Cisco Certification: A Survival Guide To The Cisco Cable Jungle

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Telepresence and Holography / Holograms - November 2008

Editor’s viewpoint on their differences, likenesses and future...

We all just recently viewed an historic CNN holographic interview on an historic Election Night. CNN stated this type of imaging has never been done before on National TV and I believe that. I haven’t seen anything like it. The live interview caught me by surprise and sure had the “wow” factor attached to it didn’t it? Here’s a link to the actual interview.

CNN Hologram Video

The question now has to be asked. Is it Telepresence?

I’m no expert on the subject but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring, go out on a limb and say yes, I believe it is. Although I know many video conferencing purists are rolling their eyes and grabbing their guns right about now with my statement.

While I do know that Telepresence still hasn’t been universally defined (Houston, we have a problem), here’s how I see it…. Broken down to its simplest form - “tele” (through electronic means) and “presence” (present). This is how I’m justifying my opinion by lumping holography and Telepresence together. Just as Telepresence is surely an offshoot of video conferencing, holographic imaging (like we viewed on CNN) surely has to be considered an offshoot of Telepresence. The interviewer was “telepresent” from Chicago and beamed into the CNN Election Headquarters. She was most assuredly - “telepresent”. There was negligible latency, the imaging was fantastic and both interviewers were rehearsed on what they would say. I’ve just recently read that CNN actually “downgraded” the experience to make it “movie” quality and not as good as it could have been. Maybe they thought us mere mortals would be shocked if they showed their complete hand. I have a feeling it was so big to them, they didn’t want it to get upstaged by the historic election. I’m willing to bet we’ll see the “true” power of this technology in the upcoming weeks and months when they can put the pedal to the medal and show it off without having it sidetracked.

What an amazing time for this technology (all differences and opinions aside). Telepresence Doctors, nurses, teachers, schools and healthcare (healthpresence) will benefit from the recent gains in this state-of-the-art industry whether holograms, Telepresence or holography. Airlines also have to see the threat to a portion of their business travel. Hell, who wants go through security and fly to Miami for a two-hour conference when you can look them in the eye via Telepresence?

Beam me up Scotty! Simply amazing…!

Visit the free Telepresence Forum for more information and discussion

Your Editor and Administrator - L II
"Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" TM

One of the most confusing parts of beginning your Cisco studies is keeping all the cable types separate in your mind, and then remembering what they're used for. This often occurs when a CCNA or CCNP candidate starts putting together their own home practice lab, and they suddenly realize that they have the equipment to run labs, but not the cables.

With this in mind, here are some common Cisco cable types and their primary use.

First, there's the regular old "straight-through cable", so named because the eight wires inside the cable go straight through the wire. While the wires may be twisted inside to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI), the wire that's connected to Pin 1 on one end is connected to Pin 1 on the other end, and so on. In a home lab, a straight-through cable is often used to connect a switch port to an Ethernet port on a router, with a transceiver attached to the Ethernet port. Straight-through cables are also good for connecting a BRI interface to an ISDN simulator.

The "crossover cable" is so named because the wires do cross over between pins. This allows the devices to both send and receive at the same time, and crossover cables are a must for directly connecting ports on Cisco switches to create a trunk.

The "rollover cable" allows you to connect directly to a Cisco console port with your laptop or PC. This is the blue cable that comes with new Cisco devices, and it's the one that engineers tend to hold on to with their lives. Without a rollover cable (also commonly called a "console cable"), you can't connect your laptop directly to a Cisco device.

Finally, there's the DTE/DCE cable. To create a frame relay cloud in your home lab (using one of your Cisco routers as a DCE), or to directly connect two Cisco routers via their serial interfaces, you will need a DTE/DCE cable. Remember that the DCE interface will need to supply clockrate to the DTE interface.

The different cable types can be confusing when you first read about them, but after tearing down or building your home lab a few times, you'll definitely have them straight come test day!

Best of luck in your lab and your exams,

Chris Bryant CCIE #12933

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantage's website offers FREE ebooks and tutorials for the CCNA and CCNP exams, FREE subscriptions to "Cisco Certification Central", and sells the best CCNA and CCNP prep courses and books on the market today. Visit his site at http://www.thebryantadvantage.com today !

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To learn more about Telepresence, the revolutionary new style of immersive video conferencing; visit these websites:

Telepresence - "Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" - Telepresence
Telepresence Web Portal - Telepresence Internet web portal
Telepresence Report - 24/7 breaking Telepresence related news and information
Via Telepresence - Video conferencing via Telepresence
Telepresence Forum - Free user discussion forum for everything Telepresence related
Telepresence Today - Telepresence information and editor qualified headline news
Telepresence Resource Directory - Telepresence web resource directory
Telepresence Tube - Telepresence videos, pictures and more