What is RIP

RIP is also known as Routing Information Protocol and it is a dynamic and distance vector protocol that uses the hop counts. It is stable, widely supported and easy to configure protocol. It uses the UDP port number 520 for the route updates. RIP is used to route the traffic on the WAN and on the Internet.  It uses the traffic metrics to measure the IP traffic routes.  It has been classified as the Interior Gateway Protocol by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). 

 

By using the RIP as gateway host computer sends its entire routing table (that contains the information about all the hosts) to the nearest host.  The nearest host sends this information to its nearest host and so on.  In this way all the connected hosts get updated with the latest information.  RIP is useful for the small networks and it has considered as obsolete as it has been replaced by other protocols such as OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) and IS-IS. 

RIP sends the routing update messages to the adjacent hosts at the regular intervals.  When a router receives some information that includes some changes it updates it’s routing table to reflect new changes. 

After a router updates itself with the latest changes or information it frequently sends this updated information to the adjacent routers till all the routers gets updated.   It supports maximum 15 routers/hopes in a network and it is considered as the best solution for the small homogeneous networks.

It uses the hop counts to measure the distance in the networks.  Every RIP router sends updates to the next hops after every 30 seconds.

It runs at the network layer of the OSI layers model.  A standard RIP packet includes the version, route tag, IP address, subnet mask, next hop and the command.  Configuring a Cisco Router for RIP requires few configuration steps.

You need to enable the RIP routing protocol on the Cisco router and identify the network. The basic RIP configurations on the Cisco router include the following commands.

router> enable

  Password:

  router# conf t
  router(config)#interface ethernet 0
  router(config-if)# ip address 192.168.42.1
  router(config-if)# interface ethernet 1
  router(config-if)# ip address 192.168.43.1
  router(config-if)# exit
  router(config)# router rip
  router(config-router)# network 192.168.42.0
  router(config-router)# network 192.168.43.0
  router(config-router)# exit
  router(config-router)# ^z
  router# 

Introduction to Data Compression

Data compression in the technique of storing the data in such a way that it requires the less space than usual.   Compress is being performed by a special encoding scheme.  It is used to shrink the large files into smaller size in order to transfer them over the networks, intranet and the Internet. This technique is very useful in the data communications because it allows the network devices to transmit the same amount of data in the less bytes.  

 

It involves the different algorithms that make the repetitive bits unnecessary and thus make the data compressed. It has been widely used in the database management, backup utilities and the spreadsheets.  Certain types of the data files such as bit-mapped graphics, .gif, .doc, .mpg, .txt, .wav, and .avi file extensions. 

Sender and the receivers should understand the encoding mechanisms in order to make the data compression work effectively.  Compressions let you save your expensive resources such as the hard disk space, communication bandwidth and the communication time.  Compressed data must be decompressed in order to use it.  

Compression can also be performed on the audio and the video files but it requires additional hardware and software to decompress the audio and video data.  Following are the two major techniques of the data compression.

Lossless

In the lossless compression technique, the restored data is identical to the original.  This technique is must the data types such as word processing files, executable code, numerical values and the database entries.  In this technique a single misspelled word or numerical value is not affordable.

Lossy

In the Lossy technique, the compression allows some sort of degradation and noise. In this technique, the data files do not kept in the perfect condition for the storage.  The transmissions in the lossy technique contain the certain amount of noise. 

The higher compression rate adds more noise to the data.
By default Windows allow you to covert the files and folders if these are formatted with the NTFS file systems.  There are many third party software that let your files, folders, audio, video and images compress into smaller sizes. The most common compression software are WinZip and WinRar. 

Files that are compressed with these tools have extensions .zip and .rar.  These files can be decompressed by using the same tools at the other end.  The files that are very large even after compressing can be divided into smaller pieces and these pieces of the same files can be reunited at the other end. 

Most of the compression software can support multiple data types like .doc, .pdf, .wav, .mpeg, .jpg, .avi, .gif and others.

What is Network Scanner

Network scanning is a technique that is used to assess the security vulnerabilities in a computer network.  There are different scanning procedures such as ports scanning, pings sweeps can collecting the information about the computer system and network based on the IP network.  Hackers also use the scanning techniques to attack a network. 

As a network administrator you need to deal with the security related issues in your network such as patch management, assessing security vulnerabilities, network auditing, services management and network monitoring. 

To detect the vulnerabilities in your network, you need an excellent scanning tool.  Following list provides the best network scanning tools.

GFI LAN Guard Network Security Scanner

GFILAN Guard Network Security Scanner allows you to detect, assess and troubleshoot and vulnerabilities in your network.  Being a network administrator, you often need to deal with multiple security related issues and GFI LAN Guard Network Security Scanner provides you the solution for multiple security vulnerabilities and threats.

GFI LAN Guard NSS scans the network based on the 15,000 known vulnerabilities.  It allows you to scan your networks across multiple platforms.  It provides the customized report of the scans across your whole computer network.

Advanced IP Scanner 1.5  

Advanced IP Scanner is a fast LAN scanner for the Windows based computers.  With this software you can have the detailed information about your network computers in a very short time.  It provides you the multiple functions such as remote shutdown, wakeup and others.  It can scan hundreds of computers in a very short time.

Soft Detect Network Scanner 1.0

Soft Detect Network Scanner is aimed to scan your computer and find the P2P programs and media files, illegal music, and ensures that no illegal files and programs will be downloading and saved to your computer.  It limits the access to the certain illegal sites from your computer and automatic scans your computer for the potentially dangerous music, media and video files.

Angry IP Scanner 2.21  

It is a very fast security scanner and provides you the multiple options such as scan dead machines, check open ports, scanning multiple ports and the ability to resolve the host names.

Digital Payments

The internet payment solution providers have evolved over the recent years.   They facilitate the online payment system for the buyers, sellers and merchants. The credit cards from the major issuing companies like Master, Visa and American Express has facilitate the payment process and make it very convenient for the online users and the merchants.  Now everyone from every part of the world can by almost everything on the internet through the credit cards.

 

The diversity in the payment systems enables the merchants to manage and promote their businesses by offering different currencies and the languages options to the online buyers.  You need to make an account with the payment processing companies like PayPal, World Pay and 2CO etc to send and receive the payments worldwide.  Some of the major payment processor includes the following.

PayPal

PayPal is the largest online payment network. PayPal provides the free and instant online payment service to the selected countries. It is the preferred payment system for the buyers and sellers throughout the world. After getting an account with the PayPal you can send and receive payment online to everyone on your email address.  It is headquartered in California, USA and was founded in 1998.  Through your PayPal account you can transfer your money to your bank account or your credit card.  The PayPal supports different currencies like USD, JPY, CAD, NOK, EUR, SEK, GBP and DKK etc.

2CO

2CO is an excellent payment processor system that enables you to sell your products online or buy products and services online.  It supports thousands of the products to be sold online.  After making account with 2CO, you get robust account management, multiple shipping options, support several currencies and automate the online shopping.  2CO is also known as 2Checkout and it supports more countries than the PayPal.

WorldPay

WorldPay is the leader in the online payment processing systems.   It facilitates the customers to accept the payments via internet, email, phone and fax.  It has variety of payment methods and support multiple currencies and countries.

MoneyBookers

MoneyBookers is another excellent payment method and everyone from the supported countries can join it for free.  After getting account with the Money Booker, you can fund your account, send money online at the receiver’s email address, shop online and receive money.  With MoneyBookers you can send and receive the payment in seconds. It supports local currencies in approximately 30 countries.  There is no setup cost and it accepts almost every major credit card.

E-Gold

E-Gold is a digital gold currency and it allows you the trade or transfer the ownership of the gold between the users.  It is an account based payment system that enables the people to trade or uses the gold as money. E-Gold is used for the payrolls, bill payments, e-commerce, business-to-business payments, person to person payments and donations.

Security Risks and Safety Tips

While these payment processors have made the payment systems easier for everyone but there are some security concerns that can’t be compromised.  There are many security risks are involved in the online payments if your system, email address, merchant account are the e-commerce site is unprotected.  First you need to protect your system against the hackers, spyware, adware, malware and the intruders. 

Install an up-to-dated antivirus, anti spyware and firewall to your system. 

Update your operating system with the latest patches and hot fixes.  Never do a purchase from the untrustworthy e-commerce websites.  Check the authenticity, user’s feedback about that particular shopping website.  Never send your sensitive information such as credit card numbers, bank accounts details and other sensitive information to anyone via emails. Use secure browser’s with https requests and make sure that the e-commerce website supports SSL (secure socket layers). In case of any misuse, immediately contact your credit card issuing company or bank.

WLAN Technologies

Wireless LAN or WLAN is a very popular option for building a network in home, office, and for accessing the internet. The increased demand of the mobility, flexibility and the scalability are the key factors in the development of the WLAN. Wireless networking and the wireless LAN technologies provide the multiple benefits to the network users and the organizations such as reduced setup cost, cable free network infrastructure, easy deployment, mobility and the easy management.

 

The major use of the Wireless LAN technologies is to provide the secure and high speed voice, data and video communications by using various applications and devices.  In the WLAN communication is made through the high speed radio waves without the use of cluttered wires.  The wireless LAN communicationis based on the following communication standards.

1. IEEE 802.11.
a. 802.11a
b. 802.11b
c. 802.11g
2. HiperLAN/2.
3. Bluetooth.
4. HomeRF
5. Infrared

Wide Industry support, the operating system support, easy installation and the flexibility has made the WLAN a popular choice of the business and home users.  There are different vendors that are manufacturing the various WLAN products.  The major vendors include Cisco, Lucent, Motorola, 3Com, Apple, D-Link and Nortel etc. 

There are the many standards in the WLAN and the most popular standard are Wi-Fi and HomeRF.

Advantages of WLAN

WLAN provides numerous benefits to the home and corporate users. Some of the key benefits include the following.

• WLAN technologies can be used to create temporary network for a specific period of time.
• It provides the access to the internet at the public places.
• WLAN can be a part of an existing network and it can connect two physically different networks (in two separate buildings) be establishing a wireless link.
• WLAN technology is a perfect solution for the places where wired network is not possible.
• It provides the mobility, scalability, flexibility and the ease of management.
• WLAN can coexist with the wired Ethernet networks.
• Wireless networking is supported by different wireless standards like 802.11, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n and the 802.11g is the most popular WLAN standard.
• WLAN provides the more productivity, expandability, convenience and the easy deployment at very low cost. 

Introductio to IP Multicasting

IP Multicasting is a technique of distributing the data across multiple servers over the WAN.  It is simply the delivery of the same data packets to the multiple destinations.  It allows the multiple recipients to receive the same data packets from a single source. Multicasting allows the distributed applications to work over the WAN with great performance.  It is an excellent alternative for the unicast and broadcast transmissions.

 

In Multicasting, the information is sent to only the destined recipients.   It is like the TV or radio transmission system in which only those terminals receive the information who have tuned themselves to receive it.

It is the bandwidth-conserving technology that reduces the traffic load over the network.  The ideal applications that uses the multicast technology includes video conferencing, stock quotes, distance learning, weather updates, video streaming, news and other distributed software applications in the LAN/WAN network.  IP multicasting mechanisms depends upon the two protocols i.e. group management protocol and the routing protocols. 

Group Management protocols establish the multicast groups and the routing protocols routes the traffic to the destination. Multicast routing protocols makes the distribution tree for the data forwarding in the network. It is an ideal solution for the distribution applications in the TCP/IP based LAN/WAN networks. 

Though it has been successful in many businesses but it is not extensively deployed and used by the average users.  Special addressing scheme is assigned while implementing the IP multicasting.  These addresses are assigned from the Class D i.e. 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.  The typical multicast applications include the following.

• Video conferencing
• Audio conferencing
• Stock Quotes
• Distributed LAN/WAN Software Applications
• Weather Updates
• Data Conferencing
• Network-based games
• Online Training
• Database replication

Multicasting applications minimize the demand of the network bandwidth while sending the information from one source to multiple destinations via same stream.

Multicasting can be implementing in the following situations.

• For better bandwidth utilization.
• Less Router/Hosts Processing.
• When sending the same data to the multiple receivers is required.
• When the recipient address is unknown.
• When a one-to-many communication systems model is required.

It has many advantages over the unicast and broadcast communication system such as the following.

• Enhanced performance.
• Optimized performance.
• One-to-many communication system.

Wireless Communication Guide

An Overview of the Wireless Networking

Here you will find wireless networking tutorials, what is wifi, general security overview, wlans, wpans, wmans, wep and wireless access control overview. Whether you want to make a phone call from your mobile, received a message on your pager, checked your email from a PDA we have come across a wireless data or voice network.  

If a user or a company wants to make a data portable then Wireless networking is the answer. A wireless networking system can avoid the downtime, which may be caused in the wired network. A wireless network is also save your time and efforts in installing the lot of cables.

Also, if you need to relocate a client machine in your office, you only need to move the computer with wireless network card.

Wireless networking is very useful in the public places, libraries, hotels, schools, airports, railway stations where one might find wireless access to the internet. A drawback in the wireless internet is that quality of service (QOS) is not guaranteed if there is any interference then the connection may be dropped.

Wireless Network Types

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANS)

WLANS allow users in local area, such as in a university or a library to form a network and gain wireless access to the internet. A temporary network can be formed by a small number of users without the need of access point; given that they do not need to access the resources.

Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANS)

There are two current technologies for wireless personal network Bluetooth and Infra Red. These technologies will allow the connectivity of personal devices within an area of 30 feet. Infra Red requires a direct line and the range is less as compared to Bluetooth technology.

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANS)

WMANS allow the connectivity of multiple networks in a metropolitan area such as building in a city. The network connectivity is the alternative of copper or fiber cabling.

Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANS)

WWANS or Wireless Area Networks can be maintained over large areas such as in different cities or between different countries, via multiple satellite systems or antenna sites. The types of system are called 2G systems. 

The following table shows the range those different types of wireless:

network covers.

Network Meter

Personal Area Network 0-10

Local Area Network 0-100

Wide Are Network 0-10000

Security in Wireless Networking

The following different types of security methods are available in the wireless networking.

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

Wired Equivalent Privacy is intended to stop the interference of radio frequency that is signaled by unauthorized users and this security measure is most suitable for the small networks. There is not key management protocol and each key is entered manually into the clients that’s why this is very time consuming administrative task. The WEP security method is based on the RC4 encryption algorithm. In the WEP all the client computers and Access points are configured with the same encryption and decryption keys.

Service Set Identifier (SSID)

Service Set Identifier (SSID) acts a simple password by allowing WLAN network to be split up into different networks and each having a unique identifier. These identifiers are configured in the multiple access points. To access any of any networks, a computer is configured in such a way that each is having a corresponding SSID identifier for that network. If the SSID match between the two computers or networks then access is granted to each other.

Media Access Control filtering (MAC Access Control)

A list of the MAC addresses of the client computers can be inputted into an Access point and only those computers are granted to give the access to the network. When a computer makes a request, its MAC address is compared to the list of the MAC addresses to the Access point and based on this access permission granted to deny.

This is a good security method but it is mainly involved in the small wireless networks because there is more manual work is involved of entering the MAC address into the Access point.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a simple type of the wireless networking that operates in the digital devices, like mobiles phones, personal computers, PDA, Laptops, digital camera, MP3 players and other Bluetooth enabled devices to form a small network. In the Bluetooth technology eight devices can be connected to each other at the same time. Bluetooth can also be found in the headsets, hands-free kits, wireless keyboards and mouse. Bluetooth technology was invented by Ericsson in 1994 and after four years in 1998 some major mobile phone companies such as Nokia, Ericsson, Intel and Toshiba formed a group to promote this technology.

Bluetooth technology falls in the category of personal area networking because it operates in the range of 30 to 300 feet. Bluetooth uses the radio waves technology, which is not very expensive and has low power consumption. Many different companies are intended to add the Bluetooth chip in their digital devices. Bluetooth technology is getting very popularity because of its low cost and portability.

The Future of Wireless Networking

WLANS wireless networking type is very popular in home networking and more than 20 percent homes with broadband internet are using WLANS and this number is increasing. In a general estimate worldwide hotspots have now reached more than 30,000 and will grow about 210,000 in the next few years. Most large hotels already offer Wi-Fi and the business travelers are willing to pay wireless access. 802.11 is the next Wi-Fi speed standard is set to offer bandwidth around 108Mbps and is still under development. With the speed of 70 Mbps and a range up to 30 miles, the 80216 standard, known as WiMAX is sure to get boost.

Some Tips & Tricks

• When purchasing a wireless NIC card try to get one that is having external antenna. When you are out and using Wi-Fi enabled laptop, disable Microsoft file and sharing, which enables other computers in a network to access data and resources on your computer. In this way, your computer or laptop will be saved from hackers.

• If you are concerned about the interference from the other wireless access point set the AP and wireless computers to use a non-overlapping channel.
• Change the configuration interface password of the access point before you enable it.

 
• Only buy an access point that is having upgradeable capabilities. By this way you can take the advantage of security enhancements.

• Keep the access point up to date.

Windows 2000 Server Installation Overview

In this section you will learn the basicss of windows 2000 server installation, how to install window, active directory, domain controllers, system configurations. Being a network administrator or Microsoft Windows 2000 Server support professional, one of your job description tasks is Windows Server Installation.

  

Step #1: Planning for your installation

When you run the Windows 2000 Server setup program you must know that how to install the Windows 2000 server. Thorough planning can make you avoid potential problems during the installation process. So, it’s necessary to do some paper work and make a good plan before installing the Windows 2000 server operating system. You must know the needs of your office network, server hardware and software to be installed on your server.

Without a proper plan Potential problems can occur in the future and work can become more hectic.

There are some important points, which you should take into account before starting the installation process.

1. Check System requirement

2. Check hardware and software compatibility

3. Check the disk partitioning options

4. Select the file systems according to your needs.

5. Decide workgroup or domain installation

6. Complete a pre installation checklist.

Once you are making sure about these things you can start the installation process.

Step #2: Starting the installation process

You can install Windows 2000 Server in different ways, all the methods are valid and which method you choose is depends on your needs and limitations. Manual installation process can be divided into different ways as followings.

• Boot from CD- This is a fresh installation and no existing partition is required.

• Boot from the 4 setup disks and then insert the CD, in this way also not existing partition is required.

• Boot from an MS-DOS startup floppy disk, go to the command prompt, create a 4GB FAT32 partition with FDISK command, reboot the computer, format the C partition, you have created and then go to the CD drive, go to the i386 folder and run the Winnt.exe command.

• In the other methods, run an already installed operating system such as Windows NT 4.0 Server and from within the NT 4.0 go to the i386 folder in the Windows 2000 Server installation CD and run the WINNT32.exe command. This will upgrade the Windows NT Server 4.0 to the Windows 2000 Server.

• Alternatively, if you want to upgrade from Windows 98 into Windows 2000 Professional you can follow the same steps as I have described in the above installation method. But you cannot upgrade Windows 98 into Windows 2000 server.

Additionally, there are other automated installation methods, such as uninstallation method by using an unattended file, using Sysprep, using RIS or running the uninstallation method by the CD itself.

It doesn’t matter that which installation method you use to install Windows 2000 Server or Professional. All methods look alike and the main function is the same.

Step #3: Text based portion of the setup

The setup process starts loading a blue-looking text screen. In this way you will be asked to accept the license agreement EULA and choose a partition on which you want to install Windows 2000 and you will be also asked to format the partition if the partition is new FAT, FAT32 or NTFS. The setup process begins loading a blue-looking text screen (not GUI).

1. Select to boot the computer from CD.

2. At this stage you can press F6 if you need to install the additional SCSI adapters or other storage devices. If you choose it then you will be asked to provide the floppy disk for the drivers.

3. Setup will get all the required drivers and files.

4. Now select to setup Windows 2000. At this point, if you want to fix some problems in the previously installed operating systems then you will have to press R. If not, then just press enter to continue with the fresh installation.

5. If you haven’t made any partition then you will get a warning message to create a partition and delete the old partitions. You can specify the partition size here. If you want to continue then press C.

6. Accept the license agreement and press F8.

• Select or create the partition on which you will install W2K.

• If you hard disk is already partitioned but don’t have enough disk space for the installation, you can create an additional partition from the unpartitioned space. If the hard disk is already partitioned, but has enough unpartitioned disk space, you can create an additional partition in the unpartitioned space. If the hard disk already has a existing partition, you can delete it to create more unpartitioned space for the new partition. By deleting the old partition you will delete all data on that partition.

If you select a new partition during Setup, create and size only the partition on which you will install Windows 2000. After installation, use Disk Management to partition the remaining space on the hard disk.

7. Select the file system like FAT32, NTFS for the installation partition. After you create the partition, select a file system. After selecting the file system, it will ask you to format the disk. Windows 2000 supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file system. You can get access to the local data on your hard disk, if it is formatted with the NTFS and if your operating system is Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows NT. If you plan to get data on your local hard disk’s drive where Windows 95 or Windows 98 is installed then you will have to use FAT or FAT32 file systems.

8. Setup will then begin copying files after formatting the disk, from the installation point (CD, local i386 or a network share).

9. After copying files step is completed the computer will be restarted in the graphical mode.

 
Step #4: Graphical user interface (GUI) based setup portion

After the first reboot and copying the necessary installation files the setup comes in the graphical mode.

Next it will load the device drivers based on the hardware it finds in your computer.

At this point, you can change the regional settings if you want.

1. Install the Hebrew language support at this point.

2. Here type your name and organization name.

3. Next type product key.

4. Enter the appropriate license types and the number of the purchased licenses.

5. Here you type the computer name and the password of the local administrator account. The local administrator account is based in the SAM of the computer and is used for the locally administrative tasks

6. Next choose which network or other components to be installed on the system.

7. Next select the date, time and zone settings.

8. Setup now will install the networking components.

Press Next to accept the typical settings option if you have one of the following situations:

• You have DHCP on your network.

• Your computer running Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).

• You are in a workgroup environment and do not plan to have any other servers or Active Directory at all, and all other workgroup members are configured in the same manner.

Otherwise select Custom Settings and press Next to customize your network settings.

9. You should highlight the TCP/IP section and press Properties.

In the following general tab enter the necessary information. You should specify the IP address, and if you don't know what the Subnet Mask entry should be - you can simply place your mouse pointer over the empty area in the Subnet Mask box and click it. The operating system will automatically detect the settings.

If you are a stand alone computer or you don’t have the sufficient rights, leave the default entry selected and press next.

10. In the next stage setup process will finish copying files and configuring the setup.

11. Next the setup process finishes and displays the finish window.

12. Next Windows 2000 reboots and you after reboot you get the CTRL-ALT-DEL window.

13. Congratulations. You are done. Windows 2000 has been installed on you computer.