Posts Tagged ‘Network’

Choosing a Computer Network Training Provider

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

When you are in a place where you are looking at the options that you need to get your workplace online, you will find that you are looking at something that can be greatly informed by your choice of network training provider. The truth of the matter is that no matter what industry you work in and what you are doing to make sure that you can get the results that you need, you are going to find that you are in a place where you need to make sure that you and your staff have a thorough understanding of the technologies and the networking that you are using. You can have the best system around and it will do you very little good unless you know how to use it! When you are looking to make sure that you are getting the most out of your network training, make sure that you consider a few points about your network training provider.

The first and most basic thing that your training provider should be able to accomplish is that they need to make sure that they can convey simply and clearly how the technology works to your staff. In the first place, think about how adept your staff is. Have they recently just come from one good networking system and now they are going to another, or are they in a place where this is all brand new to them? In either case, the training needs to be tailored to their needs and their comfort, so make sure that you can find a trainer who will do that.
Another point that you need to make sure of when you are looking towards hiring a good computer network training provider is that you need to think about how intimately they are familiar with the system that you are getting installed.

- What kind of experience do they have, and what can you do to make sure that you are in a good place where they get the information that they need to get across?
- In what ways are they preferable to an in house system and what do they offer when you are looking to get a certain amount of people competent on the material at hand?

You will find that the more information that you can get when you are classifying their work, the better off you are.

When you want to make sure that you are getting the best trained network engineers out there, you will find that you are in a place where training is crucial. Make sure that you invest in a training provider who will give your engineers the training that they need to thrive. Take some time and make sure that the people that you are looking to work with will give you the best results when it comes to getting your engineers the real life, hands on experience that they need.

Take some time to consider what you need out of your computer network training provider and make sure that you get it. Finding a trainer who suits you and who can help you achieve your goals will pay off in the long run.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For information on Network Training, he recommends Prodec Networks, a leading provider of computer network training.

USB Flash Drive Operating Systems

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

Did you know that you could get an entire operating system on a flash USB drive? Most firmware in modern PCs allows booting from these drives. That means that a bootable flash drive could allow you to launch an operating system, this is commonly called Live USB and applies mostly to Linux operating systems. However, there is a MS Windows version available and some versions of BSD are also available on flash USBs.

Live USBs are good special purpose or brief tasks like doing an operating system install or disk cloning operation across a network, loading a minimal kernel for embedded operations and maintenance tasks.

A properly configured Windows USB flash drive will allow you to install a version of Windows XP on a drive, with extra software if there’s space. To do this, a special utility is required, as well as a fairly large drive. You will end up with a portable, compact emergency version of your operating system.

Live USBs are more commonly used by Linux operating systems, and are closely related to the now-common live CDs. Like CDs, USBs can be used to help test a distribution, recover data and many other tasks. Live USBs have many of the same limitations and benefits of a live CD. It is, however, easier for a live USB’s data to be changed, since CDs are usually permanently written. That makes it easier to use a live USB as personal storage, allowing a user to carry their preferred applications, operating system and configuration. Sharing a single system between multiple users is much easier in this case.

Live USBs can also provide extra privacy, since the USB device is carried by the user and storage in a safe location is easy. However, the small size of these devices also means that they are easily lost and stolen; making backups and encryption more important for USB flash drive operating systems than normal desktop operating systems.

Since USB drives have no moving parts, they are able to have a faster seek time than optical media and hard drives, this means small programs start faster from USB flash drives than from a live CD or hard disk. However, the low data transfer speeds of some USB devices can make booting from them very slow. In addition, older computers may not have a BIOS that supports booting from USB devices. Booting an operating system from a USB drive may slightly reduce the life of the flash drive.

Carrying your own personal operating system in your pocket can be extremely useful for travellers or people using shared computers. Some sites offer tutorials on simplified flash drive installation for many different distributions of Linux (which is the most popular OS for this purpose). These tutorials mean it is much easier to install, boot and run your preferred distribution, with all your settings and files, from a very small drive. Just be sure you have a large enough drive and that you are using it in a computer capable of booting from the USB port.

Note: USB 2.0 capability greatly speeds things up, as well.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For logo branded promotional flash drives, he recommends Flashbay.com.

What is a WAN Service and How Can it Help?

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

A WAN, or Wide Area Network is a computer network that covers a large area, such as those whose communications need cross metropolitan, regional or national boundaries. A WAN is used to connect local area networks, or LANs and other networks together; the linking of these computers allows users and computers in one area to communicate with users and computers in another location.

Most WANs are designed for a single organisation and are privately used. Those that are built by ISP, Internet Service Providers, provide connections from various organisation LANs, or local area networks, to connect to the Internet, in this way, communications can be delivered over national boundaries.

These types of communications include;

  • Instant messages
  • Emails
  • Real time auctions
  • Online ordering placing

This in turn can reduce costs for companies by eliminating the need for travel and expensive long distance phone calls.

The benefits of using a WAN are that you can connect computers that are located over a vast area together. A network that can exchange data between sights is efficient and effective. The WAN enables computers to communicate with each other, some at different times and others at the same time. Not only can data be shared, but video as well, WANs are used for video conferencing and web casting. When communication is being shared between computers, each operator can access the same information at the same time.

When using a WAN, major corporations can reduce the branch office in house costs by enabling a centralised data centre to handle backup and storage resources. The use of a WAN also improves employee productivity by increasing and accelerating work applications as well as reducing replication across the WAN.

The use of private WANs have significant benefits also; the network is safe, secure and as it states, private. This type of network can reduce support and maintenance costs. There is an increased speed of the data that can be transmitted between sites because no other users are on the network. There is the ability to quickly access data that might be stored at different locations. This is also a great way for a company to provide training to their employees without the expense of airline tickets, hotels and providing meals for them.

As you can see, the benefits of having a WAN are vast. Whether you are using a private network to utilise quickness and efficiency between your satellite offices, or whether you are using a public WAN such as the Internet to purchase an item, communication between geographic areas is an important role in our society. Many people have used the Internet to gain knowledge by attending on-line college classes, or just have some fun playing an on-line interactive game; all of these activities were accessed using a WAN. The use of WANs offers opportunities never before possible for businesses as well as the everyday consumer.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For Business Internet Services and WAN Services, he recommends Iconnyx.