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Category Archives for "Networking"

This History Of Networking, from The Network Collective

I mentioned The Network Collective previously when I responded to the very first episode of the videocast/podcast (what TWiT would call a netcast). Since then the three founders and co-hosts (Jordan, Eyvonne and Phil) have published an impressive 20 community roundtable episodes and have somehow also found time to launch a History of Networking series co-hosted by Russ White (yes, that Russ White).

The Network Collective

History Of Networking

I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to computer history, and I love reading books that give the inside story about the birth of the personal computer, the story of Silicon Valley, the rise and fall of technology companies and so on. However, the history of networking is nowhere near as well covered, which is a real shame. Thankfully, The Network Collective are filling that gap handsomely with a list of guests so far that blows my mind. For example:

Paul Vixie

Paul Vixie on the History of Networking

If you’ve ever heard of Vixie cron, BIND DNS, DNSSEC, the Internet Software Consortium (ISC), you’ve found things Mr Vixie has had his hands all over. It’s fascinating to hear him talking about the history of DNS adoption, and his role in maintaining BIND in a nascent Continue reading

How we made our page-load optimisations even faster

In 2017 we made two of our web optimisation products - Mirage and Rocket Loader - even faster! Combined, these products speed up around 1.2 billion web-pages a week. The products are both around 5 years old, so there was a big opportunity to update them for the brave new world of highly-tuned browsers, HTTP2 and modern Javascript tooling. We measured a performance boost that, very roughly, will save visitors to sites on our network between 50-700ms. Visitors that see content faster have much higher engagement and lower bounce rates, as shown by studies like Google’s. This really adds up, representing a further saving of 380 years of loading time each year and a staggering 1.03 petabytes of data transfer!

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Cycling image Photo by Dimon Blr on Unsplash.

What Mirage and Rocket Loader do

Mirage and Rocket Loader both optimise the loading of a web page by reducing and deferring the number of assets the browser needs to request for it to complete HTML parsing and rendering on screen.

Mirage

Get 3 Years of NordVPN Service for Just $2.75 Per Month

NordVPN promises a private and fast path through the public internet, with no logs and unmetered access for 6 simultaneous devices. They are currently running a promotion, but you'll have to use this link to find it. Its typical price has been discounted to $99 for 3 years of service. That's a good deal at just $2.75 per month.  See the $2.75/month NordVPN holiday deal here. To read this article in full, please click here

Get 3 Years of NordVPN Service for Just $2.75 Per Month

NordVPN promises a private and fast path through the public internet, with no logs and unmetered access for 6 simultaneous devices. They are currently running a promotion, but you'll have to use this link to find it. Its typical price has been discounted to $99 for 3 years of service. That's a good deal at just $2.75 per month.  See the $2.75/month NordVPN holiday deal here. To read this article in full, please click here

Looks like Veritas has big plans for data and information management

The world is becoming more dynamic and distributed, and that’s having a profound impact on the vendor landscape.Some traditional vendors, such as Microsoft were able to make the shift to the cloud and have thrived, although it required dumping Steve Ballmer. Others are stuck in the legacy world and could have a hard time adjusting the business to meet the demands of their customers. For example, Dell-EMC went private to re-tool and in the midst of transforming itself. Time will tell if it’s successful.One company that I considered to be part of the legacy world is storage management vendor Veritas. It’s essentially still a backup and recovery company. Recently though, the company has made some moves and said some things that make me wonder if there’s something big coming from them.To read this article in full, please click here

Looks like Veritas has big plans for data and information management

The world is becoming more dynamic and distributed, and that’s having a profound impact on the vendor landscape.Some traditional vendors, such as Microsoft were able to make the shift to the cloud and have thrived, although it required dumping Steve Ballmer. Others are stuck in the legacy world and could have a hard time adjusting the business to meet the demands of their customers. For example, Dell-EMC went private to re-tool and in the midst of transforming itself. Time will tell if it’s successful.One company that I considered to be part of the legacy world is storage management vendor Veritas. It’s essentially still a backup and recovery company. Recently though, the company has made some moves and said some things that make me wonder if there’s something big coming from them.To read this article in full, please click here

5 Months After the Hurricanes, the World Must Do More to Reconnect the Caribbean

2017 was one of the most active hurricane seasons in the Caribbean on record. Five months after the major storms Irma and Marie devastated parts of the Caribbean, there are still far too many people without access to the Internet and everything it offers. In our view, this is unacceptable. Today we published a snapshot of the current situation from the region in a new document, Report from the Field: Post-Hurricane Connectivity in the Caribbean.

The international response to this natural disaster has been mixed at best, and while several entities reached out to the region, a number of challenges impeded smooth and rapid assistance, such as lack of coordination. In some instances, the response from authorities has been either slow or insufficient, or both. The current reality that parts of the Caribbean are still without Internet connectivity this long after the hurricanes wrought their damage is a clear indication that the world’s response to this disaster has fallen short. The robustness of the telecommunications’ infrastructures in certain countries, which form the basis for Internet services, can also be questioned.

The world has the resources to do more.

We ask governments, businesses, educational institutions, NGOs and others, both in the Continue reading

Problems with ipSpace.net web sites

The company hosting www.ipspace.net and my.ipspace.net has disappeared off the Internet around 11:57 UTC.

2017-02-02 13:15UTC: Core switch failure. They should be back in an hour or so.

Right now, CloudFlare is keeping www.ipSpace.net up, and blog.ipspace.net is no separate infrastructure, but my.ipspace.net is down.

It’s Time for a Collaborative G20 Digital Agenda

The G20 member states account for 85 percent of the global economy and are home to half of the world’s Internet users. From artificial intelligence to personal data protections, our physical world is being shaped by our digital world. As current president of the G20, Argentina has put a range of digital challenges on the table. But to tackle these, we need credible commitments and a long-term roadmap.

As three leading organisations from the Internet community, we welcome that Argentina continued the G20 digital work begun by Germany in 2017. Last year, Germany and the other G20 members outlined their aspirations for the development of our digital societies. And the Argentine presidency has identified five priority areas — digital inclusion, future job skills, digital government, SMEs and entrepreneurship, and Industry 4.0 — all dependent on a strong digital economy and society. Now is the year to turn these aspirations into actions.

We call on Argentina to build on this consensus with a dedicated G20 digital agenda. This roadmap must include milestones to the next G20 presidency, to be held by Japan. Priority commitments should include:

Internet slowdowns might become a thing of the past

Internet throughput issues, prevalent in many homes, may become a thing of the past thanks to a new and inexpensive invention that copies how major internet networks perform data links between cities and countries.Scientists at University College London (UCL) say they’ve figured out how to bring down the cost of highly efficient optical transceivers so that they can be installed en masse around consumer environments.Also read: 5G wireless could change networking as we know it The receiver technology, when fully developed, will be able to provide a consistent 10,000 Mbps connection to homes and small businesses by removing a choke point that exists now at the point where fiber subscribers are connected to the ISP, the researchers claim. Average all fixed-line, download speeds in the U.S. are currently only 64 Mbps in comparison, according to a Speedtest study. Optimization should be able to increase that, though.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet slowdowns might become a thing of the past

Internet throughput issues, prevalent in many homes, may become a thing of the past thanks to a new and inexpensive invention that copies how major internet networks perform data links between cities and countries.Scientists at University College London (UCL) say they’ve figured out how to bring down the cost of highly efficient optical transceivers so that they can be installed en masse around consumer environments.Also read: 5G wireless could change networking as we know it The receiver technology, when fully developed, will be able to provide a consistent 10,000 Mbps connection to homes and small businesses by removing a choke point that exists now at the point where fiber subscribers are connected to the ISP, the researchers claim. Average all fixed-line, download speeds in the U.S. are currently only 64 Mbps in comparison, according to a Speedtest study. Optimization should be able to increase that, though.To read this article in full, please click here

REVIEW: 5 top hardware-based Wi-Fi test tools

Software tools for testing Wi-Fi can run on a laptop, but dedicated hardware tools offer the convenience of a sometimes less cumbersome form-factor that are compact enough to fit in the pouch of a laptop bag.This article looks at five of these devices: AirCheck G2 Wireless Tester (NETSCOUT), Cape Networks Sensor, EyeQ Wi-Fi Monitor (7SIGNAL), NetBeez Wi-Fi Monitor and WiFi Pineapple Tetra.+Also see: REVIEW: Mojo wireless intrusion prevention system; 8 Free Wi-Fi Stumbling tools+To read this article in full, please click here

REVIEW: 5 top hardware-based Wi-Fi test tools

Software tools for testing Wi-Fi can run on a laptop, but dedicated hardware tools offer the convenience of a sometimes less cumbersome form-factor that are compact enough to fit in the pouch of a laptop bag.This article looks at five of these devices: AirCheck G2 Wireless Tester (NETSCOUT), Cape Networks Sensor, EyeQ Wi-Fi Monitor (7SIGNAL), NetBeez Wi-Fi Monitor and WiFi Pineapple Tetra.+Also see: REVIEW: Mojo wireless intrusion prevention system; 8 Free Wi-Fi Stumbling tools+To read this article in full, please click here