This is my Technical Links Page. It also contains more product information for products and services for which I am an authorized agent. For those of you interested in I.T., Telecommunications (Telephone and Voice Technology and History), and Internet Service + Networking Technology, there are links and information on this page. Just scroll down and you will find it. Any suggestions are appreciated. Back to Alan Spicer Telecom also known as Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

Free web-based IP address and domain name tools for Ping, Traceroute, NSLookup, CIDR, geolocation and HTML Validator.
The IP Address Guide - Free Online Ping Traceroute DNS Lookup CIDR Geolocation HTML Validator http://www.ramelectronics.net/index.html This looks like a good site for all kinds of stuff from networking to audio-video, including fiber - ethernet tranceivers...

* * * * * I rarely update this site lately, but I found the following link: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html to be very good for anyone screwing around with their telephone wiring, in particular trying to hook up VOIP such as Vonage to their home telephone wiring. This came off the of the page: http://www.wikihow.com/Connect-VoIP-Phone-Service-to-a-Home-Phone-System


Telephone and Data Wiring Information:


Leviton-wiring-strategies-voice-data (excellent PDF Doc)

Training Animations http://www.leviton-lin.com/learning/animations.aspx

Learn to terminate Leviton connectors with these quick and easy animated videos. Simply choose your connector type and wiring configuration, and view our step-by-step guides to correct termination.

Open Flash® Animations directly in your browser window, or download for offline viewing and use in classes or presentations.


The following are from: http://www.leviton-lin.com/learning/

Standard 4-Pair Wiring Color Codes

PAIR 1

T      White/Blue

*Caution
Quad wire is no longer acceptable for installation in multi-line environments. If encountered during retrofit, quad wire should be replaced with 100ohm UTP. Connecting new quad to installed quad will only amplify existing problems and limitations associated with quad wire; leaving existing quad in place and connecting 100ohm UTP to it may also be ineffective, as the quad wire may negate the desired effect of the UTP.

R      Blue or Blue/White

PAIR 2

T      White/Orange

R      Orange or Orange/White

PAIR 3

T      White/Green

R      Green or Green/White

PAIR 4

T      White/Brown

R      Brown or Brown/White


Telephone Wire Color Codes

RJ-11 is Single-Line plug/jack
RJ-14 is Double-Line plug/jack

USOC Codes RJ14C / RJ14W
rj14c_w telco jack diagram

USOC Codes RJ11C / RJ11W
Telco Rj11 diagram

A Note About USOC Number Suffixes

RJ (Registered Jack) numbers end with a letter that indicates the wiring or mounting method:

"C" identifies a surface or flush-mounted jack.

"W" identifies a wall-mounted jack.

"X" identifies a complex multi-line or series type jack.

Satellite Technology Links:

http://www.3g-generation.com/satellite.htm
"The last device you will ever need for satellite system setup & relocation!" http://www.alienworksltd.com/

Satellite finder with magnetic north, azimuth & elevation calculator
Another Satellite Finder - Aiming Calculator
Satellites North & South America from Lyngsat.com
DirecPC / DirecWay Uncensored Site
Mobile and remote satellite Internet for RVers is here www.rv-anywhere.org

Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS)
Lloyd's satellite constellations

What is a satellite constellation?

Anyone can put a satellite into orbit, and many people have done so. We have. But your lone satellite is only over part of the world at any time. It can't cover the entire world at once. If you need global or near-global coverage, you need to launch a number of satellites so that at least one satellite can be seen from every point on the earth at once. Or nearly every point, anyway.

And, once you've figured out the geometry and the orbits of your satellites so that their coverage areas (or footprints) overlay the world, you have a satellite constellation, with coordinated coverage and control.


RICARDO'S GEO-ORBIT QUICK-LOOK
SES AMERICOM Global Satellite Fleet
GE Satellites were renamed to AMC See: Americom Satellite Photos



Voip-Info.org - Asterisk PBX stuff

www.voip-info.org VOIP Service Providers

What is Broadband? And what's so good about it? by Alan Spicer (a_spicer@bellsouth.net)


The term "Broadband" is used pretty much generically these days to describe High-Speed Internet Access services, but the term has an actual technical meaning and description which can help us to understand why it is a good thing, and why it helps provide much higher speed Network and Internet Access.

Broadband refers to a type of signalling that is used by network equipment and hosts on a network medium, typically called "The Wire". Other such terms come out of this such as "Wire Speed" (example: This product operates at Wire Speed). Such a claim means that a network product (device) uses the full speed of the protocol or signaling method on the Wire without any loss. The Wire is the physical layer (OSI Reference Model Layer 1 "Physical") network cabling used in any network system implementation. The Wire can actually be of several actual types depending on the network type. There are Local Area Networks (LAN) such as Ethernet, and Wide Area Networks (WAN) such as The Internet.

The most common LAN technology used these days is Ethernet. Ethernet uses a signalling type of "Baseband". So there are two types of signaling commonly used for network communications. The short story is Baseband signaling uses all available bandwidth to form one single communications channel. In Broadband signaling bandwidth is divided to form a number of lower bandwidth channels. (With the trick being that there is usually a lot of available bandwidth to share which gives relatively large bandwidth channels when compared with common Dial-Up Internet Service. This is why "Broadband" is promoted as being "The way" (to go)). Note that this is usually referring to Internet provided by Cable (as in Cable TV coaxial cables) TV companies. There is also high-speed Internet services provided by DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) which goes over your existing Telephone Line. (Why do I feel another article coming up by me?)

AlcaTool for Alcatel Speed Touch Home and Pro ADSL Modems
Speedtouch Pro/Home Password Generator (be carefull!!!!)

The following seem to be good related articles:

http://www.scottsnetworkclass.com/basic/basicprt.html. http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/ateQuestionNResponse/0,289625,sid7_cid526488_tax292838,00.html

BASEBAND

  • Uses digital signalling
  • Bi-directional transmission
  • No frequency-division multiplexing Signal travels over short distances - (attenuation becomes evident after 1 km of medium, after which repeaters can be used to retransmit the signal)
  • Used primarily on bus
  • Uses Manchester or differential Manchester encoding

    BROADBAND

  • Uses analog signalling
  • Unidirectional transmission
  • Frequency-division multiplexing is possible - Separate channels can support separate and independent data traffic)
  • Signal can travel over long distances before being attenuated
  • Good for both bus and tree topologies
  • No digital encoding



  • http://net.gurus.com/
    Computer Stupidities: The Internet
    Inet-Ops Useful Links
    Resources for Network Operators & ISPs
    http://www.ispbook.com/ (ISP Tutorials/Seminars)
    The North American Network Operators' Group
    NOC's (Network Ops Contact List)
    Internet (ISP) Exchange Point Information - Public Exchange Points (IXP's)
    BGP, the Border Gateway Protocol - Advanced Internet Routing Resources
    WWW.LIGHTREADING.COM - Tech Articles and News
    SECOND LATIN AMERICAN REGIONAL NAP (IX Internet Exchange) MEETING
    XChangepoint Europe
    http://www.enred.org/

    Related Mailing Lists and Web Sites

    Questions in the following categories are off-topic for NANOG and would be better asked on one of the following forums:
    Router Platforms
    Cisco routers http://puck.nether.net/cisco-nsp
    Juniper routers www.puck.nether.net/juniper-nsp
    Riverstone routers http://www.nmops.org
    OS/2 http://www.hethmon.com/isp.html
    FreeBSD http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.html
     
    Equipment & Services
    Buying/selling new/used equipment ISP-Equipment list at http://isp-lists.isp-planet.com/isp-equipment/
    Want-ads ISP-Services list at http://www.ispc.org/lists/ for ISP equipment and services
     
    NOCs
    New NOC setup inet-ops list at http://www.inet-ops.stealthgeeks.net.
    NOC job postings http://www.dice.com--job listing site with emphasis on tech jobs
    Internet consulting inet-consultants list at http://lists.stealthgeeks.net/ for job postings, consulting resources, etc.
     
    Spam
    Prevention spam-l list at http://www.claws-and-paws.com/spam-l/spam-l.html for spam prevention and discussion
    Tools spam tools list at http://www.abuse.net/spamtools.html for software tools that detect spam
    net.admin.net-abuse.email
    net.admin.net-abuse.usenet
    usenet lists
     
    General ISP Lists
    list@inet-access.net Internet access topics
    iap@listserv.nd.edu Small-to-midsize Internet Access Providers
    com-priv@lists.psi.com Internet commercialization and privitization
    Other See http://www.isp-lists.com for many other topic-specific lists.
     
    Networks Outside N. America
    APNIC: Asia Pacific NIC http://lists.apnic.net/community/lists
    European ISP coordination issues http://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail-archives/eof-list
     

    Bits-Per-Baud (9600bps does <> 9600 baud!)
    http://www.v92.com/ - The Next Generation in Modem Technology
    http://www.modem.com/ - Why Do You Want V.92?
    Master the Basics: About Modems
    North American Data Communications Museum


    Voice Technology Fundamentals (PBX Fundamentals [PBX, POTS, PSTN])
    The three basic technologies
    needed for a telecommunication network: transmission, switching,
    and signaling. (Circuit Switching [aka Telephone] or Packet Switching [aka Data or Converged Voice and Data]).

    Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology

    VoIP is the next generation of telephone technology that offers many advantages over circuit-switched technology used by traditional phone companies.

    Circuit-Switched Technology
    Historically, telecommunications companies have relied on what is commonly referred to as circuit-switched technology to transport telephone calls. This technology establishes a 'permanent' connection between the calling and the called parties for the entire duration of the call. The problem with circuit-switched technology is that it requires a significant amount of bandwidth dedicated to each call, and it can only support certain types of calls (i.e. telephone to telephone). Moreover, the hardware needed to run circuit-switched networks is very expensive, due in large part to the fact that voice and data services must be carried on different wires and thus need separate hardware to accommodate the two types of traffic. Naturally, the traditional telephone companies pass along the costs of building and maintaining a circuit-switched network to the consumer in the form of higher rates for their telephone services.

    VoIP Technology
    As the name implies, VoIP refers to calls that traverse networks using Internet Protocol (IP). This may mean that the calls are going over the Internet, or it may simply mean calls are traveling over privately managed data networks that are using IP to transport the calls from one location to the other. The voice stream is broken down into packets, compressed, and sent toward their final destination by various routes (as opposed to establishing a 'permanent' connection for the duration of the call), depending on the most efficient paths given network congestion, etc. At the other end, the packets are reassembled, decompressed, and converted back into a voice stream by various hardware and software elements, depending on the nature of the call and its final destination. Whether the call originated on a PC, a telephone, or an Integrated Access Device (IAD), and whether it is going to be terminated on a PC, telephone, or IAD, determines the type of software and hardware needed to initiate and complete the call.

    Advantages of VoIP - Lower Costs and More Features
    There are many advantages to using VoIP. For one, voice and data can be transported over the same lines. By using compression technology, more calls can be placed on those lines than in the circuit-switched environment. In fact, one could easily put 8 times the number of calls on the same line without sacrificing quality of sound. This means lower operating costs due to reduced hardware requirements and a more efficient network infrastructure. Lower cost structures enable us to offer much lower rates than the traditional telephone companies. In addition, the flexibility of VoIP enables different devices to talk to one another, allowing us to offer you enhanced services such as PC-to-Phone and Unified Messaging, among others.



    Telecommunications Fundamentals (PrivateLine.com - Telecomwriting.com)
    Telephone Tribute Website (Telephone/Telecom History)
    Welcome to the Bell System Memorial

    Telephone Number History and Telephone Number Allocation Links


    (Telephony) North American Numbering Plan Info:

    The Bell System (AT&T) developed the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947 to route and properly bill customer dialed long distance telephone calls.  The NANP was established with a ten-digit dialing pattern that uniquely identified the basic geographic location of each end user.  This plan created a hierarchical switching arrangement to assure that a telephone call would not “switch” more than ten times. 

     The definition of a NANP number is two codes (area code & Central Office code), of three digits each, and a station number of four digits.  The combination of the two codes forms the basis by which the North American Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) routes and rates (for billing) telephone messages. In the initial implementation, the first two digits of the Central Office code were defined by the first two letters of the exchange name.  Exchange names were associated with geographic communities and letters were printed on telephone dials. The exchange names were carryovers from the manual switchboard era. This was known as “2-5 Numbering.” This stood for 2 letters and 5 numbers.  This was replaced by All Number Calling (ANC) in the early 1960s. ANC added digit combinations in each area code that could be used as Central Office codes.

    The original NANP format had different formats for the two codes used in a NANP number.  Electro-mechanical switch decisions relied on the two codes being different.  Subsequent redefinitions of the NANP have resulted in the format of these two codes being exactly the same.

    Decimal digits 0 through 9 are used for NANP numbers.  After the development of Dual Tone Multi-frequency (DTMF), the characters # and * were added to non-rotary phones.  These characters serve as network control characters.  The dial equivalent for the * is 1-1.  There is no dial equivalent for the # character.

     

    ·       1947 Original NANP Format was N (0 or 1) X – NNX – XXXX

     N = digits 2 through 9

     X = digits 0 through 9

     

    ·       1975 NANP Format was N (0 or 1) X – NXX – XXXX

     

    ·       1995 NANP Format was NXX – NXX – XXXX

     

    The format of the NANP is sometimes written as ABC-DEF-GHIJ. The 1975 format expanded capacity in the E digit resulting in more Central Office codes in each area code.  The 1995 redefinition expanded capacity in the B digit resulting in 640 additional area codes.


    NPA NXX Lookup [Area Code and Prefix]
    NANPA - Central Office Code Assignments (NPA-NXX) [Area Code and Prefix]
    Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
    CARRIER 101XXXX CODES (PIC CODES)
    Introduction to Networking and Data Communications (including Telelphone/Telecommunications)
    Telephone Ringer Electronics
    Understanding Telephones
    INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY: TELEPHONE SYSTEMS
    Once upon a time .. and all across America .. locked away in secure buildings, sang the voices of millions upon millions of electromechanical relays..

    The Vintage Telephone Equipment Museum

    Telephone World - Modern North American Local Central Office Systems (update: 7-19-06 also Telnet BBS listings, old direct link I had was broken!

    http://www.switchboard.com/ Yellow Pages - White Pages Lookup


    www.asterisk.org The Open Source Linux PBX


    My Technical links Section

    Visit CCxx Productions - FIRST! for Cisco Certifcation FIRST!



    Among other protections, I use:

    This page is dedicated to: Systems and Network Administration, I.T., and Electronics

    Calculate Resistor Values from Color Codes

        

    Illustration Copyright 1996 Danny Goodman (AE9F). All Rights Reserved.

    virpchart

    Ohms Law Calculator
    www.basicelectronics.com
    Circuit Central - Electronics Site
    Alex's Electronic Resource Library


    Transistor History - from Lucent Technology/Bell Labs Innovations




    www.whatis.com whatis.techtarget.com An excellent general Technology/Terminology site

    PC Technology and SVG Animations

    Microsoft (Windows) Technical I.T. - Networking Links

    Microsoft Technet Home
    Microsoft Product Documentation Online (Technet)




    Cables to Hubs, Switches, Routers, and Workstations

    From: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/132.html

    Crossover and straight-through cables are used to connect switch ports or interfaces to network devices. Consult the table below to see when to use each of these cable types. Find the device in the left-hand column and match it up with another device in the top row. The intersection of these two devices gives you the cable type used to connect them together.

      Hub Switch Router Workstation 
    Hub Crossover Crossover Straight Straight
    Switch Crossover Crossover Straight Straight
    Router Straight Straight Crossover Crossover
    Workstation  Straight Straight Crossover Crossover


    Radio Active Networks (an interesting Wireless site)

    Wireless section of: http://compnetworking.about.com

      Networking and I.T. Docs Section


    • Virtual Private Networking University of Rochester IT Services
    • Protocols.com
    • PC Hardware Guide (Good!)
    • How RAM (computer memory) Works This is an excellent article from Marshall Brain's Howstuffworks.com. I went looking for this recently because I needed to refresh my memory (imagine that just like Dynamic RAM!) on what the designations of memory mean, for example I have a stick of PC100 DRAM and I found via a web search that it is "8 x 64" and interestingly it has 8 integrated circuit chips on it. So now I am refreshed in knowing that these designations are in BITS so (8 I.C. Ships x 64 Megabits each). So this DRAM stick contains (8 x 64) / 8 (that's 8 x 64, then divided by 8). The divide by 8 is to convert the Megabits into Megabytes. 8 bits = 1 BYTE. So in my case I have 8 x 64 = 512 Megabits, divided by 8 = 64 Megabytes of memory.
    • How Computer Memory Works This is also a good series which goes into more depth about the different kinds of memory that a computer uses such as:
    • RAM










      ROMCacheDynamic RAMStatic RAMFlash memoryMemory SticksVirtual memoryVideo memoryBIOS

      Special: Blocking Code Red Worm with Cisco IOS NBAR






    Some Links from www.CertTimes.com
    Resources for the busy IT professional. No cheat sites or brain dumps, just honest to goodness sites with free resources, study materials and other stuff! And it would not be complete if we didn't include, in true Cert Times fashion, some not-politically-correct sites for those days when you need a break from the daily grind or need an outlet for those days when you feel like "going postal".

    If you know of other cheat-free resources or just plain ol' cool sites you'd like to share with our readers, please email me at editor@certtimes.com.

    General
       »» http://www.techrepublic.com/
       »» http://www.techtarget.com/
       »» http://www.certcities.com/
       »» http://www.labmice.net/
       »» http://www.certtutor.net/
       »» http://www.tek-tips.com/
       »» http://www.firewall.cx/
       »» http://www.techbomb.com/
       »» http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/index.php
       »» http://www.tomshawk.com/


    Java
       »» http://www.javacertificate.com/
       »» http://www.j2eecertificate.com/

    Linux
       »» http://linuxcentral.com/_v3/
       »» http://slashdot.com/
       »» http://www.lpi.org/
       »» http://www.lintraining.com/

    Microsoft
       »» http://www.mcmcse.com/
       »» http://www.techexams.net/
       »» http://www.icertify.net/
       »» http://www.mcsefreak.com/
       »» http://www.mcseworld.com/

    Cisco
       »» http://www.mcmcse.com/
       »» http://www.techtutorials.com/
       »» http://www.2000trainers.com/
       »» http://www.examsonline.com/
       »» http://www.celticrover.com/tig/ccna/ccnareviews.asp
       »» http://www.cisco.com/go/certcommunity (Must be Cisco Certified)
       »» http://www.techexams.net/cisco.shtml
       »» http://www.groupstudy.com/

    Citrix
       »» http://www.thin-world.com/
       »» http://www.labrat.com/
       »» http://www.tweakcitirix.com/
       »» http://www.dabcc.com/
       »» http://www.thethin.net/
       »» http://www.printingsupport.com/
       »» http://www.terminal-services.net/
       »» http://www.citrix4ge.de/
       »» http://www.tokeshi.com/

       »» http://www.angermismanagement.com/
       »» http://www.fark.com/
       »» http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
       »» http://www.routergod.com/ (Celebrities, Cisco Style!)
       »» http://www.closetuniverse.com/

    Free Email Security Test
    At this site you can arrange for special emails to be sent to test for 11 different security vulnerabilities.
    http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/

    Web Programming Tutorials
    Like to brush up on your JavaScript? Need some help with HTML4? Then head for this site where you'll find lots of links to free web programming resources.
    http://www.muppetlabs.com/library/tech/tutorials.html

    Excellent Password Generator
    If you need to generate a lot of passwords, I can strongly recommend Cynapse SafeKeys which is fast, relatively compact and has all the features any sysadmin would ever need. There are some good freeware generators around but none with the bells and whistles that SafeKeys offers. At $7.95, it's not going to break the bank. Get the free trial here: (3.42MB)
    http://www.cynapse.co.in/safekeys/index.php

    Free Backup for MS Outlook Files
    Many users of Outlook 2000/2002 are not aware that Microsoft offers a free plug-in that will automatically backup all their Outlook folders. To get the plug-in, download it from the Office Web site at the address below.
    http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/Pfbackup.htm

    Boilerplate Text Utility
    This is a real productivity tool. I just love it and I suspect you will too. CastlePaste is a free utility that allows you to easily paste any one of multiple text snippets into any program you are currently running. You can define as many snippets as you like. A number of clipboard extenders do the same thing but the real strength of this product is that snippet insertion is made really easy with a pull down menu that is available from the title bar of any application you are currently using. CastlePaste is freeware but there is also a $15 Pro version which handles multi-line pastes. (1.24MB)
    http://www.castlesoft.co.nz/CastlePasteStd.htm

    Monitor Your User's Backup Needs
    BackupWatcher is a free tool that allows LAN administrators to measure the backup requirements of network users. It does this by monitoring the file churn rate on each PC since last backup. Full reporting facilities are provided that allow problem areas to be easily identified. Quite a neat way of reducing unnecessary backups and ensuring necessary ones are actually carried out. (2.57MB)
    http://bw.rippletech.com/

    Like these items? Get lots more in Gizmo's free Support Alert newsletter. Published twice monthly it's packed with great software tools and web resources you probably didn't even know existed!

    Bonus for Cert Times Readers
    Click the link below to subscribe for free and you'll also get Gizmo's "The 46 Best Ever Freeware Utilities" report as well!
    http://www.techsupportalert.com/cgi-local/tracker.cgi?free


    Netadmin Tools . Com seems to be a cool site Perl Program which generates Subnetting Chart
    TCPMag.Com - for Cisco Internetworking Experts
    An Interesting Page with Mathematics, Public Speaking (see link: Non-Words), Found for Binary and Hexadecimal info.
    Learn.com - Welcome to the site with Instant Learning and Guaranteed Retention! (Sunrise, Florida)

    Network Calculators
    Penguin Bowl Quizes for Geeks vs Nerds: Linux World 2002

    www.startrek.com

    Q: What is the first?
    A: Energy can be changed from one form or another, but cannot be created or
    destroyed.

    Q: What prominent physicist turned 60 in early January?
    A: Steven Hawking.

    Q: Spell "Elite" in cracker (way of writing)
    A: 31337

    Q: What numeric signal corresponds with HUP?
    A: 1 ("kill -1 " same as "kill -HUP ")

    * 2^(what?) = Number_Of_Subnets? ... If you want 8 subnets, that is 2^3 = 8.
    So you add 3 bits to the classfull subnet mask.

    2 subnets add 1 (2^1) subnet bit /25 126 nodes
    4 subnets add 2 (2^2) subnet bits /26 62 nodes
    8 subnets add 3 (2^3) subnet bits /27 30 nodes
    16 subnets add 4 (2^4) subnet bits /28 14 nodes
    32 subnets add 5 (2^5) subnet bits /29 6 nodes
    64 subnets add 6 (2^6) subnet bits /30 (* 2 nodes [Point-Point links])
    details on this
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Subnetting Table

    128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
    | | | | | |
    192--| | | | | |
    224-----| | | | |
    240--------| | | |
    248------------| | |
    252---------------| |
    254------------------|

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    Cisco (Access Lists) Inverse Mask - Easy Way!


    The easy way to calculate the inverse mask when you already know
    the normal mask is to subtract from all ones. The table that
    follows shows an example. The normal mask is subtracted, column
    by column, from the all-ones mask to determine the inverse mask.

    All Ones 255 255 255 255
    Normal Mask 255 255 240 0
    Inverse Mask 0 0 15 255



    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    * Table 4.1 Engineering Notation

    Number Notation Prefix Value?
    1,000,000,000,000 10^12 tera (T) Trillion
    1,000,000,000 10^9 giga (G) Billion
    1,000,000 10^6 mega (M) Million
    1,000 10^3 kilo (k) Thousand
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1 0^0
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    0.001 10^-3 milli (m) One Thousandth
    0.000001 10^-6 micro (u) One Millionth
    0.000000001 10^-9 nano (n) One Billionth
    0.000000000001 10^-12 pico (p) One Trillionth

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Common Computer memory and storage units

    1 byte = 8 bits = 2^7 (256 values ranging: 0-255)
    1 kilobyte (K / Kb) = 2^10 bytes = 1,024 bytes
    1 megabyte (M / MB) = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
    1 gigabyte (G / GB) = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
    1 terabyte (T / TB) = 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
    1 petabyte (P / PB) = 2^50 bytes = 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes
    1 exabyte (E / EB) = 2^60 bytes = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes

    Computer Processing Power (FLOPS - Floating point Op's Per Second)

    megaflops Millions of FLOP/s 1,000,000 (10^6)
    gigaflops Billions of FLOP/s 1,000,000,000 (10^9)
    teraflops Trillions of FLOP/s 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    R.F. = Radio Frequency Measured in Hz. = Hertz = CPS = Cycles Per Second
    **************************************************************************
    Kilohertz (Khz) = 10^3 Hz = 1,000 Hz = One Thousand Cycles-Per-Second

    Megahertz (Mhz) = 10^6 Hz = 1,000,000 Hz = One Million Cycles-Per-Second
    (or 1000 Kilohertz)

    Gigahertz (Ghz) = 10^9 Hz = 1,000,000,000 Hz = One Billion Cycles-Per-Second
    (or 1000 Megahertz)

    ... example: a 1 Ghz Pentium (CPU) Computer = a 1,000 Megahertz one...
    ... a 900 Mhz CPU is 100 Mhz less than a 1 Ghz CPU ...
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Digital Signal Classifications (Line Rates of Communications Circuits)
    * A basic telephone call is carried over a DS0 time-slot of a DS1 (a T1)
    So, when you call someone your call is being multiplexed with 23 other
    telephone calls each in their own time slot. Calls are added or dropped
    as users begin a call, or go "on-hook" and hang up.

    Common Name Capacity Comment
    DS0 64kbps Basic Building Block for Fractional DS1
    DS1 1.544Mbps 8kbps for framing, 1.536Mbps usable
    E1 2.048Mbps Europe and Japan
    E3 34.368Mbps Europe and Japan
    DS3 44.736Mbps 672 DS0s
    OC-1 51.840Mbps Optical Fiber
    OC-3 155.520Mbps Optical Fiber; 3 x 51.840Mbps [STS-3,STM-1]
    OC-3c 155.520Mbps Optical Fiber; "c" stands for concatenated
    OC-12 622.080Mbps Optical Fiber [STS-12,STM-4]
    OC-48 2,488.320Mbps Optical Fiber [STS-48,STM-16]
    OC-96 4,976.640Mbps Optical Fiber [STS-96,STM-32]
    OC-192 9,953.280Mbps Optical Fiber [STS-192,STM-64]

    T1 Hierarchy (T-Carrier) [Telco-derived TDM ~ Digital]

    DS0 64Kbps 1/24 of T-1 1 Channel
    DS1 1.544Mbps 1 T-1 24 Channels
    DS1C 3.152 Mbps 2 T-1 48 Channels
    DS2 6.312 Mbps 4 T-1 96 Channels
    DS3 44.736 Mbps 28 T-1 672 Channels
    DS3C 89.472 Mbps 56 T-1 1344 Channels
    DS4 274.176 Mbps 168 T-1 4032 Channels
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Binary, Hexadecimal Conversion

    ...each hex digit represents a 4 bit binary number...
    ...[a set of two of them] is equal to one byte (or octet)...
    ...for 8-bit numbers (e.g. dealing with ip addresses) you will want to use the
    full 8-bit binary chart. Write out all 8-bits and translate to decimal!

    128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
    F F
    ( = Decimal 255 )


    2^3 | 2^2 | 2^1 | 2^0
    ---------------------
    1 1 1 1
    ---------------------
    8's | 4's | 2's | 1's

    0000 = 0
    0001 = 1
    0010 = 2
    0011 = 3
    0100 = 4
    0101 = 5
    0110 = 6
    0111 = 7
    1000 = 8
    1001 = 9
    1010 = A (10)
    1011 = B (11)
    1100 = C (12)
    1101 = D (13)
    1110 = E (14)
    1111 = F (15)

    Example: C0 A8 0A 01
    1100 0000 1010 1000 0000 1010 0000 0001
    192. 168. 10. .1
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Binary (32-bits)

    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0001 2^0 = 1
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0010 2^1 = 2
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0100 2^2 = 4
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 1000 2^3 = 8
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0001 0000 2^4 = 16
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0010 0000 2^5 = 32
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0100 0000 2^6 = 64
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 1000 0000 2^7 = 128

    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0001 . 0000 0000 2^8 = 256
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0010 . 0000 0000 2^9 = 512
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0100 . 0000 0000 2^10= 1,024 (Kilo) [Thousand]
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 1000 . 0000 0000 2^11= 2,048
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0001 0000 . 0000 0000 2^12= 4,096
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0010 0000 . 0000 0000 2^13= 8,192
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0100 0000 . 0000 0000 2^14= 16,384
    0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 1000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^15= 32,768

    0000 0000 . 0000 0001 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^16= 65,536
    0000 0000 . 0000 0010 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^17= 131,072
    0000 0000 . 0000 0100 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^18= 262,144
    0000 0000 . 0000 1000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^19= 524,288
    0000 0000 . 0001 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^20= 1,048,576 (Mega) [Million]
    0000 0000 . 0010 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^21= 2,097,152
    0000 0000 . 0100 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^22= 4,194,304
    0000 0000 . 1000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^23= 8,388,608

    0000 0001 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^24= 16,777,216
    0000 0010 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^25= 33,554,432
    0000 0100 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^26= 67,108,864
    0000 1000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^27= 134,217,728
    0001 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^28= 268,435,456
    0010 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^29= 536,870,912
    0100 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^30= 1,073,741,824 (Giga) [Billion]
    1000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 . 0000 0000 2^31= 2,147,483,648
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    Q: How much latency should I see on a circuit? What is considered normal? (source: http://www.nanog.org/listfaq.html)
    A: As I'm sure everyone remembers from their high school physics class, light travels through a vacuum at 299,792 km/sec (let's round up to 300,000). When it travels through a medium that isn't a vacuum, it moves more slowly, depending on that medium's index of refraction. For example, water has a refractive index of 1.33, which means light travels through water at 1 / 1.33 = 0.75c, or 75% of the speed of light in a vacuum, about 225,000 km/sec.

    Fiber works on a principal called "total internal refraction," which means that light is continually reflected into the core with little or no loss in the cladding. To accomplish this, a different material is used for the core and cladding. Since the cladding has a lower refractive index than the core, as long as the angle of incidence exceeds a critical angle, light will be reflected back into the core instead of escaping out the sides. The values of the refractive indexes used in current fiber are 1.46 for the cladding, and 1.48 for the core.

    This means that light propogates through fiber at approximately 0.67c, or 200,000 km/sec (or 125,000 miles/sec). By multiplying by 1ms, we find that every 200 km (or 125 miles) adds approximately 1 millisecond of one-way speed-of-light delay. Divide this by 2 to account for the round trip time (RTT) that ping/traceroute measures in, and you find that for every 100 km (or 62.5 miles), 1ms of RTT is added.

    As an example, to circle the earth at its widest point (the equator) would be a distance of 38,000 km. A perfectly straight fiber path along this distance would make it around and back again (2 x 38,000 km) in 380ms. If the value you calculate is lower than the observed value, remember that fiber paths are almost never straight, and are often composed of linked "rings" for redundancy.

    Real-world measurements seem to suggest that the following RTTs might be considered normal, and are probably not in and of themselves indicative of any congestion or performance problem:

    Coast-to-coast USA (Virginia to California) 70ms
    Trans-Atlantic (Virginia to London, England) 80ms
    Trans-Pacific (California to Tokyo, Japan) 140ms
    Trans-Pacific (California to Sydney, Australia) 180ms


    Bandwidth/Speed Related Page


    4-digit Chmod
    Superuser Permission Owner Group Other
    setuid Read
    setgid Write
    stickybit Execute
    Value +

    This free script provided by
    JavaScript Kit


    Sept 11

    Please give to the American Red Cross

    Contents of this page (c) Copyright 2001,2002,2003,2004 Alan G. Spicer and other Copyright holders as appropriate

    AddMe.com, free web site submission and promotion to the search engines Multiply your web traffic!      

    eXTReMe Tracker
    Back to Alan Spicer Telecom