Network World

Expert's answer

I have dealt with the 6500/7500 family of switches from Cisco, so I can give you some things to think about if you go the Cisco route (readers who are familiar with Juniper gear, please jump in!). Although you could call these routers, the environments I have used them in have been more from the switch standpoint (the line between a router and a switch can be very thin at times). I have used the 6500s in situations ranging from a small private college to a Fortune-500 shop where they served as the "closet" switches instead of stacking the normal 24/48 port switches. I have used 7500s in a Fortune 500 environment but since they are showing as End-of-Life on the Cisco website, I will concentrate my answers on the 6500 line.

There are several things to consider when sizing up these switches. The first would be the power supplies. Look at the power requirements for each of the blades you think you might ever possibly use. Make sure the power supplies you install will have sufficient resources to power not just what you use today but what your data center might need in the future. If you're in an area with occasional power outages, consider power supplies with dual power inputs, so you can have a UPS take over quickly (run one power cable from each power supply to a source of power protected by a long-running UPS. Run the other power cable from each power supply and connect it to house power, so the UPS is always up and ready to go).

You'll need to decide which supervisor engine to use. I have used everything from a Sup1A (which is no longer availabe) to the SUP720 and SUP32. Which supervisor engine you need to use will depend on what you will need your 6500 chassis to do and the cards that you will be using. While you can run redundant sup engines, I think you will find more versatility in running a second chassis instead of using a second slot in the same chassis.

Another thing you want to evaluate carefully is the amount of NVRAM and flash to install. Depending on the feature set you will be using, you may end up with more memory than you would think you would have. Price Cisco memory before making your final decision and compare that to what you will pay for it at the time of order. It is far cheaper as a general rule to buy what you need up front instead of adding it later. While you can buy non-Cisco memory and save some money, I havent found that to be worth it when you have problems and find out that Cisco wont provide support when they see non-Cisco memory installed.

When you look at the front of a supervisor engine, you will notice one to disk compact flash slots. I would encourage you to put in at least one CF card in the supervisor engine with sufficient capacity to hold at least two different IOS binaries as well as mulitple copies of the configuration file used that particular 6500 chassis. While you can fire up a TFTP or FTP server quickly enough to transfer this information, it is handy to have what you need locally.

I haven't worked much with the Juniper gear, so I won't be able to help you much in this area. I would suggest looking at what other companies are using where you are located. Also, see what type of technical talent pool is available. You should be able to hire someone without having to send them to training. Being able to support yourself is something to consider instead of having to be totally depending on a reseller or consultant who may not be available when you really need them. Juniper has offered programs in the past to help those with a Cisco background make the transition to working with Juniper as easy as possible.

Expert's answer

From the information I have read and found, the answer is no. The reason for this is found in an OSPF Design Guide I found on Cisco's web site. When multiple zones are involved, OSPF expects all areas to send routing information into the backbone, which is typically numbered 0.

Another item to keep in mind is that all areas are supposed to be directly connected to Area 0. In the rare cases when this is not possible for whatever the reason, you will need to use a virtual link to connect this particular area into Area 0 (aka backbone).

While there are other references to OSPF that are available, the one that I have listed is the one that I have found multiple references and links to on quite a few of the sites that I reviewed in finding the information to answer your question.

Expert's answer

One source that I have for videos on QoS is www.cbtnuggets.com. They offer a DVD that contains 14 QoS videos (in addition to other info). In addition, here are some links to free videos on QoS:

• www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-RR6Ben6qVnE/lecture_36_qos_multimedia/
• www.berm.co.nz/cgi-bin/video/play.cgi?dSNhcJDuA2s
• www.berm.co.nz/cgi-bin/video/play.cgi?OKfgovwQMyI

Also try checking Jeremy Cioara's blog - it's another good place to query for the availability of such videos.

Obviously, Google is one place to begin your search. I used the keywords

QOS VIDEO

Another place to look is Cisco's new certification portal.

Expert's answer

Using an IMAP mail client for Gmail rather than the browser is safer in a couple of ways:

1) Google's instructions for configuring IMAP show that you need to enable SSL for incoming and outgoing mail where the browser interface can work with or without encryption.

2) You get the benefit that IMAP provides a coherent view of your mail from multiple mail clients and supported mobile devices which can save you from the problems that can come from using multiple POP clients with different message downloading settings which can lead to not being able to retrieve a message from Gmail because it got downloaded to a different computer than the one you are currently using.

If your favorite mail client is on Google's supported list you should be able to follow the instructions and be up and running in no time. If you use a mail client that does not yet have precise instructions posted there is a link to general guidelines for getting the parameter settings established for a successful connection.

Expert's answer

The K/W Call Letters in the United States write up by Thomas White provides a pretty comprehensive overview of the call letter assignments and breaks it down state by state. Wikipedia also provides information about the history of the call sign assignments.

Many of the stations with the "wrong" first letter in the call sign are simply old enough to pre-date the creation of the rules in 1912 and/or the shift of the boundary from the Texas-New Mexico border to the Mississippi river in 1923. Some stations obtained their out of place call signs by making special requests. One example of that is WACO FM in Waco, TX. Today new stations are typically required to adhere to the W/K split at the Mississippi.

Expert's answer

I would recommend to start looking at the job boards for positions similar to what you would like your next job to be. Depending on the size of the company your next position will be at, the job might be network admin only, security admin only or maybe a combination of the two. It is good that your current boss is being supportive; not everyone enjoys that kind of situation.

A plan is always a good thing, and can show the right employer your motivation for moving up and improving yourself. I would suggest talking so recruiters/headhunters looking to fill those kinds of positions to see what kind of experience you will need for the positions they are trying to fill. Depending on the particular recruiter and prospective employers he or she is representing, you might just find a company that is will to give you a chance to move into the kind of position you are looking for with a little less experience.

Getting what experience you can now will be good in the long run. Make sure to document that as well as you can. Consider getting a certification or two along the path(s) you are thinking of pursuing. While this won't make up for a lack of hands-on experience, it will show a perspective employer that you have the ability to learn new roles - and show that you have a baseline of knowledge that has been verified either by an independent source (i.e. Comptia in case of Security+) or by a vendor (i.e. Cisco in the case of one of the switches you are working with).

To help make up for a perceived lack of experience in the fields you are looking to move into, you might have to consider a job that pays the same as - or even less than - what you make now and working your way up. It might also be a possibility to take a position where your "new" duties are only a part of your total duties in order to get your foot in the door.

As to your current degrees, I would suggest de-emphasizing the biology one unless you happen to be pursuing a job with a biology-related company. Some companies, right or wrong, could see you with two bachelors degrees as being "over qualified" without even looking at your other qualifications or experiences.

Expert's answer

As with any specialty, the best answer I can give you is that it depends. It depends on where you are in the world, how many other SAP consultants are in the same general area as you are, what their specialties are and what kind of demand there is for SAP where you are.

Several years ago, when I worked for a company that was converting from being a collection of distributorships around the globe to a unified company, the decision was made to go to an SAP-like system. While there were many consultants available for the project, we looked at what we specifically needed from the system that was being implemented, the timeline we needed it implemented in, the countries that would need to use the system, etc. As the list of requirements grew, the available pool of consultants who could implement that system grew shorter.

For starters, without knowing where you are in the world, check the job boards available in your area. CareerBuilder and Dice might be potential sources of information as to pay rates. I don't mention newspapers as this type of technical position is not one that you would expect to see in the paper. You might want to look for SAP user groups as another source of income information.

Expert's answer

The Dell Inspiron 1721 laptop was only delivered with Vista and so getting XP drivers that work can be a bit of a challenge.

There are third party driver CDs available for download that will solve most of the driver issues for the Inspiron 1721. I had a chance to go through this process myself recently and found, like you, that the wireless network driver was one of the more difficult drivers to get installed and working properly.

In the end, it turned out that the XP wireless network driver available from Dell's support site for the Dell Latitude D531 laptop works for XP on the Inspiron 1721. Download the driver package and run the installer, then go into the Device Manager applet under System in the Control panel and remove the broken entry for the wireless driver and restart the system. When prompted for the driver location after restart choose the folder where you unpacked the D531 driver and you should be able to use the wireless interface when the driver installation completes.

Expert's answer

You should always be concerned about something that could have an impact on your company and its operations. Although you say your ISP appears to have patched its servers, it's still a fair question to ask them. If your ISP can't or won't answer that, I would probably start looking for another ISP.

Even if the ISP answers that it's patched the DNS servers, it never hurts to have a plan B or plan C. Hopefully, you have your domain name registered in such a way that you can make a change to it (i.e. changing the IP address of the DNS servers authoritative for your domain) without having to get the ISP to make the change for you. If that isn't the case now, you need to get that done quickly. You should be in control of your domain name, not the ISP. In the event that you need to change ISPs, being the admin and technical contact for your domain will be one less thing to worry about.

I would suggest looking at either at a commercial DNS service or even some of the free ones if you don't have a large number of A records to worry about. If your ISP is taking care of you, there is no reason to make a change, but it is always good to have a backup plan ready. It would be a good thing to have on the list to periodically check the process of switching over to a backup DNS provider so that when you have to do it for real, that you know what to expect and will be at ease in making the change.

There is always the option of managing your own DNS servers - but I'd recommend this only if you have the time and interest to do so. Unless you have making frequent periodic changes to your A and MX records, this may not be worth the time.

Expert's answer

The best place to start is probably the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) web site where you can find all sorts of overview and technical support information about Microsoft server and SQL server products. Network World's own Microsoft Subnet is another resource I would highly recommend.

I would also ask around to see if it is possible to borrow MSCE certification preparation manuals from the company or co-workers where you are interning if you can. Even older manuals will contain a wealth of concept information that will apply to the newer versions of the Windows Server and SQL Server products.

Tek-tips is another web site with Windows Server and SQL Server specific forums. dBforums is a database-centric site with SQL Server specific forums that you may find helpful as well.

If you have a computer available for experimenting with the products you can download trial versions of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 from Microsoft. Older versions are available as well and you can find them by searching on the MSDN site or your favorite search engine. Be sure you download versions appropriate to your hardware.

You might also take a look at the Express edition of MS SQL Server which you can freely use on small servers and desktops without the time limitations of the trial versions of the full fledged MS SQL Server products.