Everything you want to know about Cisco, Cisco hardware, Cisco news, Cisco routers, network security, consumer electronics and more…You can check these 15 more useful Cisco sites, which offer you plenty of Cisco info…
To help Cisco masses know Cisco well, we collected 15 more sites covering a range of Cisco topics—from studying and preparing for certification, to operating a Cisco network in an enterprise or service provider environment, to keeping up with security tips and techniques, to just being entertained by the oddities and idiosyncrasies of the Cisco world. Let’s have a look.
The List of Useful Cisco Sites
Etherealmind
Etherealmind is the brainchild of Greg Ferro, Cisco CCIE #6920, who describes himself as the “Human Infrastructure for Cisco and Data Networking.” Ferro works as a freelance network architect and senior engineer and designer mostly in the UK. His site features an array of opinions, outbursts, insight and experience. He has over 20 years in IT, more than 12 in networking and has spent time at large and small financial institutions, service providers, resellers and dot-coms. His current areas of focus are data center, security and application networking technologies.
Risky Business
Cisco customers, engineers, marketers and enthusiasts can never get enough security information. Risky.biz first “aired” in February 2007. Since then, the site has published over 170 episodes and developed a following among high-level security professionals. In addition to the weekly podcast, the site has recorded security presentations, podcast interviews and job listings. There are also forums for discussion with security peers on the most recent security-related topics, issues and challenges.
Tekcert
Tekcert, authored by Jeremy Cioara, CCIE, Trainer and “really cool guy,” according to the blog’s Facebook page, used to be Cioara’s “Cisco Blog: the world of all things Cisco”. Tekcert has broadened beyond that to become a site that blogs about technology, business and certifications. The site, thanks to Cioara, still has considerable amounts of content on networking and Cisco. But more broadly, Tekcert focuses on “helping people further their knowledge and education about technology.”
Slashdot
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters. That’s the Slashdot tagline and for most readers, it’s accurate. Slashdot has a mix of news, technology, oddities, irreverence and just plain off-the-wall stuff that appeals to the tech savvy. A quick search on Cisco yields submissions and comments on Cisco’s recent introduction of its SocialMiner “stalking” software; to the introduction of the 322Tbps CRS-3 router. The submissions might have a specific take on a Cisco, or any other, announcement; and then the comments increase the entertainment quotient of the submission, if not the insight into it. So Slashdot has the potential to inform, educate and entertain those with an interest in technology in general, as well as Cisco.
Cisco Blogs
Cisco’s own blogs on Cisco.com provide the company with the opportunity to expand on an announcement, strategy, product line or deployment scenario for customers looking to harness the latest, or legacy, Cisco technology. Strategic imperatives for the company, like video, collaboration and data center/virtualization, are highlighted in topic-specific blogs; and then there are more general Cisco interest sites, like The Platform, Social Media, Web Experience, etc. Perhaps the most infotaining is Cisco Interaction Network, which includes TechWise TV, a site we highlighted in the “20 useful” list two years ago that features folk hero Jimmy Ray Purser and his unique insights into Cisco products, deployments and strategies.
Cisco-nsp
Cisco-nsp is an e-mail reflector for users of Cisco gear mostly in enterprises, but with some service provider contributions as well. Topics are very technical and participants usually offer up a deployment challenge or issue for review, followed by tips, tricks, sympathies and snarky comments on how to rectify it or deal with it. This is a site for true practitioners of Cisco networking, and can be very valuable to those with new or decades-old Cisco implementations.
NANOG
Like Cisco-nsp, the NANOG e-mail reflector serves the same purpose, but for service providers. Have a site that’s unreachable? You might find the symptoms and cause here first. Have a problem with route flapping or BGP update suppression? Find workarounds here. Want a review of a new router or switch, or the best to implement for 10G? Find it here. It’s a not a Cisco-specific site by any means but a useful running commentary of issues service providers and network operators grapple with every day, whether they’re using Cisco routers and switches or not.
CertGuard
CertGuard performs a search and verification of certification “braindump” sites – those that offer quick and easy, and cheap, certification exams and aids, such as those for Cisco CCIE and CCNA, that may lack authenticity. These sites can put the user’s certification at risk. CertGuard assesses these sites and offers suggestion on how to get the best bang for your buck without risking your certification. CertGuard says it has over 1,900 brain dump websites and roughly 500 File Sharing websites listed in its database which are freely distributing copyrighted materials without the written permission of the owners of the material. The site also tracks connections or similarities between certification related websites which have previously been undiscovered, and has flagged them for future reference. With this data, CertGuard is focused on assisting candidates in making the correct choice in certification sites, and to stop proxy test takers and unethical brain dump websites.
Engadget
Like social media and Web 2.0, consumer electronics is also a key new growth endeavor for Cisco. Nowhere is that more evident than the company’s $550 million purchase of Pure Digital and its pocket-sized Flip videocam – which followed earlier acquisitions of wireless SoHo router maker Linksys and cable set-top box pusher Scientific-Atlanta. Engadget usually has the scoop on some new models of Flip coming down the pike, as well as some of the first coverage of other Cisco and top name consumer gear hitting the market. Engadget also comments on cool and missing features from consumer gear, and forecasts user trends and buying behaviors based on what’s currently hot and not.
Jaluri
As the title implies, Jaluri aggregates blogs on Cisco and network issues in general to provide a one-stop shop for Cisco- and network-related topics, opinions and technical guidance. In Jaluri’s own opinion, it’s aggregating “some of the best” network and Cisco blogs, some of which already appear in this list and in the one we did three years ago. Several appear to be targeted at CCIE candidates and undoubtedly many more are authored by CCIEs. There’s even one on Juniper…
Burning With The Bush
Speaking of which, who at Cisco would not want to keep up on its archrival in routing? Burning With The Bush blogs on All Things Juniper, from core and edge routing to its moves into new markets, such as data center/cloud computing, mobile Internet and wireless LANs. BWTB also provides tip and tricks on configuring and operating Juniper routers and other JUNOS-based platforms. Burning With The Bush collects info from various sources and many authors, crawling through the Web looking for and linking to relevant Juniper and JUNOS-related posts. The site also has authors that write original content. Its founder, Chris Grundemann, is a certified JUNOS engineer — JNCIE #449 – author of a book on IPv6, founding chair of the Colorado chapter of the Internet Society, and participates in Internet governing institutions. And BWTB is independent – the blog is not affiliated with nor endorsed by Juniper.
Qsolved
Qsolved provides quick answers to Cisco technical support questions. The site describes itself as a “community powered, pay to play marketplace” where experts field and respond to questions from Cisco users. Yes, some of Qsolved’s services may require payment of fees, according to the site’s terms and conditions. But in return you get to download or copy the content from these experts, and other items displayed on the site, provided they are for personal use only and do not infringe on the site’s copyright protection. But a perusal of the Qsolved blog shows there’s some serious stuff going on in there so it might be worth a look.
Tom’s Hardware
Looking for unbiased reviews on Cisco Linksys routers, Aironet access points or Unified Computing System blade servers? Tom’s Hardware has been published by Bestofmedia Group since 1996. Bestofmedia claims it was one of the first sites to review computer components. The site is intended to provide independent, unbiased technology news, articles, reviews and reports to IT professionals, purchasers, tech enthusiasts and influencers. It includes comparison charts and benchmark testing on topics such as high-performance PCs, building your own PC, security, business computing and storage.
Mashable
This is the site for social media news, reviews, opinion and views. Mashable covers the whole Web 2.0 wave, a phenomenon close to Cisco’s, and its customer’s, heart. For Cisco enthusiasts, Mashable covers significant Cisco announcements – like the recent unveiling of the Cius tablet, and the Videoscape Internet TV platform – and offers opinions and commentary on those relevant to social media and Web 2.0. Mashable, which was founded in 2005, is also a model for profitable and influential blogging – the site has more than 30 million monthly page views from an audience that includes early social media adopters, enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, corporations, journalists, bloggers, and advertising and marketing firms. Mashable claims to have also harnessed Twitter and Facebook as conduits into its site, helping to drive traffic and page view metrics.
Friday Traffic Report
Another site for tips and tricks on profiting from social media and Web 2.0 technologies – blogs, wikis and the like – is Friday Traffic Report. Cisco is a huge proponent of businesses adopting social media and Web 2.0 technologies to help market and make money on their product or service. The Friday Traffic Report is a blog dedicated to assist in blog marketing and money making. The site is authored by Jack Humphrey, who’s been at this online thing since 1991. Humphrey claims to have generated billions of site visitors for himself and his online marketing clients over the past decade. He’s also into big hair bands, drums, wilderness survival (including cyberwilderness, no doubt), disarming wit and Vegas. Be prepared to be entertained while you learn online marketing tips and tricks. There are also job listings for bloggers, social media practitioners and other techies, including 1,064 at Cisco when we last checked…
NOTE: Slideshow of 15 More Useful Cisco Sites click here
…—Original reading at networkworld.com
There are still more sites covering Cisco news, Cisco network solutions, Cisco product release, reviews, Cisco certifications, Cisco books, etc.. If you know some useful sites, you can share them with Cisco masses here.
