Cisco Networking Academy E-Newsletter.
Content...

1.- Editorial

2.- News!

3.- Our Community

4.- Did you know...?

5.- Activities Schedule

6.- Alliances

7.- Alumni Connection

8.- Equipment Support Services

9.- From the CATC

10.- May I help you?

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"Three or four years ago, I attended a conference where the speaker said that to be an IT successful professional, you needed temper and cutting edge, like a knife or a sword. Both elements are required. A sword without temper bends easily and you can't control it. A sword without cutting edge hits but doesn't cut".

“Curriculums have to focus first on basic theories and on general technology issues (the temper), and therefore, it isn't always easy to get closer to daily real world situations (the cutting edge). Under these circumstances, training opportunities in specific technologies play a very important role”.

“Eventually, both will have to get accomplished during the professional exercise. However, I am sure that, if we can offer students both opportunities during their university period, inside the same institution and simultaneously, we will be to assure them a deep and standardized technical level, as well as an important differentiator for them to have a faster and easier integration in the global working world”.

“The fact of having both possibilities represents an important support from the instructor's point of view. The fact of having well explained online material, standard tests, and automatic evaluations, among other issues, simplify the teaching job to a great extent”.

”Cisco Networking Academy Program courses represent a fundamental element in the networking and telecommunications area, as part of the professional training for our degree and master students. The program facilitates our teaching job”.

José Gabriel Urzaiz Lares
Local Academy instructor, Universidad del Mayab
Mérida, Yucatán, México
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- In May 2004, visit the new Academy Connection in Spanish

Cisco Networking Academy Program developed a project to launch the public pages of Academy Connection in Spanish. During the last months, we have been working in the development of the site, and we are pleased to announce you that it will be available for the Spanish-speaking community as of April 30 th , 2004.

Thanks to your initiative and participation, we created a team of correspondents that will help us with updated information of the program in their regions, to make of this site a dynamic and useful tool.


¡ Show us your knowledge!

Answer the following questions and if you are the first to send a correct answer, via e-mail ONLY to jmerino@netacadlatam.com You will receive a surprise gift. All you have to do is send us your username and password for the Academy Connection to validate your participatio.


1. Which layers are included in a hierarchical network design?
Options:
a). Core, distribution, access.
b). Core, layer, access.
c). Distribution, access, switching.

2. is the speed you use, if you have a 10/100 Mbps NIC and a 10/100 Mbps hub?
Options:
a). Only the NIC handles 100 Mbps.
b). You can use both, by selecting the one you want in each end.
c). 10 Mbps in the NIC and Hub
d). If you configure the hub for 100Mbps, the NIC will recognize 100 Mbps.

The answers for the March quiz are:

1. How do you confirgure a VTP domain?
b) Switch#vlan data
Switch(vlan)Vtp domain “nombre dominio”

2. Which is the command that displays the configuration of a switch?
a) Switch>show run
b) Switch# show run
c) a and b

Cisco Networking Academy Mexico
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“The Cisco Networking Academy Program helped me to expand my knowledge on networks and most of all I had the opportunity to practice, since in the University where I got my degree, everything was theory. In August 1999, I started teaching in the Cancun Technological University in the Computing Course, and after a year, I joined the full-time teachers team of the same course and this offered me the opportunity to enter the Cisco Networking Academy Program”.

Benefits for the Community…

Remember that one of the benefits of the program is a disccount in the certification exam for eligible students and instructors. The approximate cost of the exam without the discount is US$150.

To locate the CCNA testing centers in Mexico , visit: http://www.vue.com/cisco and http://www.prometric.com/cisco.



"Book's function is to teach, but it can also serve as a pillow ".
- Rumi.

Padhia and Cisco Networking Academy Program Mexico created an alliance that offers several programs, such as Integral Human Development, Academic Improvement, Teachers pedagogic Update, as well as Integration Top Education Technology.

For further information visit: www.padhia.com.mx/cnap/index.htm

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Alumni Connection

ALUMNI CONNECTION and CAREER CONNECTION Vacancies! As we have been announcing in several media, Cisco created the Alumni Connection Community, where you can register NOW. As part of the benefits of this community, program instructors, students and alumni can access the vacancies internationally published. It is very important to remind you that, if you do not visit this page at least once a week to check for vacancies placed by enterprises, customers and Cisco partners, those vacancies will not be filled and the circle will remain open. These are difficult times to find a job; let us try to fill the 29 vacancies we have today. There are job offerings in Mexico City , Monterrey , Chihuahua , Leon , Queretaro , and Guadalajara. Let us make this service the most appropriate for those companies searching for Cisco Networks experts. The best place to find them is right here, among the Cisco Networking Academy Program community. To access such publications, you have to register first in the Employment Exchange in the Netacad Mexico site, and then as Alumni. Cristina Vidales Alumni Initiative Manager Mexico cvidales@netacadlatam.com

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Equipment Support Services
Why do networks go down?

The Yankee Group recently conducted a study in the United States to determine the real causes why networks go down, and the impact at business level of this disruption. The study included 228 network managers, and these where the main findings:

• 38% of networks disruption is caused by internal errors. It means, poor configuration management such as accidental configuration changes, errors in device applications or deviation from the organization standards.
  
• 80% of the networking budget is used in maintaining the status quo, instead of investing it in new technology developments that offer better performance.
  
• 73% of the times, shared passwords are used to manage network devices. This limits the responsibility, because it is impossible to track down who and when made changes to the network. This also represents a security problem in the network.
  
• 90% of the networking projects are cancelled or are implemented with delays.

Yankee Group estimates an important growth in networks development, particularly in small to mid size enterprises. Today, one network is not enough. The important thing is to make the most of it and to achieve what the industry defined as the "five 9s". That is, 99.99% network availability, in other words, 5 minutes and 15 seconds of unexpected network disruption during the year.

One way to reach this maximum network performance is through the rational management of the network life cycle, which means support during the Planning, Design, Implementation, Operation, and Optimization stages. During the Operation stage, support is received by means of a Cisco Basic Service Agreement which grants access to the TAC ( Technical Assistance Center ) and to Cisco.com for an online troubleshooting, advanced parts replacement, as well as software upgrades and enhancements. These tools assure an almost seamless operation.

For the Planning, Design, Implementation, and Optimization stages, Cisco has a team of specialized engineers, who in addition to identifying the particular needs of each network, help closing the breach between the company's technical staff knowledge and the required level to deploy and implement the full network cycle.

Ana Saputi
Customer Advocacy
asaputi@cisco.com

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The world is changing, technology is revolutionizing every aspect of our lives and only knowledge can stop us. Instructors, students, and education professionals have a key role to assure that everyone involved in this program acquires the academic standards and the skills needed to successfully confront the 21 st century challenges.

The concern of the Cisco Networking Academy Program National Training Center is separated in four major blocks.

a) Planning: It is essential for Regional Academies to have a yearly plan for training, support, and follow up of the Local Academies they have registered in the system.

b) Training: Every Regional Academy needs a training plan and a record to follow up their local instructors, as well as Certified Instructors (CCAI). This is a top priority, since our curriculum will be updated to version 3.0, the current version will be available only until December .

c) Infrastructure. It is very important that the infrastructure of each Academy is secured through a guarantee service program (SmartNet) and they have to consider the infrastructure they need to acquire to support version 3.0. This infrastructure is tagged “UPGRADE CCNA 3.0” and they need to acquire it, so instructors can be trained on the new topics included this new version, which will place them in a high competitive level .

d) Quality. For a solid growth , communication between Regional Academies and their Local Academies must be intensified. Regional Academies must promote continuous education courses, and they have to highlight among their students and instructors the importance of events such as Networkers and Academy Conference. They have to attend those events in order to be updated. Besides, Main Contacts participation is mandatory .

Other extremely worrying issues are the ones related to Academies equipment, the continuity of the modules, and the protection of academic materials.

As Cisco Networking Academy Program National Training Center , we request feedback on the points mentioned above. This project benefits different medium, high or professional education IT courses in our University and allows us to add value to our teachers and students, as well as to reassert our commitments.

Currently, our country is second place regarding number of students, and fifth in number of Academies, with more than 1,050 instructors. These data are no fluke, but the result of the efforts of the program's community. However, it is time to take care of what we have built.

Working with a University that is an agent of changes, consolidation of prestige, and privilege of values, I sent you my best regards.

CATC México, Everardo Huerta
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas.
E-mail: catcmx@netacad.com.mx

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As part of our goal to offer better contents and better quality in the program, we included a feedback survey at the end of CCNA 1, 2, 3, and 4 exams (chapter 2), as of March 2004.

This feedback will help us evaluate the enthusiasm and interest of students in the course. For example, students will be asked about the level of motivation in the course, with the following answer options:

• Not motivated at all.
• Slightly motivated.
• Motivated.
• Very motivated.
• Totally Motivated.

This evaluation will be placed at the end of the exam and the results will not be compared with the general evaluation, it means it will not interfere with your course-2 exam grade, even when the results are part of the exam.

If you have any questions, please ask your instructors and feel free to call us for more data and information.

Help Desk.
Cisco Networking Academy Mexico.
E-mail: webmaster-espanol@cisco.netacad.net

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