Useful Hints & Tips for MS Excel

1. Use Smart Tags in XP
Office XP features Smart Tags, which are like intelligent links to websites or locations on your PC's hard disk. Excel will recognise certain words and show Smart Tag action buttons next to them. Go to the AutoCorrect options part of the Tools menu and select Smart Tags to see which words it will recognise.

2. Spot corrections and errors
If you share Excel documents with others, it can be useful to see any changes they have made. Excel 2000 used red triangular indicators to highlight cells in which there were comments. In Excel 2002, there are purple indicators for Smart Tags and green ones for possible errors in formulas. Options can be found in the Tools menu, under the Error Checking tab of Options.

3. Open older macros
You will probably not be able to open old macros (from Excel 97 or 2000 workbooks) in Excel 2002 as the program will throw up a security warning notice. If you need to use old macros, go to the Tools menu and select Options, Security, then Macro Security and make sure Low is selected. Under Trusted Sources, place a tick in the Trust add-ins and Trust Visual Basic boxes. You will then need to restart Windows before you can run your old macros.

4. View important cells
Using the Watch window you can keep an eye on important cells in a spreadsheet. Click on a cell containing data and go to the Tools menu, choose Formula Auditing and then Show Watch Window. Click on Add Watch and it will display values and formulas for any cell of any open workbook.

5. Use labels in cells
You can make Excel work with labels you have given to cells instead of having to use the cell position ('Profit' instead of 'A6', for example). Go to Options in the Tools menu, and click on the Calculation tab, then tick the 'Accept labels in formulas' box.

6. Create formulas
Create a formula by clicking on the Paste Function tool (which is marked 'fx') on the standard toolbar. If you select a function from the list, its description will appear in the dialogue box, and the Help button will explain more about the formula. Alternatively, clicking on the equals sign in the formula bar will display a list of recently used functions.

7. Links
If you are seeing error messages about broken or invalid links to other workbooks or other applications, go to the Options part of the Tools menu and choose the Workbook Options tab. Make sure the box marked 'Update Remote References' is ticked. If you tick the box marked 'Save External Link Values', you won't have to worry about maintaining links but your file may end up significantly larger.

8. Create subtotals
It's easy to create sums of columns using the AutoSum tool but what about subtotals? Creating these needn't be hard either. Just use the function =SUBTOTAL (9,B2:B10). The 9 is a function number, representing SUM, and you should replace the cell references with the ones from your own worksheet. You could place it in cell B11 and then repeat it with figures below, say =SUBTOTAL (9,B12:B20), in cell B21. If you then used the AutoSum tool in cell B22 it would just display the sum of the subtotals, from cells B11 and B21.

9. Delete vs clear
There two ways to remove information from cells: Delete and Clear. Clicking on a cell and selecting Delete (or pressing Del or Backspace) will remove the cell's value or formula, but any formatting and comments will remain in place. If you want to return the cell to its original state, with no formatting, choose Clear instead.

10. Informative printouts
Many of us have spreadsheets that spread over more than a page. If you want your column titles to print on every page, go to the File menu, click on Page Setup and go to the Sheet tab. Click on the red arrow in the box marked 'Rows to repeat at top' and select the rows that contain your column titles, then click on OK.

11. Delete comments
You can delete all the comments from your worksheet at once, for instance if you have finished the sheet and want to distribute it without annotations. Press Control, Shift and O at the same time, and this will select all the cells in the worksheet that contain comments. Right-click on one of them and select Delete Comment, then click anywhere on the sheet and all the comments will have vanished.

12. Keep track of online orders
When you order online, it can be hard to keep a record of all your orders. You can, however, transfer the table from the confirmation email the retailer sends you into an Excel workbook. Open the email and click at the start of the table, then hold down Shift and click at the end of the table. Right-click on it and choose Copy, then open a blank Excel worksheet. Right-click on a cell and choose Paste. You may have to correct the formatting for it to look better.

13. Figuring out formulas
If you have a formula that's puzzling you because you can't figure out how it was derived, click on the cell that contains it, and choose the Auditing option in the Tools menu, and select Trace Precedents. You will see blue dots in the relevant cells, with arrows pointing towards the formula. When you have finished, choose Remove All Arrows.

14. Import finance data
You can import data from most online banks and finance programs into Excel, but it's often not quite as simple as just opening the document in Excel. It will usually be in Comma Separated Value (.csv) format. In Excel, click on the File menu and choose Open, then choose 'Text Files (*.txt, *.prn, *.csv)' from the 'Files of type' box, and select the CSV file you obtained from the bank website. Once it has opened, just adjust the column widths so they look right.

15. Show zeros the door
You can remove zeros that you don't need from your cells by going to Tools, Options and then View, and removing the tick from the Zero values box. If you want zeros to appear in certain cells, give those cells the custom format '0;-0;;@'. To enter a custom format, go to Format and Cells, and choose the Number tab, then select Custom and enter the format. For dashes to appear instead of zeros, use the custom format '0;-0;?-?;@'.

Useful Hints & Tips for MS Word

1. Date
To stop Word from adding today's date to any year you type, changing, say, 'Letter 2004' to 'Letter 2004-08-22', go to the Insert menu, click on AutoCorrect and select AutoText in the next menu. Untick the box marked 'Show Autocomplete Suggestions'. If you want to use an AutoText shortcut in future, type the abbreviation and press F3.

2. Add places
Add a folder to the Places Bar in Word 2002's Open and Save boxes to help you find files quickly. Find the folder you require in Windows Explorer, highlight it and then click on the Tools menu. Now click on the option marked 'Add to My Places'.

3. Turn off fast save
Fast saves aren't much faster than normal saves and instead of properly saving your document, Word just appends anything you have added to the text to the end of the file. Nothing is ever deleted from the document file, so it can end up being huge. It's best to turn off fast saves by going to the Tools menu, clicking on Options, then on the Save tab and removing the tick from the 'Allow fast saves' checkbox.

4. No mouse styles
If you often write the same style of documents in Word, you may be aware of the Styles option, which can reduce the time you spend formatting a document. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to a style so that you don't have to use the mouse to find it by going to the Tools menu, then Customize, then pressing Keyboard and selecting Styles from the list on the left.

5. Follow style
If your styles naturally follow one another, say a particular text style always follows a particular headline style, you can cut down further on the time required to select them by going to the Format menu, and selecting Style. Choose the relevant style and click on Modify, then choose another from the box marked 'Style for following paragraph'.

6. Repeat find
To find a piece of text, press F3, enter the text you're looking for in the text box and press Enter. You don't need to keep the box open to find other instances of this text, however. Click on Cancel, and notice that the double arrows at the bottom of the right-hand side scroll bars have turned blue. Clicking on one of them will take you to the next place this text occurs, either forwards or backwards through the document, depending on which button you click.

7. AutoCorrect
AutoCorrect allows you to change text automatically as you type it, which can be handy for correcting frequently mistyped words. Click on the Tools menu, then on AutoCorrect and enter a piece of text in the left-hand column. Whenever you type it, it will be replaced by the text in the same row in the right-hand column of the dialogue box.

8. Select lots of text
It can be very difficult to select more than a few paragraphs of text at once using only the mouse, particularly if you have a fast PC, as the text will shoot past before you notice. But you can select large amounts of text easily by clicking where you want your selection to start, then navigating to the end of the intended selection using the mouse wheel or scroll bars. Then just hold down Shift and click again to select the block of text.

9. Saving grace
If you are working on several documents at once, you can save them all without closing Word in the process. Just hold down Shift and click on the File menu. You will see a new option Save All. There is also an option to Close All if you want to do so without closing Word.

10. Simple formatting
If you're going to create a number of documents that are similar in appearance, it's best to use styles to format text rather than applying the formatting yourself. This ensures that you can change it easily throughout the documents, if you need to. You can, however, use the Format Painter to copy the formats from one paragraph and apply it to another. Select the Format Painter button from the Word toolbar and click on the portion of text you want to copy a format from. Now drag the pointer over the selection you want to apply the formatting to.

11. Scraps
You can create 'scraps' in Word, which are small blocks of text from a document. Highlight some text in an open document and drag it to the Desktop, and you will see it appear as a document scrap. You can arrange and rename your scraps on the Desktop, and simply drop them back into Word documents as you need them. The scraps can be pasted into most other applications too.

12. Snappy corrections
Instead of using the spell checker once you've finished writing a document, you can correct words as you type. Right-click on a red-underlined word, and Word will show you a menu of replacements it thinks are suitable. This also works for green-underlined phrases that Word thinks are not grammatically correct. Right-clicking them will again open a menu with suggested replacements.

Seven Website Design Tips to Make Your Site More Attractive

"How can I attract thousands of visitors to my site?", many people ask me this question. Well, driving high traffic to Website is very important, but what's even more important, is designing a website in that way which makes them stays longer.

In this article, you're going to learn 7 important website design tips to make your site more attractive. So not only your website will attract many people, but it will also motivate them to stay for a long time.

1. Be Aware during Selection of the colours scheme 

If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that's a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don't change colours on every page. The most common colour schemes include:
- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.
- Onion shade, Tan, white
If you're not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.
Always Select those colours which Attract the visitors, and the person revisit your site.

2. Page Backgrounds 

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, i.e. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Means if the page background is dark always use light colour for the writhing a text or if the light colour is used for the page background the always use dark colour for writing a text, like this colour scheme for the background everything is visible to the visitor. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

3. (Page loading) site open within a minutes 

All I've seen for the last 10 minutes is 'page loading', I think something might be wrong with my browser this is probably one of the biggest gripes a site visitor has. If your page takes more than a minute to load (on dial-up) and you have anything less than the meaning of life hidden within your content - something needs to be done. The average person does not have time they just go for another site without passed his time for these type of site those take time to open. So a good website takes less time for loading a site.

4. Appropriate page Size 

Web pages are measured in pixels. Pixels are the unit of measurement for the screen. A Web page can literally be any size. Standard Web pages usually fit into a few sizes:
+ W × H + 600 × 800 + 640 × 480 (Dream weaver default) + 1024 × 768 + 550 × 400 (Flash default)
The default Web page sizes provided in Web friendly applications and listed earlier are a great place to start. You will probably use a smaller, custom size for pop-up windows. The Web page size you choose is up to you. Remember to use actual space for the Web page effectively so that the content is in the proper proximity to the user's navigation patterns. Web page size affects the way users move around the Web pages and the Web portfolio site. One rule: Pick a size for all main screens and stick to it.

5. Logo 

Create a simple logo to identity your website. Have a captivating tag line somewhere with the header, and write an About Us page which describes the uniqueness of your website. These will leave an impression for your visitors to remember your website.

6. Application of graphic designs

You must be careful in choosing for the appropriate design that will best represent your projects, and tell about your business. Create a design which coveys in a stylish way what it has to

7. Be aware about grammar and spell 

Grammar is overrated [and the spill-checker too] Most web authoring and word processing software comes with a spell/grammar check utility - don't let your hard earned money go to waste, use it. Some of the more common grammatical mistakes are misusing its, it's, there, their, they're, your, you're, and noone (correct=no one). Proof reading your final product is also helpful. No one is infallible, that's why pencils have erasers and computer programs have [ctrl+z].

5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox 

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog) 

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys 

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

In summary, A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site.The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox
2) Start a web log (blog)
3) Carry out polls or surveys
4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games
5) Update frequently with fresh content

5 Important Rules in Website Design

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.

1) Do not use splash pages 

Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements 

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

3) Have a simple and clear navigation 

You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

4) Have a clear indication of where the user is 

When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!

5) Avoid using audio on your site 

If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.

How to Make a Free Web Site

In the present time the internet craze has swept the nation and these days everything and everyone is online. Everyone having fun on internet and get knowledge from the web site.
If you want to know how to make a free web site, the good news is that you've set an easy goal for yourself. Learning how to make a free web site is about more than just getting your web domain for free - you need to know how to put information on that site as well. Many domains offering free web sites also feature free online tutorials that will help you write your web pages. Some sites are so user-friendly; you don't have to write any of your own web code at all! You can select colors and font sizes from the domain's own page editing service. When the domain is willing to write your pages for you, it's very easy to learn how to make a free web site.

Once you have decided on the topic of your website, it is time to start writing. The text should flow naturally and be divided into easily read paragraphs. Your first objective is to make sure your visitors can easily navigate your website and quickly access your content. According to the web designer point of view If you try hard enough, you can probably come up with some funky style for a page with for example, a new wacky navigational menu. The problem is that everybody expects to see a web page layout follow certain basic rules; navigation sections have to be arranged in a certain way, links have to look a certain way ... being consistent makes the web site easier for the visitor to use. Your site should have content that changes frequently, encouraging return visitors.

And once you know how to make a free web site, you'll have your own space on the Internet that others can visit. It's free, it's easy, and it's your own piece of the world wide web. After all, everyone else is on the Internet - why should you be left behind?

Understand The Webdesign Standards

Webdesign must always comply to a set of standards and rules, defined by by national or international bodies, such as the International Organization for Standardization.

Such a standard states for example that: 'Incompleteness of theories underlying the design of interactive software makes it difficult to produce authoritative and specific standards'. (ISO 2002:3)

As you can see for yourself, these standards are only general guidelines, which can be used in one stage or another of the design process for a specific website. As a general rule, the more abstract the guideline, the more suitable it is in informing the earlier stages of design such as the requirements specification. Detailed design needs more specific guidelines, such as 'Apple Human Interface Guidelines'. (Apple.com 2003:1).

Based on the 'theory-based knowledge, experience, and common sense'. (Preece et al. 2002:21), these guidelines and rules have been made from design principles and most importantly state the principle of consistency. This one states the fact that 'designing interfaces must have similar operations and use similar elements for achieving similar tasks'. (ibid. 2002:24). This all leads to the consistency issue.

There are two kinds of consistency when it comes to websites: the internal and the external consistency. The first type can be obtained by maintaining the uniformity within the design, that is for example, by the fact that the 'help' and the 'back' buttons are the same for all pages. The external consistency refers to the similarity of execution of tasks between the physical world and the interface, or, further more, to the use of similar terminology and functional attributes across platforms or commonly used interfaces. For the first similarity in question, we can take as an example the fact that the user can go to a specific location on a map, and for the second type of external consistency, we could look at the 'back' button and the Windows 'minimize', 'maximize' and 'close' buttons. These are used on a very large scale in all the world wide popular interfaces such as 'Internet Explorer'.

In order for a web designer to improve the design of his or her website, reference to guidelines and standards is absolutely necessary, not to speak about actually using the design principles defined by these standards.

Should all these rules be obeyed by any freelancer web designer, websites and webdesign would be a little less wilder world to live and work in.

Quick Tips For Your Webdesign

When it comes to web site design best practices, planning is the most important thing to consider. This is the only way to building an excellent website, and doing it in the least amount of time. The process of making a web site can still be made faster by using some sort of web building tool.

The first thing you have to do is making a sketch on paper of the future site. It is very useful to get a straight picture of the look and feel of your homepage, as well as the navigation or flow chart of the various pages of your entire web site. A website is basically a pyramid with the homepage only being the top of it. Your visitors will navigate from your homepage to your 2nd tier pages and from there to the 3rd tier pages. At first, you will only build your homepage and the 2nd tier pages.

There are a few techniques that can help you build a website very quickly and avoid unwanted problems that can occur when you least expect it.

The Fast Track Technique says that the only thing you must do is plan one page, meaning your homepage, and then all the other 2nd and 3rd level pages can be simply cloned. Using this perfect page as a template, you can build the other ones, though filling them with different contents.

Webdesign is not so simple a task, as it requires the fulfillment of all the needs a possible visitor may have. There are also the needs of the search engines to take care of. A website must get the visitor to the page where he can make a purchase, and this all in one single mouse click. Such a website should get the name and email address of the visitor, which is actually more important than selling a product to your visitor.

The web pages must be optimized for the search engines and the best way to do that is by using articles that you write about your business, combined with SEO webpage design principles. This will most likely attract a lot of free, targeted traffic on your website.

Another important thing to do is not only get the visitors name and email address, but also lead the visitor along a particular path to get the visitor to take a certain action, that is to make a purchase.

5 Top Certification Mistakes to Avoid

In the Information Technology (IT) industry, certification has become a globally recognized tool for professional development. Globally there is a huge need for qualified IT specialists. This has resulted in a mad or is it gold rush into certification. 

Certification is now a buzzword in IT. Unfortunately, many who go through the certification process get their fingers burnt. Even though certification has been a powerful advancement tool for some time, it has not been smooth sailing in all cases. 

There are many fallacies running riot within the industry regarding the requirements to get into and be successful in the I.T. industry. Let us attempt to look at the most common certification mistakes with a view to getting certification candidates to avoid them.

We will look at why it is possible to spend money, time and effort and still not get the desired results. We will not be able to cover every single certification blunder, but let's look at the 5 most common howlers.

1. Choosing a certification because it is hot

This is a common problem I encounter with most certification candidates. They have no idea of what the certification involves but they love it because it is hot. Should you be picking a certification that does not match what you want to do or be? Do you know what you want to do or be? Don't just go for an MCSE and assume you'll make it. Going for certification for the wrong reasons is both wasteful and unreasonable.

Are you new in IT? Your first step towards a successful career should be researching the different options available. Learn about these options. Yes, you may love computers, but what aspect? What is your background? Skill base? Personality? All of these factors can tell you not only if you're really cut out for IT, but what type of IT field might be best for you. 

For those already in IT, are you choosing a certification because your job requires this specific certification or is it a crucial step in the direction of your long-term career goals? Otherwise, it may not be worth your time and resources. MCSEs, for instance, look after Microsoft servers and networks. But if programming is your passion, go for a developer's certification such as MCSD or Java.

Whether you're new to IT or already in IT, certification should not be seen just as a meal ticket. It should be part of an individual's career development strategy. Don't rush into it because it is the vogue in town. Depending on what stage you're at and your career interests, your need for certification and type of certification vary from individual to individual. 

Certification is only for you if you have identified your career goals and you see it as a tool for getting you from where you are to where you should be. The worst thing you can do is to choose a certification without thinking about your long-term career path.

2. Underestimating the real cost of certification.

How much does it cost to get certified? Too often we underestimate the costs involved. Most people believe it is just a matter of the funds required for training, books, training CDs, manuals and the certification exams. 

A good certification is built on the realization that money is not the only resource you need to get happily certified.  I know quite a few people who register for courses but who keep on dropping out due to one commitment or the other. You've paid for the training and you've bought the books, but how committed are you?

Do you have the drive and zeal that requires reading, attending training sessions, and practicing? Do you love studying? How will you handle your other commitments, social, work or family? When it comes down to the crunch, can you make the effort? Sometimes, it even requires extra effort. Most especially if you already have a tight schedule. 

Are you capable or ready to read and master (not cram) your certification objectives?  Now and then with certification, the going gets tougher.  It is a shame that many spend so much to acquire certification resources, but they never really get off the mark when it comes to effort.

Candidates who are successful in certification ALL possess the drive and motivation to succeed and advance their careers. Success with certification costs more than just training, certification tools and materials; without effort you're going nowhere.

3. Going to sleep after getting certified

Many certification candidates believe that once they are certified they no longer have to work to increase their skills (value). It will be a big mistake for any professional to simply bask in the euphoria of getting certified and forget about continuing requirements. 

Once you achieve the certification you must set new goals. As stated earlier certification is not an end in itself. It is a career development driver. At each stage in your career you have to ask yourself: Where am I? Where do I want to be? How do I get there? If you stand still, your technical skills will stagnate.

To stay ahead, you have to keep on learning. If you don't continuously develop your self the value of your certification falls. How can you hate continuous self-development and hope to succeed in the IT industry? It's no wonder that re-certification requirements are becoming more common. Going to sleep after getting certified means you wasted your time and money. Don’t become a dinosaur.

4. Failing to prepare equals preparing to fail

Poor preparation is a major killer of certification aspirations. It is not enough to choose a training center. Many fail because they choose the wrong training center. How did you marry your training with your exams? Do you need or did you take any time for revision after training? 

Did you go for the test without knowing the exam simply because you're an expert on the field? What are your study habits like? Are you a smart guy that doesn't need to study? Or are you the cramming expert? If you prepare for certification based on cramming, you fool no one but yourself. 

And you have to be truthful to yourself; do you have the work experience needed for that certification? Too often candidates don't prepare well due to overconfidence, ignorance of preparation options and poor personal organization. How can you succeed if your arrangements are too little, badly organized, and too late? 

5. Unrealistic expectations

Going into certification for the wrong reasons breeds unrealistic expectations which eventually leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. Here are some of the expectations: "A certification is required to get a job in the I.T. industry. Certifications are my ticket to success. Get certified and get your dream job! Certification rules the IT industry. Certification is a goldmine. A guarantee of career success." 

But is certification really your gold card to IT career success? Failure to understand what certification is all about leads to unrealistic expectations

Let's smash these myths to smithereens once and for all. Certification is no guarantee of career success! Period! In most cases, it takes experience, dedication and a lot of hard work to ensure IT career success. There are no free giveaways in life.

It's not certification, but job effectiveness and planning that count most. You must consider these two factors in making any certification decision. Employers aren't just paying for a piece of paper--they want job effectiveness. You must not only be able to do the job assigned; you must do it meeting high standards, within budget and on time. 

Certification tests product knowledge, logical thinking, and problem-solving approaches. But clients and employers demand the combination of experience, knowledge and skills. Certification can't give you experience.

The real world is more complex than the world of certification. Quite often you have to get your hands dirty to gain important knowledge that is not tested in any exam.

Furthermore certification focuses to a large extent on technical skills. You cannot succeed in IT with tech skills alone. Do you know how to deal with customers? “More often the industry is looking for those who have experience, skills, and a solid ethics attitude first, before education". To succeed in IT you need people skills, resourcefulness, knowledge, experience and a corporate focus.

So, if you are considering going in for a certification program, make sure you understand what you are signing up for, and your likely future once you complete the program. Get informed from career counselors, past candidates, IT managers and from industry, to have a more realistic view of the value of the certification programs as well as its likely future prospects, and how it fits into your career strategy. 

Mistakes are not the end of the world

So have you made mistakes? Who hasn’t, you ask? First face the facts. You don’t help yourself by living in denial. It can be painful when we make mistakes. But at the same time don’t let mistakes shut you down. Continue with your high energy, positive outlook. What is important is how we respond. 

The solution is not to worry or moan. Self-pity is wasteful and pointless. You have the ability to turn your minus into a plus. Try to look at the process as a learning experience.  Learn from mistakes, get over them and put them to positive use.

Have you invested, or are you about to invest, in certification? The success of your certification choices depends on a sensible combination of career focus, planning, resourcefulness and hard work.

Avoiding certification mistakes is about being wise in your decision-making. You need more sense than skills to create your amazing future.

All the best in your IT Career!

Maintaining Your IT Equipment

TAKE PRIDE in your IT equipment, and it will serve you well! Keeping your network equipment clean, not only reduces maintenance costs, but it reduces “down time” and increases equipment longevity. Here are three basic tips to remember: keep it clean, cool, and secure. As a general rule, clean the outside of network equipment with a slightly damp cloth and followed by a soft dry cloth on a weekly basis. Most importantly, read the manual about cleaning instructions. However, cleaning the motherboard and chips are much different. Chips and motherboards must be free of ESD and static electricity and should not be touched unless proper procedures are followed. ESD and static electricity shorten the life expectancy of electronic parts of all computer equipment.

In general, computers and particularly larger network systems tend to generate tons of heat. Pay attention to the room's environment: the temperate, humidity, and air flow. Dust is the enemy. As you have probably already heard, “Computers don't wear out, they burn out.” Often times, dust is the culprit for causing your computer to overheat. Since dirt and dust are abrasive to moving parts such as printer gears and drive heads, professional maintenance is needed for the chips and motherboards.

Physically secure your computer equipment in locked rooms when possible. Many businesses today put their network equipment in designated Telecom Rooms monitored by badge/access systems, specialized fire suppression systems, CCTV camera systems, enhanced air-conditioning, and alarm systems. For smaller businesses experiencing budget constraints and unable to afford in-house video surveillances of their network equipment, consider outsourcing your surveillance instead. Keep your network from data loss from UPS power surges and interruptions by using back-up generators. Unfortunately, electricity cannot be completely harnessed.

Putting your hardware on storage racks to allow air flow to equipment not only keeps the equipment cooler, but storage racks could protect equipment (in the unforeseen event of flooding). If you are not using racks as of yet, Genesis Global carries a variety of storage racks and network equipment accessories. The process of prolonging the life-cycle of network equipment doesn't end here, if you are experiencing problems with your hardware; ask about our 20-point testing process. Repairing network equipment or even trading equipment are other options to consider. Faulty equipment can break older networks. If you are looking to upgrade your network, ask about our used Cisco PIX-535-R-BUN firewall (PIX 535 Restricted Bundle Chassis, license, restricted software, two 10/100 ports) and ASA-SSM-CSC-20-K9 Adaptive Security Appliance (a control services module 20 with 500 User Anti Virus/Spyware). 

Secure Your Wireless Network

To secure your wireless computers within your network, you need to proactively protect your data and keep your systems safe. The first step in securing your network is to use the standard built-in features found in your gear. Most networking devices have built-in security features to keep hackers at bay; but in most cases, it is not enough security. Thankfully, most broadband routers have Network Address Translation (NAT) security and Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering, but make sure these features are included. Routers with NAT hide internal network IP addresses (which add a layer of network security). MAC address filtering features allows you to enter the MAC addresses you want to grant or deny access to your network.

Typically, wireless-networking devices are inclusive of WEP and WPA encryption features. Both of these forms of encryption are beneficial in protecting your network. But, keep in mind, the WPA is more secure than the WEP feature. To use either one of these encryption features, you need to enter an encryption key to all wireless devices in your network. Product user manuals explain how to do this. Even though most home office networks and small businesses do not use authentication features for their local computers, most large businesses choose to use it for their office LANs (i.e. 802.1x or LEAP).

The second step is to get a hardware firewall for your network. A hardware firewall works the same way as a software firewall but there are certain other advantages. Whereas a software firewall must be installed on each computer in your network, a hardware firewall centralizes the control of connections between your network and the Internet. Hardware firewalls are more effective than software firewalls in that they can make multiple computers play by the same rules at the same time. In addition, hardware firewalls use their own processors for port filtering and encryption tasks, which means that there is little or no resource drain on the computers in your network, giving you better overall performance. Some firewalls allow you to set-up VPN connections from the Internet to your personal LAN, providing you with a secure way to access your computers while you're on the road.

Because Cisco's PIX security appliances have multi-vector attack protection services, they can effectively defend businesses from many popular forms of attacks, such as: denial-of-service (D0S) attacks, fragmented attacks, replay attacks, and malformed packet attacks. The benefits deriving from PIX firewalls are: improved productivity, lower operational costs, and increased competitive advantage. 

Is Your Network Really Protected?

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Why Have a Computer Network?

What exactly is a computer network? According to Wikipedia: "A computer network is two or more computers connected together using a telecommunication system for the purpose of communicating and sharing resources." Arguably, network experts debate about this—they feel a computer network should be defined as a minimum of three or more computers connected together, not two.

Whether it's a minimum of two or three computers to constitute a computer network, clearly the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. What are some of the advantages?

Let's briefly cover the five advantages of computer networking. As Hutchinson & Sawyer brought out in Computers, Communications, & Information, the advantages of computer networks are: "sharing peripheral devices, sharing of programs and data, better communications, security of information, and access to databases."

Sharing Peripheral Devices Print Sharing (where multiple users share the same printer) can cut operational costs. For example, large and expensive laser printers are used by multiple users within company networks. Providing a business has a network, large in-house printers can affordably be leased or purchased.

Sharing of Programs and Data File Sharing in the business environment is important, because it saves space, time, and paper. Digital files on a share drive are not only cost effective and convenient, but a company's database is accessible to only authorized personnel and inaccessible to unauthorized personnel. Network-linked employees can share groupware and work together on shared projects. Purchasing network versions of software is yet another advantage of having a company network.

Better Communications Schedules and task assignments can be easily shared and organized in a network. When emailing within a network, group settings and contact lists are easily kept up-to-date. Attaching scanned documents and emailing business communication is cheaper and easier than faxing information to another department at a different location.

Security of Information When information is shared on a network and accidental data loss occurs, data recovery is much more likely to occur when working on a network. When shared information is stored on multiple computers and databases, it stands to reason that if a hard drive fails, others will have the shared information residing in another repository. Firewall appliances that are built for networks go far beyond what a consumer grade firewall can do.

Access to Databases Typically, extensive databases (whether public or private) are shared on a network. Sophisticated databases have built-in parameters to protect the data from accidental overwrites or misuse by disgruntled employees.

Ten Useful Preventive Measures for Maintaining your System

One sure way of getting value from your computer equipment is by taking preventive measures. Here is a list of 10 such useful measures. Note that some of these measures can only be carried out a service engineer.

1. Files Backup
Files backups are very important for all types of PC user. By creating a copy of your files, you can restore and continue working in the event of disaster.


2. Clean the Mouse 
Like the keyboard, mouse is susceptible to dust and debris, which are contacted from the mouse pad up to the mouse ball and roller. Dry the mouse thoroughly and use a clean cloth, dampened with ammonia / mentholated spirit.


3. Clean the Floppy Drive 
Clean the drive with a disk cleaner.


4. Check Memory (ONLY TO BE CARRIED OUT BY A SERVICE ENGINEER)
Loose memory can cause serious startup problem for the PC.


5. Check the CPU (ONLY TO BE CARRIED OUT BY A SERVICE ENGINEER)
The CPU is the single largest IC on the motherboard. Examine the CPU to see if it is evenly inserted in its socket/slot. Also check the CPU fan / heat sink for proper cooling.


6. Update the Boot Disk
Your PC should always have a boot disk, which can start the system from a floppy in the event of an emergency system failure. Basically for most Operating systems-Win95/98/2000 etc. use this procedure to create startup disk
*Label a blank formatted floppy diskette and insert it in your floppy Drive
*Click start, Settings, Control Panel
*Double Click Add/Remove Programs icon
*Select Startup Disk Tab
*Click Create Disk
*The utility will remind you to insert your diskette


7. Blow the Printer
Unplug the printer for 10 to 15 minutes allowing the capacitor to completely discharge, blow the printer to remove dust and particles that often cause paper jam.


8. Clean the CD Lens
As the floppy/hard disk drives read/write head contact dust CD lens is not excluded. Use CD lens cleaner


9. Run Scandisk
The Scandisk utility is designed to check your drives for file problems. It also marks any bad sector and copy files to a good sector during the operation
A:\> Scandisk
From Windows:
* Click Start, Run,
* Type Scandisk


10. Update Anti-virus Software
Precisely, new viruses are created nearly every week. For efficient virus protection the Anti-virus software needs to be updated on a regular basis

The Five Most Common Network Problem

1. Cable Problem: Cables that connect different parts of a network can be cut or shorted. A short can happen when the wire conductor comes in contact with another conductive surface, changing the path of the signal. Cable testers can be used to test for many types of cable problems such as:
Cut cable, incorrect cable connections, Cable shorts, Interference level, Connector Problem


2. Connectivity Problem: A connectivity problem with one or more devices in a network can occur after a change is made in configuration or by a malfunction of a connectivity component, such as hub, a router or a Switch.


3. Excessive Network Collisions: These often lead to slow connectivity. The problem can occur as a result of bad network setup/plan, a user transferring a lot of information or jabbering network card.
NB: A jabbering Network card is a network card that is stuck in a transmit mode. This will be evident because the transmit light will remain on constantly, indicating that the Network card is always transmitting.


4, Software Problem: Network problems can often be traced to software configuration such as DNS configuration, WINS configuration, the registry etc.


5. Duplicate IP Addressing: A common problem in many networking environments occurs when two machines try to use the same IP address. This can result in intermittent communications.