A personal area network, or PAN, is a collection of communication technology devices within the range of one person. When communication between these devices is wireless, the acronym becomes WPAN, or wireless "personal area network" . In reality, and for all practical purposes, most personal area networks are wireless. For our purposes, this article will consider personal area networks as being wireless.As opposed to Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks, the personal area network operates in a relatively short range, usually up to a maximum of thirty feet. The most common method of connection is through Bluetooth wireless technology. Bluetooth technology holds several key advantages over Wi-Fi in ease of use, as it is not necessary to configure each component and requires considerably less power to operate.Unlike infrared networks, Bluetooth also doesnt require objects to be in alignment in order to communicate. The huge practical advantage to the end user is the ability to transmit both voice and data between devices without the use of wires or USB cabling.A Bluetooth enabled wireless personal network, also known as a piconet, can wirelessly connect a minimum of two and a maximum of eight devices. In a piconet, one device acts as the master device to connect with up to seven active devices. Data is communicated from the master device to another (slave) device. The role of master device rapidly switches to any device in the PAN which is in the process of data transfer.A Bluetooth device has the ability to seek out and communicate with any compatible device within the immediate area.Probably the earliest and most common example of a Bluetooth personal area network is the use of a wireless headset and cellular phone. Another popular use is that of the wireless mouse and keyboard. However, the potential for convenience and productivity of a wireless personal network extend well beyond early uses. Data can easily be synchronized and transmitted wirelessly between PDA, personal computer and cellular phone. Bluetooth wireless printers and fax machines are a great convenience to laptop users. Photos from digital cameras and cell phones can be downloaded. Wireless headphones paired with portable music devices make music enjoyment hassle free. The list goes on, and is limited only by the creativity of the user and limitations of the physical devices. As personal area network technology improves, one can expect the use and capability of wireless personal devices to expand well into the future.

How To Build A Simple Open-Source Distributed Protocol Analyzer

This is the way that Network General (the creator of Sniffer ) has deployed Distributed Sniffer since the beginning. While the product that you are using may be from another or Open-Source vendor,( i.e. Ethereal / WireShark ), this process is time honored and as such, is considered to be Best Practice.This design is meant to assure that the NIC that is listening to the Monitor is not sending any packets itself. The Monitor Card should have no protocols bound to itself and listens in promiscuous mode. Additionally, the PC should be as passive as possible and not phoning home to vendors because of unnecessary software it has loaded.One process is to take a companys standard laptop and customize it by removing anything that is not needed to support the role of a Protocol Analyzer. Any software that is not part of the laptops OS requirements should be un-installed. Once the laptop has been stripped down this way, load the Open Source Protocol Analyzer of your choice and test it.Once testing is satisfactorily completed, save an Image of the laptop to be used to generate other Open Source Laptop Protocol Analyzers.System Requirements:Pentium 4 or higher.1GB Memory or higher.2 NICs. One of which is 100Mbs (not Gigabit) to be used as the Monitor Card. (NOTE: This process is not appropriate for Gigabit Monitoring.)Remote Control Software (i.e. VNC) that supports File Transfers from the laptop acting as a Protocol Analyzer to the PC used by the Network Transaction Analyst.Two NICs:1st NIC Monitor Card No IP bound to the card. This card just listens in promiscuous mode. It is the one that is attached to the Monitor Port in the Switch. This should be a 100 Mbs NIC.2nd NIC Transport Card IP is bound (static) so that this card can be used on the Intranet to access the remote control function of the PC. This can be Gigabit if that is all that is available.Other Configuration Issues:No Management Software (SMS, Radia, etc.) enabled. No management of this device other than remote control.Virus Protection (only if it is considered mandatory by company policy). However, this laptop should have no email client or any other software that will want to connect to the Internet (with the possible exception of Time Services). A Firewall rule can always be created to enforce its isolation from the public Internet except on approved sockets.A Time Server should be in place to keep the various Protocol Analysis Laptops in sync. This can be an Internet source if Company Policy permits or a local Intranet source.The laptop should not be a member of the Company Domain. One logs into the PC itself, locally or via remote control.All Mirrors in switches are to be bi-directional.Consider creating a shared folder to act as a Trace File depository. This is not required, but can be helpful as these files can easily grow too large for many corporate email policy size limits.Use WinZip on the Laptop to allow compression of the large trace files to speed up transfer.

The Rousing History Of Microprocessors

The single biggest improvement in the history of the computer could be the development of the first microprocessor. This little chip allows a mind boggling amount of processing power to be packed into a very small space. Space is one of the biggest limiting factors in actually assembling a computer at a reasonable price. By being able to pack more and more processing power into a smaller area, the strength of modern computing is able to expand exponentially through advanced chip development. The first microprocessor chip was invented by Intel back in November of 1971. This little chip was crucial to new development. Integrated circuit technology had opened the door for advanced computing that was only limited by the amount of chips that could put together. This chip, the 4004, made the crucial development step of managing to pack all of the computer's "brain" into one part. This small microprocessor contained the full power of the central processing unit while also providing for the computer's basic memory and the control methods for incoming and outgoing data. This progress was simply amazing when one considers that the company was just a little start up by two engineers. This chip was actually the development of a rather normal contract assignment for Intel. They received one of their first jobs to design twelve different computer chips for Busicom, a small Japanese company. They wanted designs for chips that would provide for keyboard scanning functionality, controlling the display on the monitor and the printer and just about anything else that their brand of calculator hoped to do. There was just one big issue that they had to overcome. They needed the money but faced an interesting issue. They lacked the sheer manpower necessary to actually design twelve chips in the time frame. So, their engineers figured out a way to build one chip that was able to do every single function. Busicom liked the idea and decided to fund the project. Time passed and a new chip that had more power than any of the old computers was developed. Ironically, they decided to buy back the design from Busicom, which subsequently went bankrupt, leaving them completely in control of the new technological breakthrough in electronic parts. The sky was the limit from this point onward. This basic technological idea has been applied time and time again to give us electronics capable of amazing power and ability. The average calculator now has more processing power than was required to plan the first missions to the moon. The shrinking of this technological power has worked perfectly alongside the development of many other electronic parts to make everyday life just a little bit easier for everyone. In just the time span of about 40 years, we have advanced to computers that are almost able to mimic true human intelligence. These advancements in micro processing have improved all of our lives in ways that we may not even realize. The power of a computer is now literally at our fingertips.

Refurbished Cellular Phones - Should You Buy A Refurbished Cellular Phone?

Lets be honest, buying refurbished cellular phones isnt exactly the most sexy notion in the world. But it might be the most sensible. In this short article, Ill be going over a few of the main reasons why you might want to consider buying a refurbished cell phone over a new one.The biggest (and most obvious) reason for purchasing a refurbished mobile phone is to save money. Many factory reconditioned or refurbished cell phones carry the complete manufacturers warranty but come at a deeply discounted price. Basically, youll be buying a phone that has been purchased, gently used, and sent back to the manufacturer due to a defect. The phone maker repairs the phone, fixes the problem, and then offers it as a refurbished item to another buyer at a discount.While buying a factory reconditioned mobile phone may sound scary to some, it really shouldnt be something that youre afraid of. In most cases, if you didnt know that the phone was reconditioned before buying it, you would never know the difference. Many people have the impression that a refurbished phone will show signs of use, but nothing could be further from the truth. Overall, I think that buying a refurbished, factory reconditioned cell phone is a great way to save some money on the hottest new mobile phones being made today.Hopefully this short article has given you some helpful ideas on why it may be worthwhile to consider purchasing a refurbished cellular phone. With refurbished phones, youll be able to buy the latest handsets at a nice discount off the manufacturers suggested retail price, and they usually carry the original warranty. Last but not least, your jealous friends will never know that the phone you bought was factory reconditioned! Highly recommended!