CERTIFIED EXAMS

Microsoft Certifications 

The New Generation of Microsoft Certifications

The new generation of Microsoft certifications is more specific and targeted to reflect the detail of what you do and to prove your expertise to those who need to know.

Consisting of three series and four credentials, the new generation of Microsoft certifications provides a simpler and more targeted framework for IT managers to validate core technical skills, professional skills, and architectural skills. It also provides professionals in the IT industry with a more relevant, flexible, and cost-effective way to showcase their skills.

Technology Series: Proven core technical skills on Microsoft technologies

The Technology Series certifications enable professionals to target specific technologies and distinguish themselves by demonstrating in-depth knowledge and expertise in the broad range of specialized technologies. Microsoft Technology Specialists are consistently capable of implementing, building, troubleshooting, and debugging a particular Microsoft technology.

The Technology Series certifications:•
Typically consist of one to three exams.
 
Are focused on a key Microsoft product or technology.
 
Do not include job-role skills.
 
Will be retired when mainstream product support for the particular technology expires.



There are currently 19 Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist certifications. More will become available as new technologies are introduced. A complete list of the MCTS certifications, including the new Microsoft Office Project 2007 certification family, is available on the MCTS overview page.


Professional Series: Professional skills and a proven ability to perform on the job

Professional Series credentials validate a comprehensive set of skills required to be successful on the job. These skills include design, project management, operations management, and planning, and they are contextual to the job role. By validating a more comprehensive set of skills, these credentials give candidates and their hiring managers a reliable indicator of on-the-job performance.

The Professional Series certifications:•
Typically consist of one to three exams.
 
Have one or more prerequisites from the Technology Series.
 
Are focused on a single job role.
 
Require certification refresh to maintain active status.


Microsoft currently offers two Professional Series credentials:•

Microsoft Certified IT Professional
Microsoft Certified Professional Developer

Architect Series: Exemplary business IT skills and a proven ability to deliver business solutions

The Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) program identifies top industry experts in IT architecture. These prestigious professionals have a minimum of ten years of advanced IT industry experience, have three or more years of experience as a practicing architect, possess strong technical and managerial skills, and form an elite community. Unlike other industry certifications, this credential was built and is granted by the architect community. Candidates must pass a rigorous review by the Review Board, which consists of previously certified peer architects.

The Architect Series certifications:•
Have a rigorous and competitive entry process.
 
Require the candidate to work closely with a mentor who is a Microsoft Certified Architect.
 
Culminate in an oral review in front of previously certified architects.
 
Require certification refresh.


Red Hat Certifications

Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)

Overview

Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) is a performance-based test that measures actual competency on live systems. Called the "crown jewel of Linux certifications," RHCE proves an individual's ability to configure networking services and security on servers running a Red Hat OS. RHCE was recently named the hottest certification in all of IT by CertCities.com.

The RHCE Exam

Becoming a Red Hat Certified Engineer requires passing a five-and-a-half-hour hands-on exam. There are four different approaches to preparing for the exam depending on your existing level of Linux expertise.

Level of Linux Expertise

To determine your level of experience, take our pre-assessment questionnaires or read the descriptions below for the Standard and Rapid Tracks.

Exam Preparation

Courses you should take:                                                             Level of Linux Expertise:
                                                                                             None                         Some                        Much            Expert
                                                                                                     Standard Track *                               Rapid Track **
RH033 Red Hat Linux Essentials                  yes
RH131 Red Hat System Administration
or
RH133 Red Hat Linux Administration
(and RHCT Exam)                                                   yes                                yes
RH253 Red Hat Linux Networking and
Security Administration                                   yes                                 yes
RH300 Red Hat Rapid Track Course
(and RHCE Exam)                                                                                                                                 yes
RH302 RHCE Exam                                                yes                                yes                                                       yes

* Standard Track

The Standard Track consists of three courses -- RH033, RH133, RH253 -- and is aimed at persons who need more review of key concepts or who are new to both UNIX and Linux.

RH033 Red Hat Linux Essentials targets IT professionals with no prior UNIX or Linux experience, and covers skills to prepare for RH133, including shell and command line essentials.

RH131 and RH133 Red Hat System Administration are designed for those wanting to prepare for professional responsibilities as a Linux systems administrator at the Technician level. You'll learn all the skills required to manage a Linux workstation and attach it to a corporate network, including configuration of client-side network services. Prerequisites include networking fundamentals and internetworking with TCP/IP, widely available from reputable training vendors or through self-study. RH133 now includes the RHCT Exam on the last half of the last day.

RH253 Red Hat Linux Networking and Security Administration is designed for those who desire to build skills at configuring and administering a Red Hat Linux server running key enterprise network services and security. Prerequisites include RH133 or equivalent skills.

** Rapid Track

The Rapid Track consists of one course -- RH300 Red Hat Rapid Track Course (and RHCE Exam) -- and is aimed at persons who are experienced UNIX and Linux users, networking specialists, and system administrators and need specific Red Hat Enterprise Linux training to pass the RHCE Exam (which is included).
Success Pack

Increase your chances for certification. The RHCE Success Pack acts as insurance in a way, providing a re-take of the exam for a discounted price, if you fail the first exam. Find out more.

Live Access Labs

Red Hat Live Access Labs provide an environment to conduct self-paced lab learning in the setup identical to RHCE-track classroom courses.

Java Certification 

Overview

Sun's certification program in Java technology is an industry recognized, worldwide program that focuses on critical job roles in software application development and enterprise architecture. Since these certifications focus on the technology, the knowledge and skills learned while preparing for Sun's certifications are transportable from one company to another.

Sun's philosophy is that certification is central to the learning process as it provides validation of skill sets for specific job roles. Sun certification also offers a natural progression to support your career goals.
First, by becoming a Sun Certified Associate Sun verifies that you have a base set of knowledge that enables entry into a career in application development or software project management using Java technology.
Second, we train developers on a foundational set of skills, which can then be validated by becoming a Sun Certified Programmer.
Afterwards, you can pursue advanced or specialty training and certifications that help enable career growth into more specific job roles making you more valuable to an organization.

Sun offers the following Java technology professional certifications:
- Sun Certified Java Associate (SCJA)
- Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP)
- Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD)
- Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD)
- Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD)
- Sun Certified Developer For Java Web Services (SCDJWS)
- Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer (SCMAD)
- Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA)

Please note that the goal of Sun certification is to test on a particular job role. Thus, to prepare for a certification exam we recommend Sun training and six to twelve months of actual job role experience. Sun does not claim that by taking courses you are guaranteed to pass the certification exams, however we do state that Sun training is an important component in certification preparation.

IBM Gets Into Semantics With New E-Mail Search Tool

IBM's new OmniFind Personal E-Mail Search tool is designed to help heavy e-mail users sift through the glut of information residing in their in-boxes. The technology works by intelligently matching a query against predefined concepts, such as persons, phone numbers, addresses, meetings, presentations, documents or schedules and relationships amongst these concepts, IBM said.

Heavy e-mail users sometimes have trouble finding the needle of information they need in the haystacks of old missives lingering in their in-boxes. That's the sort of user IBM (NYSE: IBM) has targeted with its new OmniFind Personal E-Mail Search (IOPES) tool.

Rolled out Thursday, IOPES is a free, semantics-based search tool designed to make searching the "vast personal database" that is most people's inbox easier by identifying the most relevant information in a search query and extrapolating what the user is attempting to find, according to IBM.

"With gigabytes of e-mail storage readily available to nearly everyone, e-mail has evolved from a simple communication tool into a personal database where we retain vast amounts of valuable information," said Douglas Wilson, distinguished engineer and chief technology officer of Lotus.

IOPES for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Outlook and Lotus Notes is available at no charge through IBM's AlphaWorks site.

Search Grid

Developed jointly by researchers at IBM labs in California, Israel and India, IOPES offers more refined search capabilities than a simple keyword search. Instead, the e-mail search tool uses semantic technology that can interpret incomplete queries and make associations based on the underlying meaning of words frequently used in corporate e-mails.

The software was created using IBM's Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA), an open source software framework that helps organizations build new analysis technologies. Companies are able to realize more value from their unstructured information by discovering relationships, identifying patterns and predicting outcomes, according to IBM.

The technology works, IBM said, by intelligently matching a query against predefined concepts -- such as persons, phone numbers, addresses, meetings, presentations, documents or schedules -- and relationships amongst these concepts -- such as a person's phone number or address.

To accomplish this, IBM researchers compiled an index of keywords typically found in business e-mails and then created a list of concepts and relationships among those terms. That data was built into IOPES so that when a user enters a query -- for example for "Bob address" -- the application first runs through its index of terms and relationships to return the most accurate results.

Users can further refine IOPES' search functionality by adding their own user-defined concepts using the tagger utility that can be shared between individuals and used to create a more personalized search system, according to IBM.

Semantically Speaking

Creating better search tools based on semantics has been a widely talked-about goal for online search engines. However, less work has been done in the areas of desktops, e-mail and other data searches, leaving users to struggle with keyword searches.

"This is a good thing. It's good to see that someone is bringing this into the e-mail or desktop search category," said Kenneth Poore, a Forrester Research analyst. "The industry in general has been kind of underserved by the keyword-based search tools that Microsoft has with their Windows Desktop Search, and of course Google has their desktop search."

The problem with the current generation of desktop and e-mail searches is that they are "so literal and so keyword-based" that they are "not hitting the mark, and a lot of users are coming away a little disenchanted with the dearth of capability" in those products, Poore told TechNewsWorld.

"They want more of 'do what I mean' or 'find what I want' kind of searches rather than find exactly what I type in," he continued. "IBM has done a lot of work with semantic analysis. Doing semantic search for e-mail really opens that up. Being able to go out and do more conceptual searching instead of literal searching adds a lot of value."


Microsoft Cagey on Details as It Sets IE 8 Time Frame

Microsoft started the countdown to the next iteration of its Internet Explorer Web browser, IE 8; the company is promising a beta version in early 2008. Typically, Microsoft isn't very shy about revealing a few details about upcoming features in such offerings, but its latest announcement had little to say about the new functions to be found in the beta.

The next iteration of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Web browser, Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), will roll out in beta form early next year, the company said Wednesday. The long-awaited news comes just days after the earlier-than-expected launch of the second beta version of Mozilla's Firefox 3 Web browser.

The eighth version of the browser won't be hamstrung with the difficulties IE 7 had following its release in October 2006, Microsoft said, due to improvements Microsoft made to IE 7's Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The browser passed a significant Web standards milestone, and as of last week, IE 8 now "renders the 'Acid2 Face' correctly in IE 8 standards mode," said Dean Hachamovitch, IE Team general manager.

"Acid2 is one test of how modern browsers work with some specific features across several different Web standards," he continued. "With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing Web. This second goal refers to the lessons we learned during IE 7."
Web Standards Focused

With Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft is making a concerted effort on interoperability, ensuring the browser supports certain accepted Web standards. It's something the software maker did not focus on until it began working on IE 7 in 2005. Before then, Web developers designed their applications with an eye on compatibility with the latest version of Internet Explorer rather than the jumble of industry, de facto and open standards.

The rise in popularity of Web standards such as CSS and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and growing competition from open source browsers like Firefox and Opera forced Microsoft to rethink its position.

"The key goal ... is interoperability. As a developer, I'd prefer to not have to write the same site multiple times for different browsers. Standards are a (critical) means to this end, and we focus on the standards that will help actual, real-world interoperability the most," Hachamovitch said.

"This is a big push towards standards compliance," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at The Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "IE is the product that defines how Web sites are built, so its move to standards should be, and initially has been, very well received."

Passing the Acid2 test developed by the Web Standards Project, an advocacy group, is a significant achievement. Firefox and Opera failed this test in the past, and it is believed to be the most comprehensive third-party test for broad standards in the market, Enderle pointed out.
Browsing Through IE 8

Though the final version of IE 8 will be a full release, Microsoft has remained relatively quiet about what new improvements and features will be included in the final form.

Microsoft trumpets new features early and often, "but they appear to be keeping some of the features under wraps," Enderle noted.

Judging by Hachamovitch's remarks, Microsoft's unusual silence is intentional.

"For IE 8, we want to communicate facts, not aspirations. We're posting this information now because we have real working code checked in and we're confident about delivering it in the final product."

With the software maker keeping mum about what it plans for IE 8, one good sign is that Microsoft is not influenced as much by what its competitors Firefox, Opera and Safari are doing, Enderle said.

"Microsoft actually appears to be listening to customers and developers on this cycle, which normally bodes well for the product. Focusing on competitors too much often results in a product that lags significantly behind what the others have to offer. And Microsoft needs to lead with IE, not follow," he explained.

"I'd expect a big push on media, major security enhancements, and some solid usability work with the final release," Enderle added.
Tread Carefully

Though he cautioned Microsoft against focusing too much on what its competitors are doing, Enderle suggested the software maker take a look at the mobile version of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Safari browser. "The big advantage Safari has is on the iPhone, and addressing this shortcoming in the mobile version of IE is critical because it's crippling their phone effort right now."
Whatever Microsoft decides to do with IE 8, it is imperative they get it right, Enderle stated.

It may be one of the major things that define Microsoft in the last part of the decade, as the code is tied to almost every platform they have in some way or other. Getting this right or wrong could have a major impact on Microsoft's future," he concluded.


Trojan Pulls a Fast One With Google Text Ads

End users who click on seemingly legitimate Google ads may be at risk of infection by a Trojan that substitutes rogue ads for the real thing. Google and the companies that pay for genuine ads are also victimized, because the pretenders usurp traffic and potential revenue.

Malware is replacing Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) text ads with ads from another source, according to BitDefender. The virus, Trojan.Qhost.WU, is using the host's file to redirect the initial query sent to the Google Adsense servers to a malicious host, according to an advisory issued by the firm.

The host's file is the first step in the name/IP (Internet protocol) translation process; if an entry is located in this file, the domain name server is not queried. By supplying a false entry, the malware is able to redirect queries to a rogue server.

Who's at Risk


End users who click on the seemingly legitimate ads are at risk, as they likely carry additional malware. Google and the companies that pay for genuine ads are also victimized, because the pretenders usurp traffic and potential revenue.

To see if a computer has been infected with this virus, BitDefender advises users to investigate whether the host's file is providing local storage for domain name/IP mappings that contains a line redirecting the host to page2.googlesyndication.com.

From the command line or from Start-->Run, issue the following command: ping -t pagead2.googlesyndication.com. The response should look similar to this, according to BitDefender: Pinging pagead.l.google.com [6x.xxx.xxx.xxx] with 32 bytes of data, where the x's represent digits.

"If you are not infected, the first digit will be a 6 (as in the example). If you are infected, the first digit will be a 9," said BitDefender.

Trojan.Qhost.WU is not spreading fast and poses a "medium" risk of damage, according to the advisory.

Not Unusual

While the target may be a little different, this particular Trojan is just another variation of typical phishing malware, Dmitri Alperovitch, principal research scientist with Secure Computing, told TechNewsWorld.

"We have been seeing attacks like this for the last two to three years, where the virus changes the internal setting to point the user to a different server," he said.

At their core, all of these hack attacks intercept a resolution from the browsers to the DNS (domain name system) server via a simple modification to the Windows system file, he explained. "No query is made to the real DNS server."

A more dangerous variant is the Zlob virus, which infects users by masquerading as a video compression algorithm necessary to view a particular video.

The malware that is subsequently downloaded replaces resolutions not for just one domain name, but for an entire configuration of DNS servers under the control of a malicious group.


S5 Wireless: Going Where No GPS Has Gone Before

A GPS device may be able to tell you which roads to take to drive to the southernmost tip of Chile, but take it inside any building and odds are it won't know where you are. A new company, S5 Wireless, wants to create an alternative tracking system that works well indoors. S5's system, however, works differently than GPS, meaning that if it takes off, it would be more a complement than a replacement.

In one high-tech thriller after another, the hero attaches a tiny tracking device on the villain and follows him as blinking dot on a computer screen. In real life, this kind of technology would be great for tracking pets or kids, even packages or luggage -- anything that tends to wander. However, it doesn't really exist.

There are GPS devices, of course, but strap a half-pound GPS collar to a dog and you'll realize it's far from "Mission Impossible." GPS-enabled cell phones are becoming more common, but they have problems, like accuracy indoors, and they aren't cheap.

A Utah company, S5 Wireless, is looking to bring reality closer to the movies, with small, cheap chips that can be powered by a single battery for up two years and tracked indoors and outside, over long distances.

For instance, an S5 chip could go into a dog collar, complete with a battery, in a package about the size of a stick of gum that costs $3 to $4 to make. When the battery runs down, it's time to buy a new collar.

The same concept could be applied to a kid's backpack, with an antenna running through the strap.

"It's like a poor man's LoJack or OnStar," said David Carter, S5's chief executive.

Triangulating Signals


The drawback to the technology is that unlike the Global Positioning System, which is quite literally global, S5's technology would only work where the company has a network of stations to receive S5 signals. S5 is planning to start building those in some major U.S. cities next year.

What the chips do is basically GPS in reverse. GPS satellites operated by the Air Force send signals to receivers in devices like car navigation systems. Those receivers need a line of sight to the sky, so they work only outdoors, and are fairly power-hungry.

By contrast, the S5 chips send radio signals that will be picked up by receivers S5 plans to build. By measuring the difference in the time the signal takes to arrive at three different receivers, S5 can compute the location of the sender to within about 30 feet outdoors, or 45 feet indoors. The same principle can be used for locating some cell phones in an emergency but is much less accurate. LoJack equipment also sends radio signals from a stolen car, but it uses a lot of power and is expensive compared to S5's chips.

GPS: Not Entirely Housebroken

"The thing that struck me the most is that their solution allows for very good indoor coverage," said Belgium-based analyst Dominique Bonte, who covers GPS technologies for ABI Research.

Bonte said the weakness of GPS indoors vexes those who want to provide location-based services, like cell-phone messages advertising sales at nearby stores.

Companies like Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) have experimented with using WiFi hotspots in known locations to fill gaps in GPS. Some GPS devices incorporate motion sensors that estimate the user's location based on movement after the GPS signal is lost.

"There's a lot of activity, a lot of companies, and of course a lot of venture capital which is being made available for those kinds of initiatives," Bonte said. "There is a big belief that whoever comes up with something that's cheap, that works and is available will hit the jackpot there."

Giving It Away

To gain a foothold, S5 will give away the designs for its chips, letting anyone make their own or incorporate the functions into existing chips, like those in cell phones. It plans to make money by charging for the location service, though at low rates, around US$1 a month, Carter said.

S5's technology isn't ideal for navigation devices, since the chip doesn't know where it is. It couldn't, on its own, plot its position on a map the way a car navigation system does. Instead, it is S5's data center that knows where the chip is.

If you're tracking a dog -- or a villain -- that's not an issue. The dog doesn't need to know where it is, but the S5 network can tell you via Web browser or cell phone where it is.

Apart from pets and kids, Carter envisions the system being used to track valuable equipment on construction sites and in hospitals, much like LoJack protects cars.

If you don't trust FedEx and UPS to track your package, you could slip a tracking device into it before you ship it, and you'll know where it is. The company has also received grants from the Department of Homeland Security to study the use of its chips in tracking shipping containers. S5 chips could even be built into cell phones to supplement GPS chips where reception is weak, like indoors.

As a bonus, S5 chips could transmit small amounts of data generated by other devices. For instance, a diabetes patient's glucose meter could be monitored remotely.

Major City Rollout

S5 plans to piggyback on existing cell-phone towers and antennas in building out its network, though officials would not say how much they expect the build-out to cost. To pinpoint a chip's location, S5 needs three receivers within the signal's range, about a mile in cities, Carter said. The company plans to cover "several" major cities next year and 35 cities within three years.

That's a tall order, but the venture's main backer lends it credibility. Billionaire Craig McCaw, who founded one of the country's first cell-phone companies, is S5's majority investor. He also backs wireless broadband provider Clearwire.

S5 hasn't announced any build-out partners yet.

Remarkably, S5 plans to use free, unlicensed spectrum in the 900 megahertz band, which is already crowded by cordless phones. Steve Chacko, S5's director of product marketing, likened the feat of picking up those signals from miles away to extracting a needle from a haystack. However, he said sophisticated low-power radio technology makes S5's plan viable.


Intel Asks Devs to Help Get LANs, SANs to Play Nice


FCoE is a proposed specification that will allow Fibre Channel storage area network traffic to run over Ethernet. By consolidating LAN and SAN traffic onto a single fabric, FCoE aims to simplify network infrastructure in the data center and give organizations more flexible options for deploying and managing existing SANs.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) has released a software initiator package designed to promote the development of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) solutions for Linux, the company announced Tuesday.

Now available for download, the software is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 and is open to all FCoE developers for source code download, code contribution and feedback. It includes a target simulator so Linux developers can test and modify the FCoE software stack, Intel said.

"Server virtualization, database growth and compliance requirements have created a greater need for network storage," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manger of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.

"FCoE makes it easier and less expensive to connect servers to the SAN," Gelsinger added. "We expect the open source community to use this initiator stack to create reliable, standards-based FCoE solutions for their customers."
Proposed Standard

FCoE is a proposed specification that will allow Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) traffic to run over Ethernet. By consolidating LAN (local area network) and SAN traffic onto a single fabric, FCoE aims to simplify network infrastructure in the data center and give organizations more flexible options for deploying and managing existing SANs.

Vendors backing the standard, which was proposed in April to the T11 Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), include Brocade, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) , EMC (NYSE: EMC) , Emulex, IBM (NYSE: IBM) , Nuova, QLogic and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) , as well as Intel.

Intel is a member of the T11 Fibre Channel standards body.
'Key Capability'

"Fibre Channel over Ethernet will be a key capability for our customers offering seamless server and storage access in the data center," said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president of the data center, switching and services group at Cisco Systems.

"The emergence of 10 gigabit Ethernet bandwidth combined with Cisco's proposed extensions to Ethernet, enables a lossless and resilient fabric for data center I/O (input/output) consolidation," Ullal added. "Cisco is pleased to see Intel taking a leadership role in FCoE."

The new FCoE initiator code is based on a specification being developed by the T11 in the FC-BB-5 work group. The FCoE specification is expected to be completed in 2008.
'A Critical Step'

"The classic challenge for any storage networking technology, whether Fibre Channel, FCoE or iSCSI, is developing support for the most important operating environments," Richard L. Villars, vice president of storage systems for IDC, told LinuxInsider.

Fibre Channel, because of when it came out and where it's used, is the dominant technology for all the Unix platforms and the mainframe world, as well as growing in importance for the Windows, VM (virtual machine) and Linux worlds, Villars added.

"FCoE is a critical step for companies that want to leverage their past investments in Fibre Channel SANs and networking software," he explained. "This makes the transition to FCoE smoother as companies mix the older operating systems with the newer ones where much of the application development is going on today."

TEC-News

Google Talk Multiple Instances

You can login to Multiple Google Talk Accounts Simultaneously, For that you have to create a shortcut and paste this to following line “Location of the item”

"c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex


Google Web Accelerator

Google Web Accelerator is an application that uses the power of Google's global computer network to make web pages load faster. Google Web Accelerator is easy to use; all you have to do is download and install it, and from then on many web pages will automatically load faster than before.

Please note that Google Web Accelerator is currently a Google Labs product. If you have any problems using it or have suggestions for how we can improve it, please see the Google Group devoted to it.

Increase the speed of browser using google web accelerator.

free download from google : http://webaccelerator.google.com



Microsoft Silver light

Silver light is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET–based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

How to Configure Outlook Express for Gmail?

Go to add an email account. And note down the settings from here

Incoming Mail: pop.gmail.com

Outgoing Mail: smtp.gmail.com

Account Name: gmail.id@gmail.com (It is your full email address)

Click “My server requires authentication”

Gmail doesn’t use default ports, the ports are:

SMTP or Outgoing Mail: 465

POP3 or Incoming Mail: 995

Also click “This server requires a secure connection (SSL)”

Learn Linux

1. What is Linux?

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system for computer devices. The operating system is what makes the hardware work together with the software. The OS is the interface that allows you to do the things you want with your computer. Linux is freely available to everyone. OS X and Windows are other widely used OS.

Linux gives you a graphical interface that makes it easy to use your computer, yet it still allows those with know-how to change settings by adjusting 0 to 1.

It is only the kernel that is named Linux, the rest of the OS are GNU tools. A package with the kernel and the needed tools make up a Linux distribution. Mandrake , Suse, Gentoo and Redhat are some of the many variants. Linux OS can be used on a large number of boxes, including i386+ , Alpha, PowerPC and Sparc.

2. Understanding files and folders

Linux is made with one thought in mind: Everything is a file.

A blank piece of paper is called a file in the world of computers. You can use this piece of paper to write a text or make a drawing. Your text or drawing is called information. A computer file is another way of storing your information.

If you make many drawings then you will eventually want to sort them in different piles or make some other system that allows you to easily locate a given drawing. Computers use folders to sort your files in a hieratic system.

A file is an element of data storage in a file system (file systems manual page). Files are usually stored on harddrives, cdroms and other media, but may also be information stored in RAM or links to devices.

To organize our files into a system we use folders. The lowest possible folder is root / where you will find the user homes called /home/.
/
/home/
/home/mom/
/home/dad/


Behind every configurable option there is a simple human-readable text file you can hand-edit to suit your needs. These days most programs come with nice GUI (graphical user interface) like Mandrakes Control Center and Suses YAST that can smoothly guide you through most configuration. Those who choose can gain full control of their system by manually adjusting the configuration files from foo=yes to foo=no in an editor.

Almost everything you do on a computer involves one or more files stored locally or on a network.

Your filesystems lowest folder root / contains the following folders: /bin Essential user command binaries (for use by all users)
/boot Static files of the boot loader, only used at system startup
/dev Device files, links to your hardware devices like /dev/sound, /dev/input/js0 (joystick)
/etc Host-specific system configuration
/home User home directories. This is where you save your personal files
/lib Essential shared libraries and kernel modules
/mnt Mount point for a temporarily mounted filesystem like /mnt/cdrom
/opt Add-on application software packages
/usr /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable, read-only data. That means that /usr should be shareable between various FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information that is host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere.
/var /var contains variable data files. This includes spool directories and files, administrative and logging data, and transient and temporary files.
/proc System information stored in memory mirrored as files.



The only folder a normal user needs to use is /home/you/ - this is where you will be keeping all your documents.
/home/elvis/Documents
/home/elvis/Music
/home/elvis/Music/60s


Files are case sensitive, "myfile" and "MyFile" are two different files.



3. Understanding users and permissions

Linux is based on the idea that everyone using a system has their own username and password.

Every file belongs to a user and a group, and has a set of given attributes (read, write and executable) for users, groups and all (everybody).

A file or folder can have permissions that only allows the user it belongs to to read and write to it, allowing the group it belongs to to read it and at the same time all other users can't even read the file.

4. Who and what is root

Linux has one special user called root (this is the user name). Root is the "system administrator" and has access to all files and folders. This special user has the right to do anything.

You should never log on as this user unless you actually need to do something that requires it!

Use su - to temporary become root and do the things you need, again: never log into your sytem as root!

Root is only for system maintenance, this is not a regular user (LindowsOS don't have any user management at all and uses root for everything, this is a very bad idea!).

You can execute a command as root with:

su -c 'command done as root'

Gentoo Linux: Note that on Gentoo Linux only users that are member of the wheel group are allowed to su to root.

5. Opening a command shell / terminal

To learn Linux, you need to learn the shell command line in a terminal emulator.

In KDE: K -> System -> Konsoll to get a command shell)

Pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 to CTRL-ALT-F6 gives you the console command shell windows, while CTRL-ALT-F7 gives you XFree86 (the graphical interface).

xterm (manual page) is the standard XFree console installed on all boxes, run it with xterm (press ALT F2 in KDE and Gnome to run commands).

Terminals you probably have installed:
xterm http://dickey.his.com/xterm/
konsole (KDEs terminal)
gnome-terminal (Gnomes terminal)

Non-standard terminals should install:
rxvt http://www.rxvt.org/
aterm http://aterm.sourceforge.net

6. Your first Linux commands

Now you should have managed to open a terminal shell and are ready to try your first Linux commands. Simply ask the computer to do the tasks you want it to using it's language and press the enter key (the big one with an arrow). You can add a & after the command to make it run in the background (your terminal will be available while the job is done). It can be practical to do things like moving big divx movies as a background process: cp movie.avi /pub &. Jobs - the basics of job control

6.1. ls - short for list

ls lists the files in the current working folder. This is probably the first command to try out. It as a number of options described on the ls manpage.

Examples:

ls

ls -al --color=yes
6.2. pwd - print name of current/working directory

pwd prints the fully resolved name of the current (working) directory. pwd manpage.

6.3. cd - Change directory

cd stands for change (working) directory and that's what it does. The folder below you (unless you are in /, where there is no lower directory) is called "..".

To go one folder down:

cd ..

Change into the folder Documents in your current working directory:

cd Documents

Change into a folder somewhere else:

cd /pub/video

The / in front of pub means that the folder pub is located in the / (lowest folder).

7. The basic commands

7.1. chmod - Make a file executable

To make a file executable and runnable by any user:

chmod a+x myfile

Refer to the chmod manual page for more information.

7.2. df - view filesystem disk space usage

df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3 73G 67G 2.2G 97% /
tmpfs 2.0M 24K 2.0M 2% /mnt/.init.d
tmpfs 252M 0 252M 0% /dev/shm


The flags: -h, --human-readable Appends a size letter such as M for megabytes to each size.
df manpage

7.3. du - View the space used by files and folders

Use du (Disk Usage) to view how much space files and folders occupy. Read the du manual page for flags and usage.

du is a part of fileutils.

Example du usage:
du -sh Documents/
409M Documents

7.4. mkdir - makes folders

Folders are created with the command mkdir:

mkdir folder

To make a long path, use mkdir -p :

mkdir -p /use/one/command/to/make/a/long/path/

Like most programs mkdir supports -v (verbose). Practical when used in scripts.

You can make multiple folders in bash and other shells with {folder1,folder2} :

mkdir /usr/local/src/bash/{old,new,dist,bugs}

mkdir manual page

The command rmdir removes folders.

7.5. passwd - changes your login password

To change your password in Linux, type:

passwd

The root user can change the password of any user by running passwd with the user name as argument:

passwd jonny

will change jonnys password. Running passwd without arguments as root changes the root password.

If you need to add several new users and give them password you can use a handy program like Another Password Generator to generate a large set of "random" passwords.

7.5.1. KDE

From KDE you can change your password by going:
K -> Settings -> Change Password
K -> Settings -> Control Center -> System Administration -> User Account

7.6. rm - delete files and folders, short for remove

Files are deleted with the command rm:
rm /home/you/youfile.txt

To delete folders, use rm together with -f (Do not prompt for confirmation) and -r (Recursively remove directory trees):
rm -rf /home/you/foo/

Like most programs rm supports -v (verbose).
rm manual page

7.7. ln - make symbolic links

A symbolic link is a "file" pointing to another file.

To make a symbolic link :
ln /original/file /new/link


This makes /original/file and /new/link the same file - edit one and the other will change. The file will not be gone until both /original/file and /new/link are deleted.

You can only do this with files. For folders, you must make a "soft" link.

To make a soft symbolic link :
ln -s /original/file /new/link


Example:
ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 /usr/src/linux


Note that -s makes an "empty" file pointing to the original file/folder. So if you delete the folder a symlink points to, you will be stuck with a dead symlink (just rm it).

7.8. tar archiving utility - tar.bz2 and tar.gz

tar (manual page) is a very handle little program to store files and folders in archives, originally made for tapestreamer backups. Tar is usually used together with gzip (manual page) or bzip2 (manual page), comprepssion programs that make your .tar archive a much smaller .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 archive.

kde

You can use the program ark (K -> Utilities -> Ark) to handle archives in KDE. Konqueror treats file archives like normal folders, simply click on the archive to open it. The archive becomes a virtual folder that can be used to open, add or remove files just as if you were working with a normal folder.

7.8.1. tar files (.tar.gz)

To untar files:
tar xvzf file.tar.gz


To tar files:
tar cvzf file.tar.gz filedir1 filedir2 filedir2...


Note: A .tgz file is the same as a .tar.gz file. Both are also often refered to as tarballs.

The flags: z is for gzip, v is for verbose, c is for create, x is for extract, f is for file (default is to use a tape device).

7.8.2. bzip2 files (.tar.bz2)

To unpack files:
tar xjvf file.tar.bz2


To pack files:
tar cvjf file.tar.bz2 filedir1 filedir2 filedir2...


The flags: Same as above, but with j for for bzip2

You can also use bunzip2 file.tar.bz2 , will turn it into a tar.

For older versions of tar, try tar -xjvf or -xYvf or -xkvf to unpack.There's a few other options it could be, they couldn't decide which switch to use for bzip2 for a while.

How to untar an entire directory full or archives?

.tar:

for i in `ls *.tar`; do tar xvf $i; done

.tar.gz: for i in `ls *.tar.gz`; do tar xvfz $i; done

.tar.bz2: for i in `ls *.tar.bz2`; do tar xvfj $i; done