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