Adobe Illustrator CS3 Basics Tutorial

This tutorial will go over the basic aspects of Adobe Illustrator. Within the immediate viewing area of the user a list of buttons and features are available to use on your Adobe Illustrator document. I will be going over the basic uses of these features and how you can implement them.

The first Adobe Illustrator tutorial is the Selection Tool. The Selection Tool is used to select projects on the screen that you may be working on. Usually, a large amount of these can start to form when you are managing a project. You can move the files around to be easily viewed. However, there are limitations to this tool. Adobe has come up with two other Selection Tools that will solve these space issues.

The second Adobe Illustrator tutorials are bundled. They are related to the Selection Tool in terms of operation. They are the Direct Selection Tool and the Group Selection Tool. The Direct Selection Tool is used to reshape an object or image by using its anchor points. It can change the width and height of a segment of an object or change the way it shaped by moving anchor points in a certain direction. The Group Selection Tool allows you to select one object on the first click and if you select again it will target all of the objects that are within its field. This tool helps to organized all the objects so you can select them easily.

Next up is the Adobe Illustrator Magic Wand Tool. The Magic Wand Tool lets you select objects that are similar in stature. You can do this by just selecting one of the targets and the Magic Wand Tool will attach to the others that are similar. You can make the tool look for anything that you can think of within each object to connect the two.

The Lasso Tool is the next feature within Adobe Illustrator’s long list of incredible features. The Lasso Tool allows you to select objects by drawing around them. You don’t have to complete the connection all the way around the objects. Adobe Illustrator will make an educated guess of what you were thinking if you did not finish. Sometimes this is a better way than using the other tools to select objects.

The features listed next are within the Pen Tool family. Most of them are Point Tools that help you manipulate objects. The Pen Tool is probably the most important tool that Adobe Illustrator CS3 has to offer. Anchor Points are used to define the way an object is and can be shaped. You can make very artistic shapes with this single tool. Many professional swear by it. The Add Anchor Point Tool allows you to add anchor points to an existing object. This feature will change the shape of the object indefinitely. It gives you more choices in the way you will your object to look. The Delete Anchor Point Tool deletes any anchor points on an object. This will also drastically change the way the object looks when displayed. The Convert Anchor Point Tool helps you shape objects very cleanly and precisely, so that you can get the most accurate shapes and transformations when you use anchor points.

The Type Tool has a wide assortment of features. The Type Tool makes different types and formats to put them in. You are able to edit these however you like. The Area Type Tool allows you to open up paths that were once areas you could type in to edit it yourself. The Type on a Path Tool allows you to manipulate the path in which the text will take. You can often use it to type around an object. I am sure you have seen typing that is in a spiral shape. The Vertical Type Tool makes it possible for you to type vertically. It is just like what you saw when you watched the matrix. Except those weren’t real language characters. The Vertical Area Type Tool changes paths that were closed to vertical type. You are also given the freedom to edit the type as well. The Vertical Type on a Path Tool makes the path that you chose for the text write in a vertical fashion rather than making the text lay on the line as normal.

The next set of tools provides the user with the ability to make lines in all types of fashions. The Line Segment Tool lets you draw a simple straight line. The Arc Tool is pretty self-explanatory within itself. The Spiral Tool allows you to draw spiral shapes near perfectly and manipulate by using its preset anchor points. It can be a handy tool if you have a reason to make a spiral. The Rectangular Grid Tool allows you to make what looks like a spreadsheet. Like the Rectangular Grid Tool the Polar Grid Tool gives you the ability to make a grid; however, this grid is circular in shape. It is fully configurable using the anchor points.

The next tools are one of my favorites in of the Adobe CS3 Series. These tools are the shape tools. They allow me to make shapes easily and without much attention to detail. I have saved many hours of headache by resorting to these tools. The first one is the Rectangle Tool, which makes a box shape or a rectangle shape. You can manipulate the width and height of the box to your liking. The Rounded Rectangle Tool allows you to make the edges of the box like structure rounded for a more smooth feeling. If you look at my website you can see that I used them a lot. I believe it adds a bit of flavor to the website. Of course, I am always trying new things. When you check again you may find that my website looks totally different. The Ellipse Tool allows you to make seemingly perfect circles. If you have ever tried to freehand draw a perfect circle you know the headaches that I have gotten trying to do it myself. The Polygon Tool lets you make a six-sided object that is configurable for the user. The Star Tool does exactly what it says. It makes stars! The Flare Tool makes objects that look like they have blown up or if you saw a supernova in the sky. So you will see a circle with a lot of lines poking out of it and it will be bright in the center. It is a pretty cool effect to use in many situations.

The Paintbrush Tool is a very old tool in the Adobe and Macromedia line of products. In reality, it is probably one of the first features in the first paint program ever made. It is very simple to use and only does what it says. It paints like a brush in different sizes and tones.

The Pencil Tool like the Paintbrush Tool only does what it says it does. It writes like a pencil in different sizes and tones. The Smooth Tool allows you to straighten out kinks in your drawings by erasing extra anchor points that may be messing up the path that an object would regularly make. If you use the Path Eraser Tool you can erase part of an object by erasing part of its path. If you just erased an anchor point with the Delete Anchor Point tool the object would just reshape into another form; however, with the Path Eraser Tool the object will act like that section doesn’t exist anymore and it will seem as if somebody erased it with an actual eraser!

The Rotate Tool is a simple feature that allows you to rotate any object on the Adobe Illustrator field. Many another Adobe design products have this feature as well. I believe even Macromedia products had it as well. The Reflect Tool allows you to copy the reflection of an object and move it however you like.

The Scaling Tool makes an object increase or decrease in size along the x and y axis. The Shear Tool allows you move an object around on its x and y axis. Like if you set a point in the center of an object and spun the object around it like it was a compact disc. The Reshape Tool allows you to move certain anchor points while keeping the overall integrity of the object.

The Warp Tool allows you to shape objects with your freehand abilities by moving pixels around independently. The Twirl Tool makes an object perform a swirling motion within itself. The Pucker Tool makes it seem that the object is getting the air poked out of it. I would say it’s like the object is imploding on itself. You can do this by simply using the cursor around the edges of the object. The Bloat Tool increases the air in an object and makes it looks like it will explode. The Scallop Tool makes the object looks like it is becoming spiky in nature. If you have seen a blowfish before its transformation from skinny fish to prickly prey is a good interpretation of this. The Crystallize Tool does the same thing as the scallop tool, except it only does it too the outside of the object. The Wrinkle Tool makes an object look like it is wrinkled. You can easily see this if you are using a grid or a line that is straight in nature to start.

The Free Transform Tool is used if you want change the shape of an object freehand. It is pretty simple and it reminds me of a couple other features I have used.

The Symbol Sprayer Tool lies under the symbolism options section of Adobe Illustrator. It has a series of options that you can pick from. The Symbol Sprayer Tool places a series of objects on the screen. The Symbol Shifter Tool is able to move symbol objects around. The Symbol Scruncher Tool moves objects closer to each other or further apart as a group. The Symbol Sizer Tool is able to change the size of the symbol objects. The Symbol Spinner Tool is able to move the symbol object around in a circular fashion. The Symbol Stainer Tool is able to change the color of each individual symbol object. The Symbol Screener Tool gives the symbol object the additional effect of a change in opacity that you are able to control. The Symbol Styler Tool is able to change the style that the object is shown in.

The next sets of tools are graph tools. The Column Graph Tool is just like your standard graph, which has vertical graphs. The Stack Column Graph Tool is similar to the Column Graph Tool except the fact that it can show similarities in certain things by stacking the graphs upon each other. The Bar Graph Tool makes graphs that are horizontal in direction. The Stack Bar Graph Tool is like the other stacked graph except it is horizontal in position. The Line Graph Tool uses a simple line over a period of some type of measurement to show progress. The Area Graph Tool is similar to the Line Graph Tool except fills in the area below it until it reaches the outline of another calculation. The Scatter Graph Tool is a graph that only uses the dots to show pivotal changes in the graph at regular intervals. The Pie Graph Tool is a very popular graph. It is a circular graph that shows the different options in different colors. The Radar Graph Tool makes graphs that take different graph sets and puts them categories that are displayed in a circular fashion.

The Mesh Tool makes meshes and allows you to edit them accordingly.

The Gradient Tool allows you to fully customize the start and ending spots of each gradient that you use.

The Eyedropper Tool is able to take color from one area from an image or an object and apply it somewhere else. The Measure Tool is able to see the length between two objects.

The Blend Tool makes one object into a series of objects. It also makes it look like they are transforming into something else. It is a pretty cool feature that can have some uses with my website now that I think about it.

The Live Paint Bucket Tool is similar to the regular Paint Bucket. The difference is you can fill in areas with the memory from other similar areas.

The Live Paint Selection Tool lets you paint, but it also lets you fill in live areas that are grouped together. The different options are great for painting.

The Crop Area Tool simply lets you cut out and area of an object with fine detail. The Slice Tool allows you to cut images into different sections so they can be put back together on the web. This helps with web downloads most of the time. The Slice Selection Tool allows you to select the slices that you have cut for the web.

The Eraser Tool is exactly what it says it is. It erases everything that it touches. The Scissor Tool will make cuts in an image and allow you to pull that section out. Then you are able to do whatever with the new anchor points that it makes on the object and the cut segment of the object. The Knife Tool cuts object as if you cut them with a knife. Once you do this you are able to pull the objects apart and reform them.

The Hand Tool allows you to move the window that the objects are stored in with the Adobe Illustrator CS3 program. The Page Tool allows you to change how the printed version of the output looks by manipulating the viewing screen.

The Zoom Tool allows you to zoom in on objects within the program.

I hope that you have learned the basics of the Adobe Illustrator CS3 program with this short tutorial. In the near future, I will have picture illustrations of the uses of each option so that you will further grasp what you can do with the program. Of course, this is only a few of the things that you can possibly do with the program. It takes a lot of imagination and hard work to get your thoughts on paper. If you visit my webpage you will be able to see this tutorial with appropriate pictures added. Remember that you can be an Adobe Guru if you try!

Dwight Norris - AST Website Owner Adobe Software Tutorials. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dwight_Norris

How to Make a Video Game in Seven Days –for Free

There is plenty of free software and resources out there that will enable you to quickly make your own video game. All you need is a plan and some persistence. Here is the plan.

Today’s software for game making is fairly complete and you don’t need to be a programmer to learn how to use it. It is much like an automobile; you don’t need to know how to build one you just need to know how to drive. With a little bit of effort and some practice you can use the freely available software to make games that will unleash your creative potential.

Day 1: Gather up the necessary resources and get familiar with it

You will need a computer and if you are reading this article you probably already have that! You should also download the necessary game development software. There are two that I recommend. Either get the Genesis 3D game engine or the Reality Factory Game development software. Of the two I suggest the Reality Factory software but if you have a really old computer and are concerned about your ability to run software then get the Genesis 3d software. Both these programs are readily available and easy to find on the web. Just do a search engine check for keywords Genesis 3d or Reality Factory.

Install this software and run it. Tinker with it and get familiar with it. Experiment with all of the different screens and settings then go through the help files and tutorials. Get an initial understanding of what it will be like to make a video game with the software.

Day 2: Begin learning the software

Get a notebook and label it "My Video Game Making Reference Book" Locate a tutorial on the web for the software you have used. Don’t rush through this process. There are plenty of available tutorials for both of these programs. Take your time and go through the tutorials and take notes in your book. Keep a page for tips, keystrokes, and routines for getting things done.

Day 3: Take a break from the computer

Now that you have an idea of what the software is all about you can design your game on paper. First write down the concept and goals of your game. For example: Your game will be a game about how the player has been trapped in a dungeon and has to fight his or her way out to freedom. Or someone has been captured in a dungeon and the player has to break in and rescue him. For your first game keep the concept relatively simple. Something like you want your player to explore a dungeon, kill all the creatures, and find a treasure chest is perfectly good. Make it a small game with maybe ten to fifteen rooms and some outdoor areas. Sketch out every room and place in all the doors and major items like stairs, furniture, treasure chests and monsters.

Day 4: Build the empty shell of your game world

Crank up the computer and using the game software build just the buildings, rooms and structures of your game world. Do not yet populate it with furniture, doors, monsters or any other type of extra. Just build the structures of the world. Apply only basic textures to the surfaces in the world. Do not at this point worry about the colors, lights or textures of anything. You want to just build the grey shell of the world so you can text it and see if it works properly and if it is how you want it to be. After the world is built insert a character into it and walk around to see if it is as you planned it.

Day 5: Add the details to your game and make it look real

This is the day where you work on the look of your game. Go over all the structures and add textures, lighting, models, characters and all of the other accessories that will make it look right.

Right about now you might be thinking: "How do I do all that?" But the great thing about the software you are using is that models, characters, tables, chairs, doors, and lights are all pre-built and come in a library with the software. You can just click on them and place them right into the game.

Day 6: Have somebody play your game and give you feedback

Are your platers clear on the objectives of the game? Do they understand what it is all about? Do they have to ask questions? If anything is unclear to the player of if anything is difficult start up your software and modify the game.

Day 7: Complete the game

Add any extras like a splash screen that displays the name of your game or add sound effects. If you are ambitious you can create your own models or textures to give your game a unique look.

Making a video game is really not a hard process. If you have a plan and the discipline to put some time into learning the software you can have a small but complete game one week from today.

For more information, tutorials and information about making video games visit the author’s website at =>Make Video Games Resources and Tutorials Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Will_Kalif

Two Steps To Gain Free Website Traffic

There are many ways to get free traffic to your website. I have tried most of them, and was disappointed with the results that I had. I have found only two guaranteed methods that have brought traffic to my website, and best of all they are "Free"!I can honestly tell you that if you follow these two steps that I am going to tell you about, you will start to receive traffic to your website. I guarantee it!

First of all, most of your traffic is going to come from Search Engines and Directories. (Mostly Google and Yahoo) The most important and by far the best way to get your website listed in Search Engines, is adding quality and relevant links to your website. This method is known as reciprocal links.

So how do you get reciprocal links? The easiest way is to do a search using your favorite search engine

[Google is best to start with) For example, let's say your website is about a home based business, and your key words for your site are "work from home", then what you want to do is go to http://www.google.com and type "work from home", "add your link", "work from home" or "link exchange". There will be many pages that come up in your search of websites that are willing to exchange links with you. When visiting these websites you will need to look for information on how to exchange links with these sites. Make sure before you request a link exchange, you place their link on your site first.

Why are reciprocal links important? Because link popularity is the method most Search Engines use in determining how high a website is ranked and what position it will be placed in.

The most well known Search Engines that use link popularity is Google. Others that use this method as well are: Altavista, Excite and Hotbot.

It will take alot of time and work in the beginning to get links added to your website, but it will be well worth it in the end. As you gain more links to your site, the Search Engines spider your web pages looking for other sites linking to yours.

The more sites these spiders find linking to your site the more popularity ranking your website gets. This will give you a higher ranking position when someone searches the web.

The second best way to bring free traffic to your website is writing articles. With a little work on a monthly basis, writing articles, you will be surprised by all the free traffic this will bring to your website.

When I was first given the advice that I should start writing articles to add to my own website as well as other websites, I thought this was something I couldn't do. I thought I did not know enough about anything to write an article. I soon found out that I could do this, and so can you. Anyone can write an article, because we all have knowledge of one thing or another.

All you really need to write an article is a subject to write about. Choose something you know enough about to write about it. Whether it be about how to "organize a home based business", or if you are a stay at home mom, you could write an article "tips for work at home moms".There are endless possiblities to what you could write about.

After you have written an article, you will want to write a few sentences about yourself [ this is known as a resource box). Make sure you have included your website address. To see an example of what a resource box is, look at the end of this article to see how I have done this.

Webmasters are always looking to publish articles. Why? Because it will help their Search Engine rankings by providing useful content on their website. When you submit your articles to other websites, this will be benefitial to you as well. How? When you have an article published on someone's site, a portion of their visitors will visit your site.Once you have submitted enough of your articles on the Internet, your traffic will dramitically increase and so will your Search Engine ranking. Make sure you add your articles to your own website because search engines love new content to a website.

I have found a few good sites that have tutorials on article writing. I have found them helpful to me, and you might also find them helpful for you.

Webmaster Stop - Articles, Tutorials, Links, Resources ...

http://www.webmasterstop.com/

Writing Tips, Tutorials:

Website Goodies - Website Resources, Articles, Tutorials and Tools

Once you have written an article, you will need to look for places to submit your articles. The best places to submit them are e-zines and websites. You can do a search in Google for home business submit article, e-zine directory. I have listed a few to get you started.

Submit Your Home Business Article ...

Work Home Business ...

Power HomeBiz ...

Tina M Barraclough Is A Wife And A Mother Of Five Beautiful Children. She Has Been A Stay At Home Home Mom Since September Of 2001. She Has Been Involved In Several Successful Home Based Businesses, And Has Been Very Successful With Them. She Is The Webmaster of Best Home Based Business Idea.Com Visit Her Website Today To Find Some Honest And Legit Work At Home Business Opportunities .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tina_Barraclough

3 Top Cartoon Drawing Tips For Beginners

Cartooning is not about drawing it is about telling stories. Yes, even when you are drawing a single illustration you are telling a story. Cartooning is about expressing your thoughts. And it is your thoughts expressed beautifully through your cartoon characters that make you different from other average cartoon makers.

But as in every other field of life here also you must learn to walk first before you try running. To express your thoughts and ideas through your cartoon characters, you need to master the skill of cartoon drawing first. Then of course you can use your cartoon drawing skills to tell story to your liking.

To be skilled in cartoon drawing you have to face a learning curve. You just can’t decide to be a cartoonist then copy some popular cartoon figures and become an accomplished cartoonist who is rich and famous. If you are lucky and talented with keen sense of observation you may pickup one or two tricks by making copy of popular cartoon figures. But that is too inadequate to be of any use.

There are various ways that you can take to learn cartoon drawing --you can join cartooning school or take a home study course or follow a book of an expert cartoonist -- the bottom line is you have to follow the steps. Like you should first teach yourself drawing 3d shapes, then learn to stretch, squash those 3d shapes in your drawing. Next you need to practice things like drawing hands and head before moving on to motion and emotion and advanced things like that.

If it sounds like lot of work, you are right. But what you achieve at the end is worth working for. If you are smart however you can use the tips you are going to discover here to make the whole learning process fast and painless.

1. ==> Do not start with computers. I agree I run the risk of sounding backdated. But here I am not opposing usage of computer altogether, no sane person can do that. But for beginners there is no alternative to using paper and pencil.

There are various software that help you so much that you can go ahead even without learning how to draw a smooth line. This kind of over dependency on computers from the very beginning always backfires down the road.

2. ==> Nail the fact in your mind that construction of human, animal, cars and most of the things that that we see around us are complex 3d structures though we draw them on paper which is 2D. So when drawing you must mentally analyze your model in terms of 3d shapes like spheres and boxes and not in terms of 2d shapes like circles and rectangles.

Also when you draw something from paper (i.e. 2D), look for and find out the 3d shapes that make up the character.

3. ==> Most of the cartoon drawing or figure drawing tutorials always start with some basic 3d shapes and after a number of steps end up in a complete and beautiful figure. This technique is very effective in learning how we can draw complex figures starting with simple shapes. But what I am going to tell you will make your pace of learning even faster. It is in fact very simple way of using the same tutorial. Just a lot more effective.

What you need to do is start where the tutorial ends and go backward from there. See the completed figure and try to recognize the ingredient basic shapes. And compare your analysis with the exact shapes that are used in the tutorial.

This will give you a very through exercise in recognizing the basic shapes. And after some time you will be analyzing the real life around you like an expert. Just take your time and practice this technique, and see how fast it will improve your skill in cartoon drawing.

Cartoon drawing is pure fun both for professionals who earn their living through cartooning and hobbyists who draw cartoon only for personal pleasure. I do not know what you goal is but hope the tips here will be helpful for you. Never stop learning: there are a whole lot to learn and even more fun to have in the process. Happy journey!

Do you know what the beginners find most difficult in cartoon drawing? It is drawing the head and face. Check this simple

tutorial on head drawing and never be nervous again.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tapan_Sarkar

Golf Swing Tutorial - Do You Need One?

If you are looking to improve upon your golf swing, you may need a golf swing tutorial to help you do just that. Every golfer knows that the swing is important to being a great golfer and lowering your score. What everyone doesn't know is what you can do to help improve your swing. Many would-be golfers do not realize that while talent plays a big part in your skill, there are practical things you can do to improve your skill.

A golf swing tutorial can be just the thing you need to help you learn how to have the best golf swing possible. Many tutorials are now available on video or DVD and you can watch them at your own pace, pause and rewind as you need and get one-on-one assistance with improving your swing. These tutorials will show you how to take a beginning stance, where to place your feet, how to grip the club and much more. You can learn by watching a tutorial how you are supposed to stand and how your body should be positioned. You will also learn where to put your hands on the club and that you should hold the club with your fingers instead of with the palm of your hand as many people do. You can learn how to interlock your fingers, how to place your elbows and more.

Tutorials - especially visual ones- help much more than someone that is telling you what to do. You can see and understand for yourself how you are supposed to execute the swing- from beginning to end. The internet also has a wide selection of golf swing tutorial options for you to choose from. You can find written instructions, diagrams and even videos online as well as offline. Your local library might also have some options for you. You can use these tutorials to learn more about how you should stand, how to grip your clubs, what type of clubs to use and everything else to have a professional-quality golf swing.

Discover the Breakthrough Golf System Guaranteed to Decrease Your Handicap by 7 - 12 Strokes in ONLY 1 week! Visit http://www.golf-swing-1.info for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ben_Shar

Enabling IIS 5.1 on Windows XP Pro Tutorial

Enabling IIS 5.1

Windows XP Home Edition does not support IIS

1. You may need to put your Windows XP Pro CD into the PC.

2. Go to Control Panel, ‘Add Remove Programs’, then ‘Add/Remove Windows Components’. In the Windows Components window, place a check mark beside ‘Internet Information Services (IIS)’, then click next, then click finish.

3. During installation, Windows creates a directory at C:inetpubwwwroot and places a few files there. You can view the home page of your web browser by typing ‘http://localhost’ or ‘http://COMPUTER_NAME’ (where COMPUTER_NAME is the actual name of your computer) into the address bar of any web browser. If you haven’t placed any files in C:inetpubwwwroot, you should see some basic IIS information in the web browser at this address.

4. Your web server is now working. The console for IIS is located in Control Panel > Administration Tools (if you use Classic View; under ‘Performance and Maintenance’ if not).

The next steps are for adding a new virtual directory.

5. To add a new virtual directory, open the IIS management console (step 4), click the plus signs on the left until you see ‘Default Web Site’, then right-click on it and select ‘New > Virtual Directory’.

6. The Virtual Directory Creation Wizard is now on the screen. Click Next on the first screen. Type an Alias for your website. This will be the name you will type after http://localhost to view your website ( example: http://localhost/ALIAS ). Click Next.

7. Now you must enter the directory path. Click ‘Browse’ and browse to the appropriate folder location for your new website’s files. This location will most likely be C:inetpubwwwrootALIAS. Click next.

8. On the last screen you will see security information. If you are not worried about implementing security, check all of the boxes. If you want to run ASP scripts, select the first two. Click next.

9. Your virtual directory is set up. You can view it by typing http://localhost/ALIAS into the web browser’s address bar.

For more tutorials visit StudioThreeHundred.com

Chris Alexander is a freelance web designer for StudioThreeHundred.com. For more tutorials visit http://www.StudioThreeHundred.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=C_Alexander

CCNP Certification BCMSN Exam Tutorial - Defending Against MAC Address Flooding

Network attacks take many forms, and it's important to know how the potential security issues with ARP, DHCP, and MAC addresses. They're innocent looking enough, but each of these common network protocols and addresses can be turned against us. Today, we'll talk about what MAC Address Flooding is, how it can be used against our network, and the best defense against this attack.

A MAC Address Flooding attack is an attempt by a network intruder to overwhelm the switch memory reserved for maintenance of the MAC address table. The intruder generates a large number of frames with different source MAC addresses - all of them invalid. As the switch's MAC address table capabilities are exhausted, valid entries cannot be made - and this results in those valid frames being broadcast instead of unicast.

This has two side effects, both unpleasant:

As mentioned, the MAC address table fills to capacity, preventing legitimate entries from being made.

The large number of unnecessary frame flooding quickly consumes bandwidth as well as overall switch resources.

The best defense against MAC Address Flooding is a good offense, and in this case, that offense consists of port-based authentication and port security. By making sure our host devices are indeed who we think they are and authenticating them before they join our network, we reduce the potential for an intruder to unleash a MAC Address Flooding attack on our network. The key isn't to fight the intruder once they're in our network - the key is to keep them out in the first place!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP exam and CCNA Certification tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. You can also 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”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your Microsoft Vista certification with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Cisco CCENT - CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial - What Are Broadcast Storms?

The Cisco CCENT exam demands that you master the fundamentals of networking, and it doesn’t get much more fundamental than broadcasts! Every network has them, and every network administrator needs to be aware of what broadcasts are and their potential impact on network performance.

When a device on a network generates a message, it’s one of three types – a unicast, a multicast, or a broadcast. A unicast is a message intended for one other host; a multicast is intended for a group of hosts; a broadcast is intended for every host that can possibly receive it – and that’s where the trouble can begin.

Why? Because not every other host needs or wants to receive that message, and if “Host A” should not receive broadcasts sent by “Host B”, we should configure the network accordingly. Everything we do on a network has a cost in performance, and if a host is regularly processing messages that it doesn’t need, that will result in a decline in that host’s performance. That decline may be slight, but if the host in question is receiving many unnecessary broadcasts, the decline in performance may be significant. Worse, the impact to our network as a whole may be significant as well.

Broadcasts tend to result in more broadcasts, and if hosts on the network continue to answers broadcasts with broadcasts, we end up with a broadcast storm. Broadcast storms start small, but just like a snowball, they can end up being very big – so big that normal network operations are compromised and/or prevented!

Don’t let the threat of a broadcast storm make you nervous about broadcasts, though. Broadcasts are part of a network’s normal operation, and we’ve got quite a few methods available to prevent these storms. We’ll discuss those in a future Cisco CCENT exam tutorial!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free Cisco CCENT Certification and CCNA Certification Exam tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

You can also visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions!

Visit his blog and sign up for Certification Central, a daily newsletter packed with CCNA, Network+, A+, and CCNP certification exam practice questions. A free 7-part course, “How To Pass The CCNA”, is also available.

Pass your CCENT Exam with The Bryant Advantage!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Cisco CCNA-CCNP Certification Exam Tutorial: EIGRP And Split Horizon

EIGRP is a major topic for your CCNA and CCNP studies, and one basic skill you’ll need to pass your Cisco certification exams is to identify situations where you need to enable or disable split horizon. EIGRP commands tend to be a little different than those used with other protocols, so let’s take a look at how EIGRP and split horizon interoperate.

R1 is our hub router, with R2 and R3 as the spokes. There are no subinterfaces, and each router is advertising a single loopback network using its router number for each octet. R1 will see both R2 and R3’s loopback network, but the spokes will not have a route to the other spoke’s loopback. “show ip route eigrp” verifies this.

R1#show ip route eigrp

2.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 2.2.2.2 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.2, 00:03:29, Serial0

3.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 3.3.3.3 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.3, 00:03:29, Serial0

R2#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.1 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:05:20, Serial0

R3#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.1 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:07:54, Serial0

EIGRP runs split horizon by default, making it impossible for R1 to forward an advertisement to R2 regarding R3’s loopback. Likewise, R1 cannot advertise R2’s loopback address to R3. We could configure two subinterfaces on R1 to resolve this issue, but here we’re going to disable split horizon instead.

R1(config)#int serial0

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

eigrp Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)

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

<1-65535> Autonomous system number

R1(config-if)#no ip split-horizon eigrp 100

04:10:02: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.2 (Serial0) is down: split horizon changed

04:10:02: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.3 (Serial0) is down: split horizon changed

04:10:25: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.2 (Serial0) is up: new adjacency

04:10:37: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.3 (Serial0) is up: new adjacency

Note that disabling split horizon resulted in the EIGRP adjacencies being torn down. They came back up 20 – 35 seconds after being torn down according to the timestamps, but that’s a good detail to keep in mind!

The routing tables of each spoke should now show the loopback network configured on the remote spoke.

R2#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.1 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:02, Serial0

3.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 3.3.3.3 [90/2809856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:02, Serial0

R3#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.1 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:02, Serial0

2.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 2.2.2.2 [90/2809856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:02, Serial0

Be careful when disabling split horizon. In this scenario, R1 can and will advertise routes out Serial0 that were learned about on that interface in the first place, and that’s not always desirable. Split horizon is enabled by default for a reason, so be careful when disabling it!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA 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”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your Microsoft Vista certification with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Explode Your Affiliate Commissions, Traffic & Mailing List in 5 Easy Steps

If you're looking to successfully promote your affiliate products and avoid shooting yourself in the foot and derailing your marketing efforts read on...

Do you know what the number one way to promote any product or service online is? No, it's not creating big, splashy product launches or flooding blogs and forums with thinly disguised marketing ads that might get you banned for spamming.

Article writing has long been highly touted as the SIMPLEST and BEST way to promote your products on the Internet. It is an easy, proven method for driving targeted visitors to your pages or blogs. Sales are much easier to make when your visitors arrive on your sales pages already wanting your affiliate products or services.

Most tutorials and "How To Market Online" ebooks have the same, somewhat vague advice on how to market with articles submitted to directories and ezines. Sure, they all tell you to write an article of 300-500 words, stressing the benefits of using the latest widget or joining some membership community. They also tell you to include a tantalizing offer to capture the reader's curiosity and to submit your article to as many article directories as you can.

That's all accurate advice and pretty standard across the Web, but, since most people haven't got a clue about how to use their articles to generate REAL INTEREST in their affiliate products, it's pretty much incomplete or useless advice.

Think about it.. . why did you write your article in the first place? Regardless of how beautiful your actual prose is, your ONLY reason for writing articles is to send targeted traffic to your offers. That means you have to attract interest and create enough curiosity to make your readers click on your link that sends them to your landing page or sales page. If your article doesn't do that, your marketing efforts will not generate income for you.

To complete the article marketing process, here's five simple steps you can use to get the job done for you.

#1... Focus!

Select the product or service you want to promote and sign up as an affiliate. This will get you an affiliate ID that you will include in all links to the product you are promoting. That affiliate ID lets the company know who gets the commissions when customers you send through your efforts buy their product or services.

For your first venture, stick with ONE product or service. Don't join everything that comes your way. You will become too scattered to be an effective marketer. What you are doing here, in the first step of this plan, is selecting your affiliate product to market with your articles.

Don't complicate it. Before you can create a simple and powerful marketing plan, you have to know WHAT you are specifically marketing. Most successful marketers advise using the product or service before you start marketing it and that's very good advice.

How can you tell your readers all about the benefits of using your product if you've never used it yourself? Your short article has to reflect YOUR OWN PASSION about the product to stimulate clicks on your links.

#2... Plan Your Strategy!

This sounds more difficult than it really is. When you're writing your marketing article, you focus your content on creating and building up your desired response from the reader. That response would be clicking on your link to get MORE information or a better solution to a problem they might have. Initially, you give them enough good quality information to make them want more.

Here's an example. Let's say you are marketing "Forever Shining" car wax.

Your title would be something like, "How To Keep Your Car Looking Brand New For Years" or "5 Easy Steps To Increase Your Car's Value."

Your article would list several important benefits of just waxing your car like a gleaming finish that also protects from bird droppings, keeping your car paint from fading with sun exposure, keeping that brand new look or, it only needs to be applied once a month. Include a tip or two for each benefit you list. Your ONLY purpose here is to provide good content and tips to make the reader's task easier.

Then, you drop the bomb: "If you want to wax your car ONCE A YEAR, instead of once a month, and still get superior protection, Check This Out!"

Your affiliate link to your sales page would be behind the "Check This Out." So, if you are sending your customer directly to the product's main sales page, they go wrapped in your affiliate ID. If you are sending them to your own sales page, make sure that any link on that page has your affiliate ID behind it.

See how that works? It's simple, but powerful. Your article on the benefits and tips to make car waxing easier is useful information your reader can implement immediately. The simple money-maker for you is your very strong, unspoken, enticement to be able to spend weekends fishing or watching sports on TV, rather than waxing their car in their garage.

#3... Use Tips And Tutorials To Your Advantage!

Internet surfers are universally looking for the same two things:

* INFORMATION they need for their own knowledge or to complete a project, like "Why do I need renter's insurance?" or "How do I make a macrame plant hanger?" for example.

* SOLUTIONS to everyday problems they have, like "How do I get my teenager to clean up her room?" or "Why do my roses die before they actually bloom?"

It's not brain surgery. Your task is to uncover the need and provide information to ease that need or steps to solve the problem in your articles. Don't forget the strong statement that leads them to even more information or much better solutions.

Your article titles have a great influence on starting that curiosity twitch in your readers that leads to clicks on your links.

QUESTIONS are powerful titles that encourage readers to click on your article to find out the answer. Here's a couple of examples. Fill in the blanks to suit your purposes.

"Want To ____________ Your _____________?" or

"Do You Know How to ___________?"

The title on this article is: "Explode Your Affiliate Commissions, Traffic & Mailing List in 5 Easy Steps"

It could just as easily have been: "Do You Know The 5 Simple Steps to Increase Your Income?" or any other version of that statement.

NUMBERED LISTS are a second very good option for titles. People like "To Do Lists" and follow your link to see what the ___ steps are.

"10 Amazing Ways To Reduce Your ________ " or

"Double Your Online Income With 6 Simple Tricks Of The Trade"

STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIALS are always welcomed by your readers who want to learn how to do or accomplish something by themselves. Your tutorials have several powerful benefits for your marketing plan that the other two options mentioned do not have.

* eMail delivery is simple and can be set up with an autoresponder so each step is delivered on a specific schedule without your intervention. Each step is delivered on a different day, usually a few days or a week apart.

* Increased marketing possibilities for each step that will keep your message and products in front of your readers, increasing chances for purchases. If your tutorial is full of good content and easy-to-follow directions, you will create a credibility factor with your readers that will develop loyalty to your projects. Money can't buy that!

* List-building is much easier with a good tutorial. Encourage reader feedback; get them involved to build a sense of "belonging." With each email tutorial step, ask for opinions about the subject or questions or just comments. If that doesn't suit your style, send an occasional extra email to your list and ask for their input. You could get several good topics for more tutorials. If you don't create a responsive, loyal list, you do not have a market, which equals no sales.

All you have to do here, or with any of these three tried-and-true methods, is decide what result you want from your article, provide the content to accomplish that result and publish it.

It really is as simple as it sounds. Visit article directories and read some articles that interest you. Develop an outline of the strategies used by those authors and you have your own template.

#4... Light Their Fire!

A very simple process to determine both the content and the flow of your article, keeping in mind the result you want when someone reads it, is to use the old outline technique you hated in school.

Make a list of the main points you want to include in your article. Don't be too critical here, just list them as they pop into your head...just the two or three-word points. When you finish doing that, arrange the points in some logical order to accomplish your marketing purpose, which is creating a desire to want more information and to click on the link to your sales page.

Once your list of points is arranged to suit your purpose, start expanding on each one, writing one or two short paragraphs or several sentences for each one. Make sure you are providing outstanding, quality content and not just fluff or filler content.

If your points motivate your readers to want more from you or challenge their old ways of thinking, you just created a customer. The secret here is to give them enough to create curiosity, generate questions they want answered and jump start their passion for the subject you are writing about.

Sounds like a lot for a short article to accomplish, doesn't it? It isn't. Successful Internet Marketers are doing it all day long and they don't waste time on methods that don't work.

#5... Wrap It Up And Set It Free!

There are five critical finishing touches that, if not completed before you publish your article, will result in you shooting yourself in the foot and derailing your marketing efforts. If you remember, I mentioned this at the beginning of this post.

First, REREAD YOUR ARTICLE with a critical eye. Answer these questions while you read it:

1. Is the information provided really useful?

2. Is it easy to understand and not peppered with confusing "insider" jargon?

3. Does it deliver the message to your readers that you wanted to deliver?

4. Does it make your reader want to know more?

Before moving on to the next step, read your article out loud and listen for awkward phrasing and poor grammar. Fix any you find before moving on.

Next, CHECK OUT YOUR RESOURCE BOX and make sure the information there really promotes your offer. You wrote this article to promote your affiliate product and your final message to your readers, your resource box, has to put the icing on it and motivate a click on the link to your sales page. It's why you wrote the article in the first place.

If you are not sure what to put in there, visit the article directories once again and you will notice that most of the resources boxes are essentially the same. Don't be afraid to copy success!

The last task you need to finish before sending your article off to do the work it was designed to do is one last PROOFING FOR ERRORS of any sort. Don't do this yourself. You are no longer objective and your tendency will be to read what you want it to say, rather than what it actually does say.

Ask a friend or relative to do it for you and listen to what they tell you. They will be reading it like your potential readers will. You don't want to make a bad impression with something as easily corrected as misspelled words or bad grammar.

You ready? Let's get it published and working for you.

Send a copy to your favorite list of publishers. Don't have a list? Google for some and you will probably be overwhelmed. Submit it to article directories...the more the better. Just be sure you read their individual submission guidelines and take them seriously before you do it. You don't want your article declined because of something easy to fix, like not having Every Word In Your Title Start With A Capital Letter.

If you have a newsletter or blog, don't forget to publish it yourself. You'd be surprised how many new authors forget to do this. You can even email it to your list if you think they would be interested in the valuable content you just created. Your task from now on is: Market! Market! Market!

Finally, if you haven't skipped any of the tips and techniques listed above, your efforts should start producing sales for you when your article gets published. Take a deep breath and relax for a moment. You have researched, organized, written and published your first marketing article. You have a working template you can use over and over.

Know what comes next?

Do it again!

Paula Brett is a writer and internet marketer in several niches. She works mainly with newcomers to internet marketing and her most recent eBook is Emergency Surgery: Operation eBook You can receive her FREE, 7-Day eCourse, 7 Magic Steps To Your Own Info Product by visiting here http://www.OperationEbook.com. You can also visit her Blog at http://www.PaulaBrettBlog.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paula_Brett

Cisco CCENT - CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial - Logging Synchronous And Exec-Timeout Commands

Throughout my CCENT and CCNA exam tutorials, you'll notice these two curious commands on the console port:

line con 0

exec-timeout 0 0

logging synchronous

I've been recommending these commands for years to CCNA and CCNP candidates putting their own home labs together, but they can come in handy on the job as well. Let's take these commands one at a time, starting with the logging synchronous command.

When the router wants you to know something, it wants you to know right now. If the router sends a message to the console while you're entering a config, by default the router will interrupt your work to show you that message.

In the following example, I opened a Serial interface, which will always result in at least two messages relating to the physical and logical state of the interface. I started typing a sentence immediately after I opened the interface to show you what happens. I've bolded the sentence I was entering.

R1(config)#int s0

R1(config-if)#no shut

R1(config-if)#^Z

R1#so here i am

4d04h: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by consoletyp

4d04h: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Serial0, changed state to uping and

4d04h: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0, changed state to upi've been interrupted quite badly!

4d04h: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0, changed state to down

This may seen trivial, but when you have a long command entry interrupted by a console message, you'll wonder how to prevent that from happening. (After you stop yelling at the router, that is.) By configuring the logging synchronous command on the console port, you're telling the router to hold such messages until it detects no input from the keyboard and no other output from the router, such as a show command's output.

R1(config)#line console 0

R1(config-line)#logging ?

synchronous Synchronized message output

The second command I always enter on the console port of a home lab router or switch is exec-timeout 0 0. This disables the default inactivity timeout of 5 minutes and 0 seconds. If you want to change that timer rather than disabling it, the first number represents the number of minutes in the inactivity timer and the second number is the number of seconds.

R1(config)#line con 0

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout ?

<0-35791> Timeout in minutes

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout 0 ?

<0-2147483> Timeout in seconds

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout 0 0 (disables the inactivity timer)

This command can also be configured on the VTY lines to set or disable the inactivity timer for Telnet and SSH users. Here, we'll set the VTY line inactivity timer to 10 minutes.

R1(config)#line vty 0 4

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout ?

<0-35791> Timeout in minutes

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout 0 ?

<0-2147483> Timeout in seconds

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout 10 ?

<0-2147483> Timeout in seconds

R1(config-line)#exec-timeout 10 0

Some network admins hate these commands, and I personally don't like to disable my router's Telnet and SSH inactivity timers. They're great commands for your present or future home lab, and I also recommend you know them for your CCENT and CCNA exams!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free Cisco CCNP, BSCI, and BCMSN training and CCNA 640-802 tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. You can also visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, "How To Pass The CCNA" and "How To Pass The CCNP", just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass your Cisco CCENT and CCNA 640-802 exam with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Tutorial - Erase Background

This tutorial will go over a simple tool that is capable of erasing backgrounds. It is not the most complete tool, but it is very smart if you do it correctly. My tutorial will show you how it can be correctly used to make areas of your photos disappear. From there you will be able to do whatever you want with the space! As you know I am doing this in Adobe Photoshop CS3 if you see any difference in your version of Adobe Photoshop. Let's begin the tutorial.

You will want to start by opening up the image you want to work with. The one below is my truck and boat just after a fishing trip. It sure was fun!

Image #1

Now you will select the Quick Selection Tool. This tool is like the magic wand but not as automatic. It lets you take sections at a time by dragging. It basically works on a color redundancy equation to guess what an object is.

Image #2

As you can see that I have selected the area that I want to erase the background in. Now you can do the same with your image.

Image #3

Now you can select the Background Eraser Tool to begin the process of erasing the background.

Image #4

From the picture below you can see that I drag the icon around in the area that that I marked off. What you don't know is that I pulled the cursor over the area that wasn't marked off as well. The background eraser tool only works within the confined areas that you give it. If you select an area inside an image, it will only be able to erase the background in that area. That is why it is such a cool feature.

Image #5

Now you can see that I have pretty much completely erased the whole area. It would have been a lot easier if I had increased the cursor size though. You can do this by going to the top of the program when the Background Eraser Tool is selected and changing the brush size from the default 13 to something higher.

Image #6

Now we can go about filling in the area with something else. The area will still be outlined during this process. I am going to just fill in the background with a color just to show you it is possible. You can add any kind of image in that section of you please. To fill in the area just navigate to Edit/Fill.

Image #7

Now you will select a color for the background.

Image #8

Now you will change the blending mode if you desire or the opacity of the color you are filling the area with.

Image #9

Now you have the finished project.

Image #10

This tutorial is fairly easy, but many people are not aware of this great tool. So took a little time to make a demonstration and post it as a tutorial for your enjoyment. Hopefully, it will be easier to find than it is right now. Of course this tool is great for other things as well. I will let your imagination run wild with those thoughts though. If you want to see this tutorial with pictures attached please go to Photoshop Background Eraser Tool. This website has a variety of personally made Adobe product tutorials for your everyday needs.

Dwight Norris - AST Website Owner Adobe Software Tutorials Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dwight_Norris

Learn Photoshop CS3

This tutorial will go over the use of the Gradient Tool in Adobe Photoshop CS3. This is a short and focused tutorial on the capabilities of the gradient tool. Many different things can be constructed from such simple features. Many new web 2.0 buttons, headers and images are using finely tuned gradients to give off a smooth effect.

I personally like this look and feel, and will be developing it into some of my new tutorials. If you are looking for a more defined tutorial on how to use this feature, you can check out of the links to the side or a webpage from the resource site link. Also there is the full package of teaching tutorials that you will find summarized at the end of this tutorial. Enough of the idle talk lets continue with the tutorial.

Let's start by opening up Adobe Photoshop CS Extended and making a document of a large square shape (500 pixels x 500 pixels). Then you can select the Gradient Tool.

Now drag a line from the top left portion to the bottom right portion like shown in the image below.

Now you will see what happens with the color patterns from blue to brown. You can see the color pattern at the top left of the program. That is the way it is shown for a gradient.

Now select that gradient box and you will see the default option within it. There are a variety of pre-made color patterns.

Let's take a look at one in use. Pick the transparent rainbow.

Now drag a line from the top right to the bottom left.

Now you will get an opposing gradient image from another corner of the document. You could do with different layers and make all kinds of cool contrasting stuff.

Now lets get a fresh document and select the Linear Gradient located at the top of the screen as shown in the image below.

Now drag a line from the left to the right.

Now you will get a linear gradient with the transparent rainbow. The transparent rainbow is nothing more than a few blending changes. You blur the rain colors and then you set the opacity to about 50% and there you go.

Let's make another clean document and select the Angle Gradient.

Select the option Foreground to Background, which will take your personally made background and foreground colors and make an angled gradient with them. You can do this with any of the gradients.

Now drag a line from left to right.

Now you will have an angled gradient. My gradient is from blue to white so it looks like it takes up only half the screen. You can make yours look like whatever you want.

Now make a new document and select the Reflected Gradient.

Drag a line from the bottom left to the top right.

Now you will see the image below.

Now select the Diamond Gradient from the top. I am sorry for not having the proper caption for this. Now select the black and white color option.

Now drag a line from the top left to the bottom right.

Now you will have an odd looking diamond speared gradient object. I probably should have demonstrated this in another color pattern.

The rest of the options are pretty self-explanatory. Next to the gradient types are the modes you can run them in. I kept it on normal for simplicity sake. They are shown below.

The gradient is a great tool that has many useful possibilities. It has been used since digital graphic editing started and it will continue on with these brilliant programs. Nothing catches the eye more than a well used gradient in an image. It mimics the changing faces of the sky that we see everyday. Some people would state that they have never seen anything more beautiful than a colorful sky. I believe they may be on to something. I hope this tutorial has taught you a few features that Adobe Photoshop CS3 has to offer with gradients.

Master The Basics of Adobe Photoshop With Easy to Follow FREE Online Tutorials. Click Here for more details: learn photoshop cs3

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Peters

Cisco CCNP BCMSN 642-812 Certification Exam Tutorial - DHCP Snooping

An important part of passing the Cisco CCNP BCMSN exam and protecting your network from intruders is to recognize that even everyday protocols and services can work against us once that intruder is in our network.

It may be hard to believe, but something as innocent as DHCP can actually lead to trouble for your network. When a host sends out a DHCPDiscovery packet, it listens for DHCPOffer packets - and accepts the first Offer it gets!

Part of that DHCPOffer is the address to which the host should set its default gateway. What if a DHCP server that does not belong on our network - a rogue DHCP server - is placed on that subnet? If that host uses the DHCPOffer from the rogue server, the host could end up using the rogue server as its default gateway or DNS server!

We can prevent this with DHCP Snooping. DHCP Snooping classifies interfaces as either trusted or untrusted.

DHCP messages received on trusted interfaces will be permitted to pass through the switch, but DHCP messages received on untrusted interface result in the interface itself being placed into err-disabled state.

By default, the switch considers all ports untrusted - which means we better remember to configure the switch to trust some ports when we enable DHCP Snooping!

First, we need to enable DHCP Snooping on the entire switch:

SW1(config)#ip dhcp snooping

To enable DHCP Snooping for a particular VLAN, use the ip dhcp snooping command.

SW1(config)#ip dhcp snooping vlan 4

Ports can then be configured as trusted with the ip dhcp snooping trust command.

SW1(config-if)#ip dhcp snooping trust

There are other options available with DHCP Snooping, and we’ll look at some of those in a future tutorial. DHCP Snooping is an important topic for your CCNP BCMSN exam, and it’s just as important in real-world networks - so get familiar with it for both the exam room and the network room!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP exam and CCNA Certification tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. You can also 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”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your Microsoft Vista certification with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Microsoft Vista Certification Tutorial - An Introduction To Windows Defender

You don't have to be working on a Microsoft Windows Vista certification to know about the security problems that past versions of Windows have encountered. As a result, Microsoft is paying special attention to security with Vista, and one of the new features Vista features is Windows Defender.

What exactly are we defending against with Defender? Spyware. Spyware programs range from annoying (one pop-up banner after another) to downright destructive (capturing your computer's keystrokes). Windows Defender is designed to operate much like an antivirus program in that Defender will detect the offending spyware and then quarantine or delete the spyware.

Defender gives you this protection in two ways. First, by prompting you for a "yes/no" answer when you're about to knowingly or unknowingly have a program installed on your computer. Defender will also scan your computer to look for known spyware programs and will do so once daily by default. Naturally, this can be changed to suit your needs, and you can also define which files should and should not be scanned.

Defender's Software Explorer feature shows you the programs that are currently running on your computer, as well as which ones will run automatically when you reboot. Software Explorer is very helpful in spotting potential spyware programs, since this feature will indicate whether the program will start when Windows starts, whether the program actually shipped with the OS, whether it's been analyzed as a potential threat, and whether the program has been digitally signed by the publisher.

What if the file isn't spyware? You can tell Defender to "always allow" that particular file. The options for treating potential spyware are "remove", "quarantine", "ignore", and "always allow". You can changes these options for any particular file at any time.

The first line of defense against spyware is the end user, but none of us are perfect! Windows Defender is definitely a step forward in the fight against spyware - and in future Microsoft Vista certification tutorials, we'll take a look at other Vista security features.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA exam 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”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your Microsoft Vista certification with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

CCNP Certification BCMSN Exam Tutorial - Defending Against MAC Address Flooding

Network attacks take many forms, and it's important to know how the potential security issues with ARP, DHCP, and MAC addresses. They're innocent looking enough, but each of these common network protocols and addresses can be turned against us. Today, we'll talk about what MAC Address Flooding is, how it can be used against our network, and the best defense against this attack.

A MAC Address Flooding attack is an attempt by a network intruder to overwhelm the switch memory reserved for maintenance of the MAC address table. The intruder generates a large number of frames with different source MAC addresses - all of them invalid. As the switch's MAC address table capabilities are exhausted, valid entries cannot be made - and this results in those valid frames being broadcast instead of unicast.

This has two side effects, both unpleasant:

As mentioned, the MAC address table fills to capacity, preventing legitimate entries from being made.

The large number of unnecessary frame flooding quickly consumes bandwidth as well as overall switch resources.

The best defense against MAC Address Flooding is a good offense, and in this case, that offense consists of port-based authentication and port security. By making sure our host devices are indeed who we think they are and authenticating them before they join our network, we reduce the potential for an intruder to unleash a MAC Address Flooding attack on our network. The key isn't to fight the intruder once they're in our network - the key is to keep them out in the first place!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP exam and CCNA Certification tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. You can also 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”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your Microsoft Vista certification with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Cisco CCENT - CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial - Crossover, Straightthrough, and Rollover Cables

To pass the Cisco CCENT and CCNA certification exams, you have to know what cable type is appropriate for a given situation. It's also a good idea to know this for working in real-world production networks as well! After all, if we have the wrong cable, we don't have a network!

This is particularly true of the following scenario, where we have:

A laptop connected to a switch (Cable 3)

Two switches connected to each other (Cable 2)

A PC connected to a switch (Cable 1)

This is a very basic and common topology, but we've got three different cable types in there! Working from top to bottom, let's take a look at the different cables we'll need to make this work.

For Cable 1, we need a straightthrough cable. A straightthrough cable is used to connect a PC to a switch or hub. In a straightthrough cable, the wire connected to Pin 1 on one side is connected to Pin 1 on the other, the wire connected to Pin 2 on one side is connected to Pin 2 on the other, and so forth.

It's very common to connect two switches to allow them to send data over that connection, and the connection between two switches is called a trunk. You'll learn all about the particulars of trunking in your CCNA studies, but the first thing we have to do is make sure we have the correct cable!

To allow two switches to communicate with each other, a special cable type is needed. Regular straight-through cables will not allow two switches to form a trunk.

What we need is a crossover cable. The wire connected to Pin 1 on one side will no longer be connected to Pin 1 on the other, as it was in a straight-through cable.Four wires will "cross over" in a crossover cable:

Local Pin 1 crosses over to Remote Pin 3

Local Pin 2 crosses over to Remote Pin 6

Local Pin 3 crosses over to Remote Pin 1

Local Pin 6 crosses over to Remote Pin 2

Two cables down, one to go! To connect that laptop directly to a switch, we've got to be careful of two things:

Using the right cable
Connecting the right cable to the right port on the switch. The cable we need is a rollover cable. All eight wires in the cable will "roll over" to another pin at the remote end, with the wire on Pin 1 at one end rolling over to Pin 8 at the other end, the wire on Pin 2 at one end rolling over to Pin 7 at the remote end, and so forth.

You may also need an adapter for your rollover cable, since one end of the cable is a DB-9 connector, and few if any of today's laptops have such a port. You probably do have USB ports on your laptop, and you can get an adapter that allows you to connect a rollover cable to your laptop's USB port from just about any cable dealer.

As for the connection to the switch, you need to make sure you connect the RJ-45 connector on the other end of the rollover cable to the Console port of the switch.

With the proper combination of rollover, straightthrough, and crossover cables, you're on your way to total network connectivity - and on the way to passing your Cisco CCENT and CCNA exams, too!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free Cisco CCNP, BSCI, ONT, ISCW, and BCMSN exam and CCNA tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. You can also visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, "How To Pass The CCNA" and "How To Pass The CCNP", just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass your CCENT and CCNA 640-802 exam with The Bryant Advantage! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Bryant

Link Exchange Tips, Link Exchange Trick & Tutorials

With so many bleeding edge marketing and promotion methods coming into practice these days, it's easy to forget the basics - this tutorial will assist you in developing a link exchange campaign that will get noticed. A few good manners go a long, long way - an old concept but very applicable to modern Internet marketing and web site promotion strategies. Website Promotion?

When you first launch your site, the chances are that traffic will not start flowing immediately, and perhaps never - it's not just how your site looks or operates that will ensure it's success or failure. According to numerous sources I've come across during my research, the average web site only receives around 3 unique visitors a day!

So how do you get well above this average? A lot of begging and pleading to begin with! Many web masters and site owners leave a lot to be desired in their approaches to marketing and promoting their sites -especially in terms of reciprocal link exchanges.

Web masters are busy people

Don't expect an answer straight away and harass the site owner with countless follow up emails. Leave it for at least 2 weeks before second contact and ensure that the second note is equally as polite as the first. Read the site

Ensure you take a good look over the site you wish to link to you, be familiar with it's content and mention some of the content in your request for a reciprocal link exchange. Identify the common theme between the sites. If the site has a "Submit your URL" page, ensure that you use it and read the guidelines for submission carefully.

to prevent "Link Abuse", we have some basic linking rules:

1. We will keep an active link to your site alive as long as a link to Beer on the Wall is active on your site (we monitor links regularly)

2. We will only link to the same domain that is linked to us.

3. We must be able to find our link from your Home Page with minimal difficulty.

4. We do not support "Link Farms" or sites that have an excessive number of external links on the same page.

5. We do not link to offensive, illegal, or pornographic web sites.

6. If any of our graphics are used, they should be uploaded to YOUR server and not linked to ours.

7. You should have your own domain - we normally do not link to free sites like geocities, angelfire, aol, etc.

8. Please do not request a link until you have placed a link to Beer on the Wall on your site and it is available for review.

Some Tips to Link exchange

inbound links can improve your rankings in the search engines by raising your link popularity or doing link exchange, increasing your website traffic, and providing a valuable resource for your website customers and visitors. Here are some link exchange tips to get you started:

1. link with websites that will bring you targeted traffic. Targeted traffic means visitors and that will be interested in your products or services.

2. your link title should be brief and free of long sentences.

3. Try to keep your link description brief (aim for 200 characters or less).

4. Do not capitalize all letters in your link title or description.

5. Do not give the webmaster a deadline on when they should reciprocate. Webmasters are very busy people and it may take from 1 to 60 days or more. Be patient and in the long run you will receive more quality link partners!

6. Never remove a link partner from your site once they have agreed to exchange links with you and placed your link on their site.

7. Do not request link exchanges from sites that are unrelated to your website. For example, if you have a candle website, don't exchange links with a pharmaceutical website. This will not benefit your customers or visitors and the search engines may penalize your website for this.

8. Let the webmaster know that you have indeed visited their site and explain to them why a reciprocal link exchange with your website would be beneficial.

9. Be sure that your link pages are search engine friendly. Link pages are easier indexed if they have no more than 25 links per page.

10. Complete your website before requesting reciprocal link exchanges. Most webmasters will not link to a site where most of the pages are "under construction".

11. Do not give misleading information in your link exchange request. Most webmasters are not going to believe it and your request will most likely be ignored. For example, don't claim that your site receives 100,000 unique visitors a day unless your site really receives that many.

12. It is best to categorize your link partners. For example, you might want to have a home and garden page, a home improvement page, a candles page, etc. This is a much better way or organizing your links for both your visitors and your link partners. If you just have one huge page of links in no order, most webmasters will not approve your link exchange request.

13. Make sure your links page is linked and visible from your home page.

14. If your site is family friendly, do not add link partners that offer services or products that are not family friendly.

15. Be aware of free-for-all link programs and link farms. These are sites that basically offer nothing but unrelated links and end up collecting and sharing your email address, which results in a lot of unwanted SPAM in your inbox.

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By: Satyendra Singh (SEO Executive) E_mail: ss_mail20@yahoo.co.in Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Satyendra_Singh

Photoshop CS2 Tutorials for Beginners

Photoshop CS2 tutorials will play a big role on how far you can go with your Photoshop installed in your computer. This will enable you to maximize the different features of the program and benefit from it.

Photoshop CS2 Upgrade

The basic Photoshop program has an upgrade now in the Photoshop CS2. With this at hand there are a number of things that you can now do. It now comes with neat features that make artworks more enjoyable in the computer.

Here are some of the features that you can now enjoy from the Photoshop CS2 version.

• Adobe Bridge

It is now easier to view and manipulate your various photographs and artworks through the Adobe Bridge.

• Remove Red-Eye Instantly

The older Photoshop version would take some time before a red-eye is removed. With Photoshop CS2, this task can be done more easily.

• Spot Healing Brush

The Spot Healing Brush in Photoshop CS2 will allow you to get rid of imperfections. With just the click of a mouse, your spot will definitely get a good repair.

• Accurate Printing

Photoshop CS2 tutorial can let you explore the improved workflow of printing with the program. You can easily learn how to configure the printer for more accurate colors in the output.

• Font Viewing

Fonts can now be previewed as to how they would actually appear from the drop-down menu. Now, you do not have to keep on clicking until you find the right one.

Photoshop CS2 Tutorials

Buying the Photoshop program and enjoying its features would be fairly easy. However, it is a completely different matter to be able to learn the many ways of operating the program to create illustrations and graphics.

Thus, it is best to explore the many options for Photoshop CS2 tutorials. Here are some of your options to learn the basics of the program.

1. Online Photoshop CS2 Tutorial

Buying your own Photoshop CS2 program will give you access to the online tutorial. It will also give you venue to ask your questions and get some tips on how to properly use the program.

2. Utilizing the Demo Version

Most of the Photoshop CS2 tutorials on the Web are provided for a fee. However, there are options for you to get a demo version of such tutorials.

You can get this demo version free of charge. This version will only include a few chapters of lessons. This will give you a good preview of how well the tutorial will go. You can evaluate its features before purchasing the full version.

3. Purchase the CD

Photoshop CS2 tutorials can also be accessed by purchasing the CD. You can get this for less than $100 and you can explore everything you need to learn about Photoshop CS2.

4. Download a PDF File

There are also PDF files available on the Web that you can download. This can provide you the foundations of Photoshop CS2 that you need to learn.

5. Video Tutorials

You can also explore the internet for sites that offer Photoshop CS2 video tutorials. If you are completely clueless about Photoshop CS2, then the video will be able to guide you in every step of the way.

Conclusion

The Photoshop CS2 tutorial is a good option for you to maximize the use of your program. With skills you can gather from here, you can surely go a long way with your artworks and creativity.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For a free photo shop tutorial and or to purchase a video photo shop tutorial checkout his website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mario_SG_Churchill

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An "In Depth" Look At How To Create an email discussion list If you find this information valuable, please send it on to a friend

This Article is #1 of 10 articles dealing with successful TRAF- FIC GENERATION CREATION METHODS to build a large subscriber base for your site or email discussion list, and while you may think you've seen this title before, it's highly doubtful that you've seen the subject matter treated in such an IN DEPTH Manner

Most other sites when dealing with TRAFFIC GENERATION CREATION METHODS, and I include the "Internet Guru" sites in this, will tell you, "Create an email discussion list. The list should be related to your web site's subject. Place your ad on all posts and it will remind people to visit your site." and that will be all you get. You have to figure out the "how" yourself. The instructions you received were almost an exact copy of what I have in my comments

Here, you will not have to figure it all out

OK. Let's get on with it. Just what is an email discussion list? Adam Boettiger of www.email911.com says "Email discussion lists are the most powerful, educational online resources that you will ever encounter. They can provide you with immediate, free access to the collective knowledge, wisdom and experience of thousands of people".

So? What is an email discussion list in reality? He, Adam Boettiger, goes on to say "Discussion lists are Knowledge Exchanges".

OK I'll go along with that, but how do you create a successful Email Discussion List, group or what ever?

To start, you need to look at TWO factors.They are 1) Strategies and 2) Tactics.

A STRATEGY is your "business plan" to achieve what you want from your goals, and TACTICS are "things" you employ to keep your strategy on track and in the "fast lane"

Here's How to create a marketing strategy that's better than your competition's in five simple steps This is the basic concept as used by Proctor & Gamble. I'm sure you've heard of them and it looks deceptively simple

1. Compile an exhaustive list of the facts about your proposed group.
2. Extract your pertinent facts from your exhaustive list of facts.
3. What possibly Profitable Opportunities are presented in the extracted facts?
4. Create a Short-term strategy from the extracted facts.
5. Create a Long-term strategy from your exhaustive list of the facts.

That's it! It really is it! It's ALL you need to start with, as the guts of the project you have in mind will naturally follow on if you first follow these 5 steps.

Now let's look at it in more detail.

The first stage is all about research. You want to find out everything you can about your email discussion product and potential market. Start out on the 'net with a search tool such as webferret and feed your web ferret keywords and key phrases on the subject of your interest, look up figures, resource information, study guides, credible - NOT Incredible - reports, and have a completely open mind while you keep looking for any thing else that could possibly be of interest, and which will help you more concisely determine your short and long term goals .

Next, get out and communicate with existing and potential clients and sound them out on your concept. This means getting craftily involved and participating in sereral other email discussion groups which are similiar in content to what you're thinking about.

Get as much information as you possibly can. While you are doing this, take notes on the things you find out. Don't be tempted to stop too soon. More formal research tools like surveys can be used later if you have the money and time.

Stage two is about going over your information and extracting those facts that are most pertinent. I usually find there are just a few which are of immediate and key importance.

Here's what you're looking for.

What are the really key issues that you can base your marketing strategy on?

Is there some special piece of legislation coming up that is particularly relevant?

Is there a niche that no one else is exploiting? (If there is GRAB IT!!!)

Is there something unique about your email discussion product that customers will want more from you that from your competition? Or better still, is there some "modification" you can make to make it that way? Remember, there's nothing new under the sun!

When you have your pertinent facts you need to list all the possibly profit making opportunities you have. This is the creative part. Marketing planning is all about thinking about your potential markets and how to reach them and sell to them. So think about each of your possibly potential markets and how you can contact them. Possibly, you will isolate them into various groups such as Group #1 consists of a small number of highly profitable customers and Group #2 large number of low value customers.

Think about which markets are most profitable for the least effort.

You also need to consider how to reach them - some markets, for example top business people, can be very hard to reach via an email discussion list so what alternatives can you apply and how quickly you can start to communicate with them.

Rank your possibly profitable opportunities by RETURN Potential profitability.

Now take the top five possibly profitable opportunities and put them into your short-term strategy, the next two-three years. From these you will create your TACTICS to help you define and Identify your target market and your Marketing Tactics,

Your long-term strategy is what you have left over from your exhaustive list of the facts.

Also, remember that while you are implementing your strategy your market will be changing, make sure you set up information flow channels that keep you in touch with the market. Is a large competitor suddenly going all out for a niche market you had set your heart on? If so, keep researching as you're bound to find a "wrinkle" he hasn't covered or hasn't even thought of..

Why I like this particular system.... IT WORKS!

This strategic marketing system is as used by Proctor and Gamble one of the world's largest companies. It's worked for them. And I like it best because it's simple and can be applied to any size of business of project, and it works for ME. So, it should work for YOU! .

Also REMEMBER THAT when it comes to marketing tactics planning everyone naturally wants to dive in at the creative stage (step three). Hence most people ask themselves the question, "how can we sell this product?" and then set about brainstorming a few ideas with colleagues, family and friends.

This is normal, and you may be surprised to learn that it's also what a lot of very large companies do too. The problem is that you end up avoiding the whole raft of ideas you get when you research properly. The other thing is fact most of your compet- itors also will not be researching - they'll be doing it on the fly, which gives you a big competitive advantage, and you will have a powerful and effective success technique.

Announcing Your List. Announce your new list, once completed by

1. Posting the information to appropriate announcement lists and sites.
2. Listing the site with every search engine possible.
3. Getting involved into communication that is of interest to both parties, via email, with every related subject or non-compet itive site you can find, then announcing your site to those.

Sending announcements via email to those people who are potential subscribers by joining appropriate opt-in lists such as http//NEW-LIST.com/ Make extensive use of your web ferret from http//www.ferretsoft.com/ using search terms such as email discussion lists, tips, ezines, newsletters, marketing e-zines, list owners, paying sponsors, sponsorships, mailing lists, promotions, nettiquette, subscriptions, increasing subscribers, majordomo, listserv etc. Sending announcements via email to websites of people in new target markets but be sure to avoid spamming.

Create your email discussion list around the profiles of people found in your research. Your list should be open to discussion on all topics related to your list's proposed products, or ser- vices. For some technical lists, you may need to narrow the focus to specific subjects within a given industry. It may be beneficial to operate two or three narrowly focused lists in- stead of one broad list.

Always include a brief "signature" in your emails giving your name and title, address and phone, email address, and URL (Uniform Resource Locator or website address) on each piece mailed. An appropriate, brief, and effective, slogan should be used as well. Some mailing list servers (programs) allow auto- matic posting of the listowner's signature at the bottom of each letter received, before it is sent out to list members

Many other techniques can be used. For example, some sites offer prizes or other incentives to visitors who will register. Others use carefully placed banner ads on related commercial sites to draw new prospects. You are limited only by netiquette, (See here for Top 10 Most Important Rules of Email Netiquette) by your understanding of 'net tools, and by your imagination.

These are the basic - and some not-so-basic - tactics for a suc- cessful 'net marketing email discussion list . Properly used, they make the difference between a "dog" and a successful email discussion list and marketing website. The best approach is to start with only these simple procedures, then grow into more ad- vanced techniques as you learn.

The essential difference between a "dog" and a successful email discussion list and marketing website is that the latter is more than just the site; it's a coordinated, purpose-driven (strategy) set of activities (tactics) that reach out into the net market- ing world to produce results. The physical site with its inform- ation and promotional materials is simply a part of this overall engine. Without a complete strategy and clearly stated tactics, the website will generate low volumes of inquiries and results and will fail to meet expectations. But, as in any other market, clearly defined goals and activities allow you to control its destiny, reaching out to bring in new business and grow.

High Tech, with all the bells and whistles, isn't the smartest way to go. Remember that your conveying information, You're NOT looking to show off all the latest multi-media techniques UNLESS you're a multi-media discussion list

http//www.cgispy.com has a FREE Forum System allows you to have a public page where people can post and view messages in spec- ific categories. As an admin you can customize the look, change text, add images, edit messages and make your board more inter active. You can have up to 10 categories, display 50 messages at a time per category. There are many other "pre-built" offerings on the net, and it's just a matter of finding the one that suits you. And it's a recommended way to get started for a newbie and then you again grow into more advanced techniques as you learn.

Why should you start an email discussion list? Here's the Top 7 Reasons To Run An Email List For Yourself Or Your Business as authored by Christopher M. Knight Multi-Million Dollar Business Builder Strategist @ http//www.christopher-knight.com/.

1.To Sell Advertising Mailing lists usually attract a very nar- row demographic, which when coupled with big lists, becomes at- tractive to sponsors to advertise in. You can do this in Ezines (Email news-letters) or Email Discussion Lists.

2.To Support Your Product Discussion lists can be a great way to get your existing installed client base to support each other and reduce yourinternal support costs, and add value to your customers.

3.For Your Hobbies If you've got a passion about a particular hobby, adiscussion list is a great way to pull together like minded friends allover the globe who have similar interests.

4.To Create A Virtual Fan Club For yourself, your product, your brandname. You can do this via announcement lists or discussion lists, to keepothers who love you, informed on the latest events.

5.To Announce New Products/Services There is no more powerful way for less money, than an Email announcement list, to keep your clients and prospects informed on new information about your business that could benefit them. Most list services are under $49 a month.

6.PR/Investor Relations/Board Lists Create an announcement list for folks who want to receive copies of new Press Releases about you, or Investor news if you're public or soon to be. You can also create a privatediscussion list for your board of directors to communicate on company issues.

7.For Your Dealers, Resellers, Associates, Affiliates, Etc Pull together those that help you build your business, via private and 'Exclusive'discussion or announcement lists for these folks.

You might also want to check out Christopher M. Knights' Email List Strategies which include Top 7 Reasons Why Discussion List Advertising Works, Top 7 Rules Of Email List Advertising Success Top 7 Reasons To Run An Email List For Yourself Or Your Business Top 7 Suggestions For Those Who Coach Others Via Email,Top 7 Strategies To Make Money Via Email,Top 7 Autoresponders Your Business WebSite Should Have, Top 7 Techniques To Increase The Perceived Value Of Your Ezine, Top 7 Tips To Grow Your Email Newsletter (Ezine) Subscription Base, Top 7 Ways To Use Email To Build Your Business, Top 7 Things To Include In Your Companies Ezine (Email Newsletter)

If you'd like a swag (Aussie for Bunch) of search terms, keywords and keyphrases you may wish to consider using during your research please email me and I'll send to you

Your feedback is important to us - We'd particularly like to have your questions, comments and suggestions on the content we've in- cluded and we'd like to know if you found it helpful. It helps us better plan to provide the content you'd like to see in Its Brilliant Traffic Generation Tips & Tricks Ezine

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