Management Toolkit: SMART Goals
In the last post we discussed Management vs Leadership, now let’s start getting into some useful tools, traits, and behaviors for both managers and leaders. Starting us off will be SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time-based. Once you hear about SMART goals and what SMART goals represent it […]Leadership vs Management
Leadership and management these two are often used interchangeably but are they interchangeable? Do we consider all managers to also be leaders and are all leaders managers? While the best managers will have traits of a good leader and visa-versa these two roles are not always synonymous. First thing we will want to do is […]Wireshark tid-bit: Looking for the smoking gun
It’s not always the network which is at fault but it is usually the network that is the assumed culprit. Wireshark can be a vital tool when troubleshooting difficult scenarios or prove that the network is not root cause. The purpose of this post is to ask questions and promote out of the box thinking […]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 […]
Cisco ASA presents self-signed cert in certain SSL negotiations – CSCuu02848 / CSCuw02001
Just kind of a shout-out to those running ASA’s, be careful when you upgrade to v9.4+ or v9.5+, and beyond. In v9.4+ when the ASA attempts to negotiate an SSL connection it will attempt to use an ECDSA Cipher as part of TLS v1.2 if the client supports Elliptic Curve ciphers. In this situation the ASA […]
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. […]
Cisco Live the final countdown, Last minute tips!
With Cisco Live 2015 literally right around the corner, now is the perfect time to grab a few last minute items! Portable chargers – The days a long, much longer than you expect and let’s face it smartphone batteries don’t last as long as we would like. While there are charging stations at CLUS it’s […]
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 […]