San Francisco Walking Tours - From History to Ghosts

While it's said that "nobody walks in L.A.," it's known that everyone walks in San Francisco. Having been a resident and frequent visitor to San Francisco, I can tell you that the very idea of walking in the City has always seemed odd to me. Let's face it; it's not the flattest town in which to walk. Yet, that's what everyone does. Walk, and huff and puff, and walk some more. There's just something about San Francisco that makes you want to step outside your hotel and walk. Perhaps it has something to do with the many different fascinating neighborhoods and buildings that compel people to slow down and take it all in.

If you're planning a vacation or holiday to San Francisco one of the best ways to actually experience the city is to take a walking tour. And, when it comes to walking tours, both free and fee-required, San Francisco has more than its share (it must have taken some from L.A.).

Free Walking Tours

First, let's begin with the free tours offered by San Francisco City Guides, a non-profit organization of more than 200 trained volunteers who lead free walking tours in San Francisco (donations, of course, are gladly accepted). If you visit their website, sfcityguides.org, you'll notice an interesting array of free walking tours offered every day of the week, tours like "1906 Earthquake and Fire," "Art Deco Marina," "Chinatown," "City Hall," "Downtown Deco," "Financial District" and "Gold Coast Architecture." A few of the more interesting walks include:

"Bawdy & Naughty"

This downtown two-block walk explores the arrival of "professional" women in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. And, no, we're not talking about women doctors or lawyers.

"Castro: Tales of the Village"

The Castro area in San Francisco is a predominately gay area of town. But, it wasn't always that way. This tour explores the early years of the Castro.

"Coit Tower Murals"

This tour takes visitors to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill to view the Murals created by some of California's leading artists of the 30s depicting life in the Great Depression. The murals are definitely worth seeing, either as a tour group or on your own. San Francisco City Guides say their tour shows you some murals not shown to the general public, so I recommend you consider the tour for this San Francisco landmark.

"Ghost Walks"

Here are a couple fun walking tours. The "Ghost Walk at City Hall" and the "Ghost Walk at the Palace" are held in October only, and explore, what else, ghostly occurrences.

The tours typically begin in easy to identify and very public places and most of them even meet near access to public transportation in order to accommodate visitors coming from other areas of the city.

Fee-Required Tours:

While you do have plenty of opportunity for free walking tours, you might also consider some of the fee-required tours. One such fee-required tour is Hobnob Tours, a walking tour of Nob Hill, often times referred to as Snob Hill due to the number of wealthy people who live there. This two-hour tour costs $30 and takes you to an elegant ballroom where Tony Bennett belted out "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," through spectacular Grace Cathedral, through Huntington Park, with a cable car ride up Nob Hill. There is an optional breakfast, lunch or high tea at added cost. You can call for more information at 866-851-1123.

Another Fee-required tour is a tour of Chinatown which includes a visit to a fortune cookie factory and herbal pharmacy, as well as a hosted 10-course Dim Sum lunch at a Chinatown restaurant. The tour-only price is $28 for adults, $15 for children 6-17. With the added Dim Sum lunch the price is $40 for adults, $27 for children. You can call for reservations at 415-982-8839.

Whichever tour you decide to take you will probably leave you feeling satisfied, either with a greater insight to San Francisco, or with great Dim Sum.

Shari Hearn is a writer and creator of Top Vacation Spots, where you can learn about such things as Canary Island Holidays.

 

CCNP certification is getting a new look at the end of 2006. The BSCI and BCMSN exams are being updated, and the CIT and BCRAN exams are being retired. Let's take a look at what to expect from the new BSCI exam.

According to Cisco's exam blueprint - admittedly a very broad blueprint at this time - the major new topics are IP version 6 (IPv6) and multicasting. The addition of these two topics will make an already demanding Cisco certification exam that much tougher, but this is a great change for the exam and for the candidate. IPv6 is just going to become more and more prevalent in today's networks, and multicasting is as well.

Multicasting for the Cisco CCNP BSCI exam is going to go far beyond what you learned about it in your CCNA studies. For the new BSCI exam, you'll need to know the different methods of creating multicast groups as well as assigning members to them. This material was previously limited to CCIE-level books, and while I don't look for the questions to be as hard as the CCIE written exam, multicasting is not an easy topic and should not be taken lightly by the CCNP candidate in 2007.

One major CCNP exam topic that isn't going anywhere is BGP. The Border Gateway Protocol has been a big part of previous BSCI exams, and that looks to continue.

If you're pursuing your CCNP certification in 2007, be sure to monitor Cisco's website for additions to the CCNP blueprint. It's obvious that Cisco has raised the bar for CCNP certification, and earning this important Cisco certification will in turn raise your market value and networking knowledge like never before. Watch for future tutorials examining the other three new CCNP exams!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 100 free certification exam tutorials, including Cisco CCNA certification test prep articles. His exclusive Cisco CCNA study guide and Cisco CCNA training is also available!

Visit his blog and sign up for Cisco Certification Central, a daily newsletter packed with CCNA, Network+, Security+, A+, and CCNP certification exam practice questions! A free 7-part course, ?How To Pass The CCNA?, is also available, and you can attend an in-person or online CCNA boot camp with The Bryant Advantage!

 

Cisco CCNP Certification Training: What's New On The BSCI 642-901 Exam?

 

The CCNP exams are changing at the end of 2006.  What's new about the new BSCI exam?  Find out from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

CCNP certification is getting a new look at the end of 2006.  The BSCI and BCMSN exams are being updated, and the CIT and BCRAN exams are being retired.  Let's take a look at what to expect from the new BSCI exam.

According to Cisco's exam blueprint - admittedly a very broad blueprint at this time - the major new topics are IP version 6 (IPv6) and multicasting.  The addition of these two topics will make an already demanding Cisco certification exam that much tougher, but this is a great change for the exam and for the candidate.  IPv6 is just going to become more and more prevalent in today's networks, and multicasting is as well. 

Multicasting for the Cisco CCNP BSCI exam is going to go far beyond what you learned about it in your CCNA studies.  For the new BSCI exam, you'll need to know the different methods of creating multicast groups as well as assigning members to them.  This material was previously limited to CCIE-level books, and while I don't look for the questions to be as hard as the CCIE written exam, multicasting is not an easy topic and should not be taken lightly by the CCNP candidate in 2007.

One major CCNP exam topic that isn't going anywhere is BGP.  The Border Gateway Protocol has been a big part of previous BSCI exams, and that looks to continue.

If you're pursuing your CCNP certification in 2007, be sure to monitor Cisco's website for additions to the CCNP blueprint.  It's obvious that Cisco has raised the bar for CCNP certification, and earning this important Cisco certification will in turn raise your market value and networking knowledge like never before.  Watch for future articles taking a closer look at the other three new CCNP exams!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com).

For his FREE seven-part course, ?How To Pass The CCNA?, visit the website and sign up today! Daily free CCNA, CCNP, Network+, Security+, and A+ certification questions, too!

Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers

It's a week 11 NFL match up of division foes. The Seahawks lead the series 8-6 and have plowed through the 49ers in the last 6 meetings. They could very well post another 14+ point victory this week.

The 49ers are coming off another victory--they are 4-5 now--and hope to make it three in a row. Two weeks ago they beat the Minnesota Vikings in San Francisco 9-6. To say this game was boring is an understatement. Last week they went to Detroit and beat a lackluster Lions team 19-13. I think the Detroit Tigers would have gave them a better run for the money.

The Seahawks continue to move forward without MVP running back Shaun Alexander and Pro Bowl QB Matt Hasslebeck. However, there's good new from Seahawks camp. Both will be practicing this week. They might get some limited duty this weekend--depending how the game goes. Last week backup RB Morris and QB Wallace helped the Seahawks beat division foe St. Louis. The play of the game was the 90ish yard return by newly sign WR Nate Burleson.

Wallace is playing pretty well and the 49ers aren't exactly a top team. We might see Hasslebeck play a series or even take another week off. The remaining schedule favors the Seahawks, so they can be a bit cautious here.

I'm looking for the Hawks offense to explode on the soft 49ers secondary. This is a team--49ers--that gave up 40+ points to Chicago, Kansas City and San Diego. They also gave up 34 to Arizona and 38 to Philadelphia. This could be another explosive day for the Seahawks offense. Look for them to open it up early to get a lead and give their returning stars the opportunity to "practice" during the game. This is another great opportunity for the Seahawks defense to tighten up and work on some issues.

The author writes articles on many topics including sports wagering, jeu casino, and paris en ligne.

Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Case Study: Frame Relay, Pings, And Routing Protocols

Cisco CCNA certification training includes troubleshooting your own work and that of others. The best CCNA certification training you can do is indeed troubleshooting your own Cisco router and switch configurations - as I'm always telling my students, "I can guarantee that any error you make has been made before, and you'll probably see it again one day." One such common error involves two very important CCNA certification topics - Frame Relay and routing protocols.

A student was working on his CCNA exam home lab and came up with an interesting problem. He set Frame Relay up in a hub-and-spoke configuration with R1 as the hub and R2 and R3 as the spokes. He wrote the following frame map statements:

frame-relay map ip 172.12.123.2 122

frame-relay map ip 172.12.123.3 123

He was able to ping both spokes from the hub, so he assumed everything was working correctly. Then he configured RIP version 2 on the router and got the following result after running "debug ip rip" and clearing the routing table with "clear ip route *":

03:33:01: IP: s=172.12.123.1 (local), d=224.0.0.9 (Serial0), len 72, sending broad/multicast

03:33:01: IP: s=172.12.123.1 (local), d=224.0.0.9 (Serial0), len 72, encapsulation failed

You may have already spotted the problem, and if you did, your CCNA certification exam studies are going well! The problem is that the "broadcast" option was left off the frame map statements. "broadcast" must be configured on frame map statements in order to send broadcasts and multicasts across the frame link. As you know from your CCNA certification exam studies, RIP version 1 broadcasts updates and RIP version 2 multicasts them, so the "broadcast" option must be present for either version to send updates by using those frame mappings.

He then rewrote the frame map statements as shown below....

R1(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.2 122 broadcast

R1(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.3 123 broadcast

... and the RIP updates went out as expected.

R1#debug ip rip

RIP protocol debugging is on

R1#clear ip route *

06:22:13: RIP: sending general request on Loopback0 to 224.0.0.9

06:22:13: RIP: sending general request on Serial0 to 224.0.0.9

06:22:13: RIP: ignored v2 packet from 1.1.1.1 (sourced from one of our addresses)

06:22:14: RIP: received v2 update from 172.12.123.3 on Serial0

06:22:14: 1.1.1.1/32 -> 0.0.0.0 in 3 hops

06:22:14: 2.2.2.2/32 -> 0.0.0.0 in 2 hops

06:22:14: 3.3.3.3/32 -> 0.0.0.0 in 1 hops

06:22:14: 172.12.23.0/24 -> 0.0.0.0 in 1 hops

06:22:14: 172.12.123.0/24 -> 0.0.0.0 in 1 hops

06:22:14: RIP: sending v2 update to 224.0.0.9 via Loopback0 (1.1.1.1)

06:22:14: 2.2.2.2/32 -> 0.0.0.0, metric 3, tag 0

06:22:14: 3.3.3.3/32 -> 0.0.0.0, metric 2, tag 0

06:22:14: 172.12.23.0/24 -> 0.0.0.0, metric 2, tag 0

06:22:14: 172.12.123.0/24 -> 0.0.0.0, metric 1, tag 0

06:22:14: RIP: sending v2 update to 224.0.0.9 via Serial0 (172.12.123.1)

Cisco CCNA certification depends on noticing details like these, and there's no better way to learn these details than by working on real Cisco routers and switches. Whether you're renting rack time online or buying used Cisco routers and switches, real-time debugs and configurations are the way to CCNA certification exam success!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 100 free certification exam tutorials, including Cisco CCNA certification test prep articles. His exclusive Cisco CCNA study guide and Cisco CCNA training is also available!

Visit his blog and sign up for Cisco Certification Central, a daily newsletter packed with CCNA, Network+, Security+, A+, and CCNP certification exam practice questions! A free 7-part course, ?How To Pass The CCNA?, is also available, and you can attend an in-person or online CCNA boot camp with The Bryant Advantage!

 

Cisco CCNP CIT Exam Training: Creating A Network Baseline

 

Creating a network baseline is an important skill for the CCNP exams, and it's even more important in real-world networks.  Learn the basic of creating a baseline from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

The first thing we've got to do in order to document our network is to create a network baseline.  After all, if we don't know our goals, we can't accomplish them.  A baseline is really a "network snapshot", a picture of our network devices and their performance - which also helps us spot issues before they happen.

Every network has its "breaking point", the point at which it can no longer transfer data effectively.  By creating a baseline, you can see what the current network load is now - and by maintaining that baseline, you can spot network issues well before they become critical.  For example, say you baseline all your network routers, and part of that is noting the CPU capability and usage.  By maintaining the network baseline, you can note smaller, gradual increases in CPU usage and do something about it before the situation becomes critical.

Establishing a baseline also gives less-experienced network personnel a starting point for troubleshooting, and it gives new network support personnel a starting point as well.

To begin that task, we've got to define where this baseline will begin and end - in other words, we must define the scope of the baseline.  Some questions to ask:

What is the scope of this baseline?

What goals do we have for our network?

What network devices will be part of this baseline?

What is the objective here?  Why are we creating this baseline?

Baseline construction methods differ from one vendor to another, but I recommend the first thing you do  when creating a baseline is taking inventory.  Why?  First, it's hard to create a full network picture if you don't know everything that's in your network; second, many networks are poorly inventoried.

When you're creating network documentation, consistency is vital.  This goes for abbreviations, symbols, and icons.  There are sets of Cisco icons for use in Microsoft Visio - find and use these icons when documenting and diagramming your network.  Keep your usage of these icons consistent as well.

Decide upon your scope and your goals, and stick with that decision.  Don't start documenting one part of the network and then jump to another part. 

Also, don't hide the documentation!  If I have to substitute for you at a client site, I should be able to find the documentation without asking anyone.

Most importantly, maintain the documentation.  Nothing is worse than seeing a date at the top of a network baseline doc that's from last year. (Or the last century.)  Don't fall into the trap of "I'll catch the documentation up next week", because I can practically guarantee that no matter how great your work ethic is, something's going to happen that will distract you from getting the documentation done.  Do it now.

In short, when creating network documentation, follow these rules:

Define the scope of the documentation and stick to it.

Define your objective and the values to be documented.

Consistency is key.  Keep abbreviations and terminology consistent from document to document.

Make sure the appropriate personnel have access to the documentation.

Keep the documentation current.

Your client will thank you, and those that follow you will thank you as well!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 200 free certification exam tutorials, including CCNA certification training articles. His exclusive CCNA study guide is also available!Visit his blog and sign up for Cisco Certification Central, a daily newsletter packed with CCNA, Network+, Security+, A+, and CCNP certification exam practice questions! A free 7-part course, ?How To Pass The CCNA?, is also available, and you can attend an in-person or online Cisco CCNA training boot camp with The Bryant Advantage!

San Francisco on the Cheap

If you?ve ever visited San Francisco, you know it can be a very expensive city. Hotel costs, restaurant tabs, valet fees and cab fares can add up quite quickly. But, if you know where the values are, that trip to San Francisco can actually fit into your budget quite nicely.

First, let?s start with lodging. Yes, it?s nice to stay at the Grand Hyatt on Union Square or the Mark Hopkins. But, let?s face it, they?re expensive. For budget considerations, I suggest you consider Lombard Street. No, not the crooked part of Lombard Street, but the section of Lombard Street which runs through the Cow Hollow and Marina districts in the northern part of San Francisco, near the Golden Gate Bridge.

You can find a nice room on Lombard Street for just under $100 a night, which is a far cry from the hotels on Union Square. But, what kind of room will your $100 get you? Of course, you?re not going to get the luxury of a fancy hotel, but you?re not paying for luxury. You?re paying to enjoy San Francisco. Your $100 will buy you a comfortable, clean room. Also, you will generally receive free parking. If you drive to San Francisco or rent a car in San Francisco, free parking is a big deal. The luxury hotels usually charge for parking, as well as a in & out fees when you retrieve your car for a day trip or night out.

Lombard Street is also a great location. Just north of Lombard Street is Chestnut Street, with a movie theater, shops and wonderful food. To the south a few blocks you?ll find Union Street, with upscale shops and, again, wonderful food. Lombard Street is also a good location for bus service to all parts of San Francisco, eliminating the need for expensive taxi rides.

You have numerous choices for lodging along Lombard Street. I?ve stayed at the Cow Hollow Motor Inn (415-921-5800) and find it to be good, inexpensive choice, with free parking, with a nice, inexpensive Italian restaurant located just north on Steiner Street (Ristorante Parma). One caveat I have about Cow Hollow, which can probably be applied to any of the motels on Lombard Street, is that you will probably want to request an inside room off the main streets, as they can get quite loud. Another motel you might consider would be La Luna Inn (415-346-4664), a recently renovated inn with some luxuries you wouldn?t expect from a budget motel, such as pillow-top mattresses, flat screen TVs, wireless internet access and complimentary muffins, breads, coffee, tea and juices served every morning. All that for just under $100 per night for a single king or queen bed.

Restaurants can also add up to the cost of a vacation. San Francisco has a large amount of wonderful restaurants at inexpensive prices. Of course, you have to know which ones they are. Those would usually be the ones the locals frequent, so if you want to avoid over-priced restaurants, you?d stay away from restaurants in tourist traps like Fisherman?s Wharf and go for neighborhood restaurants, such as those found in Cow Hollow and the Marina District, 24th Street in Noe Valley, or Potrero Hill. One very inexpensive restaurant I?d recommend in Potrero Hill is San Francisco Bar B Que, 1328 18th St., a wonderful little Thai BBQ restaurant that serves great food at cheap prices. If there?s a wait, just put your name on the list and bop into Bloom?s Saloon a couple doors down for a drink and great views of the downtown skyline.

As for inexpensive things to do in San Francisco, check out the free walking tours offered by San Francisco City Guides, a non-profit organization of more than 200 trained volunteers who lead free walking tours in San Francisco. Their website at sfcityguides.org lists all the many different walking tours of such sites as Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, and even ghost walks of supposedly haunted locations.

San Francisco is truly a great city to visit. It?s even better when you know you can visit and experience all the city has to offer without breaking the bank.

Shari Hearn is a writer and creator of Top Vacation Spots, where you can learn more about things to do in San Francisco.

 

CCNA Certification: Three Occasions To Reload Or Reopen A Cisco Router Interface

Passing the CCNA certification exam means that you know how to configure and troubleshoot a Cisco router instead of using what I call the "hope method" - you know, "Let's reload the router and hope that takes care of it." The majority of Cisco router configurations take effect without the need for a reload, but every once in a while you just have to reload a router or shut and reopen an interface. Let's take a look at three such scenarios.

The first is when you change an OSPF Router ID from its default. For the new RID to take effect, you must either reload the router or clear the OSPF process, which means that all existing adjacencies will come down. Cisco routers are kind enough to tell you this with the following message after you configure a new RID: "Reload or use "clear ip ospf process" command, for this to take effect".

In a previous tutorial, I showed you how to configure an Etherchannel. You have to place each port into the Etherchannel with the channel-group command, and if you do so individually, some of the ports may go into error-disabled state, or "err-disable". This can also happen as a result of port security enforcement. You can see this with the show interface command:

sw1#show int fast 0/1

FastEthernet0/1 is down, line protocol is down (err-disabled)

A syslog message putting that port into err-disabled state will look like this:

04:10:23: %PM-4-ERR_DISABLE: channel-misconfig error detected on Po1, putting Fa0/1 in err-disable state

If this happens during an Etherchannel configuration, just finish the config and then shut and reopen the ports in err-disabled state. They'll come back up and be placed into the Etherchannel.

Finally, our old friend the SPID often makes us shut and reopen the BRI interface. If the BRI interface is open and you configure SPIDs on it, the SPID can be absolutely correct and you'll still see this in the output of show isdn status:

spid1 configured, spid1 NOT sent, spid1 NOT valid

At least the Cisco router puts "NOT" in caps, right? It's easier to see that way! With SPIDs, before you call the service provider or check the SPID you entered about 40 times, just shut and reopen the interface. That usually does the trick.

When you earn your CCNA certification, that means that you know what you're doing instead of hoping that you do - and part of that knowing is knowing when a simple reload or open/shut will take care of the issue.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 200 free certification exam tutorials, including CCNA certification training articles. His exclusive CCNA study guide is also available!

Visit his blog and sign up for Cisco Certification Central, a daily newsletter packed with CCNA, Network+, Security+, A+, and CCNP certification exam practice questions! A free 7-part course, ?How To Pass The CCNA?, is also available, and you can attend an in-person or online Cisco CCNA training boot camp with The Bryant Advantage!