Expert's answer

I havent been able to find as much information as I would have hoped on moving from Sharepoint to Foundation. Since this is a test situation, I would strongly suggest that you set up a completely isolated environment to test with. Since resources may be hard to come by at this point, looking at a solution such as Virtual Box or VMWare to help give you a test platform to work with would be a good place to start.

From what I read about Foundation it only works on 64 bit version of Windows, so that will need to be factored in to your testing platform as well as what you will use when moving to production. Since there are several variables that you may be working with, starting in a isolated environment will be helpful in isolating problems to the base install vs operation in a server farm environment.

Once you have done a couple of dry runs with everything running on the same server, then trying an environment to what you will actually be doing in a production environment would be the next step. This will be a little more work but I have found that this is a safe way to go when working with new Microsoft technology where there isnt a lot of troubleshooting information easily available. If you have a MS Support agreement, reach out to your TSM and see what they have available on this type of migration.

What I am suggesting will serve you well moving forward. This will give you a good test environment to work from without tying up a lot of resources to do it. You probably wont need this much so having something that doesnt require dedicated resources should impress management.

Expert's answer

The best answer I can give you is that it depends. It depends on what kind of a budget you to spend and what other Cisco certifications you plan to pursue. There are two different ways you can build a lab - software vs hardware.

There are several software simulators to choose from. Boson and Cisco both have simulators to choose from. There is also an open source simulator called GNS3. The trick with GNS3 is that you need access to different IOS so can present a problem with using GNS3 unless you work for a company that has a SmartNet agreement with Cisco that gives you a license to download the different IOS files that you will need. GNS3 can run on either Linux, Mac or Windows.

The other option is to use hardware. Dont get me wrong, software simulators are an option and handy if you have to travel while studying so that you take your lab with you. Having used software and hardware labs, even with several years of experience, I still lean towards hardware. If nothing else, there are problems that you will only run into when you are using hardware that you probably cant simulate with software labs. Several companies out there are still saying that you can use a 2501 router for your CCNA, I couldnt disagree more. Cisco has publicly stated that they are basing their question from the 12.4 version of IOS. The 2501's have two problems in that they cant run anything past 12.1 even at max dram/flash and any of the 2500 class that I have seen only have a 10 Meg ethernet interface which means that you will run into problems with doing the router on a stick scenarios which will need at least a 100 Meg ethernet interface in order to work.

As to hardware, my personal preference is to use at least a 2610xm or 2620xm router as these can support more than enough memory to be able to run just about any flavor of 12.4 IOS that you can get access to. For CCNA, you should be able to get by with two routers and one switch (a 2950 or 3500 series should be able to get by with. Although WIC-1T's serial interface modules are cheap enough, I would suggest getting the WIC-2T versions which give you two serial ports in the same space as the single serial port WIC-1T. Although you will only have two routers at this point, having the extra serial port will allow room from growth as you expand your lab as you move to the CCxP certification path.

An alternative to both of these options is to rent rack time from a company who offers this service. There are several companies to choose from here. One that I have used myself in the past for several of my Cisco certifications is CCBOOTCAMP. I have also had the opportunity to go to their facilities and see the racks that you can get time on. It is a 1st class operation with first line gear to work with. With this option, you dont have to worry about getting copies of IOS to put in a simulator or getting the money to purchase the gear you need.

Expert's answer

There are several good areas of reading material to choose from. The first thing I would recommend is Cisco Press CCNA Self Study Guide - http://amzn.to/ajCuBL. This gets you the material for both CCNA exams. The other suggestion I would make is to get a copy of Paul Browning's CCNA simplified offering - http://bit.ly/daapS8. Paul's product is worth the price alone for his EXCELLENT math system. That is what helped me get through the CCNA exam. The exam I took had a lot of math on it and not having a good grasp on how to quickly to do the match prevented me from passing the exam on my first try.

There are several other options out there but these are what I have used personally when I passed me CCNA. In your searching, you will find some of the sites that are referred to as "BrainDumps". I would strongly discourage you from using these. From the ones I have checked in the past, the quality of the material I found was questionable and could have been dated enough to be useless.

I would suggest Cisco's Education Support Community - http://bit.ly/c1n3IM. This will be a good source of study aids that others have used and more importantly, to talk with your peers on what problems they are running into on their studies. There are also study groups available on this site that you can use for talking just to those who are currently studying for the same exam your are without having to filter out the other postings you will find.

Expert's answer

There are several choices available. Look at http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com/, http://duplicatefilessearcher.net/, and http://www.moleskinsoft.com/ to list a few of the options that I am aware of. They all do pretty much the same thing. One thing to think about is looking for a solution that is available on multiple OS's, so that if you need to do some file cleanup on Windows today and a Mac tomorrow and linux another day, you have one tool that will be able to do it wall. If you end up doing some tech support for your friends like we all see to do, having one tool that can operate on multiple OS's can be handy to have.

Expert's answer

The two solutions that come to mind are Websense and Smartfilter. These options will require that you set a server for the application you choose to run on. Some minor changes will be required to your firewall to point to the option you select for a go/no go decision as to what requests will be allowed to go through the firewall. Where I would start with this search is to check your firewall to see what options are supported and use that as a starting point for what you go with.

If you end up with a situation where there is no option for internet filtering either because your firewall doesnt support this type of operation or that you arent able to get any funding for the purchase of the solution, there is another option. I noticed this in one of the RSS fees that I watch. One of the handlers at SANS posted this on their site - http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=9037. Basically it involves setting up a linux server running bind with some configuration scripts. If you arent familiar with linux, dont worry, it isnt that hard to do. That is how I learned to install/configure linux was by setting up bind. I set up a pair of bind servers for a small private College to where all requests from the users on campus came through those servers but any DNS requests that came from the outside were met with a DNS Root hints message if the request was for a domain that the College wasnt hosting.

Once you decide on how you are going to proceed, make sure that HR and Legal are both on board with this. Even though HR was the initial requester on this, it would be a good idea to have Legal at least aware of what is going on just in case something were to happen involving this that they would be aware of what was going on. Keep good records on this on any changes that you make just to make sure you are protected. Keep a good email trail from HR on their approval for the changes. Establish a formal change process so that there is a set path that has to be followed on anything that has to be done on changing this method of internet access.

Expert's answer

You may be in a unique situation. It sounds like your first love is programming. Being interested in Security could be a good complement to programming. Since you think you may end up as a PM if you go down the programming route, having a background in Security could serve very well. Not only could you make sure that the programming is written to specs but that it is written in a way that helps avoid problems that could cause issues for the company using the program being written.

The college degree will help get you in the door where the practical experience might not even get you looked at. Either way you are probably looking at an entry level position so that you can get the experience you need to move to better paying positions and to a position that you will be the most challenged at. With the current economy, going with a contract position or two may be the only way to get the experience that will help you land a permanent position.

Being having your finger in more than one pie could help you weather problems that could sink you in either field if you concentrated on either Security or Programming. Since you haven graduated yet, I would suggested starting a conversation with more than one headhunter/recruiter. They can be a valuable source of information as to what their clients/your potential employer is looking for in terms of qualifications and experience. You should be able to get a good idea of what type of compensation/benefits package you may be able to get. This may also help you get interviews for positions that may never be listed on any of the internet job boards or local newspaper ads.

Not of us get to do what we love. Even if you go down the programming route, having another skillset to draw upon could help keep the bills paid if the economy takes a turn and there is a change in demand for the skillset that you have been using. At least in the US, the job market isnt the best it has been for a while, I can only assume that conditions in Canada are similar at this point. Starting to look now should give you time to either find the position that is the best fit for you or decide that getting additonal training or a degree might be a better choice.

Expert's answer

Having been going down the trail of Cisco certifications myself for the past few years, I have found there is no one website that is the best for Cisco certification info. The one I would start out with is https://learningnetwork.cisco.com. You will find a host of forums here targeted at each of the certifications and/or exams that are a part of the various certifications from Cisco. As you go through the website, you will also find several study groups where you can ask questions of those that are going through the same certificatino process that you are. When I was looking for a particular piece of equipment for my study lab or a source of labs to help me understand a particular topic or concept on the test, I had good luck with getting information that I was looking for. As you go into the different forum areas, you will also see documents being posted that going into more detail on some of the areas that the various books that are for sale may not cover in the kind of detail that you are needing them to be.

Another site I have used over the years for the different certifications that I have is http://www.cramsession.com. They have a collection of study guides that will also be helpful in learning the information you will need to pass the exams. Check back periodically for any updates that may be available as the exams are refreshed or updated. There are a variety of "braindump" websites that are come and go as the seasons change. I cant recommend these sites as they dont really help you learning the information for the exam just how to memorize what is needed of what may or may not be needed for the test.

Expert's answer

Let's tackle the USB to Serial Converter question first. Although there are several different models to choose from, the one I have been the most please with is the Keyspan USA-19HS USB to Serial converter. It handles all of the RS232 handshaking that you will need to work with. Depending on when you got your MacBook Pro, you may be running Snow Leapard. If that is the case, you will want to downoad the latest drivers from Triplite's website instead of using the drivers that come on the CD with the Keyspan converter.

Next to the application to use. If all you will need basic serial console access, the one app that I have been the most impressed with is CoolTerm. You can download the application from here - http://freeware.the-meiers.org/. Depending on what other serial devices that you will be accessing, you may need to tweak the configuration slight but you should be able to get things working to your satisfaction.

You also have the option is using the Console program that comes with every Mac. Natively it doesnt know how to access the USB adapter you will be using. A little searching via Google or your favorite search engine will show you the AppleScript that you need to use to get this to work. I have tried that but didnt always get the results I was expecting. This same apple will also let you telnet or SSH to any of your network devices.

If you were using SecureCRT or similar windows program, there are a couple of options that you can consider. The one I have been most impressed with was ZOC/Pro (http://www.emtec.com). This gave me the tabed approach to accessing multiple devices that I was used to with SecureCRT that is the app I use the most on a Windows platform. Whenever I look at a new application is how good/responsive the support is when using the program in evaluation/trial mode. The response I saw couldnt have been better. I started working with it over a weekend and was exchanging emails a few times working through some of the questions I ran into getting things up and running.

Since not every likes the same program for the same reason, another terminal app I found for the Mac is MacWise (http://www.macwise.com). Like ZOC, it allows you to access hosts via Serial, Telnet or SSH. All of the apps I found were easy to install and use. The only downside I ran into was that when the MacBook went into "sleep" mode, the USB converter didnt always respond when the MacBook came up. I dont fault any of the applications for this. Havent spent a lot of time troubleshooting this problem but I am sure there will be a resolution to this.

Expert's answer

You dont mention whether you are using Vista or Windows 7 so that changes a little bit on how I can answer the question. Since you have it working at home, that tells me that your laptop is configured correctly. Wince you just got the laptop, it should have the latest drivers for the wireless card installed but a trip to Dell's website to make sure you have the latest would be a good thing to do just to make sure you arent running into a problem with an Access Point that be having a handshaking problem in the initial communications setup.

You dont mention what other software is installed. It is possible, especially if you have Norton Internet Security involved that it might be preventing you from connecting to an Access Point other than yours at home. I have seen this occur occasionally with Windows Firewall as well. Try disabling either of these services and try to connect again.

Depending on the Access Point you are trying to connect to, it might have other security configurations in place that will prevent you from getting access. One popular method is to do mac address filtering to where the AP must already know about the mac address of the wireless card in your laptop before it will allow you to get very far. If you are still having problems after trying what I have suggested, since you have just purchased the laptop, give the folks at Dell a call and they should be able to help resolve your problem.

Expert's answer

Both of your potential solutions allow for implementation of classroom monitoring software and for printer/file sharing. Optimizing the internet connection speed will take a little more planning. Keeping the internet connection as evenly available for all the potential users at the same time will be a bit of a challenge.

What you need to do will depend in part of the type of switches that you will be using. If it is a managed switch, i.e. one that you can establish a console/telnet/ssh connection into and configure the switch will give you flexibility in things to work the way you are looking for them to. Depending on the type of switches you will be using, implementing a QOS policy will provide you with the most flexibility in terms of controlling how the bandwidth is used for access to the internet. What you need to implement is pretty straightforward.

To use QOS, this will require a switch such a Cisco 3560/3750 that can function at layer 3. A switch like the 2940/50 series wont have the feature set you will need to pull this off. If you wont be able to use a switch like this, another option of controlling the bandwidth will be to lock the port speed down to 10MB. While not very versatile and somewhat draconian, this at least gives you some control over how much of the bandwidth can be used by a any one workstation.

With what I have outlined, I believe that option 1 that you listed would be very doable. Assuming that you have a layer 3 capable switch in each lab, you could have one vlan in each lab for the students, another for the admin/instructor workstations to use, and one last one for the printers and file servers to use. While this may seem a bit of overkill, in the event of a virus attack or other problem, you could quickly shut down the vlan for the file server/printers and protect them very quickly. I would suggest a change with option 2 by putting the router at a central location, ideally where your dsl connection located. In this configuration, you could have multiple ethernet ports in the router for each of the lab switches will connect to, thereby eliminating the need for a central switch.

The work I have done with QOS has had a router at the edge of the connection handling some of the QOS policy work with the switches handling the actual marking. When you implement a QOS model, you dont just cut and paste it out of a book, it involves some periodic tweaking/adjusting. You may find that using an all switch model may work for you. It is possible that you may need to put a router between to central switch and your internet connection to get the most benefit. I would also suggest, assuming that you doing this with Cisco switches or something that has support for Netflow, that you enable Netflow on all of your network devices. This will help you identify quickly when someone is hogging the bandwidth, who it is without having to implement a network management solution that probably isnt in the budget for what you are going to do.

There are some non Cisco devices that have support a more limited version of QOS and may be limited to a GUI only method of configuring/managing the switch. It is possible that you could use this type of switch, your results may not be as optimal because you wont be able to get as granular with your configuration. Bottom line is that either of your potential solutions will work, my preference is for an all switch option as that may be easier and somewhat cheaper to implement.