War Stories: Always Check Your Inputs
The extremely irregular War Stories series returns, with an anecdote from 15 years ago, investigating a problem with a web app that only seemed to crash when one particular person used it. Ultimately a simple problem, but it took me a while to track it down. I blame Perl.
ISPY With my Little Eye
“ispy” was our custom-built system that archived SMS logs from all our SMSCs, aggregating them to one server for analysis. Message contents were kept for a short period, with CDRs stored for longer (i.e. details of sending and receiving numbers, and timestamps, but no content).
The system had a web interface that support staff could use to investigate customer reports of SMS issues. They could enter source and/or destination MSISDNs, and see when messages were sent, and potentially contents. Access to contents was restricted, and was typically only used for things like abuse investigations.
This system worked well, usually.
Except when it didn’t.
Every few weeks, we’d get reports that L2 support couldn’t access the system. We’d login, see that one process was using up 99% CPU, kill it, and it would be OK for a while. Normally the system was I/O bound, so we Continue reading
Ultimate Go, Ardanlabs, Training Course Writeup
After being in the IT industry for a while, courses generally don’t impress or engage you for very long. If it’s something you’re interested in, you stand a better chance of hanging on in there, but even then, someone talking at you is always difficult. Those that attend conferences regularly will appreciate the shift to ‘brown bag’ lightening talks where a nervous energy fuelled speaker delivers the interesting snippets of a topic with the knowledge to guide question asking talk goers to the right info if they have beyond surface level curiosity.
Therefore, many of us don’t attend classroom based training anymore. Short webinars and self-lead courses are generally the way forward for those of us not in college or university. I need to add here, technology itself is changing too. Gone are the days where Microsoft, Oracle and Cisco lead the world. Sorry folks, they truly are gone. Technology now is ‘passing through’. I have a transformed view of technology akin to cattle herding; rope it, guide it to the right place to feed, then shoot it, eat it and make some handbags. Technology is more and more transient. It’s not about being an expert, it’s about the techniques Continue reading
Open Networking for Large Scale Networks
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Intel’s new chip puts a teraflop in your desktop. Here’s what that means
It’s as fast as a turn-of-the-century supercomputer. Intel’s Core i9 Extreme Edition processor costs about $2,000. Intel Corporation Earlier this week in Taipei, Intel announced the most powerful desktop chip for consumers that it has ever sold. With 18 cores and a price tag of $1,999, the processor is known as a teraflop chip, meaning …Continue reading "Intel’s new chip puts a teraflop in your desktop. Here’s what that means"
CCNA Wireless – CCNA Wireless Notes Chapter 5
Types of Wireless Networks
Wireless LANs are not the only type of wireless networks that exist.
Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)
WPAN uses low-powered transmitters to create a very short range network, usually 7 to 10 meters. Based on the 802.15 standard and includes technologies such as Bluetooth and ZigBee although ZigBee can have greater range. Unlicensed ISM frequencies are used including the 2.4 GHz band.
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Wireless service connecting multiple devices using IEEE 802.11 standard over medium-sized range, usually up to 100 meters. Uses unlicensed frequencies in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band.
Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN)
Wireless service over a large geographic area, such as all or portion of a city. One technology used is WiMAX, which is based on the 802.16 standard. Most commonly uses licensed frequencies.
Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN)
Wireless data service for mobile phones offered over a very large geographic area, such as regional, national or even global by telecommunication carriers. Licensed frequencies are used.
Wireless LAN Topologies
Likelihood of interference increases as the number of wireless devices grows. Wireless devices use half duplex to avoid colliding with other Continue reading
Don’t Miss out on These 5 Spotlights on Security at vForum Online Summer 2017
You’ve likely heard it before: “All businesses are now digital businesses.” But since the business has expanded into digital space, shouldn’t something as critical as business security digitally expand too? That’s where the VMware ubiquitous software layer comes into play — sitting across the application infrastructure and endpoints, no matter where they are.
Now more than ever, it’s clear that security expertise is a must-have for IT. To further enhance your own security knowledge, make sure to join us at vForum Online on June 28th — right from your own desk. As our largest virtual conference, vForum Online is a must-attend event for IT professionals, and especially for those looking to improve their approach to security.
For returning attendees, you may notice we’ve made some alterations to the structure of vForum Online: Now, the conference is divided into several goal-oriented tracks, to ensure we’re aligned to your IT aims.
With this free, half-day event just a few weeks away, we’re counting down the days — and counting up all the reasons you should attend. Get a preview of these five security spotlights you can expect at the conference:
- A Modern Approach to IT Security
In our “Transform Security — Reduce Continue reading
Bringing Internet to Nepal’s Remote, Mountainous Villages
In 1997, we finally got the Internet in Nepal. Unfortunately, it was only available in the capital, Kathmandu, which is very far from my village of Nangi. But almost immediately, I started thinking of ways we could get Nangi online. I was already familiar with the Internet from studying in the United States, and I had a lot of ideas about how being online could improve life in Nangi.
For the next four years, I talked to a lot of people about how we could get connected, but nothing seemed feasible. Nangi is in a remote, mountainous part of the country, so we didn’t have wireline phone service. That meant the traditional methods of connecting to the Internet were out, and satellite Internet was prohibitively expensive.
Mahabir Pun
Worth Reading: Bill would surveil Americans for life
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Hybrid-Cloud Strategy, SaaS Boost VMware Revenue 9% in Q1
Partnerships with Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Oracle pay off.
Arista Scores Another Win in Cisco Patent Dispute
Not surprisingly, Cisco is unhappy with the ruling and says it will appeal the decision.
AT&T Buys Brocade’s Vyatta Assets, Including the vRouter
The deal expands AT&T’s white box capabilities.
SDxCentral Weekly News Roundup — June 2, 2017
Verizon reportedly makes a bid for Charter; Toyota runs an open source Linux platform.
Packet Pushers – Weekly Show Show 342: Big Ideas About Networking
Todays show is a conversation on some big ideas about networking and IT, including outsourcing, automation & SD-WAN. Our guest is Mike Bushong, who works for Juniper but isnt speaking for the company in this episode. The post Show 342: Big Ideas About Networking appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Epic Evaluation: Ubiquiti ERPro-8 vs Play-Doh
It’s the bake off you’ve been waiting for; a five-month real life test of a Ubiquiti ERPro-8 (EdgeRouter Pro) and a tub of Play-Doh™! Over a period of five months I carefully evaluated these two very useful items and discovered their good and bad points. But after five months, which will I choose as the ultimate winner?
The Rules
- Each of the two competing items will be utilized over a period of five months for the purpose for which they were intended.
- At the end of the five month test period, the performance of both items will be evaluated, and a winner chosen entirely subjectively based on:
- Suitability for intended purpose during the test
- Condition at the end of the test
- Performance of intended purpose at the end of the test
The Tub of Play-Doh™
Product Specifications
The first item to be evaluated is the tub of Play-Doh™. I didn’t skimp on quality, and bought genuine Play-Doh™ as part of a set which included tubs of both light blue and red. Accessories in the box included a roller, a plastic cutting knife, four shaped cutters and an extruder with four built-in shapes as well as four interchangeable extrusion heads.
The entire kit Continue reading
There is No Perimeter in IoT Security
The Internet of Things (IoT) is not just a device connected to the Internet - it is a complex, rapidly evolving system. To understand the implications, analyse risks, and come up with effective security solutions we need to look ahead and take into account other components, such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Andrei Robachevsky
Worth Reading: We are all groot
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Next-Generation Server Clusters: Boxes Without Bottlenecks
By matching compute, storage, and networking resources for optimal utilization, the cluster-in-a-box wastes nothing.