Salute Friend

It seems that nothing can stop the runaway success of VoIP. Driven by lower cost faster internet connections Internet telephony has become one of the fastest-growing applications on the World Wide Web. But apart from cheap calls, there are other factors which have contributed to this success story. There is clearly a trend toward more innovative and more mobile services and this looks likely to ensure that demand for Internet telephony continues to expand. It is estimated that there are already around four million VoIP UK users in the UK, excluding business subscriptions.
People in the industry point to the proliferation of ADSL broadband connections that do not require line rental for a conventional phone line (naked ADSL), and number portability between conventional and IP phone services as the two key things that will bring elevate the profile of VoIP to new heights.

In fact the effect VoIP has had has been so profound that some have suggested that it may not be long before users can dispense with their traditional landline telephones completely in favour of a broadband phone.

Taking a more pragmatic view, there are certain things that will need to be addressed before that can happen. In the UK Internet telephony providers like Vonage or VoIPTalk will have to look closely at both security and ease of use, as well as continue to deliver a convenient and financially viable service. They certainly offer cheap calls already but, what else do they need to do to ensure a safe future for VoIP?
As the Internet is a network open to everyone the VoIP traffic is no more immune from attack than any other data. Security is an issue for many users, particularly in the business community and the means to increase protection for users would be a welcome step in securing the long-term future of VoIP.

The ease of use issue may not remain a hindrance to development now that handsets that work on mobile networks and, via WiFi or Bluetooth links, over VoIP are now appearing in the shops. This raises the prospect of using low-cost VoIP services at home, in the office or at a WiFi hotspot, but still retaining the flexibility of mobile coverage when out and about.

Some VoIP companies are now selling these handsets, and have set up joint arrangements with wireless hotspots so that their subscribers can make and receive calls in public places without the need for a PC.

It’s likely that some of the restrictions of such handsets i.e. difficulties in hotspots that use web pages for authentication to be addressed imminently.

The advance of newer networking technologies will further reduce the gap between fixed, mobile and VoIP services. Wireless broadband services, in particular WiMax, could create city-wide wireless hotspots, making it possible to make mobile VoIP calls in much wider areas.

Do you remember when laptops for gaming were a niche item? Though they did not ship a big deal they still made the most in relation to other types of notebook. They were the type of notebook everybody wished for but the one they just couldn’t buy. I believe you would say they were the best laptop computers around, at least power wise. Even though they did get everybody thrilled I do not think they sold well because few people really buy laptop computers that are expensive. Sales will pick up though now that larger brands are coming into the sector.

Gaming notebooks are commonly not affordable by most people and established manufacturers know they can exploit the big profit margins even more with their bulk manufacturing. With such thin markup on other notebooks it is not a surprise they want to be involved. International brands could surely find it effortless to get purchasers to buy these laptop computers. What would little system builders possibly do if they are priced out of the sector? I know for sure that laptops for gaming will get greatly affordable for everyone. Consumers just feel a lot more confident making a major purchase from a well known name.

The hype being generated regarding the latest brand name gaming notebooks is making potential prospects see them to be the best laptop computers in history. In my point of view the unknown resellers essentially pounce on this if they are to go on. I can see the ability of being able to configure the notebook computer to be a key purchasing decision. These kinds of buyers generally are well educated in the technology and will compare spec for spec. For a few purchasers, the specs and power would be way more important in comparison to style. As a potential purchaser myself this is in fact all a good change for me. As this pushes down the prices even greater, premium technology will get even more attainable to the masses. Things move so rapidly in this market that I cannot precisely make any certain predications. Premium prices should remain and be expected with the latest laptop computers is what I am thinking. Competition normally drives companies to create better products and provide increased value so that appears promising.

The laptop computer business has gone from strength to strength in recent times. I just scared that like last year we will have problems getting our hands on the newest technology too. It looks like once there are backlogs those will only grow because demand for laptops is not diminishing at all. It’s an industry which is also tough to keep up with it respect of of technology because its changing all the time.

Gaming laptops have recently been attracting a lot of interest. I think gaming laptops have never been at such low prices. You can grab some really good deals out there that will get you gaming. I think laptops are a excellent choice for playing games. Maybe not exactly for the hardcore but they’re excellent for the rest of us. Some of the annoyances like heat and noise still exist to an extent but barely in the midrange models. The cases are also fairly slick. With that mentioned gaming laptops should never be thought of in the same category as their desktop rivals. There will be a difference and the implication here is that its not a massive factor for the masses. I don’t give it too long before we see ultra light gaming laptops on the market.

Numerous small assembelers offer custom built laptops to specialist markets. One thing with custom laptops is that you can aquire higher spec components. In my mind being able to choose the processor, ram and hard drive is ideally catered for the more hardcore people out there. The vast amount of laptop computers are made for the casual consumer which means you may not find what you’re searching for. You can get a far suitable laptop by obtaining it custom built. The good thing is that there are a large number of of companies who provide custom laptops and they offer quality customer care too. The fact that there are options and competition makes its very viable.

Ample amounts of exciting things are being released soon. A particular subject I haven’t mentioned is the evolution of cheap ultramobiles. So many duplicate products have already been launched at a fast pace. I really think that we’re likely to see feather weigth 15″ laptops in the near future as well. I thing getting an appealing price point is a main roadblock in all this. For sure the technology is accessible. It would hardly surprise me to see minute gaming laptops in the next forthcoming future. All the companies are vying to launch the next big portable so it’ll be interesting to survey.

I would recommend these if you’re looking to buy laptops.

The concept of the invisible ether or ‘aether’ is an old concept dating to the time of the ancient Greeks. They considered the ether as that medium which permeated all of the universe and even believed the ether to be another element. Along with Earth, Wind, Fire and Water Aristotle proposed that the ether should be treated as the fifth element or quintessence; this term which literally means ‘fifth element’ has even survived down to the present day to explain an exotic form of ‘dark energy’ which is crucial in some cosmological models. These ideas spread throughout the world until the advent of a new springtime in scientific thought. The first person in the modern era to conceive of the idea of an underlying ether to support the movement of light waves was seventeenth century dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens.

Many others followed in expressing their opinions on the ether concept. Whilst Isaac Newton disagreed with Huygens wave theory he also wrote about the ‘aethereal medium’ although he expressed his consternation in not knowing what the aether was. Newton later renounced the ether theory because in his mind the infinite stationary ether would interrupt the motions of the enormous masses (the stars and planets) as they moved in space. This rejection was reinforced by some other problematical wave properties which were not explicable at the time; most notably, the production of a double image when light passes through certain translucent materials. This property of matter known as ‘birefringence’ was an important hurdle to be overcome for a proper understanding of the wave nature of light.

Some time later (1720) whilst working on other astronomical issues related to light and the cosmos, English scientist James Bradley made observations in hopes of quantifying a parallax. This effect is an apparent motion of foreground objects in comparison to those in the background. Whilst he was unable to discern this parallax effect he happened to reveal another effect which is prevalent in cosmological observations; this other effect is known as stellar aberration. Bradley was able to easily describe this aberration in terms of Newton’s particle theory of light. However, to do so in light of the wave or undulatory theory was difficult at best since to do so would have required a ‘motionless’ medium; the static nature of this ether concept was of course the property which had originally caused Newton’s denial of the idea.

But Newton’s acolytes would find themselves in a difficult position when it was shown that birefringence could be explained through another interpretation of the nature of light. If light was treated as being in a side to side action or ‘transverse motion’ then birefringence could be attributed to a light wave rather than the particle or corpuscular theory of Newton. This along with the detection of an interference effect for light by Thomas Young in 1801 renewed the ascendancy of the wave theory of light. These findings however carried with them all of the preconceived notions prevalent in the scientific mind. Since it was assumed that waves like water and sound waves required a medium of propagation, it was similarly assumed that light still needed a medium or ether for its waves to be transmitted across the universe.

However, further problems would afflict the ether theory. Because of the unique properties of a transverse wave it became apparent that this hypothetical explanation required the ether to be a solid. In response, Cauchy, Green and Stokes contributed theoretical and mathematical observations to an ‘entrainment’ hypothesis which later came to be known as the ‘ether drag’ concept. But nothing would give more impetus to these ideas than when James Clerk Maxwell’s equations (1870s) required the constancy of the speed of light (c). When the implications of Maxwell’s equations are worked out by physicists, it was understood that as a result of the need for a constant speed of light only one reference frame could meet this requirement under the teachings of Galilean Newtonian relativity. Therefore, scientists expected that there existed a unique absolute reference frame which would comply with this need; as a result, the ether would again be stationary.

As a consequence, by the late nineteenth century the aether was assumed to be an immovable rigid medium. However, earlier previous theories existed as to the nature of the aether. One of the most famous of these is known as the ‘aether drag’ hypothesis. In this concept, the aether is a special environment within which light moves. Also, this aether would be connected to all material objects and would move along with them. Measuring the speed of light in such a system would render a constant velocity for light no matter where one tested for light’s speed. This ‘aether drag’ idea originated in the aftermath of Francois Arago’s experiment which appeared to show the constancy of the speed of light. Arago believed that refractive indexes would change when measured at different times of the day or year as a result of stellar and earthly motion. In spite of his efforts, he did not notice any change in the refractive indexes so measured.

Many other experiments would follow; these were performed in order to find evidence of the aether in its many different abstractions. However the most important of these was conducted by american scientists Michelson and Morley. Their experiment considered another alleged effect of a different aether theory which came to be known as the aether wind. Since the aether permeated the entire universe, the earth would move within the ether as it spun on its axis and moved within the solar system about the sun. This movement of the earth with respect to the aether gave rise rise to the idea that it would be possible to detect an ‘ether wind’ which would be sensed because of the aforementioned movement. Thus, their experiment was essentially an attempt to detect the so-called ether wind. This mysterious zephyr would be nearly impossible to detect because the aether only infinitesimally affected the surrounding material world. Michelson first experimented in 1881 with a primitive version of his interferometer; a mechanism designed to measure the wave like properties of light. He would follow this by combining forces with Morley in the most famous ‘null’ experiment of physics.

In this investigation, Michelson utilized an improved version of his interferometer device. Michelson’s apparatus would help him win the Nobel prize for his optical precision instruments and the investigations carried out with them. His most important study being what became known as the Michelson Morley experiment of 1887. Michelson and Morley used a beam splitter made of a partially transparent mirror and two other mirrors arranged horizontally and vertically from a light source. When a beam of light traveled from a source of coherent light to the half-silvered mirror (the semitransparent mirror) it is transmitted to either of the horizontal or vertical mirrors. When the light returned to the eyepiece of an observer the separately returning light waves would combine destructively or constructively. This phenomenon is known as the interference effect for light. It was hoped that a shifting of the interference fringes from that which was normally predicted would be able to ascertain the existence of the aether wind.

To detect this effect, the Michelson interferometer was prepared in such a manner as to minimize any and all extraneous sources of experimental error. It was located in a lower level of a stone edifice to eliminate heat and oscillatory effects which might comprise the experimental results. Additionally, the interferometer was mounted atop a marble slab that was floated in a basin of mercury. This was so that the apparatus could be moved through a variety of positions with respect to the invisible ether. But despite their many preparations the experiment did not yield the expected fringe patterns. Thus, Michelson and Morley concluded that there was no evidence for the existence of the ether. Others would replicate the experiment in different incarnations which modified the premise of the experiment. Each and every one returning a similar negative result. Modern theorists have taken these results and those of many other experiments as being indicative of the non-existence of the aether. However, even the negative result of Michelson Morley has come in to question as far back as 1933.

In that year, Dayton Miller demonstrated the fact that even though the duo’s experiment had not specifically found the expected range of interference patterns, they had found an interesting little noticed effect. Miller then went on to suggest that Michelson Morley had found an experimental sine wave like set of data that correlated well with the predicted pattern of data. He also described how thermal and directional assumptions inherent in the experimental arrangement may have impacted badly on the fringe interference data. Thus, the test may have been performed in an imperfectly conceived experimental setup and with a built in mathematical bias against the detection of an appropriate outcome. Thus, in the future the aether theory in some form or another may still be sustainable as a foundational theory of physics.

Perhaps it is best to leave with these ideas as expressed in 1920 by Einstein who stated that he believed the ether theory to still be relevant to his ideas on space and time:

“More careful reflection teaches us, however, that the special theory of relativity does not compel us to deny ether. We may assume the existence of an ether”

he continued:

“Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether”

and finally:

“According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable media, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it.”

Michael Strauss is an engineer and author of Requiem for Relativity the Collapse of Special Relativity, a serious critique on the fallacies of Special Relativity. To contact the author visit: www.relativitycollapse.net or www.relativitycollapse.com

Background programs running:

This is the biggest reason and can be fixed quickly and for free… it’s possible that your computer may have so many background programs running simultaneously that there is not enough resources to run normally.

The end result of this is that your computer begins to run more and more slowly over time as you add other programs.

There are two remedies, get Anti-Spyware and use the feature which allows you to view running programs and to disable any of those running programs. Or, if you like to get into your system with your bare hands, use the remedy below.

How to disable unneeded background programs:

All icons in your computers system tray are background programs using memory. There are more, but you will get a hint from that system tray. To see and exit all running background programs:

Windows 95 - ME

a. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time.

b. Click any program or task except Explorer or Systray,

c. and then click End Task.

Repeat steps b and c to quit all programs except Explorer and Systray which are necessary components of Microsoft Windows.

You should now have a clean system. See if the computer runs like it used to… if it does, you will want to prevent those programs from restarting the next time you start the computer.

If you don’t want any background programs starting when you restart the system, and you know what you are doing, you can run msconfig from the run menu and completely disable what you find in the ‘Startup’ tab. If you aren’t that experienced and you want a safe way to disable all those unneeded background programs, get the remedy recommended for the spyware on this page. It has a feature allowing you to disable startup programs safely.

Windows XP through 2003 Server

a. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time.

b. Choose ‘Task Manager’ tab to view and end any running programs.

c. disabling these programs will require that you change their startup properties in the ‘Administrative Tools’ area of your system. The Windows Help menu will walk you though that process if you search ‘disable programs’ in your help section.

Spyware:

Many kinds of software add themselves to your system start menu without even asking your permission. Sometimes you will click on a link or visit a hacker website that installs spyware on your computer without you knowing. NOADWARE is what i use and its free to try.

Fragmented hard drive:

This results from programs being loaded and deleted. Run the Window’s hard drive defragmenter (Defrag) once a month. It is under your System Tools menu. Your computer’s help menu will tell you how to do it.

Other problems: (Possible, but unlikely to cause problems)

You could have old or conflicting Windows device drivers. An example would be you might actually have two entirely different video drivers on your system and Windows could actually be alternately using both of them.

To prevent this problem, First boot the computer in Safe Mode by pressing and holding the F8 key during startup, after the DOS memory check has completed.

While in Safe Mode select Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Devices. Click on all the devices and see if the various drivers have any yellow or red exclamation marks (which indicates a driver conflict) and also determine if there are any duplicate drivers that can be eliminated.

You may have to delete and reload a driver to correct these problems. Duplicate drivers can and should be deleted.

As each new Windows program is installed and uninstalled, it leaves behind parts of itself that can slow down or crash your computer. These are mostly .dlls and other shared files.

It’s also very possible when uninstalling a program that needed Windows system files can be deleted. When your computer asks if you want to uninstall shared files it’s usually safest to say no — even if your uninstall program claims the files are not being used.

Old Windows drivers can be found by booting into Safe Mode, then opening Control Panel/System/Devices and ridding your system of old drivers.

Otherwise, the only real answer to this problem is to pick up ERROR DOCTOR or just reload Windows into a new directory which eliminates all old junk and leftover files. Reloading Windows is something to do last, as you will also have to reload all your Windows settings, drivers, and programs.

You could be lacking system memory - The only time this may be a problem is if you have an older system and upgraded your operating system without adding some more memory. You should probably upgrade to 256 or 512MB or more of system memory, while it isn’t free, it isn’t very expensive like it was at one time. Check Tiger Direct to find great deals on memory.

My name is Dustin. Everyday I try to bring free information to people on how to fix their own computers.
So feel free to reuse this post. But, when you do please email me at greenberet496@yahoo.com. http://www.mypcfixes.com

Thank you

The other night, leg cramps kept me up at night so I found myself
watching these various couples discuss their success over buying
a Real Estate course in this infomercial, at 2AM.

The evidence that people are purchasing these “Sudden Wealth”
programs are right there on the television screen in front of me.

After all, the advertisers of these “Complete Kits”
would not otherwise continue to pay for this advertising
without continuous customers.

I’m *not* necessarily trying to say to you that it’s _always_
a bad idea to call that 800 number and order.

… However, if you have a subtle, but conflicting
dialog in your head while dialing the numbers on the
phone…

- in other words, if you are going *against* your instincts -

.. then you are probably reinforcing one of the following
beliefs, unconsciously, by being the willing consumer:

Belief #1. I am not “plugged in” enough to this Universe to ever
receive just the right Avenue for my wealth, one that
suits *me*. Things just don’t work out for me that
way, so I will force a solution by buying into this.

( can you guess how possibly unhappy someone’s external circum-
stances would be, with this belief? Guess what? If you exist,
than you Are plugged in!)

Belief #2. “My Wealth is decided by External Forces, and this

Instant-Cash marketer on the screen looks like he’s
got ‘Inside Information’ on these external forces,
so I’d better get in on this.”

Belief #3 “If I don’t buy this program, than it means that I’m
probably passing up on the incredible lifestyle I
see in the background” - the infomercial sponsers
probably assume a mostly male audience, because the
most prominent “props” are the young, attractive
women on a boat - which I’m not complaining about.

Other than reinforcing limiting beliefs, this kind of “Aimlessly
Grasping outward”, for solutions of getting more money is an ex-
ample of

- Backward Thinking -

at least to me - and I’ll explain why I think this is the case..

The *only* thing worth spending your investment of emotional
and thought energy is:

What does *your* Ideal Life look like, from the time you get up in
the morning, to WHO you are with, WHAT you might doing,
WHERE you live, etc..?

Those ancient, and not so ancient writers such as Wallace Wattles,
Charles Fillmore, Neville Goddard who wrote about
Universal Principles, such as the Law of Attraction,
truly led the way on how to Radiate the proper emotionalized
thoughts!

Think: END RESULT..

“Assume the Feeling of the Wish Fulfilled.” - Neville

It’s a *simple* habit to get into - but not necessarily *easy* -
to Visualize with Feeling a picture of what your ideal life is,
on a daily basis.

I say “Not Easy”, because: We put so much importance
on our current physical reality.

Wallace Wattles said that this is the hardest work for us to
to do …

We DO need to dwell on - with our thoughts - What we desire
vs
Reinforcing (with our attention), the External appearances

Besides doing your best to visualize daily and with Feeling,
also, I’ve found through a lot of reading, and application
of these concepts gleaned from my reading, that
Life gives you nice bonuses when you simply:

=> Do something you Love doing <=
=> just for the Joy it gives you <=

- The first reason is that when you are doing something you
love, oftentimes, you can’t help but create something that is
valuable to other people, which then returns back to you.

- Personally to me, though, the better reason is that
you truly charge your body and emotions up
with a rich quality of sheer joy that simply
Attracts whatever you require as answers to financial needs,
by the same laws written about through several thousands of
years. From within, without.

You might have heard of people saying something similar to:
“If I won the lottery, I could finally stay home and just Paint”.

But I’ll bet that giving that Gift that’s inside of you - and
that’s just *aching* to be Given - and NOW, not Later - is what
could Launch Things Off in your life in a big way.

This makes you very Magnetic for attracting more.

( Start: Now - but don’t make the painting _itself_, in your
expectations, to be the *only* Avenue or Channel through which
the Universe delivers that lifestyle that you envision. )

So, to sum up, I’d say the odds are good, that using the money
that’s otherwise pegged for the Day Trader Instant-Business-Now
package ..

.. would better be spent on the Web development software if you
crave doing this type of thing, or if you’re a Painter, buy the
paint and brushes, or if you want to create music,
than buy that music software you’ve been wanting, or the guitar.

( If you Do love the thought of Day Trading, and your instinct
about the Infomercial gives you a “YES”, then call and order )

As Neville says, (and Steve paraphrases),
“Wear the Feeling-State of Having Your Objective Realized”.

Live in your Ultimate Dreamed-Of Life NOW as much as you can
with your actions, environment and especially in quiet meditation
sessions with your internal images.

Live *From* the Feeling As If You were already in that environ-
ment.

If you were that person with that level of consciousness,
would you be sitting in front of the TV actually pondering over
buying that packaged kit that involves you doing something you
wouldn’t actually enjoy doing?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
www.MyInfinitePowerRevealed.com/About.html
is a place which celebrates the Connection
between Ancient Spiritual Literature
and Quantum Physics with Resources
and Articles on Wealth and Personal Freedom
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

About the Author

Steve Bailey is currently playing the role of a left-brain computer programmer whose passion is Success Principles and Quantum Physics.

Making leather armor isn’t difficult, and is easily learned with the right instructions.

Molding Leather Armor

In order to mould leather armor, soak it in water until it becomes pliable and soft.

Then place it in the mould until it dries and hardens.

Cuir Bouilli

The application of heat will make the leather harder. If you were making a cover for a shield, for example, or other pieces of leather amour, the leather would be dipped quickly in boiling water before being moulded. This is called ‘cuir bouilli’, a process employed in making leather armor.

Using vegetable tanned leather with at least a weight of 8 ounces, soak the piece in cold water. This will ensure a uniform absorption when the leather armor is placed in the boiling water. Heat a pot of water to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, then immerse the wet leather for approximately thirty seconds to a minute, until it darkens and begins to curl.

Remove the leather from the water and stretch it around the mould you have prepared, tacking it in place. Allow for shrinkage if you are cutting the leather armor from a pattern. Of course you can water-harden a larger piece of leather, flatten it under a cutting board, and then cut out the individual pieces of leather armor you want, and then mould them to the desired shape. At this stage it will be very stretchy.

The boiling process makes the leather armor thicker and harder, with a degree of shrinkage dependent upon the leather itself and the amount of immersion time. The longer it remains in the water, the more pronounced the effects.

A twenty second immersion can result in a shrinkage of 7/8s, with a thickening of 25%, while a forty second immersion results in a 2/3rds shrinkage and a doubling of the thickness. As in any aspect of leather working, it is best to experiment with scrap pieces of leather first to get the effect you want.

Types of Moulds / Single Mould Moulds can consist of one or more pieces. Folding the leather around the actual object for which a cover is being made, where the mould is the object, is an option when making a case for a gun, an arm guard in archery, a sheaf for a knife or eye-caps for binoculars. Use tacks to hold it in place while it dries.

A Two-piece Mould

A two-piece mould acts like two slices of bread, with the leather being the sandwich filling. In this way, leather armor shields were made. The leather armor is left in the mould until it dries.

A Three-piece Mould

A three-piece mould allows the creation of items like bags and eyeglass cases without using a gusset. The leather is sewn on three sides. Two pieces of the mould are inserted on either side of the interior of the wet leather, and then a wedge is driven between the middle. The forms are left until the leather is dried.

Tools to Use

• Wooden mould


• Brass or steel tacks

Summary

• Make a mould to form the leather to the desired shape


• Wet the leather


• One piece mould: fit the wet leather armor over the mould


• Two piece mould: sandwich the leather between the mould


• Three piece mould: fit the pieces inside the leather


• Leave the leather armor to dry before removing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hey! Want To Know More About Leather Craft?
Here’s How to Get Your Answers Quick and Easy
Click Here ==> Leather Craft

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.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!