Stephen J. Occhiogrosso

Author Archives: Stephen J. Occhiogrosso

Network certification for Microsoft Azure

Microsoft recently (well, maybe a couple months ago at this point) released a new certification focusing on the networking aspect of Microsoft Azure. This provides a great primer to get familiar with the Microsoft cloud from a connectivity perspective especially for those out there who are responsible maintaining cloud connectivity for Azure. The exam is […]

The TOGAF ADM – Part II

 Continuing right off from my last post, we going to continue our run-though of the ADM wrapping the last few phases. Phase E: opportunities & Solution: Now, it’s time for us to review the outputs from our previous phases and to start defining the beginning of our implementation details. We do this in the form of creating the […]

The TOGAF ADM – Part I

In my last post we briefly looked at the TOGAF ADM. We won’t be able to fit it all into a single blog post but we will start to explore the ADM from a high level. ADM stands for Architecture Development Method and it organized in 10x different phases. These different phases are designed to […]

TOGAF 9 Certified

After passing more technical certification tests than I care to count, the concept of studying for a non-technical exam seemed surreal. Studying for exam that was not going to teach or test me about protocols, signals, or configurations just sounded so foreign. I do have to admit that there were doubts, the thought of studying […]

Wireshark 3.0 Released

Recently, Wireshark dropped a major release which adds a few cool features (some new and some old). However outside of the new features, there is one major under the hood change this feature introduces. WireShark v3 for Windows now ships with Npcap as opposed to Winpcap that we have been used forever now. Npcap is […]

The -B Domain for Cisco Access Points

I know I am a few months late on this one, but figured it would be worth throwing out there. Earlier in the year Cisco updated and released its access points to be compliant with -B domain regulations set forth by the FCC in North America. After May 1st 2016, all Access points ordered and […]

SourceFire & AMP showing up on CCNP: Security

Looks like the SITCS Exam, that is part of the CCNP: Security exam is going from v1.0 to v1.5. SITCS is the exam oriented around ‘Implementing Cisco Threat Control Soluation’. Now, it only makes sense as the original version of this exam was more geared towards Cisco IPS & CX which has since been EoX’ed some time […]

Wireshark Tid-bit: De-crypt SNMPv3 in Wireshark

I recently found myself troubleshooting some SNMP connectivity between a particular set of devices and an NMS. Connectivity did not appear to be the problem as IP Connectivity was there and MIB walks were successful, however some interesting errors were still getting reported on the NMS. As I captured the packets to verify this connectivity, I […]

Enter the ring: Engineering Deathmatch!!

  What happens when you combine the old celebrity deathmatch meets Cisco networking? Well, you get Engineering Deathmatch! Two engineers enter the console and only one gets out! (You’ve seen Tron right!!?) Well….. it’s almost that dramatic. Have you ever wanted to go head to head against a fellow engineer, put your wits to the […]

It’s been 5 years!!

Hard to believe I have been blogging for 5 years! If I didn’t have a record of it I probably wouldn’t believe it! Last year saw another 30 new blogs posts published, and that doesn’t count my 4 posts for the SolarWinds Thwack Ambassador program or my blog post or two for the Cisco Champion […]

Where to start with Cisco & SourceFire

Since Cisco announced EoX for both it’s traditional IPS and it’s CX-Modules it’s been time to start looking at the new SourceFire modules, however that can be quite an undertaking since SourceFire is a completely different beast from its predecessors. Which raises the question where do you start to begin getting familiar with this new system. […]

Let’s Review: EIGRP Named Mode

My next stop on my CCIE: R/S Written review. EIGRP, the big change here is EIGRP Named Mode it’s the same EIGRP with a new shiny cover. So , let’s jump in. To start the new named mode configuration we need to define the ‘named instance’ compared to defining the autonomous system out of the gate. […]

Let’s Review: OSPF LSA Types

With my Written exam for CCIE: R/S coming up soon (Cisco Live 2015) I figured this would be a good time to back over some basics, and when it comes to OSPF what is more basic than OSPF LSA Types! LSA Type 1 – These are also known as Router LSA’s, every router participating in […]

Configuration management 101

Configuration management, without a doubt this is probably one of those things we all do, but to what end do we perform configuration management though? Usually configuration begins and sometimes ends with backing up and storing those configuration files but how much further can or should we go with configuration? Backing and storing configuration files […]

Not all certificate formats are created equal.

One of my favorite questions: ‘What format do you want that certificate in? Which then forces me to think and try and remember what was so special and different about all the certificate formats again? We’ll start with: PEM – Privacy Enhanced Mail Certificate represented in text format. In a Hex/ASCII format BASE64 encoded DER […]

Wireshark Certified Network Analyst !!

Well, I finally took the time to buckle down and take the WCNA – Wireshark Certified Network Analyst. Once I finished up with the exam I can happily say I successfully past the exam which I have to admit is pretty cool. Protocol Analysis is definitely an interesting set of technologies to learn & know, it is also […]

Wireshark tid-bit: Use the command line

Many of us are familiar with the GUI version of Wireshark, but believe it or not but there are also a slew of other command line based utilities that enhance Wireshark and also aid us in capturing and analyzing data. Let’s take a quick look at some of these tools. tshark – This is pretty […]
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