Leo Laporte's PC Help Desk - Que

How This Book Is Organized

Leo Laporte's PC Help Desk includes the following sections:

Ten chapters cover all the important hardware and software components of your computer and peripherals. An appendix includes a guide to troubleshooting methods and tools and over 50 flowcharts to help you solve the most common PC and peripheral problems. The following sections explain the book sections in greater details.

Chapter 1: PC Anatomy 101

The first chapter of this book provides a detailed look at what makes your computer work inside and out, along with coverage of the BIOS setup program, hardware resources, Power-On Self-Test error codes, and coverage of the major I/O port types in typical computers. Because you need to be careful when you work inside your computer, this chapter also provides you with instructions on how to avoid damage from electrostatic discharge (ESD).

Wherever you are on the computer knowledge scale, from novice to expert, be sure to read Chapter 1 for valuable background. If you're in a hurry for particular information about your PC's internal layout or external ports, use the Fast Track to Solutions symptoms table at the beginning of the chapter to go straight to the appropriate section of the book.

Chapter 2: Troubleshooting Windows XP and Windows Applications

Chapter 2 starts with a Fast Track to Solutions symptoms table. Dig into it for fast help with the most common problems with Windows and software (shovel not included). In this chapter, you learn how to troubleshoot and solve problems with the Windows boot, startup, and shutdown processes. Next, you discover how to use Control Panel to solve problems with your system, how to use Device Manager to fix balky components, and how to use other Windows XP tools such as System Information, Net Diagnostics, CHKDSK, Defrag, and others to solve common problems. This chapter also shows you how to keep Windows up to date with service packs and Windows Update, and how to repair a "broken" Windows installation. If Windows works but programs don't, this chapter also shows you how to fix and update problem programs, how to fix STOP (blue screen) errors, and how to select the best tools to stop viruses and slam spyware. This chapter assumes that you have installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 (because Microsoft says it's good for you, and this is one time they're right!).


Chapter 3: Troubleshooting Storage Devices

If your PC's running out of storage space or can't read some of its drives, forget about passing Go. Instead, proceed directly to the Fast Track to Solutions symptoms table at the start of the chapter.

In this chapter, you learn how to solve problems with floppy drives, ATA/IDE and Serial ATA (SATA) internal hard disks, as well as external drives that connect through USB, IEEE-1394, or CardBus connectors. This chapter also covers drive upgrades for both desktop and portable computers, and wraps up with solutions for rewritable CD and DVD drives, including the latest dual-layer models.

Chapter 4: Troubleshooting Your Printer

No printing? Garbage printing? Wasting paper? Read Fast Track to Solutions at the start of this chapter. (It's preprinted for your troubleshooting convenience!) Inside this chapter, learn how to diagnose printers that won't print or print gibberish output and solve problems with standard and photo inkjet printers, dye-sublimation photo printers, or laser and LED printers. Learn how to use printer properties sheets to achieve top-quality output.

Chapter 5: Troubleshooting Graphics and Sound Problems

Fuzzy monitor? Shaky sound? If you've already cleaned your glasses and removed your earplugs but things haven't improved, mosey on over to the Fast Track to Solutions symptom tables at the start of this chapter for help.

In this chapter, you learn how to troubleshoot monitor and graphics card problems, tweak your display for best visual quality, set up multiple displays, improve 3D game performance with graphics and audio settings, reinstall or update a driver, and fix audio problems with applications and music CDs.

Chapter 6: Troubleshooting Multimedia and Imaging Devices

Hit the Fast Track to Solutions symptom tables at the front of the chapter instead of hitting a balky DV camcorder, bothersome digital camera, or other multimedia hardware and software.
In this chapter, you learn how to fix DV camcorder or digital camera connections to your PC, recover data from formatted or erased media, fix DVD playback problems, solve compatibility issues with digital music players, make Windows Media Player work your way, and improve the quality and performance of photo scanners.

Chapter 7: Troubleshooting I/O Ports and Input Devices

If your mousing is miserable or your ports are leaning to starboard, steer for the Fast Track to Solutions symptom tables at the start of this chapter. In this chapter, discover the best methods for troubleshooting problems with IEEE-1394, USB, PS/2, serial, and parallel ports. Learn how to get the most out of USB 2.0 ports and solve problems with standard and wireless keyboards and mice.

Chapter 8: Troubleshooting Your Network and Internet Connections

Got an Internet connection that connects to nothing? Got a "notwork" instead of a network? Get thee to the Fast Track to Solutions symptoms table at the start of this chapter, pronto! In this chapter, you learn how to fix problems caused by bad web-viewing components, discover the meaning of website error messages and numbers, solve problems with analog and broadband Internet connections, repair broken Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks, and discover TCP/IP configuration and troubleshooting tools and methods.

Chapter 9: Troubleshooting Memory, Processor, and System Performance Problems

If your computer acts as if it's sloth-powered, go to the Fast Track to Solutions symptoms table at the start of the chapter for help. In this chapter, you learn how to track down the causes of slow system performance and solve them through virtual memory fine-tuning as well as processor or memory upgrades. Discover the best solutions for cooling problems and how to right-size a memory upgrade. Find out how to avoid motherboard and processor failures.

Chapter 10: Troubleshooting Power Problems

If your computer won't boot or reboots whenever it feels like it, power up with the Fast Track to Solutions symptoms table at the start of this chapter. In this chapter, you discover the signs of power supply overloading and failure, learn how to perform a power supply upgrade, and how to protect your system from poor-quality power or electrical blackouts.

Appendix: Flowcharts and Troubleshooting Methodology

A human appendix is mostly useless. On the other hand, this appendix is one of the most useful sections in the entire book (the rest of the book's pretty good too!). Whether you've arrived at the flowcharts from a symptoms table or headed straight to the back, you'll find dozens of flowcharts to help you with major PC and peripheral problems. A sample flowchart helps you understand the concept if you're new to flowchart-driven troubleshooting.

If you're an experienced troubleshooter, the flowcharts might be all you need. However, if you're new to solving your own computer problems, be sure to read the section called "Troubleshooting Methodology." We've placed it at the front of this appendix so you won't miss it. This section puts our recommendations for tools, techniques, and general troubleshooting philosophy at your fingertips.
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Home Networking Bible2004

Why You Need This Book

If you are considering setting up your own home network, you can use Home Networking Bible, 2nd Edition, to guide you through the process. This book helps you plan and prepare for your network, purchase the appropriate equipment and software, install the networking equipment, and make it work with Windows, Macintosh, and even Linux.

From start to finish, you learn everything you need to complete the job without depending on multiple references, vendors, magazine articles, or other sources. Everything you need to know is contained in Home Networking Bible.

In addition to terminology and information, you will find helpful advice about choosing the appropriate hardware for your situation, tips on saving money, and more. Included in the text are the names of many manufacturers of home networking products and suggested retail prices for the equipment.

Whether you want to set up a simple network between two computers or you want to run e-mail over your network and attach your network to the Internet, you’ll find suggestions on how best to complete the task in Home Networking Bible.

If you run your own home-based business, or even a small business office, Home Networking Bible helps by giving small business tips to make your venture more useful, efficient, and prosperous.

Who Should Read This Book?

Anyone who owns two or more PCs can use this book to learn how to connect them and get the most from the resulting network. If you want to work on your laptop while your young children run educational software on another computer, this book is for you. If you and your spouse have computer work and are always competing for the printer, this book is for you. If you’re a teenager trying to bring your parents into the twenty-first century, Home Networking Bible is for you.

You might want to learn how to create Web pages so that you can start your own home busi­ness. Home Networking Bible shows you how to set up your own home Internet (called an intranet) that you can use for experimentation and learning.

If you own a small business and you want to make it easier for your employees to print and share files, Home Networking Bible offers advice on how best to accomplish this goal and more.
You might have both a PC running Windows and a Macintosh and wonder if you can network them. Home Networking Bible explains how to do it.

Maybe you want to learn more about the Internet, but your spouse is always online. You can learn how to share an Internet connection, use chat programs over the Internet, and more, by reading Home Networking Bible.

If you are a home user or a small business owner looking for information about setting up a small network, Home Networking Bible is for you.

What Is the Audience Level for This Book?

Home Networking Bible is written for beginning to intermediate users. You should understand how to use Windows, the Mac, and/or your Linux distribution, as well as basic applications, such as word processing programs, games (if you might use them on your network), or per­haps Internet Explorer. You don’t have to be an expert in Windows, however. Home Networking Bible explains the steps you follow to install and operate any networking software. It also shows you how to connect the other computers and printers on the network — and then how to use them after you connect them.

In addition, you don’t need to be familiar with networking hardware or software. Home Networking Bible explains networking terms, technologies, hardware, and software. It also gives you advice on how to purchase, install, and use networking hardware and software.

Beginning users should start at the beginning of the book to get the most out of it. The book builds on previous knowledge, so if you skip the earlier chapters, you might need to go back to read about terms, processes, or procedures.

Intermediate users can use the book as a reference. If you’re familiar with networking basics but want to set up e-mail or your own intranet, for example, you can go directly to the rele­vant chapters to find out how.

What’s in This Book?

Home Networking Bible is organized such that simple topics are presented first, with the sub­jects becoming increasingly complex as you progress through the book. The first parts of the book explain various network types and methods of preparing for setting up your network. The latter parts cover more specific and complex networking topics. Following is a brief description of each part.

✦ Part I, “Making Basic Network Choices,” helps you decide what type of network you need. It deals with questions such as what programs you want to use, how much money you want to spend, and others to help you plan your network. Part I also includes descriptions of the two network types and discusses their advantages and dis­advantages, basic requirements, and other information about them.

✦ Part II, “Planning and Setting Up Networking —Hardware and Software,” first dis­cusses topics you need to consider before setting up your network. Next, you learn about various methods of connecting (wiring) your computers together. Part II describes each method and its advantages and disadvantages, gives suggestions for purchasing and installing the wiring, and more. You are introduced to networking termi­nology and learn about specific products that make setting up the wiring easier. Also included in Part II is information about purchasing and installing other networking hardware necessary for setting up your network. You learn about installing the neces­sary software and configuring the programs, too. Finally, Part II describes methods of adding non-Windows computers to your network, such as Macintoshes, Linux boxes, and portable computers.

✦ Part III, “Working with Networked Computers,” explains how to use Windows, Macs, and Linux boxes over the network. It explains features that enable you to share your files, use printers on networked computers, log on to the network, find other comput­ers on the network, and more. You also learn about managing printing over the network and protecting your files.

✦ Part IV, “Adding the Internet, E-Mail, and an Intranet,” explains how to expand your network. It shows how to use one Internet connection for multiple computers and explains the available Internet services. Part IV shows you how to set up e-mail for the Internet and discusses common and popular e-mail applications for the various operat­ing systems. Also included in Part IV is information about setting up your own private Internet, called an intranet, and a discussion of how to approach the technologies that go into making up a Web page.

✦ Part V, “Working with Files, Folders, and Applications,” explains how to install and use network applications as well as how to work with files over the network. You learn about various networked applications, such as games and communications programs. Part V also covers backing up files and securing your files from accidents or malicious sabotage.

✦ Part VI, “Managing the Network,” covers Windows management tools you can use to make the network more efficient and effective. Windows includes network tools that can help you locate network problems and optimize the network. You can also use third-party applications to help manage your network.

✦ Part VII, “Adding to Your Home Network,” describes multimedia devices and intelli­gent homes. This part explains various multimedia devices, applications, and more. It gives you advice on buying sound and video cards, digital cameras and scanners, Web TV systems, and so on. You also learn about managing the multimedia in Windows. In addition, Part VII offers information about wiring your entire home with computers and devices to make your life easier and more fun.

The book concludes with a troubleshooting appendix to help you with network and connec­tion problems, an appendix about using the TCP/IP protocol, an appendix about telecommut­ing and remote access, and a glossary of technical terms.
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Ethernet Networks Design Implementation Organization and Management 4th Ed 2003

Preface

In a prior edition of this book the preface commenced with the paraphrase of an old adage in an era of evolving local area networking technology: Ethernet is dead — long live Ethernet! Although advances in communications technology continue to occur at a rapid pace, that paraphrase continues to be valid. Within the past decade, the bandwidth of 10 Mbps Ethernet was advanced by a factor of one thousand with the introduction of a series of enhancements to the original Ethernet specifi­cation. First, Fast Ethernet resulted in the bandwidth of Ethernet increasing by a factor of 10 to 100 Mbps. The introduction of Gigabit Ethernet resulted in another order of magnitude increase in bandwidth to 1 Gbps. Although many persons felt that a transmission capacity of 1 Gbps would be more than suf­ficient for the foreseeable future, another adage states that many applications will grow to use all available bandwidth. While most organizations may be hard pressed to use 1 Gbps of bandwidth, other organizations, including Inter­net Service Providers and corporations and universities with large backbone LANs, were able to literally fill the 1 Gbps pipe, resulting in the development of 10 Gbps Ethernet. Thus, over the past decade Ethernet’s 10 Mbps operation has increased by a factor of 1000 to 10 Gbps.

This new edition provides a significant amount of additional material to most of the chapters of this book’s previous edition. New information added includes coverage of the transmission of Gigabit over copper conductors, the evolution of cabling standards that facilitate support of higher Ethernet operat­ing rates, and the manner by which LAN switches operate on Ethernet frames transporting information at higher layers in the Open System Interconnection Reference Model.

Recognizing the importance of networking without wires, a new chapter is focused upon wireless Ethernet. This chapter describes and discusses the series of IEEE 802.11 standards and provides practical information concerning the setup and operation of a wireless LAN. Recognizing the importance of security in the modern era of networking resulted in the movement of most security related topics to a new chapter focused on this topic. This chapter considerably expands the prior disparate coverage of security by adding information covering the use of firewalls in both a wired and wireless

environment. In addition, information concerning the use of router access lists is considerably expanded, while new information covering authentication, authorization and accounting has been added to the chapter.

Other topics that have been added or significantly revised in this new edition include the operation of new versions of Windows on Ethernet LANs, the operation and utilization of LAN switches above layer 2 in the ISO Reference Model, new gateway methods you can consider toconnect workstation users to mainframes, and the use of both copper and fiber optic to transport high-speed Ethernet. Thus, the scope and depth of material have been significantly revised and updated to continue to provide you with detailed information concerning the design, implementation, operation and management of different types of Ethernet networks.

This book incorporates into one reference source the material you will need to understand how Ethernet networks operate, the constraints and per­formance issues that affect their design and implementation, and how their growth and use can be managed both locally and as part of an enterprise net­work. Assuming readers have varied backgrounds in communications terms and technology, the first two chapters were written to provide a common foun­dation of knowledge. Those chapters cover networking concepts and network standards — two topics on which material in succeeding chapters is based. Succeeding chapters examine Ethernet concepts: frame operations; network construction; the use of bridges, routers, hubs, switches, and gateways; Inter­net connectivity; network backbone construction; Wireless Ethernet; Security; and the management of Ethernet networks.

In writing this book, my primary goal was to incorporate practical informa­tion you can readily use in designing, operating, implementing, and managing an Ethernet network. Although Ethernet had its origins in the 1970s and can be considered a relatively ‘‘old’’ technology, in reality, the technology is anything but old. Only a few years ago, the standardization of what is now known as 10BASE-T (a twisted-wire version of Ethernet) resulted in a considerable expansion in the use of this type of local area network. By 1994 the use of intelligent switches greatly enhanced the operational capability of 10BASE-T networks, providing multiple simultaneous 10 Mbps connectivity. During 1995 high-speed Ethernet technology in the form of Fast Ethernet products provided users with the ability to upgrade their Ethernet networks to satisfy emerging multimedia requirements. Within a few years industry realized that emerging applications, as well as the growth in the use of the Internet, required higher-speed backbone LANs as a mechanism to support Internet access and similar high-speed networking requirements. This realiza­tion resulted in the deployment of Gigabit Ethernet hubs and switches during 1997, which was quickly followed by 10 Gbps operations a few years later. Thus, Ethernet technology can be expected to continue to evolve to satisfy the communications requirements of business, government, and academia.

For over 30 years I have worked as a network manager responsible for the design, operation, and management of an enterprise network in which local area networks throughout the United States are interconnected through the use of different wide area network transmission facilities. This challenging position has provided me with the opportunity to obtain practical experience in designing, operating, and interconnecting Ethernet networks to Token-Ring, SNA, the Internet, and other types of networks — experience which I have attempted to share with you. This book will help you consider the practicality of different types of routing protocols, LAN switches, and gateway methods. These and other network design issues are crucial to the efficient and effective expansion of a local Ethernet so that users on that network can access resources on other networks.

As a professional author, I very much value readers’ comments. Those comments provide me with feedback necessary to revise future editions so that they better reflect the information requirements of readers. I look forward to receiving your comments, as well as suggestions for information you would like to see in a future edition of this book. You can write to me directly or through my publisher, whose address you can find on page 4 of this book or communicate with me directly via electronic mail at gil-held@yahoo.com.

Gilbert Held Macon, GA
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Designing Large-Scale LANs

Table of Contents:

1. Networking Objectives
Business Requirements OSI Protocol Stack Model Routing Versus Bridging Top-Down Design Philosophy

2. Elements of Reliability

Defining Reliability Redundancy Failure Modes

3. Design Types

Basic Topologies
Reliability Mechanisms
VLANs
Toward Larger Topologies
Hierarchical Design
Implementing Reliability
Large-Scale LAN Topologies

4. Local Area Network Technologies

Selecting Appropriate LAN Technology
Ethernet and Fast Ethernet
Token Ring
Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
ATM
FDDI
Wireless
Firewalls and Gateways
Structured Cabling

5. IP

IP-Addressing Basics
IP-Address Classes
ARP and ICMP
Network Address Translation
Multiple Subnet Broadcast
General IP Design Strategies
DNS and DHCP

6. IP Dynamic Routing

Static Routing
Types of Dynamic Routing Protocols
RIP
IGRP and EIGRP
OSPF
BGP

7. IPX

Dynamic Routing
General IPX Design Strategies

8. Elements of Efficiency

Using Equipment Features Effectively
Hop Counts
MTU Throughout the Network
Bottlenecks and Congestion
Filtering
Quality of Service and Traffic Shaping

9. Network Management

Network-Management Components
Designing a Manageable Network
SNMP
Management Problems

10. Special Topics

IP Multicast Networks
IPv6
Security
Appendix: Combining Probabilities

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TCP IP Foundations

Who Should Read This Book?

TCP/IP Foundations is designed to teach the fundamentals of the TCP/IP proto­col stack to people who are fairly new to the topic. This book will be useful for:

◆ People interested in learning more about TCP/IP
◆ Decision-makers who need to know the fundamentals in order to make valid, informed choices around TCP/IP
◆ Administrators who feel they are missing some of the foundational infor­mation about TCP/IP
◆ Small business owners interested in the protocol they will likely use on their networks
◆ Those interested in learning more about how data moves across the Internet
◆ Instructors teaching a TCP/IP fundamentals course
◆ Students enrolled in a TCP/IP fundamentals course

What This Book Covers

Working with TCP/IP has been an interesting, exciting, and rewarding experi­ence. As I continue to learn about computers and TCP/IP, the more I see the need to continue learning. No matter what sector of the computer industry you’re employed in (or even if you’re not employed in IT yet), TCP/IP is an important foundational topic that you must understand; TCP/IP is the current and future standard protocol for networking.

TCP/IP Foundations contains many drawings and charts that help create a comfortable learning environment. It provides many real-world analogies that you will be able to relate to and through which the TCP/IP protocol will become tangible. The analogies provide a simple way to understand the technical process that is occurring through TCP/IP.

This book continues to build your understanding about TCP/IP progressively, like climbing a ladder. Here’s how the information is presented:

Chapter 1 This chapter provides an overview of where TCP/IP and the Internet came from and how they are related.

Chapters 2–5 These chapters describe what a protocol is and what the OSI and DoD models are. These chapters include a discussion of what hap­pens at each layer in the DoD model and why the model is important.

Chapters 6–10 These chapters describe TCP/IP addressing—what IP addresses look like and how they are implemented. You’ll learn how to assign IP addresses both manually and through Dynamic Host Configura­tion Protocol (DHCP). You’ll learn all about DHCP. You’ll also learn about subnet masks—what they are, what they do, and how to create them.

Chapters 11–14 These chapters focus on name resolution methods and implementations. You’ll learn why name resolution is needed and the steps you need to take to resolve names. You’ll learn about Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic DNS, and Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS).

Chapter 15 You’ll learn about the future of TCP/IP—the transition to a new version of IP in the next few years. This chapter gives you a heads-up on what to expect, and tells you how to find out more.

Making the Most of This Book

At the beginning of each chapter of TCP/IP Foundations, you’ll find a list of the
topics I’ll cover within the chapter. To help you soak up new material easily, I’ve highlighted new terms, such as used by a custom subnet mask, in italics and defined them in the page margins. ke more effi- And to give you some hands-on experience, you’ll find Test It Out sections ss by creat- in the chapters that allow you to practice what you’ve just learned. In addition, several special elements highlight important information:

Notes provide extra information and references to related information. Tips are insights that help you perform tasks more easily and effectively. Warnings let you know about things you should—or shouldn’t—do as you learn more about TCP/IP.

At the end of each chapter, you can test your knowledge of the chapter’s rel­evant topics by answering the review questions. (You’ll find the answers to the review questions in Appendix A.)
There’s also some special material for your reference. If you’re wondering what certain acronyms stand for, Appendix B is an acronym guide spelling out the acro­nyms used in this book. If you’d like to quickly look up the meaning of a term, the Glossary has all the terms that have been introduced throughout the book.
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Javascript In 10 Simple Steps Or Less

This book is divided into 11 parts:

Part 1: JavaScript Basics

This part provides tasks that illustrate some fundamental JavaScript techniques and skills. If you have never used JavaScript before, this part is for you. It provides examples that illustrate the basics of creating scripts and using JavaScript.

Part 2: Outputting to the Browser

This part covers some core techniques for using JavaScript to generate dynamic output to the browser window, including outputting dynamic values such as dates.
Part 3: Images and Rollovers

Using JavaScript, you can manipulate images, producing effects such as rollover effects and random slide shows. The tasks in this part illustrate techniques for working with images from JavaScript.

Part 4: Working with Forms

Forms involve more than just submitting data to the server. This part illustrates how to create dynamic client-side forms in the browser and to build forms that work with the user without contacting the server.

Part 5: Manipulating Browser Windows

This part provides tasks that illustrate the creation and closing of windows, how to manage the attributes of those windows, and how to work with frames. All these features are key to developing sophisticated user interfaces with JavaScript.

Part 6: Manipulating Cookies

Normally cookies are created by your server and sent to the browser for storage. The browser then sends them back to the server when the user connects to that server. Now with JavaScript, you can create cook­ies and access them later without any interaction with the server.

Part 7: DHTML and Style Sheets

JavaScript is part of a threesome that forms Dynamic HTML. The other parts are the Domain Object Model and cascading style sheets. The tasks in this part show you how to work with the DOM and style sheets.

Part 8: Dynamic User Interaction

This part provides tasks that illustrate some of the most popular uses of JavaScript for dynamic user interaction—from creating pull-down menus to producing floating windows and handling drag-and-drop user interaction.

Part 9: Handling Events

JavaScript is an event-driven scripting language. This means you don’t create linear programs but instead can write your programs to respond to events. Events might be the user clicking on a button or the com­pletion of a task by the browser, such as completing loading of the current document.

Part 10: Bookmarklets

Bookmarklets are an interesting application of JavaScript that combines JavaScript with the bookmarks or favorites feature of browser. Bookmarklets are short, self-contained JavaScript scripts that perform some useful task that you can add to your favorites or bookmarks and then run at any time by selecting the relevant favorite or bookmark.

Part 11: Cross-Browser Compatibility and Issues

As JavaScript has become more advanced and its features have expanded, browser compatibility has become an issue. As would be expected, different browser vendors have different ideas about the right way to do things in their implementations of JavaScript. The result is a plethora of browsers with subtle differences in the way JavaScript works. The tasks in this part provide you with some techniques for handling these browser differences in your applications.

The appendices provide you quick references to JavaScript and cascading style sheets you can consult in developing your applications when you need reminders of the correct property, method, or style attribute name.

Finally, the complete source code for each task can be found on the companion Web site at www.wiley. com/10stepsorless. This makes it easy for you to try the code illustrated in the task or adapt the code for your own purposes.
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Illustrated TCP-IP - A Graphic Guide To The Protocol Suite

Acknowledgments

Two people made this book possible, Margaret Hendrey and Marjorie Spencer. I provided the information, but it was the continuous work of these two that produced this book. The amount of work it takes to put something like this together covers a long time and without these individuals’ assistance, this book would not have been the same.

How to Use This Book

With the amount of information we are forced to consume everyday, it would be nice to simply skim over a few sentences in a paragraph to get the key points of the topic. That is what the Illustrated Network books are about. Each page has a graphic and concise text that makes key points quick to learn and review.

Like all books in the Illustrated Network series, this one is very detailed, yet it is written in way that makes it easy to comprehend. Eighty percent of what is commonly written about is filler information. What this book does is extract the twenty percent of the required information and places this information in an easy to use format. A similar format is used quite often with training material. As we all know, training must be done is a very structured and concise fashion and it must be delivered within a limited window of time. I have taken this quick learning concept further by using a combination of a text book and a training manual—producing the format of this book.

This book is built specifically to be used as both a reference manual and a text book. There is no reason to read it from cover to cover. A topic can simply be turned to and quickly learned without having to read the whole book.

The back of the book contains a CD. The graphics containing all the key points of the lessons are provided on this CD. You can use the graphics to create a customized training slide show, or use them in a classroom setting in conjunction with the book. The files are in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. The version of PowerPoint used is PowerPoint 97. Simply start your PowerPoint application and open one of the files on the CD corresponding to the information in the book.This book is dedicated to a good friend of mine, for whom I continue to have great admiration. His tireless instruction of limitless boundaries will forever be remembered. His thoughts and ideas were given to me years ago, but I continue to use them successfully everyday.

This book is dedicated to John J. (JJ) Anderson.

Data Networks IP and the Internet Protocols Design and Operation 2003

Preface

The business world relies increasingly upon data communications, and modern data networks are based mainly on the Internet or at least on the IP (Internet Protocol). But despite these facts, many people remain baffled by IP and multiprotocol data networks. How do all the protocols fit together? How do I build a network? And what sort of problems should I expect? This book is intended for experienced network designers and practitioners, as well as for the networking newcomer and student alike: it is intended to provide an explanation of the complex jargon of networking: putting the plethora of ‘protocols’ into context and providing a quick and easy handbook for continuing reference.

Even among experienced telecommunications and data-networking professionals, there is confusion about how data network components and protocols work and how they affect the performance of computer applications. I have myself bought many books about the Inter­net, about IP and about multiprotocol networks, but found many of them ‘written in code’. Some have the appearance of computer programmes, while others perversely require that you understand the subject before you read them!

Putting the pieces of knowledge and the various components of a network together — working out how computers communicate — can be a painstaking task requiring either broad experience or the study of a library full of books. The experience has spurred me to write my own book and handy reference and this is it. My goal was a text in plain language, building slowly upon a solid understanding of the principles — introducing a newcomer slowly and methodically to the concepts and familiarising him or her with the language of data communications (the unavoidable ‘jargon’) — but always relating new topics back to the fundamentals:

• relating to the real and tangible;
• sharing experiences and real examples;
• not only covering the theoretical ‘concepts’; but also
• providing practical tips for building and operating modern data networks.

The book covers all the main problems faced by data network designers and operators: network architecture and topology, network access means, which protocol to use, routing policies, redundancy, security, firewalls, distributed computer applications, network service applications, quality of service, etc.

The book is liberally illustrated and written in simple language. It starts by explaining the basic principles of packet-data networking and of layered protocols upon which all modern data communications are based. It then goes on to explain the many detailed terms relevant to modern IP networks and the Internet. My goal was that readers who only wanted to ‘dip in’ to have a single topic explained should go away satisfied — able to build on any previous knowledge of a given subject.

The extensive set of annexes and the glossary of terms are intended to assist the practising engineer — providing a single reference point for information about interfaces, protocol fieldnames and formats, RFCs (Internet specifications) and acronyms (the diagrams and some of the appendices are also available for download at: http://www.wiley.co.uk/clarkdata/). With so many acronyms and other terms, protocols, code-fields, and technical configuration information to remember, it is impossible to expect to keep all the details ‘in your head’! And to distinguish where jargon and other special ‘telecommunications vocabulary’ is being used in the main text, I have highlighted terms as they are being defined by using italics.

The book is intended to provide a complete foundation textbook and reference of modern data networking — and I hope it will find a valued position on your bookshelf. Should you have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know!
Martin Clark
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Networking

How This Book Is Organized

Inside this book, you find chapters arranged in six parts. Each chapter breaks down into sections that cover various aspects of the chapter’s main subject. The chapters are in a logical sequence, so reading them in order (if you want to read the whole thing) makes sense. But the book is modular enough that you can pick it up and start reading at any point. Here’s the lowdown on what’s in each of the six parts.

Part I: Getting Started with Networking

The chapters in this part present a layperson’s introduction to what network­ing is all about. This is a good place to start if you’re clueless about what a network is and why you’re suddenly expected to use one. It’s also a great place to start if you’re a hapless network user who doesn’t give a whit about “optimizing network performance,” but you want to know what the network is and how to get the most out of it.

The best thing about this part is that it focuses on how to use a network with­out getting into the technical details of setting up a network or maintaining a network server. In other words, this part is aimed at ordinary network users who have to learn how to get along with a network.

Part II: Building Your Own Network

Uh-oh. The boss just gave you an ultimatum: Get a network up and running by Friday or pack your things. The chapters in this section cover everything you need to know to build a network, from picking the network operating system to installing the cable.

Part III: Network Management For Dummies

I hope that the job of managing the network doesn’t fall on your shoulders, but in case it does, the chapters in this part can help you out. You find out all about backup, security, performance, dusting, mopping, changing the oil, and all the other stuff network managers have to do.

Part IV: Network Operating Systems

This part has some specific information about the most common network operating systems — Windows Server 2003, NetWare 6, and Linux — to help you get started managing your network’s servers. Note that much of the information in the Windows Server 2003 chapter applies to Windows 2000 as well, since the two are similar. Though the specific details may vary, the con­cepts are the same.

This part also has a chapter on Macintosh networking, explaining the subtle nuances of incorporating Macintosh computers into your network.

Part V: TCP/IP and the Internet

TCP/IP is the most common protocol used for networking today, so the chap­ters in this part show you how to use it. First, you’ll learn how to safely con­nect your network to the Internet. Then you’ll learn the ugly details of how IP addresses work so you’ll be able to understand what an IP address such as 192.168.168.30 means and how a subnet mask such as 255.255.255.0 works. Finally, you’ll learn how to set up one of the most important TCP/IP services: DHCP, which automatically assigns IP addresses to the computers on your network.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

This wouldn’t be a For Dummies book without a collection of lists of interest­ing snippets: ten network commandments, ten network gizmos only big net­works need, ten big network mistakes, and more!
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Home Networking

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into five parts to make it easier to find what you need. Each part has a number of chapters (some have more than others).

Part I: Network Basics

Part I helps you plan and install your home network. You have some deci­sions to make and some hardware to buy. You also have to play architect as you design the placement of computers around the house. This part shows you how to put it all together.

* Planning your network and buying the hardware (Chapter 1)
* Installing the network hardware in your computers (Chapter 2)
* Cabling your house to connect the computers (Chapter 3)
* Using wires that already exist in your home: telephone lines and electric lines (Chapter 4)
* Connecting computers without wires (Chapter 5)

The information you find here may seem geeky and complicated, but it really isn’t as complex as it sounds. If you perform each step in the right order, building a network is no harder than assembling a complicated toy for your kids. To make things as easy as possible, I take you through each task one step at a time.

Part II: Configuring Computers for Networking

After you’ve installed all the network hardware, you have to perform some software tasks, including the following:

* Installing the files that Windows needs for networking (Chapter 6)
* Sharing an Internet connection with everybody on the network (Chapter 7)
* Setting up each computer to share stuff — and keep other stuff private (Chapter 8)
* Setting up users and learning about logins (Chapter 9)

This part tells you how to fine-tune your network — getting the computers to talk to each other and setting up users so everyone can maintain his or her own, personalized computer-configuration options.

Part III: Communicating Across the Network

This part introduces you to the meat of networking. Here’s where you get to put all your setup work into action.

* Setting up network printing (Chapter 10)
* Accessing the other computers on the network (Chapter 11)
* Using files from other computers while you’re working in software (Chapter 12)

The fun of networking is actually doing stuff across the network. Time to test it all out. Sit in front of any computer on the network and get stuff from any other computer. Ahhh, the power!

Part IV: Network Security and Maintenance

If you’re going to create a network, any network, whether in the office or at home, that makes you the network administrator. After all the work you do creating this network, you’ll want to make sure the network is safe and happy. The chapters in Part IV cover the following:

* Protecting the computers against harm from viruses and Internet intrud­ers (Chapter 13)
* Preparing for disaster by making sure you don’t lose your data when a computer dies (Chapter 14)
* Keeping computers healthy with the aid of some nifty tools (Chapter 15)

Part V: The Part of Tens

In true For Dummies style, this book includes a Part of Tens. These chapters introduce lists of ten items about a variety of informative topics. Here you find additional resources, hints, and tips, plus other gold nuggets of knowl­edge. The Part of Tens is a resource you can turn to again and again.
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TCP IP Analysis and Troubleshooting Toolkit

Who Should Read This Book

Although this book does provide an introduction to network analysis tech­niques and the TCP/IP protocol, it is not for beginners. A basic understanding of the OSI model is important, as well as a decent level of experience manag­ing server operating systems running TCP/IP.

More advanced readers already familiar with the protocol will benefit greatly from the case studies presented in each chapter. This book will help you become a better network analyst. If you are a network administrator eagerto learn more about understanding communications between clients and servers, this is a good place to start. If you are already familiar with configur­ing routers and switches, this book will teach you the technology behind the configuration commands; it will help you learn to think “outside the box.”

This book is about technology and how to best use tools at your disposal to keep your networks running smoothly.

How This Book Is Organized

The book is organized into three parts:

■ Part I: Foundations of Network Analysis answers such questions as “Why protocol analysis?” and “What tools do I use?” It explains the process of capturing and manipulating trace files. It also provides a refresher of the OSI model and the basic concepts of network communi­cation that are needed to benefit from the material presented in the later chapters.

■ Part II: The Core Protocols builds the foundation for understanding the protocols that TCP/IP is built upon. It is these protocols that provide the support for all other application-layer protocols.

■ Part III: Related TCP/IP Protocols extends the search for understand­ing by revealing the inner workings of standard and vendor-indepen­dent protocol implementations. Applications such as DNS (Domain Name System), HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol), and FTP (File Transport Protocol) are thoroughly analyzed, and a deep investigation is conducted into Microsoft’s TCP/IP implementation, including the ever-so-mysterious Server Message Block protocol.

In each chapter, the material is complemented with numerous case studies and examples from real, live networks. These examples and case studies are given to illustrate how the knowledge and techniques discussed can be put to use.
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Running IPv6 2006

IPv6

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the most successful network protocol in the history of network protocols. Not only is all the information that flows over the Internet contained in packets that conform to the Internet Protocol, IP has also driven out of the marketplace the other protocols that were used in private networks during the last two decades of the previous century. Today a non-IP computer network is almost unthinkable. So what kind of new protocol could possi­bly challenge IP’s supremacy?

A new version of IP of course.

And that’s exactly what IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is: the next step in the natural evolution of the Internet Protocol. In case a new version of IP was ever needed, the designers of the original IP included a field that contains a version number in the packet layout. This way, there would never be a risk that the contents of a data packet would be misinterpreted, because the receiver assumes a different version of the Internet Protocol than the one used by the sender. Today’s IP sets the version number in each packet to 4, making it IPv4. Version numbers 1, 2, and 3 were left unused. The lowest and highest possible values (0 and 15 for the IP version number) are traditionally reserved. IP version number 5 was allocated to a non-IP protocol that had to coexist with IP under some circumstances, so 6 was the logical choice for the next-generation IP1

IPv6—Why?

In the mid-1980s, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was created to provide a setting where the people who built and ran Internet-related networks or network equipment could interact. Over the years, the IETF has evolved into a standards organization, but it’s still very different from other standards organizations such as the ANSI, IEEE, ITU-T, or ETSI. The most fundamental difference is that other standards organizations charge for membership and for the standards documents themselves. Within the IETF, on the other hand, anyone can partici­pate through email and obtain RFC documents for free. Most of the work is done through email, so even those who can’t afford traveling to the IETF meetings that are held three times a year can participate. This directly leads to another peculiar aspect of the IETF: because membership is open, it makes little sense to arrive at decisions through voting, so the IETF works by “rough consensus.” Nobody really knows for sure what “rough consensus” means, but the rough consensus is that it’s somewhere between a majority and unanimity. As the IETF motto, coined by Dave Clark, puts it: “We reject presidents, kings, and voting; we believe in rough consensus and running code.”

Work inside the IETF is done in working groups (wgs). The working groups are organized into areas such as Routing, Security and Operations, and Management. Each area has two area directors, and the area directors, together with the IETF chair, make up the Internet Engineer­ing Steering Group (IESG). The IESG is the IETF’s governing body. There is also the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), which has close ties to the IETF and overlooks the Internet architec­ture. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) keeps track of protocol numbers, and the RFC Editor publishes IETF standards and other documents as “RFCs” (see Appendix A for more information). The IESG and IAB members don’t receive compensation for their work, but the IETF has a small secretariat that provides administrative support to the IESG.

In the early 1990s, the IETF realized that the IPv4 address space was running out at a dan­gerous rate. Around 1990, about one-eighth of the 3.7 billion usable IPv4 addresses was given out, a number that doubled every five years. At this rate, the last IP address would be used up in 2005. This apparently impending doom prompted the IETF to start work on “IP next gener­ation” (IPng), which eventually led to the creating of the IPv6 standard. The first IPv6 RFC was published in 1995 (with many more to come). The main difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is that IPv6 uses addresses that are 128 bits, rather than the 32 bits in IPv4, allowing no less than 3.4 x 1038 individual addresses.

See Appendix A for an overview of the IETF standards process and a list of IPv6-related RFCs.

IPv6 Benefits

When the IETF set out to create “IPng,” the Internet Protocol next generation, it took advantage of this opportunity to improve on IPv4 wherever possible.

More Address Space

Still, the most obvious and most important advantage of IPv6 is that the addresses are longer, which makes for a much, much larger address space. The actual number of individual addresses that is possible with 128 bits goes beyond numbers anyone except astronomers and particle physicists is familiar with:
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

The number of possible IPv4 addresses seems mundane by comparison:
4,294,967,296

The 128-bit address space is large enough to have 155 billion IPv4 Internets on every square millimeter of the Earth’s surface, including the oceans. In U.S. measurements, the figure is even bigger: it’s enough to supply every square inch of the Earth’s surface with the equivalent of a hundred trillion IPv4 Internets. Or what if the amount of address space used would really have doubled every five years for years to come, rather than level off around the turn of the millennium? Even at this incredible exponential rate, the IPv6 address space would last until the year 2485.

The original goal of providing more address space to avoid running out of addresses altogether isn’t as urgent as it once was, because IPv4 addresses are no longer used up at an exponential rate. There may even be enough IPv4 addresses for decades to come, although that’s certainly a dangerous assumption to make. On the other hand, there aren’t even enough IPv4 addresses for each person on Earth to have just one, and North America and Europe already use many more than a single address per person. So while the exact moment when the IPv4 address space will run out remains a topic for heated debate, it’s obvious that at some point it will.
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Professional JavaScript For Web Developers 2005

How Is This Book Structured?

1. What Is JavaScript?

This chapter explains the origins of JavaScript: where it came from, how it evolved, and what it is today. Concepts introduced include the relationship between JavaScript and ECMAScript, the Document Object Model (DOM), and the Browser Object Model (BOM). A discussion of the rele­vant standards from the European Computer Manufacturer’s Association (ECMA) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is also included.

2. ECMAScript Basics

This chapter examines the core technology upon which JavaScript is built, ECMAScript. This chapter describes the basic syntax and concepts necessary to write JavaScript code, from declar­ing variables and functions to using and understanding primitive and reference values.

3. Object Basics

This chapter focuses on the foundations of object-oriented programming (OOP) in JavaScript. Topics covered include defining custom objects using a variety of different methods, creating object instances, and understanding the similarities and differences to OOP in JavaScript and Java.

4. Inheritance

This chapter continues the exploration of OOP in JavaScript, describing how inheritance works. The various methods of achieving inheritance are discussed, and these methods are compared and contrasted with inheritance in Java.

5. JavaScript in the Browser

This chapter explains how to include JavaScript in Web pages made with a variety of languages, including Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and XML User Interface Language (XUL). This chapter also introduces the Browser Object Model (BOM) and its various objects and interfaces.

6. DOM Basics

This chapter introduces the DOM as implemented in JavaScript. It includes an introduction to DOM concepts of specific value to Web developers. These concepts are applied later in exam­ples using HTML, SVG, and XUL.

7. Regular Expressions

This chapter focuses on the JavaScript implementation of regular expressions, which are a pow­erful tool for data validation and string manipulation. The origins of regular expressions are explored, as well as its syntax and usage across a variety of programming languages. The chap­ter ends with an explanation of the similarities and differences in JavaScript’s implementation.

8. Browser and Operating System Detection

This chapter explains the importance of writing JavaScript to run on a variety of Web browsers. The two methods of browser detection, object/feature detection and user-agent string detection, are discussed; the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are listed.

9. All about Events

This chapter discusses one of the most important concepts in JavaScript: events. Events are the main way to tie JavaScript to a Web-user interface regardless of the markup language being used. This chapter describes the various methods of handling events and the concept of event flow (including bubbling and capturing).

10. Advanced DOM Techniques

This chapter introduces some of the more advanced features of the DOM, including ranges and style-sheet manipulation. I give examples of when and how to use these technologies, and I also discuss how to achieve cross-browser support given the differences in implementations.

11. Forms and Data Integrity

This chapter discusses the importance of data validation when using forms. As I introduce tech­niques for handling validation, I apply concepts introduced earlier, such as regular expressions, events, and DOM manipulation.

12. Sorting Tables

This chapter applies a number of language features described earlier to accomplish dynamic sorting of tables on the client. It includes an in-depth discussion of sorting in JavaScript as well as using events, DOM manipulation, and comparison operators to develop a generic table-sorting protocol that can be used in a number of different Web browsers.

13. Drag and Drop

This chapter explains the concept of drag and drop as it applies to JavaScript and Web browsers. The concept of system drag and drop versus simulated drag and drop is discussed, ending with the creation of a standard drag-and-drop interface that can be used across browsers.

14. Error Handling

This chapter introduces the concept of error handling in JavaScript by discussing the use of the try...catch statement and the onerror event handler. Other topics explored are the creation of custom errors using the throw statement and the use of JavaScript debuggers.

15. XML in JavaScript

This chapter presents the features of JavaScript used to read and manipulate eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data. I explain the differences in support and objects in various Web browsers, and I offer suggestions for easier cross-browser coding. This chapter also covers the use of eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) to transform XML data on the client.

16. Client-Server Communication

This chapter explores the various JavaScript methods of communicating back to the server. These methods include the use of cookies and JavaScript-based HTTP requests. This chapter also explains how to achieve both GET and POST HTTP requests without the use of hidden frames.

17. Web Services

This chapter looks at how to consume Web Services using JavaScript. The different methods used in Internet Explorer and Mozilla are discussed, along with a basic solution to the problem of adding Web Service support to browsers that don’t have built-in support.

18. Interacting with Plugins

This chapter explains the various methods of communication between JavaScript and browser plugins such as Java applets, SVG documents, and ActiveX controls. Other topics include how to program plugins for use with JavaScript.

19. Deployment Issues

This chapter focuses on what happens after the completion of JavaScript coding. Specifically, it describes what should happen before you deploy a JavaScript solution on either a Web site or in a Web application. Topics covered include security issues, internationalization, optimization, intellectual property protection, and Section 508 compliance.

20. The Evolution of JavaScript

This chapter looks into the future of JavaScript to see where the language is headed. ECMAScript 4 and XML for ECMAScript are discussed.
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Practical VoIP Security 2006

What Is VoIP?

Although VoIP, IP Telephony, and Converged Networks all have slightly different definitions, they often are used interchangeably. In this book, we will do the same. When using any of these terms, we are talking about the structures and processes that result from design and implementation of a common networking infrastructure that accommodates data, voice, and multimedia communications. Today, it is all about voice. There are plenty of examples of streaming video, but the enthusiasm today is to replace circuit-switched voice with packet-switched voice within the enterprise and at home across broadband connections.

Why is this happening now? IP telephony adoption is ramping up dramatically for a number of reasons: traditional PBXs and related telco equipment that was upgraded as organizations prepared for Y2K is beginning to reach end-of-life; IP switches are cheaper and potentially offer more features than traditional PBXs; data system administrators and their networks have become more mature, and thus, can support the quality of service that VoIP services require; and VoIP technology (par­ticularly the products) have gotten better. VoIP is attractive to organizations and to broadband end-users as they attempt to derive more value from an infrastructure that is already paid for.

VoIP Benefits

What does converging voice and data on the same physical infrastructure promise? First, we may actually lower costs after all, due to the economies of supporting one network instead of two. Organizations also will save money on toll bypass, intralata regional toll (also known as local toll) charges, and all the “extra” services that POTS providers currently bill for.

VoIP, from a management and maintenance point of view, is less expensive than two separate telecommunications infrastructures. Implementation can be expensive and painful, but is repaid in the form of lower operating costs and easier administra­tion. The pace and quality of IP application development is increasing in step with VoIP adoption. Features that were unavailable on traditional systems, such as “click-to-talk” with presence awareness, can rapidly be modified and deployed. Even voice encryption, which in the past was limited to select organizations, can now be used by anyone in a VoIP environment.

An often overlooked benefit of converging data and voice is that organizational directories often are updated and consolidated as part of the VoIP deployment pro­cess. This not only enables economies in and of itself but also makes features such as Push Directories possible. Push is the capability of an application using the WML protocol to send content to the telephone. IP transforms the everyday telephone into an applications-enabled appliance. The addition of push enables phone displays and/or audio to support a variety of applications (Web browsing, time reporting, emergency alerts, travel reservations, account code entry, announcements, branding via screensaver, inventory lookups, scheduling, etc.).

Convergence should simplify telecommunications management. For example, a single management station or cluster can be used to monitor both data and voice components and performance via SNMP. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, direc­tory management will be simplified as well.

VoIP Protocols

Two major VoIP and multimedia suites dominate today: SIP and H.323. Others (like H.248) exist, and we will discuss some of them in this book, but these are the two major players. For simplicity, I will define SIP and H.323 as signaling protocols. However, whereas H.323 explicitly defines lower level signaling protocols, SIP is really more of an application-layer control framework. The SIP Request line and header field define the character of the call in terms of services, addresses, and pro­tocol features.

Voice media transport is almost always handled by RTP and RTCP, although SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) has also been proposed and ratified by the IETF (and is used for the IP version of SS7, known as SIGTRAN).The transport of voice over IP also requires a large number of supporting protocols that are used to ensure quality of service, provide name resolution, allow firmware and software upgrades, synchronize network clocks, efficiently route calls, monitor performance, and allow firewall traversal. We talk about these and others in more detail in Chapter 8.

SIP is a signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, presence, events notification, and instant messaging. SIP is an IETF-ratified response-request protocol whose message flow closely resembles that of HTTP. SIP is a framework in that its sole purpose is to establish sessions. It doesn’t focus on other call details. SIP mes­sages are ASCII encoded. A number of open source SIP stacks exist.

H.323, on the other hand, is an ITU protocol suite similar in philosophy to SS7. The H.323 standard provides a foundation for audio, video, and data communica­tions across IP-based networks, including the Internet. The H.323 protocols are compiled using ASN.1 PER. PER (Packed Encoding Rules)—a subset of BER—is a compact binary encoding that is used on limited-bandwidth networks. Also, unlike SIP, H.323 explicitly defines almost every aspect of call flow. The only open source H.323 stack I am aware of is the OpenH323 suite.

Both protocol suites rely upon supplementary protocols in order to provide ancillary services. Both protocols utilize TCP and UDP, and both open a minimum of five ports per VoIP session (Call signaling, two RTP, and two RTCP.) Both proto­cols offer comparable features, but they are not directly interoperable. Carriers tend to prefer H323 because the methods defined by H.323 make translation from ISDN or SS7 signaling to VoIP more straightforward than for SIP. SIP, on the other hand, is text-based, works better with IM, and typically is implemented on less expensive hardware. H.323 has been the market leader, but SIP rapidly is displacing H.323.
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Microsoft Windows Scripting Self-Paced Learning Guide 2004

About This Book

Network administrators and consultants are confronted with numerous mundane and time-consuming activities on a daily basis. Whether it is going through thousands of users in Active Directory Users and Computers to grant dial-in permissions to a select group, or changing profile storage locations to point to a newly added network server, these everyday tasks must be completed. In the enterprise space, the ability to quickly write and deploy a Microsoft Visual Basic Script (VBScript) will make the difference between a task that takes a few hours and one that takes a few weeks.

As an Enterprise Consultant for Microsoft, I am in constant contact with some of the world’s largest companies that run its software. The one recurring theme I hear is, “How can we effectively manage thousands of servers and tens of thousands of users?” In some instances, the solution lies in the employment of specialized software pack€ ages—but in the vast majority of the cases, the solution is a simple VBScript.

In Microsoft Windows Server 2003, enterprise manageability was one of the design goals, and VBScript is one path to unlocking the rich storehouse of newly added fea€ tures. Using the techniques outlined in Microsoft Windows Scripting Self-Paced Learn­ing Guide, anyone can begin crafting custom scripts within minutes of opening these pages. I’m not talking about the traditional Hello World script—I’m talking about truly useful scripts that save time and help to ensure accurate and predictable results.

Whereas in the past scripting was somewhat hard to do, required special installations of various implementations, and was rather limited in its effect, with the release of Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, scripting is coming into its own.

This is really as it should be. However, most Administrators and IT professionals do not have an understanding of scripting, because in the past scripting was not a powerful alternative for platform management.

However, in a large enterprise, it is a vital reality that one simply cannot perform man€ agement from the GUI applications because it is too time-constraining, too error prone, and after a while too irritating. Clearly there needs to be a better way, and there is. Scripting is the answer.

A Practical Approach to Scripting

Microsoft Windows Scripting Self-Paced Learning Guide will equip you with the tools to automate setup, deployment, and management of Microsoft Windows 2003 net­works via the various scripting interfaces contained with the product. In addition, it will provide you with an understanding of a select number of VBScripts adaptable toyour own unique environments. This will lead you into an awareness of the basics of programming through modeling of fundamental techniques.

The approach I take to teaching you how to use VBScript to automate your Windows 2003 servers is similar to the approach used in some of the executive foreign language schools. You’ll learn by using the language. In addition, concepts are presented not in a dry academic fashion but in a dynamic real-life manner. When a concept is needed to accomplish something, it is presented. If a topic is not useful for automating network management, I don’t bring it forward.
This is a practical application-oriented book, so the coverage of VBScript, Windows Scripting Host, Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI), and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is not exceedingly deep. This is not a reference book; it is a tutorial, a guide, a springboard for ideas perhaps, but not an encyclopedia.

Is This Book for Me?

Microsoft Windows Scripting Self-Paced Learning Guide is aimed at several audiences, including:
■ Windows networking consultants Anyone desiring to standardize and auto­mate the installation and configuration of .NET networking components.
■ Windows network administrators Anyone desiring to automate the day-to­day management of Windows .NET networks.
■ Windows Help Desk staff Anyone desiring to verify configuration of remotely connected desktops.
■ Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs) and Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) Although not a strategic core competency within the MCP pro­gram, a few questions about scripting do crop up from time to time on various exams.
■ General technical staff Anyone desiring to collect information, configure set tings on Windows XP machines, or implement management via WMI, WSH, or WBEM.
■ Power users Anyone wishing to obtain maximum power and configurability of their Windows XP machines either at home or in an unmanaged desktop work­place environment.

Outline of This Book

This book is divided into four parts, each covering a major facet of scripting. The fol lowing sections describe these parts.

Part 1: Covering the Basics

OK, so you’ve decided you need to learn scripting. Where do you begin? Start here in Part 1! In Chapter 1, “Starting From Scratch,” you learn the basics: what a script is, how to read it, and how to write it. Once you move beyond using a script to figure out what your IP address is and print it to a file, you need to introduce some logic into the script, which you do in Chapters 2–5. You’ll learn how to introduce conditions and add some intelligence to allow the script to check some stuff, and then based upon what it finds, do some other stuff. This section concludes by looking at troubleshooting scripts. I’ve made some mistakes that you don’t need to repeat! Here are the chapters in Part 1:

■ Chapter 1, “Starting from Scratch”
■ Chapter 2, “Getting in the Loop”
■ Chapter 3, “Adding Intelligence”
■ Chapter 4, “The Power of Many”
■ Chapter 5, “The Power of Many More”

Part 2: Basic Windows Administration

In Part 2, you dig deep under the covers of VBScript and WMI and really begin to see the power you can bring to your automation tasks. In working with the file system, you see how to use the file system object to create files, delete files, and verify the existence of files. All these basic tasks provide loads of flexibility for your scripts. Next, you move on to working with folders, learning how to use VBScript to completely automate the creation of folders and files on your servers and users’ workstations. In the last half of Part 2, you get an in-depth look at the power of WMI when it is combined with the simplicity and flexibility of VBScript. Here are the chapters in Part 2:

■ Chapter 6, “Working with the File System”
■ Chapter 7, “Fun with Folders”
■ Chapter 8, “Why Windows Management Instrumentation?”
■ Chapter 9, “WMI Continued”
■ Chapter 10, “Using WMI Queries”

Part 3: Advanced Windows Administration

This section will shave at least four points off your handicap (because you will get to play an extra 18 holes a week due to the time you save)! At least three things are really lame when it comes to administering Windows servers: all those click, click, and save motions; all the time spent waiting for the screen to refresh; and loosing your place in a long list of users. Guess what? In this section, some of that pain is relieved. WhenHuman Resources hires 100 people, you tell them to send you a spreadsheet with the new users, and you use your script to create those users. It takes 2 minutes instead of 2 hours. (Dude—that’s the front nine!) In addition to saving time, scripting your admin€ istrative tasks is more accurate. If you have to set a particular set of access control lists on dozens of folders, a script is the only way to ensure all the flags are set correctly. Here are the chapters in Part 3:

■ Chapter 11, “Introduction to Active Directory Service Interfaces”
■ Chapter 12, “Reading and Writing for ADSI”
■ Chapter 13, “Searching Active Directory”
■ Chapter 14, “Configuring Networking Components”
■ Chapter 15, “Subs and Other Round Things”
■ Chapter 16, “Logon Scripts”
■ Chapter 17, “Working with the Registry”
■ Chapter 18, “Working with Printers”

Part 4: Scripting Other Applications

Once you learn how to use WMI and VBScript to automate Windows Server 2003, the logical question is, “What else can I do?” Well, with the latest version of Microsoft Exchange and Internet Information Services (IIS), the answer is quite a lot. So in this part of the book, you look at using WMI and VBScript to automate other applications.

In IIS 6.0, nearly everything that can be configured via GUI tools can also be scripted. This enables the Web administrator to simplify management and to also ensure repeat-able configuration of the websites from a security perspective.

In Exchange administration, many routine tasks can be simplified by using VBScript. In Part 4, you look at how to leverage the power of VBScript to simplify user manage€ ment, to configure and administer Exchange, and to troubleshoot some of the common issues confronting the enterprise Exchange administrator. The chapters in Part 4 are as follows:

■ Chapter 19, “Managing IIS 6.0”
■ Chapter 20, “Working with Exchange 2003”

Part 5: Appendices

The Appendices in this book are not the normal “never read” stuff—indeed you will find yourself referring again and again to these four crucial documents. In Appendix A you will find lots of ideas for further work in developing your mastery of VBScript. Appendix B will save you many hours of searching for the “special names” that unlockthe power of ADSI scripting. Appendix C helps you find the special WMI namespaces that enable you to perform many cool “tricks” in your scripting—and last but certainly not least is Appendix D, which contains my documentation “cheat sheet”—actually you will want to read it rather early in your scripting career.

■ Appendix A, “VBScript Documentation”
■ Appendix B, “ADSI Documentation”
■ Appendix C, “WMI Documentation”
■ Appendix D, “Documentation Standards”
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Hacking Photoshop CS2

Introduction

Agreat number of people come to Photoshop to fix their images and end up being mar­ried to it, doing a thesis on it or, at the very least, pulling out their hair and swearing never to go near a computer ever again. Photoshop is a tough beast to tame by using logic or clicking here, there, and everywhere in the hope of breaking it in, throwing a saddle on it, and riding into the sunset.
Sadly, there is no magic spell for mastering or taming Photoshop. If there were, there would be less need for books such as this one, Hacking Photoshop CS2. INo, the only sure formula that seems to work involves learning the basics and then adding to your base knowledge some of the secret handshakes known to the experts .. . and that’s the raison d’être of this book. It’s written with the sole intention of imparting insider knowledge that will help you to understand what Photoshop is capable of and help you speed up your workflow by revealing some of these “secret handshakes.”

Whom This Book Is For

This book is for people who have a working knowledge of Photoshop and wish to expand it exponentially. It delves into the nooks and crannies of the interface, the tools, commands, filters, and their employment. It covers the different ways that a task can be performed in Photoshop and invites you to make connections and to discover your own techniques for solving problems. Although squarely aimed at Photoshop CS2 users, people using older ver­sions of Photoshop can make use of the majority of the hacks and tips contained in the book.

How This Book Is Organized

The book has 18 chapters full of “hacks”—tips, tricks, mods, and customizations designed to help you get the most out of Photoshop.

■ Chapter 1, “Optimizing Performance”—This chapter deals with managing your resources and squeezing the maximum performance out of Photoshop.

■ Chapter 2, “Hacking the Work Area”—This chapter is all about customizing your entire work area and saving the changes for future use.

■ Chapter 3, “The Fine Art of Using Palettes”—This chapter provides insights into Photoshop’s palettes, some of the secrets that they hold and ways for you to enhance your productivity.

■ Chapter 4, “Browsing with Bridge”—This chapter helps put Bridge’s viewing modes and file-sifting capabilities to work for you.

■ Chapter 5, “Hacking Preferences and Documents”—The hacks in this chapter show you how to handle Preferences and how to increase your productivity and streamline your workflow when working; with documents.

■ Chapter 6, “Working with Layers”—To work effectively in Photoshop, it pays to learn as much about layers as you can. This chapter has the insights into creating, managing, and editing layers that will help.

■ Chapter 7, “Creating and Applying Layer Styles”—This chapter discusses how you can make the most of layer styles to create, save, apply and organize styles.

■ Chapter 8, “Hacking Layer Masks”—Layer masks are incredibly useful devices for hiding underlying content without affecting the values of the pixels that make up the content, and this chapter helps you wield that power.

■ Chapter 9, “Hacking Selection Masks”—With the techniques, hints, and tips included in this chapter, you should be well armed for creating selection masks for almost any image-editing assignment.

■ Chapter 10, “Drawing and Painting”—This chapter helps you to use the drawing tools and related commands productively and ingeniously to draw and to paint.

■ Chapter 11, “Editing, Transforming, and Retouching Images”—This chapter is about taking full advantage of the simple, everyday tasks (editing, transforming, and retouching images) that form the backbone of most Photoshop work.

■ Chapter 12, “Adjusting and Correcting Colors”—Adjusting and correcting colors in Photoshop is an art form, and this chapter gives you some of the ins and outs that can help you master this fine art.

■ Chapter 13, “Creating and Editing Type”—Type attributes can now be changed in Photoshop to such an extent that you very rarely have a need to use a page layout pro­gram for every job that requires superimposed type. This chapter helps you take control over that power.

■ Chapter 14, “Hacking Camera Raw”—For something classed as a plug-in, Camera Raw is a very deep application, and this chapter enables you to dig into its depths.

■ Chapter 15, “Automating Tasks”—Using actions to automate tasks is one key way to optimize your use of Photoshop. This chapter shows you how.

■ Chapter 16, “Outputting to Print”—Outputting to print can be a tricky business. All the hard work you put into color correcting, adjusting, and editing could turn into frus­tration if your project doesn’t print out as expected. This chapter gives some precautions that you can take to defend yourself and your creations as you get ready to print.

■ Chapter 17, “Outputting to the Web”—This chapter helps you grapple with some of the limitations of outputting images to the Web.

■ Chapter 18, “Exploiting Filters and Photoshop Flexibility”—Compared to other image editors on the market, Photoshop does not include too many auto commands or walkthrough wizards. However, it makes up for it by giving the user the flexibility to per­form almost any task in numerous ways. The hacks discussed in this final chapter give an indication of what is possible with this flexibility.

■ Appendix, “Troubleshooting”—This appendix includes some general and specific trou­bleshooting advice to apply when dealing with Photoshop.
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