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The Expert Recommends: Essential Resources for Computer and Network Security Professionals by Rebecca Bace — Rebecca Bace helps you make sense of Internet security by providing a guide to her favorite and most frequently used information resources.

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Introduction to IP Multicast by Beau Williamson — The author provides a brief history of IP multicasting, a discussion on the pros and cons of multicast, a description of various multicast applications, and an introduction to the multicast backbone.

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An Introduction to Public-Key Cryptography by Carlisle Adams and Steve Lloyd — Cryptography is at the heart of public-key infrastructure (PKI). Get an overview in this new tutorial.

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The Expert Recommends: Essential Resources for Networking Beginners by Thomas M. Thomas II — Start your networking career off right with the "must have" resources that Thomas M. Thomas II suggests for building a strong foundation of networking knowledge.

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Overview of the LDAP C API by Tim Howes, Ph.d., and Mark Smith — This tutorial provides an introduction to the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) C Language API.

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ATM Networks and Security by Eva Bozoki — ATM's flexibility to deliver different classes of traffic at high or low speed has made it a popular choice for many networks. Security in ATM networks is an emerging concern, though. This article describes why security in ATM networks is a potential issue and what security measures you need to take to protect your network.

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Provisioning Hardware and Media for the WAN edited by Diane Teare — Do you recognize scalability constraints for WAN technologies? Can you recommend Cisco products and WAN technologies that will meet the customer's requirements for performance, capacity, and scalability? Read on to prepare for these real-world topics that you may encounter on the CCDA exam.

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Assembling and Cabling Cisco Devices edited by Stephen McQuerry — Learn how to cable Cisco devices to provide connectivity between switches and routers. An end of chapter quiz then helps you review and retain the concepts discussed.

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Understanding Spanning Tree by Kennedy Clark and Kevin Hamilton — The Spanning Tree Protocol is a loop prevention protocol required to prevent broadcast storms and bridge table corruption. Explains the five STP states, STP timers, and BPDU's.

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Directories and DEN by John Strassner — This tutorial provides a conceptual overview of directories and directory services, including how they fit into a computing environment and how they relate to Directory Enabled Networks (DEN).

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Benefits and Costs of PKI by Carlisle Adams and Steve Lloyd — This tutorial considers some of the benefits that are realized through the deployment of a public key infrastructure (PKI). It also briefly discusses cost considerations (from a generic perspective). System administrators who have a good understanding of PKI and cryptography, and who are preparing to implement a complete security solution, will find this tutorial useful.

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Configuring a DHCP Server by Ralph Droms and Ted Lemon — This tutorial demonstrates how to configure a DHCP server to provide basic DHCP service, using the ISC (Internet Software Consortium) DHCP server for illustration.

Breaking News

One of the primary architects of OpenCable, Michael Adams, explains the key concepts of this initiative in his book OpenCable Architecture.

Expert Advice

Ralph Droms, Ph.D., author of The DHCP Handbook and chair of the IETF Dynamic Host Configuration Working Group, guides you to his top picks for reliable DHCP-related information.

Just Published

Residential Broadband, Second Edition
by George Abe

Introduces the topics surrounding high-speed networks to the home. It is written for anyone seeking a broad-based familiarity with the issues of residential broadband (RBB) including product developers, engineers, network designers, business people, professionals in legal and regulatory positions, and industry analysts.