SIMPLE COPY Backup in the form of a diskette copy has existed for years. For a document (up to 1.44 mB), you can copy (or save) that document to a diskette, a thumb drive (256 – 4,000 mB). You can “burn” the data to a CD (700 mB), DVD (4,700 8,500 mB). With a diskette, thumb drive, CD, or DVD, you can take it home with you so that it is stored off-site from your PC. If you work from home, then consider off-site storage at some other location.

You also can use a disk drive for a copy. One option is to use RAID 1 technology called “disk mirroring.” It means that you make changes to two disk drives at once. One disk is a “mirror” of the other. If one fails to work, the data is available from the mirrored drive without any intervention on your part. You have a built-in backup of data that is on those drives. Another option is to have a 2nd standard disk drive to which you copy data on some regular basis perhaps at the end of the day. You control what is to be copied and when it is to be copied. If the 2nd disk drive is an external drive, you can disconnect it and take it to another location. For critical situations, you might wish to do both “disk mirroring” and a copy to an external disk drive.

BACKUP UTILITIES (LOCAL) There are backup utility programs that offer controls that a “copy” utility does not. They will document what is copied, they will offer the ability to copy all data or only what has changed, and most will offer the ability to schedule backup tasks. Most will also offer options for encryption and compression of data. If you backup to a 2nd disk drive, you have the added insurance of recovery of data if your primary disk drive fails.

BACKUP UTILITIES (OFF-SITE) There are backup utility services that give you the added protection against loss of local data by storing your data in a server that is web-based. They generally offer the functions of local backup utilities, except that they may not offer encryption of data. Unencrypted data stored off-site (not under your immediate control) may be fine for you if you have no need to protect your data from being read by others. Family photos may be a candidate for free, off-site, web-based backup with or without encryption but probably not for your tax records.

CAN YOU AFFORD OFF-SITE BACKUP – If your data is sensitive, you want to be certain that it is encrypted with a key that you control, that only you can change the key, that the web-site is secure from break-in, that it will continue to operate 24×7 without interruption, that it has 24×7 monitoring onsite, that it has 24×7 technical support, and that it has its own off-site backup. Otherwise, even a free service may be too expensive if you lose your data or if it is compromised.

CAN YOU RESTORE For all the great “feel good” aspects of a process that will backup your data and, no matter how secure it may be, none of the backup process is worth anything unless you can restore data from it. Imagine your chagrin to find that you’ve spent hours each day to secure your data through carefully orchestrated backups only to get to a point at which you need to restore some of that data and you cannot do so! The moral of this example is that your backup is only as good as your ability to restore data from it. Whatever backup process you choose, test your ability to restore data from it then test it again. If you cannot properly restore data from your backup process, then find another backup process.

DID THE BACKUP SUCCEED As important as it is to be able to restore from a backup process, it is equally as important to know that the backup process reached a successful completion each time it is run. Whether you watch the process, get an email notice of completion, or have a log record of completion, you need assurance that the backup did succeed. If not, you need to take remedial steps to get it to succeed.

It is important to have a backup process in place. It is important to have a backup process in place that is appropriate for your needs (privacy & security, cost, and convenience). It is important to know that the backup process works each time. It is important to know that you can restore from the backup process.

RUN REGULAR BACKUPS Whichever backup approach best suits your purposes, you should implement and test a backup approach. Then, run backups on a regular basis.

This article contains suggestions for the use of utility programs under the Windows operating system. They are based on years of use, but they may not be the right suggestions for you and your PC environment. Before you follow any technical suggestion, be sure that you have a current (and tested) backup of all system and data files and that you can restore the system if necessary. You are welcome to contact me if you encounter a problem, but I assume no responsibility for your actions and/or use of the information provided and disclaim any legal responsibility for any negative results of such actions.

Copyright 2006 by Tim Flynt. All rights reserved.

Tim Flynt has spent over 25 years dedicated to efficient application and utility systems. Experienced in higher education, entertainment, and software development organizations. Current interest in “PC Maintenance Management.” http://AcceleratedOffice.com

Condoms for Your PC Backup Your Data is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

How does the ink get from the inkjet cartridge to the paper? Why is the print quality is so clear? Why the printing is so quiet?

Generally, all that most people know is that there’s some movement and a faint high pitched sound when it’s printing something — and then the finished document comes out.

Unlike dot matrix and character printers that strike ribbons to create an image, inkjet printers do not physically touch the paper.

All inkjet printers function using the same basic principles. Tiny ink droplets are “jetted” (or pushed) out multiple holes onto paper in a controlled and systematic fashion. This is where the term “inkjet” comes from.

The size of ink droplets, speed and reliability of this type of printer has been continuously improving since its inception in 1976. In 1993, Epson was the first manufacturer to produce an inkjet printer using micro-piezo technology. The Epson Stylus 800 was the first printer to use the multi-layer actuator printhead (the printhead is the part of the printer that holds numerous tiny nozzles that actually squirts the ink onto paper).

This specific printhead utilized an electro-mechanical element that acted like a tiny control room. When pulses of electricity passed through, it that gave specific signals to fire individual or multiple nozzles loaded with ink.

Micro-piezo technology utilized a tiny crystal in each individual nozzle that when electrically energized, would vibrate or bend causing a controlled amount of ink to be forced out onto paper. When the electrical current is off, the crystal bends back to its original shape, creating a vacuum, thus pulling ink into the nozzle from the reservoir for the next commanded fire.

The Epson printhead was fixed to the carriage so it never needed replacing (the printer carriage is what moves laterally across the paper). This also kept the cost of ink cartridges low since they were little more than reservoirs of ink.

This breakthrough printer produced a whopping 360 dpi (dots per inch) that was deemed, almost “letter quality” at the time. With a printing speed of 150 – 180 characters per second, the new Epson became the user favorite printer for home and office.

At the same time, HP was using a similar technology. A thermal jetting system was utilized in their printhead. The printhead still acted like the control room but each individual nozzle was instead independently super heated by electricity, which caused the ink to explode onto the paper. HP claims the temperature of a fired inkjet nozzle approaches that of the surface of the sun.

HP elected to put the printhead on the inkjet cartridge itself instead of mounting it permanently to the carriage. Since each inkjet cartridge would have its own printhead, replacement cartridges would be more expensive for these printers.

HP inkjet cartridges also could not print as fast as Epson because each nozzle needed to cool after firing. This heating technology also limited the types of inks that could be used.

In the 1990′s, Canon, Epson and HP engineered printheads that applied even smaller droplets of ink, drastically improving dpi and resolution.

While Canon and HP could produce a 6 – 10 picoliter droplet size from one nozzle, Epson was about half the size (between 3 – 6 picoliters). Currently, there are printers available which will produce an amazing 1 picoliter droplet! To get an idea of how small this is; a human hair is about 12 picoliters in diameter. Most human eyes can’t see one jetted droplet of ink on paper.

Inkjet printers have come a long way since their first inception.

Printers today are twice as fast as their predecessors were, and are cheaper than ever. Many printers can easily produce color photo quality images in at an incredible 6000 dpi.

As time goes on and as demand for printing remains high, the quality, speed and features of inkjet printers will only continue to improve.

Inside Your Inkjet Printer: How Does It Work? is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

Here we have a short look at few applications suitable for mobile devices.

Apollo DVD to iPod.

Apollo DVD to iPod is an innovative Windows application that transcodes your favorite DVD movies to Apple iPod player directly. You can easily convert both PAL/NTSC DVDs for optimized video playback on iPod. Integrated world-class MPEG4 encoder makes it possible to transcode whole DVD disc with the time half of playback time of DVD. You can select any audio track, subtitle, chapters of the DVD as you want. DVD to iPod video has never been easier with Apollo DVD to iPod.

Afree DVD to iPhone Ripper

Afree DVD to iPhone Ripper is a powerful DVD ripper which helps you rip DVD movie to video format supported by iPhone player with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It can rip your DVD to iPhone, MPEG-4 video formats in one click. Enjoy movies on the iPhone player wherever and whenever you want! Let the kids watch their favorite cartoons in the car with the iPhone player.
Features: Output formats: iPhone, MPEG-4; You can watch your DVD movies on your iPhone player; You can keep the default setting. You can also set the parameters by yourself; Run on Windows /98 /ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.

A Moyea SWF to iPod Converter

Moyea SWF to iPod Converter is a perfect program that can convert Flash projector, as well as SWF to mp4 video for iPod. It offers the solutions to problems that many other SWF to video converting tools cannot solve, such as video and audio asynchronization, loss of frames, audio distortion, and the processing of SWF files with internal or external Flash video (FLV). With the leading audio and video codec, Moyea SWF to iPod Converter lets you easily and fully enjoy the original effects of your SWF files on your iPod.

iPod Video Converter

iPod Video Converter for Windows is fantastic iPod video converter. It helps you to convert all popular video formats such as AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV, MP4, VOB, DivX, XviD etc to iPod MP4 video; and convert MP3, AC3, AAC audio files to iPod MP3, M4A etc.

Furthermore it supports new iPod 30GB and 80GB with resolution of 640 by 480 pixels for MPEG-4 Video.

DVD copy software for mobile devices is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

In this free tutorial, we’re going to take a look at the Local Preference attribute and compare it to the Cisco-proprietary BGP attribute “weight”.

The Local Preference (LOCAL_PREF) attribute is used to influence how traffic will flow from one Autonomous System (AS) to another when multiple paths exist. For example, if AS 100 has two different paths to a destination network in AS 200, the LOCAL_PREF attribute can be used to influence the path selection.

The major difference between the Weight and LOCAL_PREF attributes is that when the LOCAL_PREF attribute is changed, that change is reflected throughout the AS. The new LOCAL_PREF value will be advertised to all other routers in the AS, as compared to the Weight attribute, which is locally significant only. If you change the Weight for a path on one router in an AS, the other routers in the AS will not learn of the change.

A route-map can be used to change a local preference value. For example, if you want to change the local preference value to 200 for the path advertisement 10.2.2.0/24 coming in from neighbor 10.1.1.1, there are three steps involved. First, write an ACL matching the remote network you want to change the local preference for.

R1(config)#access-list 5 permit 10.2.2.0 0.0.0.255

Second, write a route-map setting the local preference to 200. This will double the default value of 100, and the path with the highest local preference will be the preferred path.

R1(config)#route-map PREFER_PATH permit 10

R1(config-route-map)#match ip address 5

R1(config-route-map)#set local-pref 200

Finally, apply the route-map to routes that are being received from 10.1.1.1.

R1(config)#router bgp 100

R1(config-router)#network 10.1.1.1 route-map PREFER_PATH in

R1 will then advertise this new local preference value to all other routers in AS 100 – all of its iBGP neighbors.

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Certification: The Local Preference BGP Attribute is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

Getting Started With a Palm Treo Smartphone
For many, adding a Palm Treo smartphone to their life is an exciting time. Most are coming from a traditional cellphone and the capabilities of a smartphone never seize to amaze. The Palm Treo features a large color LCD screen, full keyboard and software for syncing your personal data with your PC or Mac. Getting familiar with the capabilities of your new Treo smartphone can be overwhelming in the beginning. Once you get over the initial learning curve, owning a Treo can be a rewarding experience.

Protecting Your Treo
The Palm Treo is an expensive gadget, so you should make plans to protect your Treo. In the US, both Verizon and Sprint offer insurance on the Treo. For a fee of roughly $5, you can insure your Treo against loss or accidents. With insurance, youll have the piece of mind that your valuable Treo is protected. If your wireless provider does not offering insurance, another option is to sign up for the StuffBak protection program. Stuffbak is a loss prevention and recovery service. You purchase a Stuffbak label that gets applied to the back of your Treo. Should you lose your Treo, there is an 800# that allows the finder to collect a reward upon return.

Insurance and recovery services are both great options should something happen to your Treo. The best option is to protect your Treo smartphone with a good case and screen protector. There are many options when it comes to selecting a case for the Treo. When choosing a case, you can select from holster, pouch, skin, wallet and more. In most cases, its also a good idea to add a screen protector. Through the daily use of your Treo, you will find yourself touching the screen quite often. A screen protector will guard against scratches and its recommended even if youve opted for an enclosed case. Adding the correct Treo accessory can protect your smartphone for many years.

Treo Software
Out of the box, Palm OS based Treo smartphones comes bundled with all the software you need to sync with your PC or Mac. If you own a Mac, then you should avoid the Treo 700w. In order to sync the 700w with a Macintosh, you would have to use third party software such as Missing Sync by Mark/Space and they do not currently support the Treo 700w. If you are upgrading from a previous Palm device, youll still want to install the software that came with your new Treo. Follow the on-screen directions and youll be able to bring your data over to your new Treo. As a previous Palm owner, you should note that some applications might not work on your Treo. To be certain, locate and rename the Backup folder located in your User folder. Once youve completed the transfer of your PIM data, you can add one application at a time to insure compatibility with your Treo.

One of the great things about the Treo is vast catalog of available software applications. There are countless freeware and commercial applications. If you own a Palm OS based Treo, then be sure to look for software that supports your model. Owners of the Treo 700w should look for Pocket PC titles that support the Windows Mobile 5 operating system. In either case, its best to slowly add software. Adding incompatible software is the most common cause of an unstable Treo.

Get To Know Treo
The Treo is a remarkable device that offers robust software to help you manage your calendar, check email, browse the web, take photos, listen to MP3s and more. With any new technology, there is a slight learning curve and the Treo is no different. I encourage any new Treo owner to explore the features of their new smartphone. If you have questions, there are several good resources online or you can visit your local bookstore. Once youve mastered the basics, youll be left wondering how you ever managed without a Treo.

Palm Treo: Getting Started With Your New Treo Smartphone is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

One of the first indications of illness is generally noted by a rise in body temperature, or fever. In the past, mercury thermometers were used to take the temperature adults and children alike, but with the superb benefits of research and the technology offered in a digital age, people now have the capability of using a digital ear thermometer in their course of home treatments.

Thought must be given on the type of digital ear thermometer that can be used. There are cheap digital ear thermometer packages that are offered at discount stores; and there are the higher levels of digital ear thermometer, that can be supplied through medical shops that specialize in offering the best digital ear thermometer on the market.

With the use of a digital thermometer ear tenderness does not have to be taken into consideration and will not hinder the performance of this fast acting device. This is especially a concern with new parents who are concerned that the small stature of their child will require a digital thermometer ear attachment to be specially fitted for the digital thermometer ear size of their small child in order for it to perform properly.

With the use of a cheap digital ear thermometer, found on the market today, you get a poorly wrapped device with an internal battery that may be well past the serviceable life limit and should not be trusted to provide an accurate reading. With a cheap digital ear thermometer you will get what you pay for, in the form of poor performance and inaccurate results that will not be a good addition to your home medical kit. Your familys health and safety are worth more than scrimping on tools that regulate the treatment of their illnesses.

For families that truly care about maintaining the best in the emergency medical closets, the high tech digital Braun ear thermometer is the best choice for taking temperatures and readings with confidence that your familys health may rely on. The high tech digital Braun ear thermometer uses a micro-controller to translate infrared heat signals that are received through a high quality sensor in the device.

With lighting fast speeds of one second, the digital Braun ear thermometer will deliver the answer to your question of how high a temperature a patient may have and show the answer on a LCD screen. The display speed of the digital Braun ear thermometer beats out the old standard glass thermometers, where you had to wait for them to come to room temperature, and required a lot of shaking to lower the mercury to a level where it was ready for testing a temperature.

With the digital Braun ear thermometer, you get an assortment of attachments that make this a very comprehensive health resource tool to use, instead of the one device that is offered using a cheap digital ear thermometer. These attachments offer the consumer filtering options to eliminate the spread of germs from one patient to another, a feature that is well liked by heath care professionals who treat a large number of patients each day. With these filters, all digital thermometer ear infection risks are a thing of the past. The digital thermometer ear attachments do not affect the true reading capability of the digital thermometer and with improvements on technique; a one hundred percent success rate can be achieved during each use of a digital thermometer.

All About Digital Ear Thermometers is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

What else can we do to have a safe PC? There is a lot we can do. Let’s examine some categories:

ACCOUNTS – Use an account that does NOT have administrative privileges. That way, if someone breaks into your PC, there is some damage control. Also, avoid the use of the account names which are created by default. Those are “administrator” and “guest.” Consider one account with administrative privileges for when you need to have those privileges, but use another account that doesnot have administrative privileges for your normal work.

PASSWORDS – Use passwords that give you protection. Try to make them 6-8 characters in length with a combination of letters (upper and lower case) and numbers. Avoid names of family, friends, and pets. Consider a trick like the first letter of each word of a sentence. It will NOT spell a word. For example, the first letter of each word of this sentence, “Read this first article on save PC,” would result in the password of “RtfaosP.” It is not a word, it is a reasonable length, difficult to guess, but easy to remember.

DISK CLEANUP – While not a virus or spyware prevention tool, this MS Windows utility can reclaim available disk space from the recycle bin, temporary files, and deleted files. With regular use, this utility can keep more disk space available.

DISK DEFRAGMENTATION – This MS Windows utility can reorganize disk space to put related files together for faster access. As files are written to disk space, they may not fit one-after-the-other. When that happens, the files are “fragmented.” The defragmentation process moves files in an effort to put related files next to each other. That means that more data that you want for a particular file can be read at once – translating into better performance. The first time that this utility is run, the disk space probably will be badly fragmented and the process will take a long time. When the disk space is kept in better order, the process will take little time.

MICROSOFT CRITICAL PATCHES -To keep up-to-date with the “critical patches” for an operating system from Microsoft is not so simple as it would seem. Microsoft offers two choices: 1) use an automated update that will send the critical patches” when they are released, or 2) do a The larger issue, however, is that you give up control of what patches will be installed. Whatever is released for your system will be installed. That may create problems because some “critical patches” may cause parts of your system to not work correctly. It becomes a difficult decision: keep PCs up-to-date with all available “critical patches” and risk a situation where PCs may fail to function, or do NOT install “critical patches” immediately and risk a situation where worms/viruses infect not only some PCs but have the potential for spreading the problems. If you choose to do a manual update, how can you be assured that all PCs are updated on a timely basis? The choice seems to be in favor of the automated update from Microsoft.

ANTI-VIRUS UPDATE AND SCAN – All of us who use PCs these days are aware of the need for anti-virus software. Most PCs are sold with a choice of anti-virus software already installed. What is not so apparent to users of PCs, however, is the need for repeated updates of the anti-virus software. Whether the updates are “free” or via a paid subscription, they are critical to the proper function of the anti-virus software. If you run an anti-virus scan, it is only as good as the last update that was made to it before you initiated the scan. Anti-virus software, generally, is behind the 8-ball on worms & viruses. Until a new worm or virus is released, it is difficult to know how to defend against it. So, if you last updated your anti-virus software on January 1st, a new virus was released on January 5th, and you are running a scan on January 10th, your anti-virus software will not be prepared to trap the new virus, which was created after your latest anti-virus update. Good maintenance management should run frequent (daily is recommended) anti-virus scan, which are always preceded by a search for possible updates.

ANTI-SPYWARE UPDATE AND SCAN – Even newer to a safe PC is anti-spyware software. Most PCs are now sold with anti-spyware software. As with anti-virus software, whether the updates are “free” or via a paid subscription, they are critical to the proper function of the anti-spyware software. Good maintenance management should run frequent (daily is recommended) anti-spyware scans, which are always preceded by a search for possible updates.

GOOD MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT HOW TO’s – Microsoft “Critical Patches” can be set to run at a given time each day. Anti-virus software can be scheduled for updates and scans. It may also have a “live” update option. Anti-spyware can be scheduled for updates and scans. You can set the PC to prompt each month for a new password. You may wish to create a script that runs the individual utilities and that, itself, is scheduled to run at a given time each day.

NEXT STEPS – When you operate a PC, you need to believe that you can it as a tool without spending your own time to do maintenance. You need maintenance management that can handle that for you. As a support function, IT professionals need to explain what you should expect, what they are doing to pro-actively avoid problems, and what you should do when a problem occurs
despite everyone’s efforts. IT professionals should try to minimize the impact of their approaches on you. You have at your disposal a number of products to supplement the Microsoft operating system and tools. There are disk defragmenters, anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and scheduling products. You can write scripts to be run by the system scheduler.

How do you solve these problems? What products do you use and recommend? What would make your life easier?

Incorporate as much PC maintenance and control as possible without hindering your PC operations. That is “Intelligent Maintenance” for a safe PC.

Copyright, 2006 by Tim Flynt. All rights reserved.

Condoms for Your PC is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

These ancient products (ancient in technical terms being as few as 10-15 years) were what are known as impact printers, simply because they needed to make a physical connection with the paper in order to achieve the ink-on-paper result.

Dot matrix printers came equipped with a group of pins that touched a ribbon which then connected with paper to produce the finished product. Character printers, which worked on the same principle as electric typewriters, used a bar or ball whose surface was embossed with all the characters you now see on any keyboard. These characters made contact with the ribbon, which in turn made contact with the paper.

Today we use non-impact printers – those that do not make physical contact with the paper to create the papered reproduction. The most prevalent for home or small office use is the inkjet printer – an economical choice for all but the most serious graphic arts requirements.

An inkjet printer produces the images and type it delivers from computer to paper by means of miniscule drops of ink. So miniscule, in fact, that a human hair would seem big by comparison. Standard ink drops of an inkjet printer have a diameter range of 50-60 microns. Arranged very precisely, these ink drops come in various resolutions (the higher the resolution, the clearer and more life like the output.) while 800×600 dpi (dots per inch) is a typical SOHO (small office home office) resolution producing quite adequate print quality, an inkjet printer can offer resolutions as high as 1440×720 dpi. Adding color to the mix can produce images nearly as high in quality as a laser printer product.

There are five basic parts to an inkjet printer: the print head assembly, the paper feed assembly, circuitry control, power supply, and printer ports.

The print head assembly is the heart of the printer workings. It’s what brings the ink to paper by means of a row of nozzles. The print head may be part of the inner workings of a printer cartridge, or they may be separate parts. Cartridges are responsible for delivering color and shading. Most inkjet printers made nowadays offer color printing. Some may require as many as three distinct cartridges, but generally at least two – one black, one color. The motor is part of the print head assembly as well. It’s the part that enables the ink and cartridges to move across the paper and produce the hard copy. It also keeps the cartridge stable when not in use.

The paper feed assembly includes the paper tray, which holds the paper ready for a printing request, and the rollers, which deliver the paper to the ink when a printing job is requested.

The power supply is simple – it’s what gets the electricity to your printer so that it can do its job. Printer circuitry controls take the message from your keyboard and mouse and deliver it to the printer so that the requested hard copy can be produced. Printer ports, also referred to as interface ports, much like a telephone jack, enable the peripheral (the printer) to talk to the computer. While in older models parallel ports were the norm, the newest printer models connect via USB ports, which require a special USB cord.

Inside View On Printers is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

You can purchase a dunk tank online
You can purchase a dunk tank that is going to put someone on the spot, and into the water. You can find dunk tanks that are one seaters and two seaters if you want. There are dunk tanks that you can fill with water, and then drain for storage so you can use it again later. There are also dunk tanks that you use your own tub at the bottom of the box so that the dunk tank is shipped without that portion

A dunk tank that is sold without the tank on the bottom can be complete with the use of your own water barrel or dunk tank added to the mix. All you have to do is make one out of wood or you can find a huge plastic container. Sometimes even the small plastic swimming pools that are used as baby pools in a families back yard is all you need in the dunk tank. Some dunk tanks come as a complete plastic box so you can fill it with balls, worms, dirt, water or what ever you might like to pay to have someone dunked into the bottom of the dunk tank.

If you want to raise money, the best way you are going to do this is by putting someone in the dunk tank that no one really likes, or at least someone of authority. If you put someone in the dunk tank, like a principal, or a commander, or someone that is generally in charge or what other people do during the day, you will find more people are going to pay to play at the dunk tank.

You can also fill the dunk tank with water, and put a pretty girl in the dunk tank. Men and boys are going to want to see the girl in a wet shirt, so they are going to pay to have their chance at throwing the balls at hitting the target to sink the girl. This is a great fund raising idea, you pay once for (the dunking tank) that you can use again and again, at additional fundraisers, for other events, and when you want to throw parties and have a great time.

Dunk Tank Fun is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News

Notice I said “to or from”. In earlier free BGP tutorials, I discussed the BGP attributes “weight” and “local preference”. These attributes are used to favor one path to a destination over another; for example, if BGP AS 100 has two paths to a destination in AS 200, these two attributes can be set in AS 100 to favor one path over another. But what if AS 100 wants to inform the routers in AS 200 as to which path it should use to reach a given destination in AS 100?

That’s where the BGP attribute “Multi-Exit Discriminator”, or MED, comes in. The MED value can be set in AS 100 to tell AS 200 which path it should use to reach a given network in AS 100.

As with many BGP attributes, the MED can be set with a route-map. What you need to watch is that there is no “set med” value in route maps. To change the MED of a path, you need to change the metric of that path. Let’s say that there are two entry paths for AS 200 to use to reach destinations in AS 100. You want AS 200 to use the 100.1.1.0/24 path over the 100.2.2.0/24 path. First, identify the two paths with two separate ACLs.

R1(config)#access-list 22 permit 100.1.1.0 0.0.0.255

R1(config)#access-list 23 permit 100.2.2.0 0.0.0.255

Next, write a route-map that assigns a lower metric to the more-desirable path.

R1(config)#route-map PREFER_PATH permit 10

R1(config-route-map)#match ip address 22

R1(config-route-map)#set metric 100

R1(config-route-map)#route-map PREFER_PATH permit 20

R1(config-route-map)#match ip address 23

R1(config-route-map)#set metric 250

Finally, apply the route-map to the neighbor or neighbors.

R1(config-route-map)#router bgp 100

R1(config-router)#neighbor 22.2.2.2 route-map PREFER_PATH out

The key points to keep in mind is that while many BGP attributes prefer a higher value, the MED is basically an external metric – and a lower metric is preferred, just as with the protocols you’ve already studied to earn your CCNA certification.

Cisco CCNP / BSCI Certification: The BGP Attribute MED is a post from: BG Consortium Technology News