About the Author

By day, Mark A. Sportack is the Director of Network Engineering for ClearBlue Technologies. By night, he is an adjunct professor with Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and Technology, where he teaches a pair of graduate courses on data networking. His daytime responsibilities include strategic planning for the networks that support the company's Internet data centers, research and evaluation of emerging network technologies, specification of the technology base for the networks that the company's Internet-based managed hosting services. During the course of the last 20 years, Sportack has worked in virtually every aspect of information technology, from administering networks and servers to managing technology and technical personnel. He also has written a variety of books, including IP Routing Fundamentals, published by Cisco Press, Networking Essentials Unleashed, and many others.