Recently in MCSE Journey Category

The Routing and Remote Access service in Windows Server 2003 provides the same routing services as most dedicated hardware routers. The rule of thumb is that when you have a high-speed WAN connection, such as a T-1, that carries heavy traffic, hardware routers are preferable.

These two sentences are from the book page 5-12, they are typical Microsoft theory. It can do the work but you can never rely on it. Suppose a company can't afford T-1 connection and hardware router, it can't afford Microsoft Server 2003 licenses normally.

The key points of today's lesson are:

• Use the command router to print, add, delete and change the route table.
  Metric is a number, which the router uses to evaluate routes to the same destination.
• RIP (Router Information Protocol) is a distance vector routing protocol, metrics in distance vector routing protocols represent the number of hops to the destination.
• RIP uses broadcast or multicast to exchange route tables.
• OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is a link state routing protocol, it metric criteria include the link's transmission speed and delays caused by network traffic congestion.
• OSPF router compiles a map of the network called the link state database.
• To support IP multicasting, a router must support IGMP and have network interface adapters that support multicast promiscuous mode.

If you can find no reason for the DNS Server service to have stopped, you can try to start it again. At the opposite extreme, you can close off your network from the outside world by denying all Internet access, ……, but they also compromise the functionality of the network by preventing users from accessing the Internet.

 

 

 

This two sentences, I read these days, are the typical concept from the text book. I am so familiar with the first sentence since I say it to my clients every day, "reboot", "reboot" and "reboot". I finished the name resolution part this week, the key idea which the text book repeat again and again is that set more servers for fault tolerance. In the main lessons, reviews, practices and exercises, Microsoft says that hundreds times. Clearly, that means you have to buy more licenses if you have more servers. I feel the book is more like a brain washing marketing book instead of a textbook.

DNS and Active Directory is the solution for name resolution, the lesson also mentions the hacks' skill of attacking DNS servers are Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks (flooding), Footprinting (get the useful information), IP spoofing (use faked identity) and Redirection.

For learning and practicing, I use the Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Virtual PC as the tools to run the Windows Server 2003 under normal Windows XP system. It works little slow but very stable, provide some very useful functions and configurations. It is recommended if you don't have enough computer to test the server performance or as lazy as me, since I don't even want to open the CD-ROM's door at the besides computer.

It is already the third day of this week, but I don't know why I already think it is just Tuesday. This week, I am still reading the redundant text book of MCSE and didn't find new thing yet. There is only one sentence interesting on page 3-11, as following:

[Lease Lines]You cannot change ISPs without having another line installed to the new destination.

By the office regulation, I have to evaluate three vendors if the purchasing/subscription is more than $2,500. The annual rental fee of the DDN is such a case, even I know I can't change to a new ISP but I still have to do the routine quotation request work. It did waste me a lot of time; maybe I will attach the heavy book when I am asked to do the evaluation again.

After bought the new car, I already send Lara to her kindergarten for two weeks and the odometer is already showing 1,200 kilometers. Also, the Flyakite project released the new version at the New Year Eve.

It's raining again, almost two entire days. The raining caused more difficult to drive especially for me since I have the astigmatism problem after I watch the monitor for almost 20 years. I still keep studying of computers even I already have 20 years experience. Today, it is a very relax day, there are only four to five persons in the office. I read the part of Registered and Unregistered IP Address, very easy concept but Microsoft used almost twenty pages to explain. My feeling is that suppose no such different, the CISCO won't sell so many routers. Router is the key connection for registered (public) network and unregistered (private) network.

It isn't a bad day toady; I received January 2005 issue National Geographic which should be published at January 9, 2005. I am too lazy to do anything after returning from Yunan province and I decided to do some learning today. The decision is the book MCSE Exam 70-293 Self-Paced Training Kit, Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure. The first chapter has nothing but some very basic concept like seven layers of the network, TCP/IP knowledge, different physical Ethernet physical connection cable and etc.

Quick reference:

Application

Presentation

Session

Transport Data transfers, the TCP and UDP protocol of TCP/IP belong to layer. Also, NCP of NetWare and NetBEUI belongs to.

Network The connection between computer on different network. The IP protocol of TCP/IP belongs to this layer. Device: router

Data-link Indicates the selection of what type of network physical cable (copper or fiber-optic) or wireless, Ethernet or Token Ring. If the selection is physical Ethernet, which cable is capable for the requirement. Device: switche Protocol: Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)

Physical Indicates the physical cable itself, which is copper cable (UTP) and fiber-optic. Device: hub

I started reviewing the MCSA/MCSE Exam 70-290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment Self-Paced Training Kit today. The first chapter is just a briefing introduction of Windows Server 2003, nothing interesting and just something like product brochure. The difference between different versions of Windows Server 2003:

	Web	Standard	Enterprise	Datacenter
SMP (symmetric multiprocessor)	2	4	8	32/64
RAM (GB)	2	4	32/64	64/512
Clustering			8

• Microsoft Metadirectory Services (MMS), which enables the integration with Active Directory
• Hot Add Memory
• Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM), which supports the allocation of CPU and memory resources on a per-application basis

Networks were created on the day when the first user decided he or she didn��t want to walk down the hall to get something from another user.

tree vs. forest

• Multiple domain models create logical structures called tress when they share contiguous DNS names.
• An Active Directory forest includes all domains within that Active Directory. A forest may contain multiple domains in multiple trees, or just one domain.

The only computers or users that will be affected by a policy are those that are beneath the OU to which the policy is linked.

Above sentence is a citation from the book, it is a typical sentence from American computer manuals and guides, it is always wasting time to read such sentences.
Related link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003

Today, WORK. The entire Shanghai is still enjoying the long holiday but I have to work in office whit NOTHING TO DO, because we don't forward the weekend. It's good for me, I just sit in the office and read the book without interruption since most of my colleagues asked two days annual leave and have totally nine days vacation.
Today, I finished reading the book MCSA/MCSE Exam 70-291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure Self-Paced Training Kit (a really long book title). What I learned today is nothing new; the last chapter covers the troubleshooting, and how to use Task Manager, Performance Manager and Network Monitor to find the problem.
I decided to read every book twice, the first time is a brief reading and the second time is a detailed reading and a real examination preparing. Tomorrow, I will start reading the Exam 70-290 again. I am trying to finish it in 30 work days and get my first MCSA/MCSE examination around the end of June.