Cisco's Catalyst 6500 Remains The Network Switch To Beat

San Francisco, California October 10, 2006: Following a lackluster Q3, Cisco Systems emerges as the leader in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Market for the fourth quarter. Fueled by increased demand and an overall rise in the average selling price, Cisco experienced significant gains in a market of over $300 Million.

With almost 70% of the projected $1.3 Billion 10-Gig market share and a more powerful, yet affordable design, the Catalyst 6500 is poised to cement Cisco as the dominating force in the industry. With the recent release of an eight-port, 10-Gigabit Ethernet module for the 6500, Cisco is quickly pulling away from the rest of the pack. 

In addition, upgrades like the Application Control Engine (ACE) module have prompted companies like Pure Video Networks to adopt Cisco switches to manage traffic of their popular video websites. Implementing simultaneous data center services such as server load balancing, integrated network and application switching/security, the ACE module delivers the highest performance in the industry. The ACE Simplifies application infrastructure by combining the functionality of multiple application delivery appliances into a single module, including server load balancing and off-load, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol, security, and application optimization capabilities. 

Already the most successful networking switch on the IT market, the 6500 Series reduces existing operational costs and improves a network's ability to respond to intensive bandwidth demands. In general, customers using the services modules for the Catalyst 6500 reduce their total cost of ownership by taking advantage of simplified infrastructure, improved investment protection, pervasive security, and the high levels of performance, scalability, and innovative technologies.

With over twenty unique service modules in five distinct categories, the Catalyst 6500 ranks among the most scalable, high-performance platform for integrated services. Currently, Cisco offers modules that address security issues, application, networking, network monitoring, wireless/mobility, and IP communications, which can be integrated into existing catalyst switches. Each modules offers upgraded performance and reinforces Cisco's hold on the market for network switches. With more than $20 Billion is sales sine it's release in 1999, the 6500 Series switch has become the most popular networking platform ever.

While Cisco has been able to fend off most threats to their position, rival Foundry Networks, and newcomer Force 10 have recently launched new 10Gbe ready products aimed at disrupting the company's market share. According to literature on Force 10's Terascale E-Series 1200, the E1200 boasts of more than double the ports of the Catalyst 6500 (1260 vs. 576 Ethernet ports/chassis). While this may be good news for the company, Force 10 has been focused on the data center vertical, and is therefore still untested in the enterprise market. Foundry's BigIron RX series switch has received favorable press for it's size/performance ratio and lower prices. With the launch of the new RX series, Foundry has mounted a consistent affront to Cisco's unchallenged reign.

Even with the competition mounting new efforts, the Cisco name is still a major factor among IT professionals whose networks depend on their equipment. Fortunately for the stalwart Cisco, reputation is still the key to market dominance.

Things You Must Know Before Building A PC

Perhaps you're interested in learning how to build your own computer. That's great, really!

I've put together a list of 8 things you MUST know before you ever start to build your own PC. You'll be in a world of hurt if you don't have these down.

Tip #1 – Safety First

I hope you didn’t think the last time you’d hear “safety first” was in your Drivers Education classes! Working on any electronics, including computers, has its risks and requires certain precautions. Having said that, what’s the first part you should purchase when building your own computer?

* Motherboard?

* Processor?

* Computer Case?

Nope, those are all wrong. And honestly, they aren’t even close!

A computer tool kit should be the first thing you purchase. Normal household tools aren’t suited to working on a computer because they’re often dirty, rusty, and magnetic. Here are some things you must have in your computer tool kit :

Antistatic wrist band – This is a must-have for any computer builder. Your computer's components are very sensitive to static electricity. Make sure that you ALWAYS have your antistatic wrist band on when working on your computer. You must attach it to a ground source, usually a large piece of metal works well. This removes any free electrons, which cause static charge, from your body to the ground. Also, as an additional measure, before touching any hardware, touch your computers metal frame. This will also help put your body’s charge at equilibrium with your PC’s.

Needle-nose pliers and Tweezers - These tools are useful when handling small screws and bits of metal. Your computer's circuitry is very precise and you'll need some good tweezers and pliers to hold things into place.

Screwdrivers – This is an obvious requirement for computer tool kits. You should have at least one small Phillips and Flathead screwdriver in your kit.

Spare parts container - You'll be surprised how handy one of these will be. They can be used to store small parts, screws, spacers, etc.

Nut drivers - Although these aren't a requirement for your tool kit, most tool kits come with some nut drivers. I have yet to use mine, but someday I'll probably need them.

Small flash light - Most computer tool kits don't come with a small flashlight, but it is a good thing to have when you’re working in a dark computer case. A keychain type flashlight works great for this purpose!

Also, make sure all of your tools are NOT magnetic. Many screwdrivers for small screws are magnetic to help hold the screw in place. You don’t want this when dealing with your computer hardware because the magnetic field could damage your components.

I can’t stress this enough; having the correct tools is the easiest way to avoid damaging your components that could easily cost you hundreds of dollars. And please turn off and UNPLUG your computer before working on it, the last thing you need is a phobia of computers after you’ve been inadvertently shocked by one.

Tip #2 - Buy everything at once

This is was a major mistake that I made as a rookie computer builder. I know how anxious you may be to build your first computer; I can still remember how excited I was when UPS delivered my first part. But before you start buying parts left & right, you should set down and answer the following questions:

* What do I want to do with my computer?

Simple internet browsing? Word processing? Graphic design? Audio and video editing? Play video games?

* How long do I want this computer to last me?

Only for a couple years. Forever!

The idea here is to decide where your money will be best spent to maximize the use and/or life of your computer parts. For long term and/or intensive use, such as video/image editing, you’ll want something that you can easily upgrade over time. While for short term and/or simpler tasks, a cheaper, less upgradeable PC should work fine.

The easiest way to assure that all of your computer components will be compatible is to purchase them all at the same time. This way you can compare the features and requirements all at once.

I recommend that you start with your motherboard and processor. Many companies sell motherboard & processor bundles . A bundle is great way to start buying your computer parts because usually you’ll get a deal when you buy the processor and motherboard together. In addition, the processor will be compatible in that particular motherboard, which is one less thing you’ll have to worry about.

Next, select the type of RAM that is compatible with your motherboard and decide how many MB’s of power you want with it. Generally 512 MB of RAM will be sufficient. If you plan on doing image/video editing, or playing video games on your PC, 1 GB of RAM would be better suited for this job.

Now you can decide what types of extra components you want, such as a video card, hard drives, CD/DVD drives, etc.

Once you’ve picked those out, determine roughly how much wattage of power you’ll need from your power supply . I’ve attached a power usage chart below with how much each component uses, but these are only averages, so I can’t guarantee this is what you’ll observe.

Device [Power required (Watts)]

Video card [20 - 30]

PCI card [5]

Floppy Drive [5]

CD, DVD-ROM [10-25]

RAM per 128 MB [8]

Hard Drive [15-35]

Motherboard [20-30]

CPU [25-70]

Generally 400 watts should be plenty of power, even for the most power hungry systems you can build. Also consider purchasing a quiet power supply, because the power supply is generally your noisiest piece of hardware. I personally use a 400 Watt Zalman Quiet Power Supply (pictured at left) that I love. It provides tons of power with virtually no sound.

By purchasing everything at once you can ascertain that your computer parts will support all of your computing needs. Another benefit is that you’ll save money on shipping charges by purchasing everything at once rather than separately.

Easy Ways To Stop Spam.

Create and use a temporary email address.

Yahoo and Hotmail provide this feature in order to keep your private email address strictly for your friends and family members and only. The secondary address, you can use for your subscriptions and other purposes. If your secondary address is abused from spammers and your inbox is filled with spam messages, then you can delete it and create another secondary email address.

Use the Spam arrest service.

When you signup for Spam Arrest, you will receive a spamarrest.com email address. You can also protect your existing email accounts by forwarding them to your Spam Arrest email address, or by having Spam Arrest periodically poll them. In that way over 90% of your spam messages will be filtered.

Use your e-mail’s filters.

Almost all email applications have this feature. You can create filters blocking spam words like “make money, opportunities, Viagra, e.t.c” .Doing that, you will block many of your spam messages but not all of them.

NEVER post your email.

Don’t post your email on forums, websites, message boards, guest books and other online places. You should also avoid posting your contact email address on your website. Spammers use software robots and extract email addresses from thousands of websites. If you want to display your email at your website change it to jpeg photo with Photoshop or other image design software.

The use of email blocking tools.

Yahoo for instance has this excellent tool which can block up to 500 email addresses (the Free option, the paid one provide more) and this amount of spam emails will never reach your mailbox. Other web mail services provide similar features too.

The preinstalled filter in your email application.

If you use outlook express you can click “message” (from windows 98 versions and later) and then click “Block sender”. Just doing that you will block many of your unsolicited emails.

Do Not respond to spam at all costs.

When you receive a spam message which asks you to click a link for whatever reason (fake unsubscribe and other) do not click it. If you do that, the spammers will now instantly that they deal with a real email address.

Do Not Ever open unknown messages with attachments.

This is critical. Most of the times the attachment will be a virus (especially if it’s exe or zip format) If you open it you will activate the virus it contains and harm your computer. Accept email attachments ONLY from well known resources such as friends, business colleagues e.t.c. You should also have installed an antivirus which scans your emails before they are saved into your hard drive.