Passing the ccna and ccnp cisco home lab faq

There is a real revolution today among CCNA and CCNP candidates. More and more of you are turning your back on "router simulators" and putting your own CCNA and/or CCNP Home Lab together, which is the best way to totally prepare to pass these tough Cisco exams. I get hundreds of emails every month from CCNA and CCNP candidate who are putting together their first lab or adding to their existing one. I'm always glad to help with suggestions, and I thought I'd list five common questions regarding home labs here. Do I have to spend thousands of dollars? No! There are vendors all over the web, as well as on ebay, who sell used Cisco routers and switches to Cisco exam candidates like you every single day. They sell kits that consist of multiple routers and switches, as well as single routers and switches. You can add one piece at a time, or make a larger investment. You can spend just a few hundred dollars and put together a very nice lab. What's an "access server"? It's not what it sounds like. When I first heard the term, I thought of a typical server like we see in LANs every single day. An access server is actually a Cisco router that allows you to connect to multiple other routers and switches without continually moving the rolled cable around. You don't have to have an access server right away, but once you add a few more routers and switches to your lab, you'll get tired of moving the rollover cable from console port to console port. (The console port is used to directly connect your PC to the router.) You'll find an access server is easy to set up and configure, and will save you quite a bit of time. What's a "frame relay switch"? Again, it's not quite what it sounds like. A frame relay switch is not a switch; it's a Cisco router that has been configured to serve as a frame relay provider in your home lab. This is very close to being a "must" for your home lab. You don't need it right away if your budget allows for only one or two routers to get started. To truly practice frame relay map statements and see the effect of different frame relay statements, you'll need a Cisco router to serve as a frame switch. Again, the configuration is easy, and having a frame relay switch in your home lab will give you practice that will be invaluable on exam day. Do I need a switch? What switch should I buy? I recommend you get at least one switch in your lab; two if your budget allows. Make sure that at least one of your switches has an IOS; 1900 switches do not have an IOS and while they're better than not having a switch, they're not going to give you the practice you need to pass the CCNA and CCNP. Look to the 2500 family of switches. I want to build my CCNP lab and then use it for the CCIE. What should I buy? It's impossible to tell what technologies and devices will be on the CCIE lab, even if you zip through the CCNP and then take the IE within six months. Cisco refreshing the CCIE lab blueprint every six months, and different technologies can be taken off the lab. While Cisco gives plenty of notice that these changes are going to take effect, it can be a big pain in your wallet if Cisco takes something off of the exam after you spend a bundle to add it to your lab. As an example, Cisco is in the process of removing ISDN and ATM from the CCIE Routing & Switching lab. If you bought an ATM switch for your lab, you've got an expensive paperweight right now. While you may be able to practice your core protocols on a CCIE home lab, it's going to be difficult and expensive to keep your home lab totally current with the Cisco lab blueprint. The decision to put together your own CCNA or CCNP home lab is the best decision you can ever make - and I speak from experience. With home labs becoming less expensive every day, it's becoming more affordable as well. Start looking into used Cisco router vendors today (ebay is a great place to find some vendors, as is Google), and you can be practicing on REAL Cisco routers and switches soon - and be totally prepared for CCNA and CCNP exam success.

Find all the global warming information sources at one site

With Climate Change and Global Warming now becoming more important daily, educators, students, journalists, scientists and governments all need fast access to all the latest Global Warming research and news. Alphatech5.com has created a large directory of information on Global Warming and put together all of the links to every major research center, research paper, news source, government bodies and educational institutions that are the authorities on Climate Change and Global Warming. Leading authorities such as the IPCC, US EPA, the Stern Review, the Woods Hole Institute, NASA's Goddard Space center and dozens more can all be accessed from one easy directory. The site can be found at: alphatech5.com/cchange/cchange. htm Access is free and all interested parties are welcome to browse the directory and use the links as required. They give essential information for the general public, plus important research links for students and educators. Global Warming and Climate Change are now accepted as fact, with governments around the world now looking to build on the Kyoto Protocol by establishing greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The US President, George W Bush, has recently held talks with European counterparts in order to kick start this process and begin working on establishing reduction targets and time frames for the USA. Currently only the USA, Canada and Australia have not accepted the Kyoto Protocols and it is currently the intention of those governments to establish their own frameworks rather than adopt the Kyoto Protocols. The major stumbling block to worldwide adoption of uniform targets and time-frames will be differing economic and political imperatives. The fast developing nations such as China and India do not wish to hinder the growth of their burgeoning economies, whilst the developed nations do not wish to slow their economies drastically either by reducing their income from fossil fuel industries such as oil, gas, petroleum and coal. The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is clear. Polar ice caps are receding rapidly, glaciers are disappearing, weather patterns are changing, flora and fauna are disappearing at alarming rates. It is now not a question of will the use of fossil fuels disappear, but when? Alternative energy sources such as Fuel Cells, Solar, Wind, Wave and even Nuclear will grow apace and the fossil fuel industries are now in their sunset phase. Like the steam train, they have been of great use to mankind but they have now outlived their usefulness and must be consigned to the pages of history. Keep plenty of photographs of your favourite petrol-guzzling auto. In a few years we will all be driving Hybrids - and eventually Fuel Cell or Hydrogen powered cars.

Great info about the south beach diet

Formulated by Florida-area heart specialist Arthur Agatston, the South Beach diet, stresses the intake of beneficial carbs and beneficial fats. He produced this diet for his heart patients supported upon his work of scientific dieting inquiry. The South Beach diet is oftentimes falsely likened to the Atkins diet , which is mostly a low-carbohydrate diet. Dr. Agatston thinks that extra ingestion of supposed harmful carbohydrates makes an insulin resistance syndrome which is an symptom of reduced quality of the hormone insulin's ability to decently act on body fat or sugar. Also he believes, with most doctors, that overindulgence of bad fats adds to an gain in cardiovascular disease. To make impossible these two conditions, The doctor's diet downplays consumption of bad fats and bad carbs and promotes increased consumption of good fats and good carbs. The South Beach diet has three stages. In all stages of the diet, Dr. Agatston urges minimizing consumption of bad fats. In Phase I, enduring two weeks, people try to eradicate insulin resistance by staying clear from moderately high or high-glycemic carbs, such as candy, sugar, bread, fruit, potatoes, grains and cereals. Throughout Phase I, Dr. Agatston states the body will lose its insulin resistance, and start to utilize excess body fat, getting the dieter to lose between 10 and 15 pounds. In two weeks, Phase II starts. Fruits and whole grain foods are step by step brought back to the diet, while in smaller amounts than were probably eaten prior to beginning the diet, and with a extended accent on foods with a low glycemic index. Whenever the dieter achieves the sought after weight Phase III starts. In Phase III the diet extends to add three portions of whole grains and three portions of fruit a day. The diet differentiates between good and bad carbohydrates, good and bad fats. Beneficial carbs are rich in fiber or rich in good fats, and get a low glycemic index, that is, they are digested and ingested easy. Some other desirable carbohydrates are those with more nutritional measure than the options. For example, brown rice is permitted in moderation, but white rice is deterred. When consuming any carbohydrates, the Dr. urges also eating fiber or fat to retard digestion of the carbohydrates. Good fats are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, particularly those with omega-3 fatty acids. Trans fats and saturated fats are bad fats. South Beach diet stresses: 1. a change in the way you eat 2. eat many different foods 3. simplicity and adaptability. Consuming whole grains and big quantities of vegetables is promoted, along with sufficient amounts of mono - and polyunsaturated fats, with omega-3 fatty acids, such as are held in fish. It deters the eating of excessively processed foods like high fat meats, and saturated fats. The diet does not call for counting calories or restricting portions. Dr. Agatston advises you eat until you are gratified. Dieters are assured to eat 6 meals a day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and snacks between meals.

Acquiring quality in bound links to your website

If you’re wondering what a back link is, well it is a link placed on another site with content relevant to yours that is directed towards your website. Links to your website direct traffic from the linking point to your site and help you to rank higher in search engines. Let’s say that you have a website that sells grills. To get the most effective links to your site you would want to find other sites that offer content similar to grills to place your link on. These other sites might sell books on grilling, offer recipes for grilling or grill parts. The linking site will ideally have content that relates to grilling in some way. You should view the internet as a popularity contest and each little link is a vote for your websites quality. Links of quality are much more effective than links in quantity. 10 links from websites with content related to that on your site could be more valuable than 1000 links from unrelated sites. The links placement on the relevant site is also important. You are better off with a link on the front page of a website than a page that is deep within the site. Ideally you should be able to get to the page your link is placed on by clicking on a link from the front page. Look at it in this way, if you can’t find the link neither can the search engines. We should also cover two different ways to get a link placement. Free link placement involves several options. There are some sites that will offer free link placement with no strings. Other sites will require a reciprocal link back from your site which decreases the link value significantly. You can also write and submit articles to article directories with a link back to your site. There are quality directories where you can have your website listed. A quality one that actually provides benefits to the website linked to will generally charge a fee to review your site in consideration of inclusion. This is generally one of the most time effective ways to achieve good results. Another option is paid link placement. This is purely paying for advertising space on a website. It is an option but should be very carefully done. The primary consideration for this option is for generating traffic via the link itself. Search engines are becoming better at detecting paid links and are making requirements of specialized no follow tags to be placed in them which takes away many of the linking benefits other than traffic from the link itself. If you choose this option be careful that you understand how to do it properly and the risks if you don’t. When you do get a link back to your website, having relevant text in the link itself is important. This is what will help you to rank in search engines for relevant keywords. When a search engine comes across the link it will note the link text and try to match it with the content of your site. The better a match the more relevance that link will be given by the search engine. Link building from quality sites does take time. You are not going to start today and finish up tomorrow. It takes a consistent, focused approach over time to see results that give you the results you’re looking for over the long term.

Your dog is hyperactive when you get home from work... what should you do

Dear Adam, I am a member of the Bouvtrain list. That's how I got your name. I'm almost through your book and it has certainly given me some new ideas. Gypsy is a 1 1/2 year old Bouvier. She is very high-strung but we're working on it. You're absolutely right that it does no good to send your dog away to school. For $900 bucks she now does just what the dog trainer tells her to do. I'm getting a lot better, though. Here's my question. I exercise her in the morning. We play ball for 30 minutes and then we walk a mile practicing sits, downs and stays. At night we play ball for about 15 minutes. I work from 10am to about 7pm. She stays in the kitchen with a dog door leading to a large 6' fenced back yard. She sleeps almost all day and she doesn't sleep at night. She paces and barks. I make her stay in the kitchen (baby gates) so I can get some sleep. I don't know any other Bouviers so I don't know if this is normal or not. She has hip dysplasia and has had hip surgery. I thought it might be pain so tried giving her an aspirin at night. Didn't help. I tried getting up to correct her but she hears me and gets in bed before I get there. Right now I'm just trying to ignore her. The kitchen has a large bay window to the front of the house but there are curtains. She's been doing this for months and I haven't had a full nights sleep in months, either. Would crating her help? Any ideas would be appreciated. Robbye and Gypsy Dear Robbye: Thanks for sending me this e-mail. It's a perfect example as to why simply "ignoring" bad behavior will never work on dogs that care more about pleasing themselves than anything else. Here are some tips: When she starts to bark, you'll need to yell, "No!" from your bedroom, and then continue saying, "No, no, no!" as you run to her and administer a correction. It doesn't matter if she climbs back in her bed at this point, as you've already used the word, "No!" as an event-marker. So she'll know what she's being corrected for. As long as you continue saying, "No!" you have an additional 7 to 14 seconds in which the dog will still associate your correction with the behavior. Put a crate in your bedroom and let her sleep in it. Even though it doesn't seem like much to us humans, dogs think that sleeping together is quality time when they're not alone. This can help with some of her anxiety. You may also try just putting her on a leash and attaching the leash to the foot of your bed. If she knows a down-stay, you can simply correct her if she gets up. After a couple of evenings, she'll learn that when you bring her into the bedroom and make her lay down, it's time to stay put. If you don't feel that her hip is bothering her, I would recommend increasing the amount of exercise time. Feed her as soon as you get home from work and then take her out and play ball for at least 30 minutes. An hour would be even better. If you can't play ball with her for a whole hour, then work her through a very intense obedience routine (heel, sit, heel, down, come, heel, etc...) for about 15 minutes and then play ball with her for another 10 minutes. When I lived in Berkeley, California I had an American Pit Bull Terrier that was a very high-energy bitch. If I took her to the park on a Monday afternoon and played fetch for a whole hour, we'd later return to my apartment and within 20 minutes she'd be bouncing off the walls again. However, if I took her out on a Wednesday and we simply did an intense obedience routine for 20 minutes, we'd return to the apartment and she would collapse under my coffee table and not move for the next 2 hours.

How to redesign your bedroom on a small budget

Has your bedroom stayed the same for the last 20 years? Do you want to make it into a fun, cool bedroom, but without spending money on new furniture? We have some ideas for you to do just that - re-do your bedroom on a budget! - Coat of paint. Nothing freshens up a room like a new coat of paint. Make it into a weekend project and involve your kids - you can do something together, and at the same time, create a whole new bedroom that you need. We don't recommend painting the bedroom walls into bright colors. Beige, peach, light and pastel blues and greens work best. Make sure that your new wall color coordinates with your furniture, as you are not buying new furniture. - Organize your bedroom. Sometimes all a room needs is organization, to look completely different. Many bedrooms are full of kids toys, old clothes and even dishes, that should be in the kitchen. Put those items away, and organize the rest of the room to make it look very different. - Rearrange furniture. Sometimes the best way to decorate without a budget is to use the same furniture, but rearrange it, and add something else into the mix. Walk around your house - you will find a chair in the basement, or an ottoman in the family room, that will look great in the bedroom. Use those to create a whole new bedroom - with your old furniture. - New wall art. Add a splash of color to the room with some new wall art (or borrow some art from another room). Another idea is to frame some of your kids' drawings, or draw something yourself. - New bedding, pillows, bedspreads. It is amazing how much you can change a room by adding just one new item to it. Pick some new bedding or a bedspread that you really wanted, and splurge on them! You will have a great looking bedroom in no time. Remember, updating a room does not mean buying everything new for it. Use some (or all) of our ideas to completely re-do your bedroom. You will be glad you did.

Multiple income streams a key to online home business

Copyright 2006 eliasg One of the most well known cliches is the warning against placing all of one’s eggs in a single basket. Like most oft-repeated sayings, that prohibition contains a very large kernel of truth. The wisdom of avoiding putting too much stock in any one thing holds particularly true of online home business owners. Those who concentrate their online home business plans on the promotion of a single product or on the implementation of a limited single strategy may be able to produce profitable results. However, a single change in the relatively volatile online marketplace can render their months of hard work almost valueless within days. That’s why the smartest online home business owners avoid stuffing too many valuable eggs in a single basket. Instead, they seek out and take advantage of multiple income streams. Doing so has two chief advantages. First, of course, it can insulate one from disaster. By having many independent means of making money, one can survive a downfall in a single moneymaking area without experiencing an “emergency.” Those who don’t have alternative income streams in place may find themselves upside down very quickly if a major change or problem occurs with their primary earner. In a sense, having multiple revenue sources acts as a hedge bet, or a form of insurance, against change or unforeseen circumstances. Second, those who develop multiple income streams for their online home business are able to earn larger sums and to do so with greater consistency. Those who have several ways to generate revenue can really build an impressive income when everything is going well, while still being protected if a problem should ever arise in one area of their business. That is really why having a home business with many ways to earn is so attractive--you make more while risking less! Anyone relying on a single product or idea should, instead, look to add additional means of generating income to their home business plan. Programs like the well-known Prosperity Automated System (PAS), have embraced the idea of multiple income streams, making sure that those who participate in the business program have as many as seven different means of generating revenue. If you are considering starting or growing your online home business, take great care to avoid placing too many eggs in any single basket! Instead, find plans that will allow you to benefit from multiple income streams. They are an important key to online home business success.