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Category Archives for "Networking"

8 free Wi-Fi stumbling and surveying tools for Windows and Mac

There is enterprise-level software for surveying Wi-Fi networks, but even in large wireless networks, simple freeware tools are handy for a quick peek at the airwaves during design, deployment or troubleshooting.Here is a look at eight free tools – some for Windows and some for Mac OS X – that provide basic details about nearby Wi-Fi signals: SSIDs, signal strength, channels, MAC addresses and security status. Learn about 5G and Wi-Fi 6 What is 5G? How is it better than 4G? How to determine if WiFi 6 is right for you What is MU-MIMO? Why do you need it in your wireless routers? When to use 5G, when to use WiFi 6 How enterprises can prep for 5G networks Some can even reveal “hidden” or non-broadcasted SSIDs, display the noise levels, or display statistics on successful and failed packets of your wireless connection. One of them includes Wi-Fi password-cracking tools that are useful for educational or penetration testing purposes.To read this article in full, please click here

Heavy Networking 534: Managing Automated Networks With vCenter And Dell SmartFabric Services (Sponsored)

Heavy Networking dives into building cost-effective, practical, and easily managed leaf-spine networks with sponsor Dell Technologies. We discuss Dell's SmartFabric Services offering, including the underlying infrastructure and software overlay, key automation features, interconnects for enterprise uses such as HCI, and more. Our guest is Saleem Muhammad, Director of Product Management and Marketing at Dell Technologies.

Heavy Networking 534: Managing Automated Networks With vCenter And Dell SmartFabric Services (Sponsored)

Heavy Networking dives into building cost-effective, practical, and easily managed leaf-spine networks with sponsor Dell Technologies. We discuss Dell's SmartFabric Services offering, including the underlying infrastructure and software overlay, key automation features, interconnects for enterprise uses such as HCI, and more. Our guest is Saleem Muhammad, Director of Product Management and Marketing at Dell Technologies.

The post Heavy Networking 534: Managing Automated Networks With vCenter And Dell SmartFabric Services (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Partnering with Euro-IX on Infrastructure Development, Routing Security, and More

We can only be successful in creating an Internet for everyone if everyone is part of the effort. That’s why the Internet Society is thrilled to be entering into a partnership with the European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX).

The partnership was made official with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 14 July. This formal agreement builds on an existing collaboration between the two organizations, who have worked together since 2012. But, whether it’s helping to bring cheaper and faster Internet to the world through the data provided in the IXP Database or making the Internet more secure by supporting the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS), our work has only just begun.

Kjetil Otter Olsen, the chair of Euro-IX said, “The Internet Society has been an excellent supporter of Internet exchange points (IXPs) for many years and has lent the support of its teams across the world to promoting the benefits of peering for Internet networks and the end users of those networks globally.

“Signing this MoU, on behalf of Euro-IX and the community of IXPs we represent, reflects our shared commitment with the Internet Society to continue this work into the future.

“This MoU extends our existing relationship Continue reading

Navigating Technical Support

I think we’ve all been there. The network is down, you’ve tried all the things that you know how to do, and now it’s time to call vendor support to figure out what the heck is going on with your network. Some of us dread this situation as navigating the support process can be daunting at times. We’re hoping to give you some tips in today’s episode to make that process go a little smoother. Listen in as we talk about our experiences with vendor support and what we’ve learned along the way to make the support process as painless as possible.

 

A considerable thank you to Unimus for sponsoring today’s episode. Unimus is a fast to deploy and easy to use Network Automation and Configuration Management solution. You can learn more about how you can start automating your network in under 15 minutes at unimus.net/nc.
Trey Aspelund
Guest
Nash King
Guest
Tony Efantis
Host
Jordan Martin
Host

Outro Music:
Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post Navigating Technical Support appeared first on Network Collective.

Measuring the Internet – Mid Year Project Update

photo of a measuring tape showing centimeters

Here at the Internet Society, we believe that the Internet is for everyone. Our work centers on increasing the Internet’s reach, reliability and resilience, as well as ensuring that the network of networks remains open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy.

But how do we assess whether our efforts – and the efforts of the global ecosystem of organizations that facilitate the smooth functioning of the Internet – are working? How can we see where protocols, such as IPv6, are being deployed and at what rate so we can better understand where more education on the benefits of such technologies might be helpful? Where can policy makers find a comprehensive set of data from various sources to help show decision makers that Internet Showdowns damage local economies and potentially harm citizens?

A Single Platform

There are many people, projects and organizations that are collecting data on various facets of the Internet, but there’s no single site that provides a curated set of insights. So, to help everyone gain deeper, data-driven insight into the Internet, the Internet Society is building a tool that consolidates trusted third-party Internet measurement data from various sources into a single platform – insights.internetsociety.org

Continue reading

How Network Engineers Can Manage Credentials and Keys More Securely in Python

For me, 2020 is going to be the year of taking my automation skills to the next level, and a Pandemic is not going to get in the way of that goal (much)! At the top of the list is handling credentials and API keys in a more secure fashion so lets look at how READ MORE

The post How Network Engineers Can Manage Credentials and Keys More Securely in Python appeared first on The Gratuitous Arp.

Deterministic Networking and New IP

For those not following the current state of the ITU, a proposal has been put forward to (pretty much) reorganize the standards body around “New IP.” Don’t be confused by the name—it’s exactly what it sounds like, a proposal for an entirely new set of transport protocols to replace the current IPv4/IPv6/TCP/QUIC/routing protocol stack nearly 100% of the networks in operation today run on. Ignoring, for the moment, the problem of replacing the entire IP infrastructure, what can we learn from this proposal?

What I’d like to focus on is deterministic networking. Way back in the days when I was in the USAF, one of the various projects I worked on was called PCI. The PCI network was a new system designed to unify the personnel processing across the entire USAF, so there were systems (Z100s, 200s, and 250s) to be installed in every location across the base where personnel actions were managed. Since the only wiring we had on base at the time was an old Strowger mainframe, mechanical crossbars at a dozen or so BDFs, and varying sizes of punch-downs at BDFs and IDFs, everything for this system needed to be punched- or wrapped-down as physical circuits.

Continue reading

Network Break 296: Cisco Acquires Video Analytics Company; F5 Gear Targeted By Botnet

The latest Network Break podcast examines Cisco's acquisition of Modcam for video analytics, discusses how the Mirai botnet takes advantage of vulnerable F5 load balancers, reviews financial results from Extreme and Arista, and tackles even more IT news.

The post Network Break 296: Cisco Acquires Video Analytics Company; F5 Gear Targeted By Botnet appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Eliminate East-West Traffic Hair-Pinning

A firewall is a firewall, right? While on the surface that assumption may appear to be correcta closer look reveals that there are critical differences between a traditional, appliance-based firewall that protects your network perimeter and a distributedscale-out internal firewall that protects east-west traffic within your data center.  

It’s true that both types of firewalls monitor network traffic, detect threats, and block malicious activity. However, appliance-based firewalls are designed to monitor north-south traffic, which has different volumes and characteristics than east-west traffic. Traditional north-south firewalls were never designed to be used interchangeably to protect both north-south and east-west traffic 

East-West Data Center Traffic

Figure 1: Data center traffic patterns

While it might appear to be the right choice, provisioning appliance-based firewalls for east-west traffic monitoring is not only expensive, it’s highly ineffective in delivering the level of control and performance required to protect growing numbers of dynamic workloads.  

Creating Traffic Jams During Volume Spikes     

One of the most common drawbacks of using appliance-based firewalls as internal firewalls is the need to hairpin east-west traffic to and Continue reading

5G: CBRS license bids top $2.4 billion in FCC auction

The FCC's Auction 105 continues into its third week Monday, having sold off more than $2.4 billion worth of priority access to the Citizen's Broadband Radio Service since kicking off on July 23. 5G resources What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones How 5G frequency affects range and speed Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling 5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises CBRS is a hot topic in the wireless world for several reasons, not least of which is its unique three-tiered access system that carries with it the potential for an almost endless array of new services. Enterprises can use the spectrum – which sits between 3550MHz and 3700MHz – to roll their own IoT networks, MSPs can offer various services like smart buildings, and the carriers can fold it into their networks.To read this article in full, please click here

The Week in Internet News: U.S Wants China-Free ‘Clean’ Internet

Scrubbing the Net: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he wants a “clean” Internet free of Chinese apps and network equipment, The Next Web reports. Pompeo also wants to keep U.S. cloud data away from Chinese companies and stop China from spying on traffic in undersea cables. Critics say Pompeo is trying to create a U.S. version of the Great Firewall of China. The Verge, meanwhile, says Pompeo’s announcement is “just bluster” for now.

NOTE: Please read the Internet Society’s statement on the U.S. Clean Network Program.

Trump vs. TikTok: In a related story, U.S. President Donald Trump has continued his fight against Chinese video app TikTok, recently issuing executive orders that would ban TikTok and fellow Chinese app WeChat in 45 days, CNet reports. Trump calls the use of these apps on U.S. devices a security problem, but he earlier gave TikTok time to sell to a more acceptable owner. Microsoft is interested in buying the video app.

Buy local: In yet another related story, the Economic Times reports that the use of locally made apps are surging after the Indian government took its own action against Chinese apps. In late June, Continue reading

Merging and sorting files on Linux

There are a number of ways to merge and sort text files on Linux, but how to go about it depends on what you're trying to accomplish – whether you simply want to put the content of multiple files into one big file, or organize it in some way that makes it easier to use. In this post, we'll look at some commands for sorting and merging file contents and focus on how the results differ.Using cat If all you want to do is pull a group of files together into a single file, the cat command is an easy choice. All you have to do is type "cat" and then list the files on the command line in the order in which you want them included in the merged file. Redirect the output of the command to the file you want to create. If a file with the specified name already exists, it will be overwritten by the one you are creating. For example:To read this article in full, please click here

How AI can create self-driving data centers

Most of the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) centers on autonomous vehicles, chatbots, digital-twin technology, robotics, and the use of AI-based 'smart' systems to extract business insight out of large data sets. But AI and machine learning (ML) will one day play an important role down among the server racks in the guts of the enterprise data center. AI's potential to boost data-center efficiency – and by extension improve the business – falls into four main categories:To read this article in full, please click here

How AI can create self-driving data centers

Most of the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) centers on autonomous vehicles, chatbots, digital-twin technology, robotics, and the use of AI-based 'smart' systems to extract business insight out of large data sets. But AI and machine learning (ML) will one day play an important role down among the server racks in the guts of the enterprise data center. AI's potential to boost data-center efficiency – and by extension improve the business – falls into four main categories:To read this article in full, please click here