First, I would like to thank the personnel at MTP. The team has been amazingly patient with me for the long period in which I have been working on this manuscript. To Mr. David Dwyer and Mr. Al Valvano, thank you for giving me the opportunity to bring this work to the networking marketplace. To Ms. Theresa Gheen, thank you for guidance during the writing and production phases. To the Developement Editors, Ms. Katie Pendergast and Ms. Lisa Thibault, thank you so much for reading this complete manuscript and at the same time maintaining the concentration to deal with my redundant writing style. I would also like to thank all the technical editors, especially Brian and Mark for their technical guidance through the writing of this technically abstract book. Final thanks are also due to the complete staff at MTP in the copy editing and layout departments.

I would like to thank my colleagues, Ms. Janice Pellegrini and Mr. Marco Fiore for their support. Specifically, my friend, Janice, was instrumental in helping me develop this book through providing me with the required transcribing services needed to transfer the technical material in this manuscript from my mind to paper. While I was busy writing this book, my new friend, Marco, assisted me, with some of the day-to-day technical duties that we engage in at LAN Scope.

I cannot forget to thank my friend, Mr. Tim Barnard. Tim engineered all of the graphics in this book. With my technical, hand-scratched concepts, Tim was able to create the required art to relay the technical material in this book in a true graphical manner.

There are also individuals in this industry with whom I have interacted over the past 25 years, and to whom I must partially dedicate this book. These are the individuals whom I must label as the non-believers. This book finally culminates all of my consulting and writing work at LAN Scope over the past 11 years. From the heart, I developed the concept of network baselining to ensure the networks in this world run in a stable and reliable fashion performing at the highest level. It has also been my personal mission to ensure the industry networking personnel in the marketplace, who work in the trenches day-to-day supporting networks under corporate rule, the opportunity to receive the knowledge transfer that they require to perform their jobs. To the non-believers, I hope you all can finally see that network baselining was my vision and mission, and there is not a dark wall in this world that can block the shining light that network baselining can spread upon today's networks.

This book would not have been at all possible without the love that I received from my family. To my mother Jean, thank you for being there when I really needed you. To my brother David, I am proud of you, and thank you for your support. To my children, Danny, Mikey, and Joey, without you guys there would have not been a driving force to allow me to create this work. You boys are the world to me.