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!

Cisco CCNA Certification Training: Etherchannels And Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

 

Etherchannels and STP are major topics on the CCNA exam, but how do they work together?  Learn the vital details from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

Cisco CCNA certification looks great on your resume, and it also teaches you vital real-world networking skills.  One exam topic that you'll definitely see in today's networks is the configuration of an Etherchannel on a Cisco router.  You need to know how to build and verify one - so let's build one right now!

In this Cisco training tutorial, we'll use two switches that are connected at ports 0/11 and 0/12 via crossover cables.  SW1 is the root bridge, SW2 is the non-root bridge.  Even though there are two separate physical connections, spanning tree protocol (STP) will only allow the use of one, as verified by the partial output of "show spanning vlan 1" on SW2.

Fa0/11           Root FWD 19        128.11   P2p

Fa0/12           Altn   BLK 19        128.12   P2p

It's a waste of network resources not to use that second physical path.  Additionally, there's going to be a delay in cutting over from 0/11 to 0/12 if the forwarding path goes down.  We can get around both of these issues by creating an Etherchannel.  An Etherchannel is a logical bundling of physical paths into one logical path.  By configuring an Etherchannel on both 0/11 and 0/12, we will be left with one logical connection that will actually use the full capacity of both physical connections!

SW1(config)#int fast 0/11

SW1(config-if)#channel-group 1 mode on

Creating a port-channel interface Port-channel 1

The channel-group command must be configured on each physical interface that we want to place into the Etherchannel, so we'll have to configure it on ports 0/11 and 0/12 on both SW1 and SW2.  Naturally, the group number used must match among all ports placed into the Etherchannel.

Did you notice the router message "creating a port-channel interface port-channel 1"?  You can verify the creation of that virtual interface just as you would a physical interface:

SW1#show int port-channel 1

Port-channel1 is up, line protocol is up (connected)

  Hardware is EtherChannel, address is 000f.90e1.c24b (bia 000f.90e1.c24b)

Note the readout "Hardware is EtherChannel".  Also, where we once saw two physical ports when we ran "show spanning vlan 1", we now see only one - the port-channel.  Also note that where the individual ports had a port cost of 19, the Etherchannel has a cost of 12 due to its increased bandwidth capabilities.

Po1              Desg FWD 12        128.65   P2p

Etherchannels give us a performance benefit and a fault tolerance benefit as well.  Performance is increased since all physical channels between the two switches can be used, rather than the one STP allows by default.  Fault tolerance is also increased, since a physical channel bundled into the Etherchannel can go down without an STP recalculation -- STP sees the Etherchannel as one single connection!  

Etherchannels aren't just important to know about for the CCNA exam, they're commonly used in real-world networks as well - so make sure you know how to configure and troubleshoot them!

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!

Cisco CCNP Certification Training Tutorial: The New 642-825 ISCW CCNP Exam

 

As part of the new CCNP curriculum, Cisco has added two brand-new exams.  Learn all about the ISCW exam from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

Cisco CCNP certification is getting a brand-new look, and that new look includes two new exams! The BCRAN and CIT exams are retiring at the end of 2006, and the exam replacing the BCRAN is the 642-825 Implementing Secure Converged Wide Area Networks exam, which is thankfully known as ISCW.

The key word in this Cisco exam is "secure".  Very few of the BCRAN topics are moving to the ISCW exam, and an emphasis is being placed on VPNs and network security configurations and methods.  According to Cisco's exam blueprint, the only BCRAN topics you can expect to possibly see on the ISCW exam are PPPoE and PPPoA. The importance of network security has never been higher, and it's to Cisco's credit that their new CCNP exams are emphasizing security. 

Other new topics on this exam include Frame-Mode MPLS, the configuration and verification of Cisco IOS firewalls, and the Cisco IOS IPS.   Successful CCNP candidates will also be able to describe and defend against network intrusions and attacks by everything from Trojan Horses to Denial of Service (DOS) attacks.   The access-list knowledge you picked up during your CCNA exam studies will come in handy on the ISCW exam as well, since ACLs are a form of network security.

VPNs are just about as common in today's networks as cable, and all well-rounded network admins must know about the many different forms of attacks their networks can suffer, as well as how to defend against those attacks.  The knowledge you acquire while studying for the ISCW exam will be immediately applicable in any network environment. This new CCNP certification exam is a tremendous step forward for Cisco certifications, and this already valuable certification is only going to become more valuable -- and tougher to get!

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. Attend an in-person or online CCNA boot camp with The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNP Certification Training: What's New

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!

Hair Loss Experts Visit San Francisco and Other Places to Educate

A lot of organizations are visiting different places across America to educate people about the possible hair loss they may experience in the future. For example, an organization named The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery has initiated an educational program about hair loss that is designed to visit selected stadiums throughout the United States as an awareness campaign for men to be known about the hair loss problems they may encounter in the future and how to prevent it.

Recently, they had staged a campaign in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, and twice in San Francisco to inform men about male pattern baldness. This event occurred in football stadiums so that it would be convenient for men to attend. All this was done because these hair loss experts know the frustration of dealing with hair loss and that they know that the answer to this problem is early detection to prevent the possible future problems.

Hair loss is actually a wide-spread problem that has a ratio of two in three. But these men can be helped when they know the source of their problems. Sources of hair loss vary greatly from men to men. Some hair loss problems are caused by stress, some hormonal changes, and still some are caused by inadequate nutrients that are not taken into the body.

Consulting with the doctor is an important step toward preventing hair loss. There are many treatments and drugs that claim to treat this condition right now and some of these are actually very effective, but before you self-medicate, you must first know the reason for your hair loss. The wrong treatment would at the least have no effect and at the worst aggravate you existing problem and probably even add to it.

Three fourths of men are said to be worried about hair loss even when they are still in their twenties. This is an actual problem if they are just beginning their careers and are already worried about hair loss. In fact, this problem would probably bring out more problems like the lack of self confidence and consciousness that would lead to a less than great career because of this particular embarrassment that could have been prevented.

There are also a lot of methods to prevent hair loss like using natural products or even drugs. For example, Rogaine is a popular choice of treating hair loss however, there are some side effects of this so if you have scalp irritation or even a minor sunburn, it would be better not to even try this.

There are other drugs you can consider but just like any other drugs, there are unwanted effects to consider. Some of these hair loss drugs can even lead to sexual impotency when it is nor the right drug for you. So be careful in your choice and it is always best to consult with your doctor first.

The visits hair loss experts do to educate people is important so that they will know how to prevent this problem and not be worried needlessly. Expert?s different places to share the latest finding about the causes and treatments that are available for hair loss would really be helpful for people in the long run. Some of the guidelines we can follow everyday to prevent this includes eating the right foods because that are rich in protein as these foods can help keep your hair and scalp healthy. So, we must really be careful about our diet because when the body feels threatened of starvation or malnourishment, it will conserve all the energy it can and it feels that maintaining a healthy hair is not necessary for its survival. Little things can really go a long way.

Note: This article may be freely reproduced as long as the AUTHOR'S resource box at the bottom of this article is included and all links must be Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.

Charlene J. Nuble

For All the things you need to know about hair loss, please go to: Prevent Hair Loss

Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Training: What Is Packet Switching?

Cisco CCNA certification exam training means you've got to learn a lot of new terms, and some of them can be a little confusing at first. To pass this tough certification exam, one term you definitely need to understand is packet switching. The first question, of course, is "What is packet switching in the first place?" Let's define this term in today's Cisco CCNA exam prep tutorial.

Packets transmitted from "point A" to "point B" all have to arrive at the same destination, but with packet switching, they do not all have to take the same path to get there. If you and I are standing 10 feet apart and I want to throw a basketball to you, I've got a couple of options. I could bounce the ball off the floor to you, I could throw it straight at you, or I could throw it high into the air to you. Packet switching is really the same thing - packets will take different paths to get from source to destination, but the end result is that all the packets arrive at the destination. The packets are then reassembled to take the form of the original message.

Packet switching may sound a little odd, but it's a very efficient way of transporting data. Frame Relay is a packet switching technology, as is X.25, and both of these protocols are highly efficient.

If we have packets that must arrive at the destination in the same order in which they left the source, packet switching isn't a good choice. For this situation, we'll need to use some form of circuit switching, and we'll discuss that in tomorrow's Cisco CCNA certification training article!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free Cisco CCNA and CCNP tutorials! For my FREE "How To Pass The CCNA" or "CCNP" ebook, visit the website and download your copies. Get your CCNA certification exam training from The Bryant Advantage!#BREAK# #TITLE#Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Training: What Is Packet Switching#/TITLE#

Cisco CCNA certification exam training means you've got to learn a lot of new terms, and some of them can be a little confusing at first. To pass this tough certification exam, one term you definitely need to understand is packet switching. The first question, of course, is "What is packet switching in the first place?" Let's define this term in today's Cisco CCNA exam prep tutorial.

Packets transmitted from "point A" to "point B" all have to arrive at the same destination, but with packet switching, they do not all have to take the same path to get there. If you and I are standing 10 feet apart and I want to throw a basketball to you, I've got a couple of options. I could bounce the ball off the floor to you, I could throw it straight at you, or I could throw it high into the air to you. Packet switching is really the same thing - packets will take different paths to get from source to destination, but the end result is that all the packets arrive at the destination. The packets are then reassembled to take the form of the original message.

Packet switching may sound a little odd, but it's a very efficient way of transporting data. Frame Relay is a packet switching technology, as is X.25, and both of these protocols are highly efficient.

If we have packets that must arrive at the destination in the same order in which they left the source, packet switching isn't a good choice. For this situation, we'll need to use some form of circuit switching, and we'll discuss that in tomorrow's Cisco CCNA certification training article!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 100 free certification exam tutorials, including Cisco CCNA and CCNP certification training articles. CompTIA Network+, Security+, and A+ certification tutorials are available, also! 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. Coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification with The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco ASA 5500

This is a review on the new Cisco ASA 5500.

The Cisco ASA or Adaptive security appliance can use different modules for different security needs. There are currently four unique modules. They include the firewall module, IPS which is a intrusion protection system. Anti-x module and a VPN (virtual private network) module.

The benefits of this appliance is that modules can be added as your needs grow. All in one device. There is a business edition provides small to medium businesses with VPN and gateway capabilities. The firewall module can be implemented to stop corporate users from abusing instant messaging, the introduction of Spyware and Adware onto the corporate network.It will also protect against external threats suck as hackers or crackers. Policies can also be set up to block peer to peer file sharing.

The Cisco ASA 5500 can also provide VPN access for remote users. The SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and also IPSec protocols can be used to encrypt traffic. Different forms of authentication can be used such as Kerbeos, Microsoft Active directory, LDAP lightweight directory protocol and RSA secure ID.

Everything can be controlled through the Cisco Security Manager, a all in one management platform. I watched a video on this at Cisco's website. I like the interface, you can even see attacks in real time and decide to section off that part of the network. Thats pretty slick. Another way to do this is through MARS, which is Cisco's analysis tool.

There are different modules for different needs Some firewalls can support up to 1.2Gbps.

The Anti-X technology is based on Trend Micros technology to stop threats like viruses, spyware, trojans and worms.

Benjamin Hargis
IT Security Analyst

http://www.computersecurityadvice.com

Cisco's Catalyst 6500 Remains The Network Switch To Beat

San Francisco, California October 10, 2006: Following a lackluster Q3, Cisco Systems emerges as the leader in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Market for the fourth quarter. Fueled by increased demand and an overall rise in the average selling price, Cisco experienced significant gains in a market of over $300 Million.

With almost 70% of the projected $1.3 Billion 10-Gig market share and a more powerful, yet affordable design, the Catalyst 6500 is poised to cement Cisco as the dominating force in the industry. With the recent release of an eight-port, 10-Gigabit Ethernet module for the 6500, Cisco is quickly pulling away from the rest of the pack.

In addition, upgrades like the Application Control Engine (ACE) module have prompted companies like Pure Video Networks to adopt Cisco switches to manage traffic of their popular video websites. Implementing simultaneous data center services such as server load balancing, integrated network and application switching/security, the ACE module delivers the highest performance in the industry. The ACE Simplifies application infrastructure by combining the functionality of multiple application delivery appliances into a single module, including server load balancing and off-load, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol, security, and application optimization capabilities.

Already the most successful networking switch on the IT market, the 6500 Series reduces existing operational costs and improves a network's ability to respond to intensive bandwidth demands. In general, customers using the services modules for the Catalyst 6500 reduce their total cost of ownership by taking advantage of simplified infrastructure, improved investment protection, pervasive security, and the high levels of performance, scalability, and innovative technologies.

With over twenty unique service modules in five distinct categories, the Catalyst 6500 ranks among the most scalable, high-performance platform for integrated services. Currently, Cisco offers modules that address security issues, application, networking, network monitoring, wireless/mobility, and IP communications, which can be integrated into existing catalyst switches. Each modules offers upgraded performance and reinforces Cisco's hold on the market for network switches. With more than $20 Billion is sales sine it's release in 1999, the 6500 Series switch has become the most popular networking platform ever.

While Cisco has been able to fend off most threats to their position, rival Foundry Networks, and newcomer Force 10 have recently launched new 10Gbe ready products aimed at disrupting the company's market share. According to literature on Force 10's Terascale E-Series 1200, the E1200 boasts of more than double the ports of the Catalyst 6500 (1260 vs. 576 Ethernet ports/chassis). While this may be good news for the company, Force 10 has been focused on the data center vertical, and is therefore still untested in the enterprise market. Foundry's BigIron RX series switch has received favorable press for it's size/performance ratio and lower prices. With the launch of the new RX series, Foundry has mounted a consistent affront to Cisco's unchallenged reign.

Even with the competition mounting new efforts, the Cisco name is still a major factor among IT professionals whose networks depend on their equipment. Fortunately for the stalwart Cisco, reputation is still the key to market dominance.



Oliver Rowen is currently Director of Corporate Accounts for Townsend Assets Group (TAG), a leading reseller of pre-owned data networking and refurbished equipment like the Catalyst 6500. With more than 2500 customers in 23 countries, TAG helps customers acquire, manage and remarket their technology. For more information go to www.townsendassets.com

Visit San Francisco On The Cheap

Also known as Fog City, San Francisco is a west coast jewel. Gorgeous scenery, charming tourist attractions and mild weather all contribute to this popular destination. Cheap, on the other hand, is not usually a word visitors or residents use to describe the city. Follow our tips below to get around SF On The Cheap.

~Cheap Lodging

As usual, hostels are our choice for cheap lodging and the same advice applies to San Francisco. A couple of our favorites include:

*USA Hostels San Francisco* Just 3 blocks from Union Square and includes an all-you-can-make pancake breakfast. Single and mixed gender dorms (3-4 beds) start at $28 or opt for a private double room for just over $70. Another bonus: Some of the dorm rooms have an ensuite bathroom. Free linen and lockers are also included and staff are happy to help arrange activities or transportation. This relatively new chain of hostels also has locations in Hollywood, Las Vegas and San Diego.

*Green Tortoise Backpackers Hostel* Located near Chinatown, this very popular hostel has some great amenities. In addition to free breakfast (and dinner 3 nights per week!), there is also free internet, free lockers and tons of activities planned. There is also a spinoff company that organizes travel to nearby destinations such as Yosemite. We also love that the dorms have small numbers of beds in them (2-5!) and are available in female-only or mixed genders. Rates start at $25 pp for 5-bed dorms and 33.50 pp for 2 bed or double bed rooms.

Not up for hosteling? There are also some budget hotels left in San Francisco. We particularly like the Park Hotel or the SW Hotel. Both are centrally located and include some nice extras.

~Free San Francisco

Check out the Palace of Fine Arts. This structure was built as part of an Expo after the 1906 quake, and has withstood many a quake after that. The Palace of Fine Arts is a place of indescribable beauty, with a huge dome with thick pillars, creating a classical Roman sort of effect.

Also notable are Fisherman?s Wharf/Ghirardelli Square/World Famous Sea Lions. Fisherman?s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square are two big shopping centers located near the water. As one of San Francisco?s finest attractions, you simply can?t say you?ve been to San Francisco unless you?ve been there. These two centers are located only within a few blocks of each other, at the end of one of SF?s Cable Car routes. While you?re there, be certain to check out the World Famous Sea Lions. For some odd reason, sea lions tend to lounge around and basically hang out there. According to an SF guide, they are the most popular attraction in CA, save for Disneyworld and Disneyland.

~Cheap Eats

If you walk along San Francisco downtown, you will be bombarded by some of the best scents the world has to offer. Try these restaurants of various international cuisines that are easy on the wallet.

*Cordon Bleu Vietnamese Restaurant: The French-sounding name of this place is kind of misleading, but this restaurant serves wonderful Vietnamese food at a low price. For fewer than 8 dollars, you can enjoy a good combo meal that includes 5-spice chicken, grilled barbeque pork, an imperial roll, rice with sauce, and a country salad.

*The Pork Store Caf?: As the name implies, this place is dedicated to all things pork, and you can definitely pork out with the Pork Store Special. For $6.95, you can get two pork chops, two eggs, two biscuits, and lots of hash browns.

*Chow: What the name says, that is what it gives. The food choice is incredibly diverse. The highlights include Goat Cheese and Mushrooms on Toast ($6), Sonoma chicken ($9), lemon and butter mussels ($6.50), and a salmon sandwich ($8).

Don't miss San Francisco just because you hear how expensive it is. For more tips on how to visit SF On The Cheap, please visit our website at www.onthecheaptravel.com.

Happy Travels!

Kadie Kozee is the founder and editor of www.OnTheCheapTravel.com. She takes great delight in visiting the world's most fascinating places on a minimal budget.

Discover Your Heart in San Francisco

Besides the Golden Gate Bridge and the funky neighborhoods, are you really aware of all that San Francisco has to offer as a vacation destination? Art, culture, history and fun permeate the city and spring up in various forms around every corner. Dull moments and dreary days are few and far between, and there are about five million possible itineraries to choose from. If filling your days with constant sensory stimulation sounds like your idea of a fabulous getaway, you simply must check out the whirling, spinning, energy-rich mecca that is San Francisco.

The Bay area in general is perfect for biking, walking, and cable car riding, so forget about your gas-guzzling beast and plan on getting a little fresh air and exercise. The distinctive architecture, the tranquil wharf and the people watching will all keep you constantly encouraged to move along, meaning that you'll probably end up burning a few calories without even realizing it. Historical walking tours will fill your head with a little knowledge, or if you're the spontaneous type, just hop on your bicycle and see where the day takes you.

If artistic endeavors get your motor running, dozens of opportunities will compete for your attention. The Asian Art Museum is one of the largest collections of Eastern inspired art in the world, and the San Francisco Modern Art Museum is considered a can't miss attraction. Galleries line the more fashionable streets and local artisans are hawking their wares in the most unexpected places; in other words, if you keep your eyes open you're sure to get your art fix.

Its location on the coast of course makes San Francisco properly ocean-oriented, so whether you're looking out across the bay from on of the city's higher vantage points or getting right up close to the action at Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. Sea lions, food vendors and Broadway-style musicals are just a few of the attractions in this area, so save some time to properly appreciate the whimsical offerings. The Conservatory of Flowers is a fragrant and fascinating draw, and most tourists won't be able to leave the Bay area without hopping on a ferry and visiting a famed and intriguing sightseeing spot - Alcatraz.

The theme parks, nature preserves, and cultural spots of interest are compiled in lists and articles much longer than this one, so once you arrive be sure to check out the scene, maybe ask a local, and wander your way through what is sure to be a satisfyingly busy vacation. Don't let yourself get too worn out though; when taking city getaways it can be tempting to run yourself ragged and end up feeling relaxed but tired; avoid post-vacation fatigue by penciling in some downtime.

Play a round of golf on one of San Francisco's gorgeous courses; stop by one of the many high-class spas for a facial, massage or pedicure, or kick back at a casual or upscale restaurant for a delicious meal. Since you've been running around all day, don't worry about calories for once. Indulge in a fantastic dinner (seafood and wine, perhaps?) and go ahead and order dessert. With hundreds of restaurants to choose from, food heads will be in heaven.

Shopping is also a tempting diversion, so spend-a-holics beware that your credit card may be making a few key appearances. From specialty gift stores to upscale boutiques, candy and flower shops to antique markets, it's all here. Considering that this is in the neighborhood of wine country, there are all sorts of tours and tastings to take advantage of. Give your taste buds an awakening, see the process that grapes undergo before reaching your table in the form of sweet nectar in a long-stemmed glass, and take a few bottles home with you as the perfect souvenir.

To add a final touch to the trip, one that will make you look and feel as if you're a professional vacationer who knows how to make a good holiday great, opt to reserve a San Francisco Vacation Rental. With a condo or apartment located downtown, all the hottest activities will be right outside your door and it will greatly aid your vacation state of mind to live like a local.

Or, check out the properties that are tucked away along the coast or in the hills; these will give you more peace and quiet than the typical hotel, and aren't necessarily more expensive when you take into consideration all the fabulous extra amenities that come wrapped up in a vacation rental package. It's at least worth a look, so check out the dozens of houses, town homes and cottages today.

San Francisco isn't a hard sell; there's something for everyone to take interest in and the city knows how to show visitors a good time. If it's time for you to take a break from responsibility for a while, consider heading to this sparkling metropolis as soon as you can swing it.

Visit HomeAway.com as you start to plan your next vacation.#BREAK# #TITLE#How to become a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)#/TITLE#

As a professional certifications add value to your CV from the point of view of potential employers. Not only do they demonstrate that you have a certain level of knowledge in a given area but they also demonstrate that you can apply yourself to a project or task and are able to see it through to a successful completion. This article explains how to go about becoming a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA).

To become a CCNA you will need to pass either:

Exam - 640-821 INTRO and Exam - 640-811 ICND or Exam - 640-801 CCNA (a composite of the above two exams).

In order to sit the exams you will need to register with an authorised test centre and a fee is involved (currently around ?84 plus VAT). You can do this at Pearson VUE or Thomson Prometric. You should be able to find a location and date that suits you. (If you are attending the below courses your training provider should help you with this.)

In order to gain the necessary knowledge to pass these exams Cisco recommends the following courses:

INTRO - Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies (http://www.inventioconsulting.co.uk/intro.htm) ICND - Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices (http://www.inventioconsulting.co.uk/icnd.htm)

Self study is also an option and is cheaper than sitting the courses. Self study guides can be bought at online bookstores such as Amazon.co.uk

Either way whether you are attending courses or doing the self study it is advisable to spend time reading up from your course notes or books and doing some of the practice exams which can be found at various websites to build your knowledge and gain confidence before sitting the exams.

David Carrier founded Inventio Consulting (http://www.inventioconsulting.co.uk) in 2003 and has over 10 years experience in the IT training and education industry.

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Troubleshooting Direct Serial

Connecting Cisco routers directly via their Serial interfaces works really well once you get it running - and getting such a connection up and running is easy enough. You can use show controller serial x to find out which endpoint is acting as the DCE, and it's the DCE that must be configured with the clockrate command.

R3#show controller serial 1

HD unit 1, idb = 0x11B4DC, driver structure at 0x121868

buffer size 1524 HD unit 1, V.35 DCE cable

R3(config)#int serial1

R3(config-if)#ip address 172.12.13.3 255.255.255.0

R3(config-if)#clockrate 56000

R3(config-if)#no shut

Failure to configure the clockrate has some interesting effects regarding the physical and logical state of the interfaces. Let's remove the clockrate from R3 and see what happens.

R3(config)#int s1

R3(config-if)#no clockrate 56000

R3(config-if)#

18:02:19: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial1, changed state to down

The line protocol doesn't drop immediately, but it does drop. Let's run show interface serial1 to compare the physical and logical interface states.

R3#show int serial1

Serial1 is up, line protocol is down

Physically, the interface is fine, so the physical interface is up. It's only the logical part of the interface - the line protocol - that is down. It's the same situation on R1.

R1#show inter serial1

Serial1 is up, line protocol is down

While a router misconfiguration is the most likely cause of a serial connection issue, that's not the only reason for clocking issues. Cisco's website documentation mentions CSU/DSU misconfiguration, out-of-spec cables, bad patch panel connections, and connecting too many cables together as other reasons for clocking problems. Still, the number one reason for clocking problems in my experience is simply forgetting to configure the clockrate command!

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam Lab: Frame Relay Subinterfaces

Earning your Cisco CCNA and CCNP is a tough proposition, and part of that is the fact that you quickly learn that there?s usually more than one way to do things with Cisco routers ? and while that?s generally a good thing, you better know the ins and outs of all options when it comes to test day and working on production networks. Working with Frame Relay subinterfaces and split horizon is just one such situation.

One reason for the use of subinterfaces is to circumvent the rule of split horizon. You recall from your CCNA studies that split horizon dictates that a route cannot be advertised out the same interface upon which it was learned in the first place. In the following example, R1 is the hub and R2 and R3 are the spokes. All three routers are using their physical interfaces for frame relay connectivity, and they are also running RIPv2 172.12.123.0 /24. Each router is also advertising a loopback interface, using the router number for each octet.

R1(config)#int s0

R1(config-if)#ip address 172.12.123.1 255.255.255.0

R1(config-if)#no frame inverse

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

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

R1(config-if)#no shut

R2(config)#int s0

R2(config-if)#encap frame

R2(config-if)#no frame inver

R2(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.1 221 broadcast

R2(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.3 221 broadcast

R2(config-if)#ip address 172.12.123.2 255.255.255.0

R3(config)#int s0

R3(config-if)#encap frame

R3(config-if)#no frame inver

R3(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.1 321 broadcast

R3(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.2 321 broadcast

R3(config-if)#ip address 172.12.123.3 255.255.255.0

R1#show ip route rip

2.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 2.2.2.2 [120/1] via 172.12.123.2, 00:00:20, Serial0

3.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 3.3.3.3 [120/1] via 172.12.123.3, 00:00:22, Serial0

R2#show ip route rip

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 1.1.1.1 [120/1] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:06, Serial0

R3#show ip route rip

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 1.1.1.1 [120/1] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:04, Serial0

The hub router R1 has a route to both loopbacks, but neither spoke has a route to the other spoke's loopback. That's because split horizon prevents R1 from advertising a network via Serial0 if the route was learned on Serial0 to begin with.

We've got two options here, one of which is to disable spilt horizon on the interface. While doing so will have the desired effect in our little network, disabling split horizon is not a good idea and should be avoided whenever possible. We?re not going to do it in this lab, but here is the syntax to do so:

R1(config)#interface serial0

R1(config-if)#no ip split-horizon

A better solution is to configure subinterfaces on R1. The IP addressing will have to be revisited, but that's no problem here. R1 and R2 will use 172.12.123.0 /24 to communicate, while R1 and R3 will use 172.12.13.0 /24. R3's serial0 interface will need to be renumbered, so let's look at all three router configurations:

R1(config)#interface serial0

R1(config-if)#encap frame

R1(config-if)#no frame inverse-arp

R1(config-if)#no ip address

R1(config-if)#interface serial0.12 multipoint

R1(config-subif)#ip address 172.12.123.1 255.255.255.0

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

R1(config-subif)#interface serial0.31 point-to-point

R1(config-subif)#ip address 172.12.13.1 255.255.255.0

R1(config-subif)#frame interface-dlci 123

R2(config)#int s0

R2(config-if)#ip address 172.12.123.2 255.255.255.0

R2(config-if)#encap frame

R2(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.13.3 221 broadcast

R2(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.1 221 broadcast

R3(config)#int s0

R3(config-if)#ip address 172.12.13.3 255.255.255.0

R3(config-if)#encap frame

R3(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.13.1 321 broadcast

R3(config-if)#frame map ip 172.12.123.2 321 broadcast

A frame map statement always names the REMOTE IP address and the LOCAL DLCI. Don't forget the broadcast option!

Show frame map shows us that all the static mappings on R1 are up and running. Note the "static" output, which indicates these mappings are a result of using the frame map command. Pings are not shown, but all three routers can ping each other at this point.

R1#show frame map

Serial0 (up): ip 172.12.123.2 dlci 122(0x7A,0x1CA0), static,

broadcast, CISCO, status defined, active

Serial0 (up): ip 172.12.13.3 dlci 123(0x7B,0x1CB0), static,

broadcast, CISCO, status defined, active

After the 172.12.13.0 /24 network is added to R1 and R3?s RIP configuration, R2 and R3 now have each other's loopback network in their RIP routing tables.

R2#show ip route rip

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 1.1.1.1 [120/1] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:20, Serial0

3.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 3.3.3.3 [120/1] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:22, Serial0

R3#show ip route rip

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 1.1.1.1 [120/1] via 172.12.13.1, 00:00:20, Serial0

2.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 2.2.2.2 [120/1] via 172.12.13.1, 00:00:22, Serial0

While turning split horizon off is one way to achieve total IP connectivity, doing so can have other unintended results. The use of subinterfaces is a more effective way of allowing the spokes to see the hub's loopback network.

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Caller ID Screening And Callback

As a CCNA and/or CCNP candidate, you've got to be able to spot situations where Cisco router features can save your client money and time. For example, if a spoke router is calling a hub router and the toll charges at the spoke site are higher than that of the hub router, having the hub router hang up initially and then call the spoke router back can save the client money (and make you look good!)

A popular method of doing this is using PPP callback, but as we all know, it's a good idea to know more than one way to do things in Cisco World! A lesser-known but still effective method of callback is Caller ID Screening & Callback. Before we look at the callback feature, though, we need to know what Caller ID Screening is in the first place!

This feature is often referred to simply as "Caller ID", which can be a little misleading if you've never seen this service in operation before. To most of us, Caller ID is a phone service that displays the source phone number of an incoming call. Caller ID Screening has a different meaning, though. Caller ID Screening on a Cisco router is really another kind of password - it defines the phone numbers that are allowed to call the router.

The list of acceptable source phone numbers is created with the isdn caller command. Luckily for us, this command allows the use of x to specify a wildcard number. The command isdn caller 555xxxx results in calls being accepted from any 7-digit phone number beginning with 555, and rejected in all other cases. We'll configure R2 to do just that and then send a ping from R1 to R2. To see the results of the Caller ID Screening, debug dialer will be run on R1 before sending the ping. I?ve edited this output, since the output you see here will be repeated fire times ? once for each ping packet.

R2(config-if)#isdn caller 555xxxx

R1#debug dialer

Dial on demand events debugging is on

R1#ping 172.12.12.2

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.12.12.2, timeout is 2 seconds:

03:30:25: BR0 DDR: Dialing cause ip (s=172.12.12.1, d=172.12.12.2)

03:30:25: BR0 DDR: Attempting to dial 8358662.

Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)

R1 doesn't give us any hints as to what the problem is, but we can see that the pings definitely aren't going through. On R2, show dialer displays the number of screened calls.

R2#show dialer

BRI0 - dialer type = ISDN

Dial String Successes Failures Last DNIS Last status

8358661 1 0 00:03:16 successful

7 incoming call(s) have been screened.

0 incoming call(s) rejected for callback.

The callback option mentioned in the last line shown above enables the router to reject a phone call, and then call that router back seconds later.

R2 will now be configured to initially hang up on R1, and then call R1 back.

R2(config-if)#isdn caller 8358661 callback

R1 will now ping R2. The pings aren't returned, but seconds later R2 calls R1 back.

R1#ping 172.12.12.2

Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)

R1#

03:48:12: BRI0: wait for isdn carrier timeout, call id=0x8023

R1#

03:48:18: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

R1#

03:48:18: BR0:1 DDR: dialer protocol up

R1#

03:48:19: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

R1#

03:48:24: %ISDN-6-CONNECT: Interface BRI0:1 is now connected to 8358662 R2

show dialer on R2 shows the reason for the call to R1 is a callback return call.

R2#show dialer

BRI0 - dialer type = ISDN

Dial String Successes Failures Last DNIS Last status

8358661 3 0 00:00:48 successful

7 incoming call(s) have been screened.

10 incoming call(s) rejected for callback.

BRI0:1 - dialer type = ISDN

Idle timer (120 secs), Fast idle timer (20 secs)

Wait for carrier (30 secs), Re-enable (15 secs)

Dialer state is data link layer up

Dial reason: Callback return call

Time until disconnect 71 secs

Connected to 8358661 (R1)

The drawback to Caller ID Callback is that not all telco switches support it, so if you have the choice between this and PPP Callback, you're probably better off with PPP Callback. However, it's always a good idea to know more than one way to get things done with Cisco!

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Same Command, Different Results

As a CCNA or CCNP, one thing you've got to get used to is that change is constant. Cisco regularly issues new IOS versions, not to mention the many different kinds of hardware they produce! While it's always nice to have "the latest and the greatest" when it comes to routers, switches, firewalls, etc., we have to be prepared for the fact that not all our clients are going to have that latest and greatest!

For instance, there are still quite a few Catalyst 5000 switches out there humming away, and if you're used to working on IOS-driven switches like the 2950, the same command can have dramatically different results.

Let's say you're going to examine the spanning tree protocol (STP) setup of a new client. You're used to working with newer 2950 switches, and you've always run show span on those switches to display spanning-tree information. Then, you run show span on a Catalyst 5000 - and something like this shows:

switch (enable) show span

Destination : Port 6/1

Admin Source : Port 6/2

Oper Source : Port 6/2

Direction : transmit/receive

Incoming Packets: disabled

Learning : enabled

Multicast : enabled

Filter : -

Status : active

Total local span sessions: 1

What's going on here?

The command show span on a 5000 will not show spanning tree stats - instead, what you're going to see are statistics relating to Switched Port ANalyzer (SPAN). Surprise!

Consider an example where you're used to running show span on 5000 switches to see SPAN information. When you run that on a 2950, you know now what you're going to get - spanning tree information! On a 2950, you'll need to run show monitor session, followed by the SPAN session number.

SW1#show monitor session 1

Session 1

---------

Type : Local Session

Source Ports :

Both : Fa0/1

Destination Ports : Fa0/2

Encapsulation : Native

Ingress: Disabled

As a CCNA and CCNP, this is one of those things you just have to get used to. Commands are going to be different, sometimes radically so, between models. That's why you need to be adept with both IOS Help and Cisco's online documentation site. IOS Help is easy, but the online doc site take a little getting used to. Once you learn how to navigate that site, a world of Cisco knowledge is at your fingertips.

Besides, when you sit for the CCIE lab exam, that will be the only friend you have! And a valuable friend it can be - you're just going to have to trust me on that one. :)

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam: Frame Relay BECNs and FECNs

BECNs and FECNs aren't just important to know for your Cisco CCNA and CCNP certification exams - they're an important part of detecting congestion on a Frame Relay network and allowing the network to dynamically adjust its transmission rate when congestion is encountered.

The Forward Explicit Congestion Notification (FECN, pronounced "feckon") bit is set to zero by default, and will be set to 1 if congestion was experienced by the frame in the direction in which the frame was traveling. A DCE (frame relay switch) will set this bit, and a DTE (router) will receive it, and see that congestion was encountered along the frame's path.

If network congestion exists in the opposite direction in which the frame was traveling, the Backward Explicit Congestion Notification (BECN, pronounced "beckon") will be set to 1 by a DCE.

If this is your first time working with BECNs and FECNs, you might wonder why the BECN even exists - after all, why send a "backwards" notification? The BECN is actually the most important part of this entire process, since it's the BECN bit that indicates to the sender that it needs to slow down!

For example, frames sent from Kansas City to Green Bay encounter congestion in the FR cloud. A Frame Switch sets the FECN bit to 1. In order to alert KC that it's sending data too fast, GB will send return frames with the BECN bit set. When KC sees the BECN bit is set to 1, the KC router knows that the congestion occurred when frames were sent from KC to GB.

Frame Relay BECN Adaptive Shaping allows a router to dynamically throttle back on its transmission rate if it receives frames from the remote host with the BECN bit set. In this case, KC sees that the traffic it's sending to GB is encountering congestion, because the traffic coming back from GB has the BECN bit set. If BECN Adaptive Shaping is running on KC, that router will adjust to this congestion by slowing its transmission rate. When the BECNs stop coming in from GB, KC will begin to send at a faster rate.

BECN Adaptive Shaping is configured as follows:

KC(config)#int s0

KC(config-if)#frame-relay adaptive-shaping becn

To see how many frames are coming in and going out with the BECN and FECN bits set, run show frame pvc.

R3#show frame pvc

< some output removed for clarity >

input pkts 306 output pkts 609 in bytes 45566

out bytes 79364 dropped pkts 0 in FECN pkts 0

in BECN pkts 0 out FECN pkts 0 out BECN pkts 0

in DE pkts 0 out DE pkts 0

out bcast pkts 568 out bcast bytes 75128

pvc create time 01:26:27, last time pvc status changed 01:26:27

Just watch the "in"s and "out"s of BECN, FECN, and DE in both the exam room and your production networks!

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Exam Tutorial: Testing ISDN Links Without Pings

To earn your Cisco CCNA and CCNP certifications, you've got to master ISDN - and despite what some people say, there's still a lot of ISDN out there that needs to be supported. And when it comes to troubleshooting ISDN, there's a lot to look at. Is the correct ISDN switchtype configured? Are the dialer map statements correct? What about the dialer-group and dialer-list commands? And that's just the start.

I always say that all troubleshooting starts at Layer 1, the Physical layer of the OSI model. The usual method of troubleshooting ISDN is sending pings across the link, but the connection can be tested without using pings or even before assigning IP addresses to the BRI interfaces!

It's a good idea to place these test calls before configuring the interfaces - that way, you know you've got a valid connection before beginning the configuration (and there's a lot of config to go along with ISDN!)

To place a test call without using pings, use the isdn call interface command.

R1#isdn call interface bri0 8358662

R1#

03:54:43: BR0 DDR: Attempting to dial 8358662

03:54:43: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

03:54:44: BR0:1 DDR: dialer protocol up

03:54:45: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

03:54:49: %ISDN-6-CONNECT: Interface BRI0:1 is now connected to 8358662 R2

To tear the test call down correctly, use isdn disconnect interface. IOS Help displays the options with this command.

R1#isdn disconnect interface bri 0 ?

all Disconnect the data call(s) on all b channels

b1 Disconnect the data call on b1 channel

b2 Disconnect the data call on b2 channel

R1#isdn disconnect interface bri 0 all

03:58:36: BR0:1 DDR: disconnecting call

03:58:36: BR0:2 DDR: disconnecting call

03:58:36: %ISDN-6-DISCONNECT: Interface BRI0:1 disconnected from 8358662 R2, call lasted 20 seconds

03:58:36: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to down

03:58:36: BR0:1 DDR: disconnecting call

03:58:37: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface BRI0:1, changed state to down

I say "correctly" because the one thing you don't want to do to end an ISDN call, test or otherwise, is just shut the interface. Telcos don't like it, and ISDN lab devices like it even less. Always let the d-channel do its work and tear the call down in an orderly fashion - don't just cut it off by shutting the interface down.

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam Tutorial: Floating Static Routes

To pass the Cisco CCNA and CCNP certification exams, as well as becoming a world-class networker, you've got to know how and when to use floating static routes. And if you're wondering what makes them "float" -- read on!

In this example, R1 and R2 are running OSPF over a Frame Relay network, 172.12.123.0 /24. They're also connected by a BRI ISDN link, 172.12.12.0 /24. R1 is advertising a loopback network, 1.1.1.1 /32, via OSPF. We want R2 to have a route to that loopback even if the frame goes down - and here, we'll use a floating static route to make that happen.

R2 sees the route to the loopback interface via OSPF, and can ping that interface successfully.

R2#show ip route ospf

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O 1.1.1.1 [110/65] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:02, Serial0

R2#ping 1.1.1.1

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 1.1.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:

!!!!!

Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 68/68/68 ms

This is when it's important to know your administrative distances.... or at least know where to look to see them! The AD of OSPF is 110, which means we can configure a static route to 1.1.1.1 /32, and as long as the AD of the static route is higher than 110, it won't be used unless the OSPF route leaves the routing table. That's why this kind of route is called a "floating" static route - the route "floats" in the routing table and isn't seen unless the primary route leaves the table.

You learned how to write a static route in your CCNA studies, but you also remember that the default AD of a static route is either 1 or 0... and both of those values are less than 110! To change the AD of a static route, configure the desired distance at the end of the ip route command.

R2(config)#ip route 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.255 bri0 ?

<1-255> Distance metric for this route

A.B.C.D Forwarding router's address

name Specify name of the next hop

permanent permanent route

tag Set tag for this route

R2(config)#ip route 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.255 bri0 111

The static route has an AD that's only one higher than that of the OSPF route, but that's enough to make the route "float" and not yet be seen in the routing table.

R2#show ip route

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O 1.1.1.1 [110/65] via 172.12.123.1, 00:06:44, Serial0

172.12.0.0/24 is subnetted, 2 subnets

C 172.12.12.0 is directly connected, BRI0

C 172.12.123.0 is directly connected, Serial0

Let's see the effect on the routing table when the Serial0 interface is closed.

R2(config)#int s0

R2(config-if)#shutdown

12:04:53: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 172.12.123.1 on Serial0 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached

12:04:55: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console

12:04:55: %LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface Serial0, changed state to administratively down

12:04:56: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0, changed state to down

R2#show ip route

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

S 1.1.1.1 is directly connected, BRI0

172.12.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

C 172.12.12.0 is directly connected, BRI0

The floating static route appears in the table, but the ISDN link will not come up until the BRI interface has traffic to send. Let's ping 1.1.1.1 and see what happens. debug dialer was configured on R2 before sending the ping.

R2#ping 1.1.1.1

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 1.1.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:

12:16:01: BR0 DDR: Dialing cause ip (s=172.12.12.2, d=1.1.1.1)

12:16:01: BR0 DDR: Attempting to dial 8358661

12:16:01: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up.!!

12:16:01: BR0:1 DDR: dialer protocol up!!

Success rate is 80 percent (4/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 36/37/40 ms

The link comes up and traffic can still reach 1.1.1.1. Once R2 becomes an OSPF neighbor of R1 again, the OSPF route will again become the primary path and the floating static route leaves the routing table.

R2(config)#int s0

R2(config-if)#no shut

R2#show ip ospf neighbor

Neighbor ID Pri State Dead Time Address Interface

172.12.123.1 1 FULL/DR 00:01:57 172.12.123.1 Serial0

R2#show ip route

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O 1.1.1.1 [110/65] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:16, Serial0

172.12.0.0/24 is subnetted, 2 subnets

C 172.12.12.0 is directly connected, BRI0

C 172.12.123.0 is directly connected, Serial0

A floating static route is an excellent "back door" that will keep the ISDN link down while allowing that link to serve as a backup route. Just make sure the ISDN link comes down when you expect it to - always check that with show isdn status!

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! And coming in 2007 -- Microsoft Vista certification from The Bryant Advantage!

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam Tutorial: Configuring PPP Callback

You may run into situations where a router in a remote location needs to dial in to a central router, but the toll charges are much higher if the remote router makes the call. This scenario is perfect for PPP Callback, where the callback client places a call to a callback server, authentication takes place, and the server then hangs up on the client! This ensures that the client isn't charged for the call. The server then calls the client back.

In the following example, R2 has been configured as the client and R1 is the callback server. Let's look at both configurations and the unique commands PPP Callback requires.

Client:

username R1 password CCIE

interface BRI0

ip address 172.12.12.2 255.255.255.0

encapsulation ppp

dialer map ip 172.12.12.1 name R1 broadcast 5557777

dialer-group 1

isdn switch-type basic-ni

ppp callback request

ppp authentication chap

Most of that configuration will look familiar to you, but the ppp callback request command might not. This command enables the BRI interface to request the callback.

Simple enough, right? The PPP Callback Server config requires more configuration and an additional map-class as well.

Server:

username R2 password CCIE interface BRI0

ip address 172.12.12.1 255.255.255.0

encapsulation ppp

dialer callback-secure

dialer map ip 172.12.12.2 name R2 class CALL_R2_BACK broadcast 5558888

dialer-group 1

isdn switch-type basic-ni

ppp callback accept

ppp authentication chap

map-class dialer CALL_R2_BACK

dialer callback-server username

Examining the PPP Callback Server command from the top down...

dialer callback-secure enables security on the callback. If the remote router cannot be authenticated for callback, the incoming call will be disconnected.

The dialer map statement now calls the class CALL_R2_BACK, shown at the bottom of the config excerpt.

ppp callback accept enables PPP callback on this router.

dialer callback-server username tells the callback server that the device referenced in the dialer map statement is a callback client.

The only way to find out if the config works is to test it, so let's send a ping from R2 to R1 and see if the callback takes place.

R2#ping 172.12.12.1

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.12.12.1, timeout is 2 seconds:

02:45:42: BR0 DDR: Dialing cause ip (s=172.12.12.2, d=172.12.12.1)

02:45:42: BR0 DDR: Attempting to dial 5557777

02:45:42: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

02:45:42: BR0:1 DDR: Callback negotiated - Disconnecting now

02:45:42: BR0:1 DDR: disconnecting call

02:45:42: %ISDN-6-CONNECT: Interface BRI0:1 is now connected to 5557777 R1

02:45:42: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to down

02:45:42: DDR: Callback client for R1 5557777 created

02:45:42: BR0:1 DDR: disconnecting call.....

Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)

R2#

02:45:57: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

R2#

02:45:57: BR0:1 DDR: Callback received from R1 5557777

02:45:57: DDR: Freeing callback to R1 5557777

02:45:57: BR0:1 DDR: dialer protocol up

02:45:58: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

The callback was successfully negotiated, and the call then disconnected. R1 then called R2 back, and show dialer on R1 confirms the purpose of the call.

R1#show dialer

BRI0 - dialer type = ISDN

Dial String Successes Failures Last DNIS Last status

5558888 2 4 00:00:20 successful

0 incoming call(s) have been screened.

0 incoming call(s) rejected for callback.

BRI0:1 - dialer type = ISDN

Idle timer (120 secs), Fast idle timer (20 secs)

Wait for carrier (30 secs), Re-enable (15 secs)

Dialer state is data link layer up

Dial reason: Callback return call

Time until disconnect 99 secs

Connected to 5558888 (R2)

Pretty cool! PPP Callback isn?t just important for passing your CCNA and CCNP exams ? in circumstances such as shown in this example, it can save your organization quite a bit of money!

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! Get your CCNA study guide from The Bryant Advantage! And coming in 2007 ? Microsoft Vista certification!

 

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification Exam Tutorial: Dialer Watch

Dialer Watch is a vital part of your CCNA and CCNP studies, particularly for the BCRAN exam, but it's one of the most misunderstood technologies as well. To help you pass the CCNA and CCNP certification exams, here's a detailed look at Dialer Watch.

Dialer Watch allows you to configure a route or routes as "watched" when the watched route leaves the routing table and there is no other valid route to that specific destination, the ISDN link will come up. In the following example, R1 and R2 are connected by both a Frame Relay cloud over the 172.12.123.0 /24 network and an ISDN cloud using the 172.12.12.0 /24 network. The routers are running OSPF over the Frame cloud, and R1 is advertising its loopback of 1.1.1.1/32 as well as an Ethernet segment, 10.1.1.0/24, via OSPF. R2 has both of these routes in its OSPF table, as shown below.

R2#show ip route ospf

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O 1.1.1.1 [110/65] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:07, Serial0

10.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O 10.1.1.0 [110/128] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:08, Serial0

We want R2 to place a call to R1 if either the loopback or Ethernet networks leave R2's routing table, but we don't want to have to depend on interesting traffic. That dictates the use of Dialer Watch.

First, configure the list of watched routes with dialer watch-list. Only one of the watched routes needs to leave the routing table for the ISDN link to come up. In this example, R2 will watch both routes from its OSPF routing table.

Be careful with this command. The entries here need to match exactly the routes and masks being watched. Dialer watch-lists use subnet masks, not wildcard masks.

R2(config)#dialer watch-list 5 ip 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0

R2(config)#dialer watch-list 5 ip 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.255

Configure the dialer watch-group command on the BRI interface, AND frame map statements for the watched routes. As with dialer-list and dialer-group, the group number referenced in the dialer watch-group command must match the number assigned to the dialer watch-list.

The Dialer Watch configuration will not work without frame map statements for each watched route. I repeat this because this is the step a lot of people leave out.

R2(config)#interface bri0

R2(config-if)#dialer watch-group 5

R2(config-if)# dialer map ip 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.255. name R1 5557777 broadcast

R2(config-if)# dialer map ip 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 name R1 5557777 broadcast

To test Dialer Watch, the Serial0 interface on R2 will be shut down. Since we're running OSPF, the route table will be updated almost immediately and the ISDN link should come up right after that.

R2(config)#int s0

R2(config-if)#shut

01:12:47: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 1.1.1.1 on Serial0 from FULL to DOWN, N eighbor Down: Interface down or detached

01:12:47: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

01:12:48: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console

01:12:48: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface BRI0:1, changed state to up

01:12:49: %LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface Serial0, changed state to administratively down

01:12:50: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0, changed state to down

01:12:53: %ISDN-6-CONNECT: Interface BRI0:1 is now connected to 5557777 R1

Within five seconds, the ISDN link is up. show dialer verifies that Dialer Watch is the reason the line was brought up.

R2#show dialer

BRI0 - dialer type = ISDN

Dial String Successes Failures Last DNIS Last status

5557777 2 0 00:00:11 successful

0 incoming call(s) have been screened.

0 incoming call(s) rejected for callback.

BRI0:1 - dialer type = ISDN

Idle timer (120 secs), Fast idle timer (20 secs)

Wait for carrier (30 secs), Re-enable (15 secs)

Dialer state is data link layer up

Dial reason: Dialing on watched route loss

Time until disconnect 108 secs

Connected to 5557777 (R1) A final note regarding Dialer Watch ... it will not work with RIP, but will with all our other dynamic IGPs (IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF).

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.

You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.

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! Get your CCNA study guide from The Bryant Advantage!