled)

A) 255.255.255.240
B) 255.255.240.0
C) 255.240.0.0
D) 255.255.255.248
E) 255.255.248.0

6. What is the Spanning Tree forward delay?

A) The time that is spent in the Listening and Learning states
B) 50 seconds
C) Time taken for a switch to go from Listening to Forwarding
D) Time taken for a switch to go from Blocking to Forwarding

Bonus Question

IGRP advertises routes to interior, system and exterior routes

A) True
B) False









1. Correct Answer: B
An asymmetric switch provides switched connections between ports of different bandwidths.
Asymmetric switching is optimized for client-server traffic where multiple clients simultaneously communicate with a server, requiring more bandwidth dedicated to the server port to prevent a bottleneck at that port.

2. Correct Answer: B
config mem executes configuration commands stored in NVRAM by copying startup-config to the running-config

3. Correct Answer: A
The interface command shutdown disables an interface.

4. Correct Answer: D
The subnet block size is 256 - 224 = 32
The first subnet will be subnet zero 172.16.0.0
The second subnet will be 172.16.32.0

5. Correct Answer: A
This is a class C IP address, so octets 1-3 cannot be used for subnetting.
24 = 16 subnets, which means we need to borrow 4 bits.
The fourth octet value should therefore be 240.

6. Correct Answer: A
Forward delay — The time that is spent in the listening and learning state, 15 sec by default, but you can tune the time to be between 4 and 30 sec

Bonus Question. Correct Answer: A
IGRP advertises three types of routes:

Interior routes are routes between subnets in the network attached to a router interface.
System routes are routes to networks within an autonomous system.
Exterior routes are routes to networks outside the autonomous system.

How did you go? let me know,,

Cisco Based Networking Questions part xii

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. 

–Albert Einstein.

More Random Cisco Based networking Questions for you to ponder.

1, In a local broadcast all bits set to 1 received by all hosts on local and remote broadcast domains?

A) True
B) False

2. Which protocol is used to determine the IP address if the MAC address is already known?

A) ARP
B) RARP
C) IP
D) IPX
E) TCP

3. What is the invalid timer set to by default when you have a router running the Interior Gateway Routing Protocol?

A) 3 times the update period
B) 270 seconds
C) 3 times the update period + 10 seconds
D) Answer A and B
E) 7 times the update period

4. The startup-config (Cisco) is found in the ...

A) FLASH
B) DRAM
C) NVRAM
D) ROM

5. What component of a router holds the routing tables and the software that allows the router to function?

A) Bootstrap
B) POST
C) ROM monitor
D) RAM
E) Configuration register

6. Which switching mode has the highest degree of error checking?

A) Fragment-Free
B) Fast-Forward
C) Cut-Through
D) Store-and-Forward
E) FIFO

1. Correct Answer: B
Routers don't forward broadcasts so local broadcasts will stay on the broadcast domain from which they originated.

2. Correct Answer: B
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is a networking protocol used by a host computer to request its IP address from an administrative host, when it knows its MAC address.

3. Correct Answer: D
IGRP sends its routing table to its neighbors every 90 seconds. IGRP uses an invalid timer to mark a route as invalid after 270 seconds (three times the update timer). IGRP uses a flush timer to remove a route from the routing table (default flush timer is 630 seconds, seven times the update period).

4. Correct Answer: C
The startup configuration is stored in NVRAM

5. Correct Answer: D
The running-config is stored in RAM and allows the router to function.

6. Correct Answer: D
Store and forward switching method is known as store and forward because the switch will store the incoming data frame in its internal buffer, then when the complete frame has been received the switch will then run a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) against the frame. If the CRC passes, the switch will then look up the destination MAC Address in its MAC filter table to forward it on to its destination.

More to come - stay tuned...