Let's look at one of the many DTE to DCE interface specifications. Our topic today is the older, but still widely used, V.35 interface. I'll take you through it's basic characteristics and applications.

As usual, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

And now, for something completely different. Going viral! There have been many things on the Internet that have gone viral, which basically means rapidly spreading across the community. YouTube videos often go viral, like this one did two years ago. On the Internet, things go viral because they are passed on by word of mouth, via email, in blog postings, or by IM (to name a few vectors). In today's PodSnack, Michel and Mark explore the concept of "going viral".

By the way, we'd like to go viral too! If you find value in this podcast, please tell your friends and colleagues. Tell your boss. Tell your employees. Pass on the link to our PodSnack site. Having an adequate audience is critical to justifying the continued time and effort going into this podcast to our own bosses. And if you don't find value in this podcast, tell me (podsnacks@hill.com)! We've already made some changes to our audio, and our content, based on feedback from our listeners, and we'll continue to do so!

As always, you can listen to (or download) today's PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

Today we're going to go back to the wires, and follow up on another PodSnack we did on digital signaling. Today we're going to look at a few example line codes that are considered digital signaling schemes. I'll talk to you about how they work, why they might be good or bad, and where they are used. I won't do an exhaustive survey, but rather give you some examples of some common types.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

Last Friday we looked at business continuity planning (BCP) and why it is so critical to today's organizations. A subset of BCP is the whole realm of Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP). In today's PodSnack, Michel and Mark explore DRP and discuss its relationship to BCP.

You can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

Business disruptions can be catastrophic. If you think of a company (or any organization) as a small machine designed to take some set of resources, transform them, and deliver them to those who need or want them, then anything that can disrupt the performance of the machine can be serious. That is why business continuity planning (BCP) is so critical. Today's Michel and Mark discuss the issue and explain some of the concepts.

You can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

We've had several PodSnacks where we've made reference to something called the routing table. It's time we take a few moments and talk about this function, which is present in all routers and even in your desktop or laptop computer, assuming it's connected to a network. Today I'll walk you through the basics of this database-like function.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

It's been a while since we've covered security topics, so we're going to go back to that space today. In today's PodSnacks, Michel (that's me) explains what a Trojan Horse is, what it can do, and how to avoid them. By the way, we still have a few requested titles we have not recorded. With our instructors having varying schedules, it's not always easy to catch the right ones at the right time to record those requests. Please be patient with us, and we'll get those requests recorded in the coming weeks.

You can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

Yet another basic concept, this one related to routing: the default route, also known as the default gateway or gateway of last resort. This is an important concept in routing. The Internet is a vast internetwork with millions of attached networks. Even the core routers in the heart of the Internet could not maintain a complete list of all of these attached networks. Big routing tables require a lot of memory and take longer to search, slowing down the router and delaying traffic. The average corporate router does not have a prayer of being able to maintain such a list. Fortunately, because of the default route, it doesn't have to. If you take a few moments to listen in, I'll take you through the concepts.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

Trevor recently sent me this little snippet of audio, in which one of our retired instructors gives you a primer on local number portability (LNP). The audio is part of one of our original ExperTech titles, but the basic technology and explanation remain relevant today. By the way, we've launched a whole new ExperTech series that currently boasts over 25 updated titles with several more in the pipeline! But enough of the advertisement. Take a listen as Ed Seager gives you a very quick explanation of LNP.

You can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

Today, Paul gets back into the mix and talks to us a bit about the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). As the name implies, this TCP/IP protocol is designed to establish sessions between two systems, and to negotiate the parameters of these sessions, in any number of contexts. You will find SIP being used in IP Telephony, Instant Messaging (IM), video sessions, and multimedia applications. In the world of everything over IP, this has become a critical protocol. Take a moment and listen in on Paul's explanation.

You can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

I went back to the wiki to see what remained to be recorded before I start branching off into completely new articles, and was amazed to discover we never recorded a session on the basic distinction between data terminal equipment (DTE) and data circuit-terminating equipment (DCE). This is a fundamental concept in telecommunications, so I'm going to take some time and explain it to you.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

The fourth and final installment in our access network series, which thus far has focused on Fiber to the X (FTTX), switches gears a bit to a different industry segment, that of the cable companies. In today's PodSnack, Dave and Trevor take a bit of a look at their access technology, which is called hybrid fiber/coax (HFC).

You can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

In recent days, we've heard about Fibre Channel (FC) and Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP), both of which are technologies related to storage area networks (SAN). Today we look at a third technology in this set, one that has not yet completed the standards process: Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Take a few minutes and listen as Mark takes you through the basic concepts.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.