Valuing Network Certifications – Is The Time, Money And Effort Worth The Bother?

There are many ways to get any of the large number of network certifications now available. There’s not only software certification like those offered from Oracle, Java, Microsoft, etc. but there’s also direct network hardware certifications from strong companies like Cisco and then there’s the server administration, hardware repair, security and several sub category type certifications. All are available but the question is if these have any real value in the marketplace.

The answer, unfortunately is not simple. This is because while many companies demand a certain certification, they will also bend the requirement and allow you to get certified once you have the job. There’s also people in the marketplace who are strong proponents of certification or another. The reason for this is usually because they have that certification and by requiring it, they somehow believe it validates their decision to obtain the training and pass the tests.

The reality is that like a good resume and education pedigree, certifications help get you in the door. Think about it for a moment. If you were hiring a network administrator, you would probably ask for the usually experience and basic education and some type of networking certification. If 100 people claiming the same skills and experiences levels all apply and all have at least the single required certification while 10 have not only the network cert but also maybe several MS and a security certificate, which candidates applying would probably get scheduled for interviews? Right! It would be the… Read the rest

Computer Networking Fundamentals

A computer network is a collection of two or more computers with communication between them through a medium. The communication medium can be through radio waves, wires, infrared, optical fibers etc.

Computer network is an integral part of our daily lives, with the most important reason being that of communication. The use of computer networking is to share resources like fax machines, printers, modems, files etc., and its other uses are database server, computer server, email, chat, internet etc. The computer to which the resources are attached is called the server and the other computers that access the resource are called clients. In peer-to-peer computer networks there are no servers.

The sharing of fax machines, printers, and modems amongst many computers and users reduce the operational cost. A database on a computer network is a very important application as it stores and runs many important data and jobs. Emails and chats can be used for instantaneous communication and sending of files on a computer network.

The computer networks are classified, depending upon the size, as Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and Personal Area Networks (PAN). The topology (topology is the way the computer networks and network resources are connected) of the networking can be classified as Bus Network, Ring Network and Star Network.

The networking hardware basically consists of wiring, network cards and a hub. Computer network cards are required so that one computer can understand what the other computer is “talking”. Network… Read the rest

The Pleasures of a Wireless Media Router

With everything becoming available wireless these days a great innovation is the wireless media router. What is a wireless media router? It’s a router that allows the transmission of signals from the router to anywhere in the house that has a receiver.

Wireless routers are becoming more and more popular. They have many uses, one of which is viewing pictures and movies from your computer on your television. This comes in very handy when you have media files that you can’t burn on CD or cannot be played on your DVD player.

A second use would be to transmit paid television. For example if you paid for HBO usually you would be able to only view it on one nominated television. With the wireless media router you can send the signal you television is receiving, HBO, to any other television in the house. You can even change the channel from the remote television while viewing.

The third use would be watching television at a location where an antenna is not available. This means no more long cables leading from room to room just to be able to watch television.

Depending on the amount of receivers you have you can receive the signal from multiple televisions. How does it work? The receivers are connected to the remote televisions. The router takes the signal from the source television and distributes it to the remote televisions by way of the receiver. On the remote television a certain channel is dedicated to this receiver… Read the rest