Certification
CCENT is an acronym for ‘Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician’ and it is the first stage of the professional IT certification grade that leads up to Associate level. Other certification qualifications needed to attain Associate level are the CCNA together with the CCDA certifications. Studying for the CCENT brings you up to speed on basic networking skills such as network security and enabling you to install, configure and troubleshoot small branch networks and switched networks. During your CCNA study you will also learn how to implement and verify connections to remote sites via a WAN. Once you have got this certification under your belt there is the Cisco routing, switching and network design course to study for. To ensure you obtain your CCENT certification you will need to learn and understand a variety of protocols, such as:
oEnhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol [EIGRP]
oSerial Line Interface Protocol Frame Relay
oRouting Information Protocol Version 2 [RIPv2]
oIP
oEthernet
oAccess control lists [ACLs].
There is a good range of books on certification courses in our Computing and Internet category on our website. You might like to take a look at ‘Networking Fundamentals, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide’ by Mark Dye. This book is an accredited and accepted by the Cisco Networking Academy Program and is the official supplemental textbook for the Network Fundamentals Course in the CCNA Exploration Curriculum Version 4. You might also take a look at ‘CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide’ written by Wendell Odom. This book is invaluable in preparing you for the exam and certification that follows.
Computer Science
Computer science is another branch of the diversity found amongst the computing and internet-based courses of study. It actually involves the more theoretical aspects of computation and how to apply practical techniques into the necessary algorithms to be processed by a computer. Obviously, computer science involves far more than that, but that is what computer science is about when taken down to its most basic element. As with any other field in the world of computing and internet, there is a wide variety of associated fields such as computer graphics, programming language theory, and human-computer interaction to name just a few.
Taking a look at our computer science section amongst the computing and internet category you will find a good range of books on the subject, such as ‘Search Engine Optimization: an Hour a Day’ written by Jennifer Grappone. A book that you might enjoy, amongst the computer science books because that is loosely the subject it covers is ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’. It is written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and has been described as ‘provocative’ by the Economist; ‘idiosyncratically brilliant’ by the Sunday Telegraph and ‘a fascinating study of how we are regularly taken for suckers by the unexpected’ by The Guardian newspaper. You will just have to read it to find out whether you agree with the critics or not!
Databases
Databases are records or files which are integral to the computer and which have been collected into a logically filed system, centrally filed where it can be easily located for one or more uses. Databases of this type are classified according to their content – i.e. full-text, numeric, image, bibliographic etc. There are different models that can be applied to how data are stored within a database. The model that is used most often is the relational model: others include the hierarchical model and the network model.
The structure of a database is what is described as a database model, described above. The database has to be used in conjunction with a database management system. The database model will be stored in a data dictionary. As mentioned above, the database model is used more often than any other model is the relational model. Key terminology that defines the relational model are:
oRelations – this is a table characterised by columns and rows. Each row is referred to as a tuples.
oAttributes – these are columns from the above table. Each column is named – and this is an attribute.
oDomains – each attribute is enabled to take a set of values. Each set of attributes is a domain.
In other words, a relational database refers to the table that is made up of columns and rows. Each column is named with an attribute [such as a phone number]. Each row is a specific instance of that entity [the name of a place that the phone number relates to]. Together, the whole forms a matrix and, within that matrix, is a series of information given about one single person or thing [the entity].
Computing and internet, as a subject, can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. However, within our computing and internet section you will find a wide range of books that relate to computing and internet from Larry Ullman’s ‘PHP6 and MySQL5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide’ to Paula Moreira’s ‘ACE the IT Resume: Resumes and Cover Letters to Get You Hired’. Within our computing and internet category you will find a range of sub-sections such as Digital Lifestyle; Digital Music; Digital Photography; Digital Video; Hardware; Mac OS; Microsoft Windows; Networking and Security; New to Computing; PC and Video Games; Professionals; Programming; Software and Graphics; UNIX and Linux; and Web Development. Each of these categories have an enormous range of books of their own, but the best way to see what we have in our web site pages is to delve in and spend an hour or so browsing – you never know, you could strike gold!