Archive

Category Archives for "Networking"

Thanksgiving’s biggest online shopping day was Cyber Monday, but other days were close behind

Thanksgiving’s biggest online shopping day was Cyber Monday, but other days were close behind
Thanksgiving’s biggest online shopping day was Cyber Monday, but other days were close behind

November comes, the temperatures start to get colder for most of the planet's population (87% live in the Northern Hemisphere) and many are also starting to prepare for the festive season. That also brings significant changes in Internet traffic, most notably the online shopping kind of traffic.

So, what were the November days that e-commerce websites had the most traffic in the US and what about worldwide? Is humanity using more mobile Internet at this time? And what are the most popular days online — is Black Friday the winner?

We’ll dig into those questions using Cloudflare Radar. E-commerce is expanding and at an all-time high, especially after the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation process (e-commerce had a 32.4% increase in sales in the US in 2020 and is expected to grow this year).

Cyber Monday, a ‘last minute’ winner

Let’s start with e-commerce — we added a chart to Radar that shows trends for e-commerce by country. The worldwide trend is pretty evident: Cyber Monday, the day for supposedly last-minute discounts, was the clear winner.

#1. Cyber Monday, November 29.

#2. Monday, November 23.

#3. Black Friday, November 26 — November Continue reading

Dynamic Negotiation of BGP Capabilities

I wanted to write a blog post explaining the intricacies of Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP, got into a yak-shaving exercise when discussing the need to exchange BGP capabilities to enable this feature, and decided to turn it into a separate prerequisite blog post. The optimal path selection with BGP AddPath post is coming in a few days.

The Problem

Whenever you want to use BGP for something else than simple IPv4 unicast routing the BGP neighbors must agree on what they are willing to do – be it multiprotocol extensions and individual additional address families, graceful restart, route refresh… (IANA has the complete BGP Capability Codes registry).

Dynamic Negotiation of BGP Capabilities

I wanted to write a blog post explaining the intricacies of Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP, got into a yak-shaving exercise when discussing the need to exchange BGP capabilities to enable this feature, and decided to turn it into a separate prerequisite blog post. The optimal path selection with BGP AddPath post is coming in a few days.

The Problem

Whenever you want to use BGP for something else than simple IPv4 unicast routing the BGP neighbors must agree on what they are willing to do – be it multiprotocol extensions and individual additional address families, graceful restart, route refresh… (IANA has the complete BGP Capability Codes registry).

Shortcuts for adding multiple lines of text to files on Linux

There are a number of ways to add text to files on Linux systems without having to open an editor, such as the echo and printf commands. On the other hand, when you need to add A LOT of text, the technique you use can make the job tedious or a piece of cake.This post describes some of the commands you can use and the problems and benefits you can expect.Also see: How to loop forever in bash on LinuxThe echo commands append lines of text to existing files in a straightforward way:To read this article in full, please click here

Quantum primacy: Is it real (and if so, does it matter)?

The nexus of the ongoing competition among nations and corporations (such as   Google and IBM) to demonstrate quantum primacy has shifted to a university in China where not one, but two experimental quantum computers reportedly have shown that quantum primacy is attainable.Quantum primacy is when a quantum computer is able to solve computational problems that are beyond the ability of traditional “classical” computers, yoked as they are to their quaint system of ones and zeroes.Researchers show quantum computers can reason Don’t get me wrong; classical computers long have served with distinction. So did the abacus in its day. However, as society’s computational challenges became more complex--such as splitting a restaurant bill 11 ways among your cheap and quarrelsome family members--this ancient calculating device eventually gave way to the digital calculator.To read this article in full, please click here

Shortcuts for adding multiple lines of text to files on Linux

There are a number of ways to add text to files on Linux systems without having to open an editor, such as the echo and printf commands. On the other hand, when you need to add A LOT of text, the technique you use can make the job tedious or a piece of cake.This post describes some of the commands you can use and the problems and benefits you can expect.Also see: How to loop forever in bash on LinuxThe echo commands append lines of text to existing files in a straightforward way:To read this article in full, please click here

Quantum primacy: Is it real (and if so, does it matter)?

The nexus of the ongoing competition among nations and corporations (such as   Google and IBM) to demonstrate quantum primacy has shifted to a university in China where not one, but two experimental quantum computers reportedly have shown that quantum primacy is attainable.Quantum primacy is when a quantum computer is able to solve computational problems that are beyond the ability of traditional “classical” computers, yoked as they are to their quaint system of ones and zeroes.Researchers show quantum computers can reason Don’t get me wrong; classical computers long have served with distinction. So did the abacus in its day. However, as society’s computational challenges became more complex--such as splitting a restaurant bill 11 ways among your cheap and quarrelsome family members--this ancient calculating device eventually gave way to the digital calculator.To read this article in full, please click here

Network Break 361: US Government Targets Spyware Maker; Ericsson Spends $6.2 Billion For Vonage

In this week's Network Break we discuss how an Israeli spyware maker ran afoul of the US government, why Ericsson is dropping $6.2 billion in cash for Vonage, new IPv6 subnets available in AWS, and more tech news.

The post Network Break 361: US Government Targets Spyware Maker; Ericsson Spends $6.2 Billion For Vonage appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Tech Bytes: How Pluribus Automates Data Center Fabrics With SDN And BGP EVPN (Sponsored)

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we’re talking about data center fabrics and BGP EVPN with sponsor Pluribus Networks. A BGP EVPN deployment can be a heavy lift, but Pluribus is here to talk about how it can simplify and automate this process.

The post Tech Bytes: How Pluribus Automates Data Center Fabrics With SDN And BGP EVPN (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Attack Maps now available on Radar

Attack Maps now available on Radar
Attack Maps now available on Radar

Cloudflare Radar launched as part of last year’s Birthday Week. We described it as a “newspaper for the Internet”, that gives “any digital citizen the chance to see what’s happening online [which] is part of our pursuit to help build a better, more informed, Internet”.

Since then, we have made considerable strides, including adding dedicated pages to cover how key events such as the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship and the Tokyo Olympics shaped Internet usage in participating countries, and added a Radar section for interactive deep-dive reports on topics such as DDoS.

Today, Radar has four main sections:

  • Main page with near real-time information about global Internet usage.
  • Internet usage details by country (see, for example, Portugal).
  • Domain insights, where searching for a domain returns traffic, registration and certificate information about it.
  • Deep-dive reports on complex and often underreported topics.

Cloudflare’s global network spans more than 250 cities in over 100 countries. Because of this, we have the unique ability to see both macro and micro trends happening online, including insights on how traffic is flowing around the world or what type of attacks are prevalent in a certain country.

Radar Maps will make this information even richer Continue reading

SmartNICs set to infiltrate enterprise networks

Enterprise infrastructure that supports data center, cloud and edge networks could someday be dominated by one of its tiniest components--the smartNIC or data processing unit (DPU).Use of smartNICs in the enterprise is still evolvinging, but the idea behind them--offloading server CPU duties onto a separate device to free up server cycles--is not new. Specialized hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPU), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and focused NICs have offloaded CPU workloads in telco, financial, and scientific application processing. NaaS is the future but it's got challenges Looking ahead, users and vendors see a way to reduce enterprise costs, improve performance and increase security with smartNICs.To read this article in full, please click here

SmartNICs set to infiltrate enterprise networks

Enterprise infrastructure that supports data center, cloud and edge networks could someday be dominated by one of its tiniest components--the smartNIC or data processing unit (DPU).Use of smartNICs in the enterprise is still evolvinging, but the idea behind them--offloading server CPU duties onto a separate device to free up server cycles--is not new. Specialized hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPU), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and focused NICs have offloaded CPU workloads in telco, financial, and scientific application processing. NaaS is the future but it's got challenges Looking ahead, users and vendors see a way to reduce enterprise costs, improve performance and increase security with smartNICs.To read this article in full, please click here

SmartNICs set to infiltrate enterprise network, security worlds

Enterprise infrastructure that supports data center, cloud and edge networks could someday be dominated by one of its tiniest components--the smartNIC or data processing unit (DPU).Use of smartNICs in the enterprise is still evolvinging, but the idea behind them--offloading server CPU duties onto a separate device to free up server cycles--is not new. Specialized hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPU), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and focused NICs have offloaded CPU workloads in telco, financial, and scientific application processing. NaaS is the future but it's got challenges Looking ahead, users and vendors see a way to reduce enterprise costs, improve performance and increase security with smartNICs.To read this article in full, please click here

First steps with pyATS

pyATS

Have you ever wanted to compare the operational state of a bunch of network devices between two specific times? Not only if the interfaces are up or down, but the number and status of BGP peers, the number of prefixes received, the number of entries into a MAC-address table, etc? This is something quite laborious to do with classical NMS or Do-It-Yourself scripts. And this is where pyATS can become a real asset. Here are my first steps with pyATS: Network Test & Automation Solution. What is pyATS? pyATS (pronounced…

The post First steps with pyATS appeared first on AboutNetworks.net.

How to buy Wi-Fi 6 access points

Wi-Fi 6 has some impressive improvements over its predecessor Wi-Fi 5 including lower latency, faster speeds, higher throughput, and increased range that can make it a better fit to serve both dense clusters of clients and clients running high-bandwidth applications.As Wi-Fi in general replaces wired networks in some enterprises and with the increased use of tablets, laptops, and mobile phones within enterprises, wireless-network responsiveness and versatility are becoming more desirable. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 ax) can help. It can also improve the efficiency of IoT Wi-Fi networks by letting sensors lie idle more of the time so their batteries last longer.To read this article in full, please click here