This really chapped my lips…

I recently bought a new computer. Mine was getting old, had lost its whistle, and the few remaining bells didn’t ding a nicely as they had in the past. Yep, it was time for a new state-of-the art dream machine with CD burner. DVD player, a bazillion gigabyte drive and more RAM than Rambo has. I whipped out my trusty credit card and told my local CompUSA to ring it up.

Well, needless to say I was enthralled. Blazing speed, working whistles, and bells that were more like the Big Ben gong! I could tear through spreadsheets with one CD/ROM tied behind my back. One day, about three months later, my Son came home form college. having heard all about my new pride and joy, he sat down behind the keyboard and fired that puppy up. He put it through its paces for about 30 minutes and then turned and said “It’s nice Dad, but I thought it would be faster”. HE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FASTER? What was he, crazy? This box was so hot that it came with it’s own fire department.

Then he started poking around the hard drive. “Dad”, he said “You need an exterminator. Your PC is infested.” “Infested with what, bugs?”. “Nope”, he said “Spyware”. “Spy What?”. “Spyware”, he replied. And then he explained.

Even thought I had a good virus prevention utility installed, it didn’t protect me against Spyware. Spyware, it seeks, are nasty little programs that get downloaded in similar fashion to the way a virus does. It can be attached to an email, or even one of those new talking E-Cards. it can hide in one of those “Click Here to close this window” boxes, or in any of seemingly a hundred other secret ways.

There are essentially two types of Spyware. The less dangerous type either causes lots of ads to pop up every time you go on the Internet, or records your shopping and surfing habits in order to report them back to Big Brother somewhere. Of course, these steal your PC’s clock cycles, and cause your hard drive to get bloated, which ends up slowing your entire system down. The problem is, the loss of speed is gradual and you don’t even know it’s happening until Mr. Big Shot college kid comes along and tells you that your PC is slow.

OK, that’s bad enough. But then, there is the second kind of Spyware. used by real spies, or at least the kind that want to steal your credit card and personal information so they can clean out your bank accounts and assume your identity. You know, the scary stuff that you’re starting to hear about more and more.

So, what should I do? Did I need to reformat my hard drive? I hoped not because THAT was no walk in the park. Fortunately my college geek was up on the subject and took me to a site that specialized in safely removing Spyware. We downloaded and installed it in just a few minutes and then fired it up. Holey Schmolie, I was infested. After about 25 minutes of chunking and plunking, the software pronounced me fit and clean. Well, at least my PC was. We rebooted and Boom! All of the speed and performance that had gradually been lost slammed right back into life. Even my Son was impressed.

Folks, this Spyware is serious stuff. You can’t afford to be wiped out by some cyber terrorist half way across the world. protect your PC, and your identity. You probably already are infested. There’s only one way to know for sure, you need to check it out for yourself.

Steve Robichaud and Andrew Wroblewski have been
involved in online sales and marketing since 1996.
For more information on finding and removing Spyware from your PC, visit: http://spyware.pcwash.com

If you want to escape from the outside world, eliminate the noise around you and just lose yourself in your music, what better way is there to do it than by using headphones?

Headphones are great to use when listening to music or when watching TV or a movie. You may also use them to study, if you have those audio lessons on tape, or when you want to read a book but do not have the time, you can just listen to the audio books.

Professionally, headphones are used in editing videos and incorporating sound, or for recording purposes. In communications, there are headsets which combine the functionalities of a microphone, a telephone, and a headphone.

There are hundreds of applications for headphones. If you want to choose the type of headphones that will best suit your needs, take a look first at its parts and structure:

- Driver – the part of the headphone that produces the sound.

- Earpiece – this holds the driver up to your ear. There are earpieces that cover the entire part of your ears, while some are small, rounded pieces that would fit the inner part of your ear. Several earpiece types are available, depending on the appllication.

- Attachment system – depending on the type of headphones, the attachment system ensures that the earpiece will securely fit your ears.

- Finally, the other parts are the headands, for types which require one, and the wires and jacks which will attach the earpiece to the music player or device where the headphones are attached to.

Headphones are typically attached to devices such as mobile phones, CD or MP3 players,walkman, mobile phones and personal computers.

There are two types of headphones:

1. Sound-proof

This type of headphone is used when you want to isolate youuself from the sounds of the outside world.

You can use this in loud environments so that the sound coming from your music player or any other device is the only sound that you hear.

Sound-proof headphones are mostly the types which have headbands and the earpiece surrounds the entire area of your ear.

These have monitors designed to fit the inner ear. They have a sealed design, and if you want to go for this type of earphones, make sure that the brand offers a good sound quality.

They are designed to “cancel” outside noise.

Generally, the open type design offers better sound quality than the sound-proof variant.

2. Open-type

This type of headphones generally have a greater sound quality than the enclosed, sound-proof ones.

The open design makes for a more effective listening device.

In terms of design, there are also hundreds of types to choose from. Here are some examples:

- Clip-ons

This type does not have headbands. The attachment system of clip-on headphones comprise of two ear-buds that you can easily ‘plug” into your
ears.

- Wireless

This is convenient because it frees you up from wires and lets you move around freely while listening to your music.

- In-ear-monitor.

These are tiny headphones which conveniently fits into your ear canal. This type of headphone is more expensive and has a more sophisticated design. It can be used for professional and surveillance purposes.

- Earbuds

These are small earphones with two small, rounded earpieces that fits the inner part of your ear.

- Headsets

This is composed of a microphone and a headset, and is mostly used for communicating.

- Noise-canceling

The attachment system of sound-proof headphones contain a suspension system in the headband. This characteristic prevents outside noise from interfering with the sound produced by your audio or video device.

- Street style

This has is mostly used for listening to your MP3 files, and has a headband that you can fit at the back of your head.

- Earpad

This type of headphones have soft, flat pads which serve as earpieces.

There are several types and styles of earphones which are available in the market now.

When choosing the right headphones to fit your lifestyle, make sure that you know what is important to you. You may choose it based on design,
application or brand.

Finally, make sure that you do not compromise the sound quality, since this is your purpose for owning headphones: to have a reliable listening device that will produce the best sound possible.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides headphone resources on http://www.about-headphones.info

According to Tom Verzi, Director of Marketing for PRONTO North America, “Customers expect to be able to communicate and transact with suppliers through a web-based interface for convenience, speed, and instant access to information. iShop provides the high level of service customers expect quite easily, quickly, and economically.”

Key iShop Benefits include:

* Flexible design for both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

* Easily customizable. Customization and administration screens are included with iShop, eliminating the need for programming knowledge.

* Cost Savings. Hosting iShop on internal infrastructure means one scales up only as needed.

* No risk of synchronization errors. With real-time communication, customers see precisely the information in current PRONTO-Xi system that is authorized.

Pronto North America, Inc. based in Eden Prairie, MN, is widely recognized as the authority in technologically driven business solutions and process management. Utilizing innovative implementation techniques and tools, Pronto North America generates increased performance, service, efficiency, and accountability. Through PEER (Process Evaluation Executive Review), Pronto North America captures the values of Lean Manufacturing throughout the enterprise. This functionality is accomplished utilizing a highly-trained world-class staff and an innovative process modeling and automation toolset unmatched in the industry, ensuring the realization of continuous process improvement and profitability.

Pronto North America is the North American Master Distributor of PRONTO-Xi, a comprehensive software system allowing manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to effectively manage all phases of their business. Far beyond just another Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, PRONTO-Xi’s financial and distribution applications are unique and have provided maximum return on investment for a wide variety of organizations since 1976. From PRONTO Production to PRONTO Advanced Warehousing; from PRONTO Planning to PRONTO Quality Management System (QMS); from PRONTO Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) to PRONTO Forecasting Management, the cross-section and breadth of integrated elements addressed by PRONTO-Xi is unmatched in the marketplace and justifies its natural leadership role as the best fully integrated business software solution.

Pronto North America www.prontoerp.com Tom Verzi tverzi@prontoerp.com 952-942-5858

# # #

Nestled among the East San Jose foothills with only a two-lane road leading to the park through the mountains, the Joseph D. Grant County Park can easily be missed. This park boasts a beautiful house coupled with a few other out-buildings renovated to remind visitors of the days of yesteryear. The house has period pieces of furniture, an all wood foyer, hardwood floors in the rooms….and residents they never expected. For years the park rangers never questioned the footsteps, door slams, noises and moving things from the corners of their eyes. They merely chalked it up to someone else being in the house. When visitors stated that they saw someone or heard something in the house, the park rangers chalked that up to nothing more than imaginations.

The local newspaper contacted the park rangers stating they wanted to do an article on the house for Halloween. They in turn, contacted our paranormal research group. We made arrangements to all meet at the house at a pre-arranged time. It was difficult enough to find the park but to do so in the dark was even more difficult. You always read about places like this in scary books…the twisting and turning of the small, two-lane road, the deep darkness of the forest, the occasional red eyes peering back at you caused by a deer; all the qualities for a good horror story.

We made our way up to the park and then followed the path to the house. It was a gorgeous house; white, two stories. We brought in simple equipment. The reporter was nice enough. The camera gal was nicer yet. She followed us as well as she could, almost as well as a shadow. It wasn’t until approximately 10 p.m. that we began to notice the cold. This was a warm summer evening but there was an obvious drop in temperature. As we wandered through the house we noticed that some rooms were definitely very warm and some were very cold. The coldest rooms, we found out later, were the rooms that visitors made statements about having activity in and that the park rangers had disregarded their comments.

This beautiful house has a sordid past. The daughter of Joseph D. Grant killed three men and her sister; two of the men on the property, one of them somewhere else. She was apparently crazy, had some type of mental illness. As we talked and wandered through the house we came across her room. Her name was Edith. We stayed in Edith’s room for quite awhile. We tried to capture EVP. We caught pictures with orbs but there was more to this room. It was one of those rooms where you could feel the excitement in the air but you didn’t quite know how to put your finger on what was occurring. As nothing did occur, we began to file out of the room. The reporter was next to the last leaving the room and one of our members was last. She had a video camera and was filming. As she approached the doorway and as the reporter began to step through the threshold, our member felt a heavy hand on her left shoulder and stated so. The reporter turned around long enough to find our member being shoved into her, almost knocking them both over. The video camera was still running.

The reporter did a nice article on us and on the Joseph Grant house.

Fast forward a year. We are asked back by the park rangers to do ghost tours for visitors. They planned to open up the house to after hours tours, something they have never done. As our group assembled again in the foyer of this wonderful house, again the feeling of excitement was in the air. The visitors with us that night could feel it too. Some ladies had their hair stroked while touring. Some visitors could see flashes of light in some rooms. As we stood in the foyer waiting for the visitors and the rangers to come downstairs, three of us heard what appeared to be furniture moving and crashing in a room to our left. Upon inspection, nothing was disturbed. It was at that point that the historian stated that that happened once before up in “J.D.’s” bedroom following a séance they held there. He had failed to mention that. He also failed to mention that the medium directing the séance tried to fling herself out of the window.

We were very lucky this night. We captured some great EVP. We got possible orbs in some rooms. But the most miraculous occurrence is that we believe we may have gotten pictures of two spirits. The Joseph D. Grant County Park was one of the most unusual houses we have ever had the pleasure to be in. We were pleasantly surprised to find that a house that is located out in the middle of nowhere and has never had problems reported before could be so haunted. Needless to say, we have changed the minds of the park rangers and the visitors to this house as well.

About the Author

Gloria Young has been a ghost hunter and paranormal investigator for over 10 years. She has dedicated her life to researching paranormal activity. She has written, “Faces of a Ghost Hunter” as well as three other books. She founded the paranormal research group, “Ghost Trackers”. She has co-produced two documentaries on ghost hunting. (www.ghost-trackers.org)

There are millions of Screensavers available on the Internet. Almost all of these can be downloaded and installed easily. These are usually categorized according to themes. Nature lovers can choose picturesque locations. Fish lovers can choose from different kinds of aquariums with multi-colored fish that are swishing through colored water. Those who really like adventure sports or aircraft can choose from a wide array of moving images and clips of death-defying stunts. Screensavers can also be slide shows that have various pictures of movie celebrities, sportspersons and politicians.

However, some precautions need to be taken before downloading Screensavers. The most important one is that Screensavers must be downloaded from trusted sites. It’s also always a good idea to scan Screensavers for viruses and other potentially dangerous elements, such as spyware and adware. If an anti-virus is already installed on the system, a right click enables a menu which provides for a ’scan with…’ option. This option can be selected and left-clicked to check the selected download before double-clicking it and installing it.

Sometimes Screensavers are extremely graphic-intensive. This means that they contain so many graphics that they are huge files. Huge files take a lot of space on the computer when they run, and make the computer work so much harder and so much faster than normal that the computer freezes. Then the computer needs to be restarted and all the unsaved information on the computer — such as open files that were being worked on before the Screensaver was activated – is lost.

Some Screensavers also make the hard drive of the computer crash, causing irretrievable data loss. Therefore, it is important for users to download Screensavers that are compatible with the configuration of their computers. This means that the speed of the processor in the computer, and the free space on it, should be sufficient for the Screensaver to be downloaded, installed and run.

Many users like to create their own Screensavers, often with the visuals and audio of their choice. Some software applications facilitate this. Out of these, some can be freely downloaded from the Internet. However, these should be downloaded only from trusted sites, and should be supported by the configuration of the user’s computer. Once downloaded, these should also be scanned for viruses and other common infections. When installed, these programs enable the user to combine images, video clips and audio clips to create a personalized Screensaver, sometimes even for circulation amongst friends and family.

Screensavers provides detailed information about screensavers, free screensavers, nature screensavers, animated screensavers and more. Screensavers is the sister site of Computer Projector Rentals.

Terminology / Acronyms ABC figures: This is the independently audited sales figure for all recognised publications in the UK. By using the ABC figure, you can quickly establish how much the advertising will cost per 1,000 readers.

Account Managers: These are sales people who have great skills in getting repeat orders and maximising revenue returns from existing accounts. It is very rare that a good “Account Manager” will be good at winning new clients.

Blue Bird: This is an unexpected sales opportunity that has a high chance of turning into profitable business.

BRAD: This book lists every UK publication including magazines, newspapers, vertical publications etc. It also contains key information i.e. “ABC figures”, advertising deadlines etc and is one of the most useful tools available if you are looking to place advertising or embark on DIY PR.

Comfort Factor Statements: Also known as credibility statements they show that you can deliver exactly what you say you can. They must not be emotive i.e. include words like “the best”, “fantastic”, “amazing”, “superior” or contain anything that cannot be proven i.e. “high level of customer satisfaction”, “unparalleled support”, unless supported by facts.

Commission Plans: This is how a salesperson is paid for their efforts. It is strongly advised that you include a minimum contribution and ensure that if you plotted a graph of gross margin and percentage of target it would create an incremental curve.

CRM: “Customer Relationship Management” This is software that organises all your sales contacts, schedules activities and is used in targeted marketing campaigns. This is vital to all sales operations and there are many packages to choose from costing anything from £80.00 per user upwards i.e. ACT! Goldmine etc. Previously known as TCM.

Double Bubble: Sales slang for two people being paid out the full amount of commission on a specific deal / incentive or the same person being awarded double the amount of commission.

Elevator Pitch: This term comes from the theory that if you are in a lift on the 10 th floor of a building you should be able to explain what you do before it gets to the ground floor i.e. about 10 seconds. This is often the opening statement of any form of communication and is predominantly used in lead generation and marketing activities.

Farmers: These are sales people who have great skills in getting repeat orders and maximising revenue streams from existing accounts. It is very rare that a good “Farmer” will be good at winning new clients.

Gross Margin: The difference between your buy price and your sell price.

Hunters: These are sales people who are very good at winning new accounts and getting the first order but tend to lose interest when they know that the new customer will continue to buy, this often makes them very bad farmers. Also known as New Business Sales Exec’s.

Kick Back: This is when a company gets an extra soft margin when they buy sufficient numbers / value of a product. i.e. if you buy 10 cars we will give you / or the company free servicing.

Minimum Contribution: This is the account value that all sales staff are required to reach, in gross margin terms, before any commission. This is put in place to ensure that commission is not paid before staff have covered their basic salary plus all other costs i.e. NI, travel, phone, expenses etc.

New Business Sales Exec’s: These are sales people who are very good at winning new accounts and getting the first order but tend to lose interest when they know that the new customer will continue to buy, this often makes them very bad farmers. Also known as “Hunters”.

OTE: “On Target Earnings” This is how much the sales person will earn if they hit their sales target. Please note that when the person has achieved 50% of target they should not earn more than 30% of their OTE. By using this method it creates a further incentive for the salesperson to hit the their sales target.

Over Ride: This is the term used when a sales person over achieves his target and hence is given a large bonus. Remember the bigger the “over rider”, the bigger the incentive and hence this increases the motivation to over achieve the gross margin sales target.

PPC: “Pay Per Click” This is a much-targeted method of advertising and enables sponsored links to be placed at the top of search engine results when your particular key words or phrases are encountered. For each sponsored link placed you are charged from as little as 10 pence upwards.

Prospect: A company / person that you know will require your services and they are looking to purchase. Particularly if you have been asked to bid for the work

RTR: “Ready to Run” This is the term used mainly by advertising agencies or company’s for an advert which is ready to be placed. It is then common practice to place the advert on the deadline in order to get the lowest possible price.

Sales Forecast: The system that sales people and managers use to look at how much business is likely to be won each month, unfortunately these are often misleading due to sales processes that minimise inaccuracies not being implemented.

Sand Bagging: This is a tactic used by sales people who hold back orders so that as many as possible fall in the same month or quarter and hence they over achieve the target to win a large Over Rider. This is not only expensive because extra commission is paid but can also have very negative effects on cash flow. By having a properly implemented Sales Forecast it is very easy to establish if this is occurring.

SEO: “Search Engine Optimisation” This is the method of making sure that your website gets lots of traffic and enables your company to be listed higher in the search engines for specific key words and phrases i.e. car hire Newcastle, buy discount fishing rods, mortgage advice etc. The downside of this methodology is that it takes several months for your website to get a good position on the major search engines i.e. Google, Yahoo etc.

Soft Margin: This is most commonly found in the reseller market and generally provided by the manufacturer in form of marketing assistance i.e. for every £10,000 of product x sold we will provide you with y amount of money that must be spent on promoting our product / service.

Suspect: A company / person that you know will require your services but nothing else is known.

TCM: “Time Contact Management” This is software that organises all your sales contacts, schedules activities and is used in targeted marketing campaigns. This is vital to all sales operations and there are many packages to choose from costing anything from £80.00 per user upwards i.e. ACT, Goldmine etc. Now known as CRM.

TMUP: “Target Market User Profile” this is the type of company / person that would be a prime target for your business i.e. single male 30 – 40 and divorced or SME services based companies with staff of between 3-10 people based within 5 miles of central London etc. Finding and Targeting your prime TMUP will reduce the cost of sales and increase marketing and new business efficiency’s.

Tyre Kicker: This is a company / person who pretends to be interested in your product / service. This term comes from the motor trade when customers would kick the tyres to fain interest when they had no intention of buying a car and were just browsing / looking for a test drive. Sales people who are not performing and wish to give the impression that their sales pipeline is strong often put this type of prospect on their sales forecast.

USP’s: Unique Selling Points i.e. what makes your company different from its competitors. This is used predominantly in lead generation and marketing activities and therefore is a MUST HAVE for any sales strategy to work.

“The Negotiate Your Way to Financial Freedom From Credit Card Debt Ebook”

Chapter Three

Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to
trust nobody.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

You notice I called credit cards by their real name in the title of this chapter. Make no mistake, the outcome of using a credit card is to create debt. It would be a lot more difficult to market a “Debt” card but that is what they are. In case you weren’t aware of it, Congress just passed a law requiring the minimum credit card payment to be twice as much as previously charged to “help” consumers get out of debt quickly but somehow failed to address the usury rates charged by these companies.

Here are a few things you might not know about the credit card industry.

Credit Card Industry Facts:

The credit card industry earned $1,200,000,000,000 last year. That is $1.2 TRILLION in profits.

In 2004 consumers were charged $14.8 BILLION dollars in late fees.

Here’s a cute little tactic used often by our credit card brethren. Not posting your payment on the day it is received so that they can charge you the late fee. They made millions using this technique last year.

Changing the due date or mailing the bill so that it is difficult at best to meet the deadline and there by charging another late fee.

With two late charges on your ‘record’ your interest rate goes up as much as 10 points. This can be done without notifying you, by the way.

These companies have even resorted to not mailing out statements so that you will pay late and therefore be charged at least $29 in late fees and sometimes more.

Signing you up without your permission for credit insurance that virtually never pays out.

Checking your credit reports to see if you are charging on other cards and if it is ‘deemed excessive’, raising your interest rate by as much as twice your current rate.

Charging you a $25 fee for NOT USING your credit card.

Capital One has been sued because their customers mailed in the checks a full two weeks before the due date but were deemed late, charged the late fee and the interest rate was hiked to double digits.

Citibank paid a $45 million dollar settlement because they improperly assessed late fees and raised the interest rate up to 24% if the customer was late on any payments to other creditors, even if you are current on every payment to them.

The largest settlement by far against a credit card provider was against Providian for $300 Million dollars! Why? For improperly assessing late fees and charging customers for things they never ordered like credit insurance. The amount of the fine was proportional to the amount of abuse.

Sometimes because of the stress associated with these fees and abuses, people go out and try to borrow their way out of trouble with debt consolidation loans. This only adds to the problem if they don’t tear up the cards.

Credit card debt has gotten to the point that it is not like owing the general store and not paying off the bill at the end of the month or when you get your next pay check. This is loan sharking at its worst and some say the rights of individuals were taken away by the changes in the bankruptcy laws made recently due to the efforts of lobbyists from the credit card companies. I think the little guy needs help and that is why I wrote this book. There is a term used often in Real Estate: “Operating from a position of superior knowledge”. One can get sued for taking advantage of another for just this reason. Seems to me, the credit card companies mentioned above along with many others, are operating from a position of superior knowledge.

According to Robert Hinley, a Houston attorney, “Being a good customer is not going to protect you,” says Hinsley. “Nor will paying your bill on time each month protect you. Many of the major cards — First USA, Chase, Capital One, Providian, Citibank, Penney’s — have been sued over practices regarding unfair billing practices and blatantly using tactics to cheat you out of your money. There is plenty of evidence that indicates most credit card companies think you are dumb and helpless and will not take any action. So they can easily use dirty tricks to cheat you out of your money.”

Now are you ready to fight back and negotiate a settlement with these people? Don’t be discouraged because the good news is, you can fight back. You can negotiate and you can reach a settlement advantageous to you! Pull yourself up to your full height, take a deep breath, know you are not alone and let’s get started!

*This is an exert from “The Negotiate Your Way To Financial Freedom From Credit Card Debt Ebook” found on http://www.Iwantafreecreditreport.com.

Pat Hicks is the Managing Partner for http://www.Iwantafreecreditreport.com, a web site providing competitive priced credit reports and scores with no tricks or misleading advertising. A statement regarding the truth about free credit reports is provided which includes the link to http://www.annualcreditreport.com for any consumers eligible to receive a free report.

Helping Children Learn of God’s Special Plan for Their Lives Book Review – Duncan Carries a King by Dan Taylor and Damon J. Taylor Reviewed by Lisa M. Hendey

Most of us search for purpose in our lives, and children are no exception to this. In the new book Duncan Carries a King (Kregel Kidzone, January 2005, hardcover, 32 pages) authors Dan Taylor and Damon J. Taylor introduce the character Duncan the Donkey. Duncan feels lost and useless, unable to ascertain his purpose in life. He looks around him and sees the friends he grew up with pursuing meaningful jobs that make a difference. He has a strong desire for God to use him in some way, but he sadly is unable to determine a vocation.

Blending fiction with Biblical accounts, the authors introduce the story of Jesus sending his disciples to find a young donkey that he will ride into Jerusalem, fulfilling a prophecy from Zechariah. Duncan the donkey learns that God does indeed have a purpose for his life – God has specifically chosen him to carry his son Jesus into Jerusalem. Duncan’s triumphant entry into the holy city leaves him wondering what plan God has in store for him next.

With bold illustrations and a plot that aligns closely with the New Testament account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, Duncan Carries a King is the perfect tool for parents looking to teach children the message that God has given each of us unique and precious talents. Also included in the book is a special section for parents including objectives and discussion questions for parents or teachers. Children will love Duncan Carries a King for its creativity and the loveable Duncan. Parents will appreciate the book for its emphasis on prayer, patience, perseverance and a serving heart.

For additional information on Duncan Carries a King visit http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0825438691/digitalcropper- 20

Lisa M. Hendey is a mother of two sons, webmaster of numerous web sites, including http://www.catholicmom.com and http://www.christiancoloring.com, and an avid reader. Visit her at http://www.lisahendey.com

There are so many things for which you need to spend a considerable amount of money. You need money to purchase a house. You need money to purchase household items such as consumer durables. Car is another item which requires a large expenditure. Your savings might not be enough to buy a car. In this case, you need to find other sources of finance. You can get a car on lease, hire purchase or loan.

Not all dealers offer cars on lease. You will have to search for car dealers who offer cars on lease. This is not the end of your search. After finding such dealers, you will have to choose a dealer who offers a car that you are looking for. You should not make a compromise on this issue. Once you get a car on lease, you will be having it for a considerable time. The benefit of a lease agreement is that you will not have to pay a big amount of money. All you need to do is to pay a small amount of lease rentals every month until a certain period. After the expiry of the tenure of the lease agreement, you will have to return the car to the dealer.

If you want to retain the car, you can go for hire purchase. Many dealers sell cars on hire purchase. Here also, you will pay monthly installments until you have paid the entire loan amount along with its interest. The amount of monthly installments in case of hire purchase is higher than the amount of lease rentals. Its advantage over a lease agreement is that you do not have to return the car.

Another mode of financing a car is to take out a car loan. Car loans can be obtained from banks, financial institutions and private lenders. It is not a difficult thing to borrow money to purchase a car. Lenders will readily offer you a car loan if you could show your income proof. Even if you are unable to show your income proof, you can get a car loan secured against your property. It is easier to obtain a secured car loan than an unsecured car loan. The rates of interest on car loans are lower than the interest rates on hire purchase.

About the Author: The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting bad-credit-auto-loan as a finance specialist.

For more information please visit http://www.bad-credit-auto-loan.co.uk

For CCNA exam success, you had better know what split horizon is, how to turn it off, and when to turn it off. Knowing when to turn split horizon off is also important in production networks, because it can cause a hub-and-spoke network to have incomplete routing tables on the spokes.

Split horizon exists for a very good reason – routing loop prevention. The rule of split horizon states that a router cannot send an advertisement for a route out the same interface that it came in on. Split horizon is on by default on all interfaces running RIP, IGRP, and EIGRP.

In this CCNA tutorial, R1 will serve, as the hub and R2 and R3 will be the spokes. We’ll first configure EIGRP over the 172.16.123.0 /24 network, the network connecting the three routers.

R1#conf t

R1(config)#router eigrp 100

R1(config-router)#no auto-summary

R1(config-router)#network 172.12.123.0 0.0.0.255

R2#conf t

R2(config)#router eigrp 100

R2(config-router)#no auto-summary

R2(config-router)#network 172.12.123.0 0.0.0.255

R3#conf t

R3(config)#router eigrp 100

R3(config-router)#no auto-summary

R3(config-router)#network 172.12.123.0 0.0.0.255

Running show ip eigrp neighbor on R1 shows that adjacencies to R2 and R3 are up.

R1#show ip eigrp neighbor

IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 100

H Address Interface Hold Uptime SRTT RTO Q Seq Type

(sec) (ms) Cnt Num

1 172.12.123.3 Se0/0 11 00:02:45 1 5000 0 1

0 172.12.123.2 Se0/0 161 00:03:01 1 5000 0 1

Each router will now advertise its loopback address via EIGRP.

R1#conf t

R1(config)#router eigrp 100

R1(config-router)#network 1.1.1.0 0.0.0.255

R2#conf t

R2(config)#router eigrp 100

R2(config-router)#network 2.2.2.0 0.0.0.255

R3#conf t

R3(config)#router eigrp 100

R3(config-router)#network 3.3.3.0 0.0.0.255

Running show ip eigrp route on each router shows that R1 has a route for both R2’s and R3’s loopback. R2 and R3 will only see R1’s loopback address, and not each other’s. Why?

R1#show ip route eigrp

2.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 2.2.2.0 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.2, 00:03:19, Serial0/0

3.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 3.3.3.0 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.3, 00:03:04, Serial0/0

R2#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.0 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:03:40, Serial0/0.123

R3#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.0 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:05:17, Serial0/0.31

EIGRP uses Split Horizon by default to prevent routing loops. In this lab, though, it prevents full network reachability. R2 and R3 both form neighbor relationships with R1’s Serial physical interface. R2 advertises its loopback address to R1’s Serial interface, as does R3. Split Horizon does not allow a route to be advertised back out the same interface it was received on. This prevents R1 from advertising R2’s loopback to R3, or R3’s loopback to R2.

Split Horizon must be disabled to allow full network reachability in this lab. To do so, run no ip split-horizon eigrp 100 on R1’s Serial interface. When Split Horizon is disabled, that will cause the neighbor
relationships to fail, and then reestablish. Run show ip route eigrp 100 on both R2 and R3. The appropriate route to the remote loopback address will now appear.

R1#conf t

R1(config)#int serial0

R1(config-if)#no ip split-horizon eigrp 100

10:02:23: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.2 (Serial0/0) down: split horizon changed

10:02:23: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.3 (Serial0/0) down: split horizon changed

10:02:27: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.3 (Serial0/0) ip: new adjacency

10:02:54: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP 100: Neighbor 172.12.123.2 (Serial0/0) ip: new adjacency

R2#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.0 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:06, Serial0/0.123

3.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 3.3.3.0 [90/2809856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:06, Serial0/0.123

R3#show ip route eigrp

1.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 1.1.1.0 [90/2297856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:12, Serial0/0.31

2.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

D 2.2.2.0 [90/2809856] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:12, Serial0/0.31

Disabling split horizon should be done with care, but knowing when and where to do so shows that you truly understand how this technology works – and that’s a big step on the way to earning your CCNA!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your CCNA study guide from The Bryant Advantage!