How to Implement 802.1X from Scratch?

How to Implement 802.1X from Scratch?

If you're a Network Engineer looking to learn what 802.1X is and how you can implement it in your network, you've come to the right place. 802.1X might seem confusing at first glance due to its various components, and the fact that it can be implemented in numerous ways. But don't worry, I'm here to break down each component and simplify the whole process for you. By the end of this post, you'll have a clear understanding of 802.1X and how to set it up, whether for wired or wireless networks.

Here is what we will cover in this blog post.

  1. What is our end goal?
  2. Network Access Control (NAC)
  3. What exactly is 802.1X?
  4. What do I need to start using 802.1X?
  5. Which protocol to use? (EAP-TLS, PEAP, TEAP)
  6. Cisco ISE Introduction
  7. Supplicant (end-device) configuration
  8. MAB

What is Our End Goal?

Let's talk about our end goal - Imagine our current setup where the WiFi network is secured with just a Pre-Shared Key (PSK) and wired networks are open, allowing anyone to plug in a laptop and gain access. This isn't ideal for security.

Our main aim is to shift towards a more secure authentication Continue reading

HS078: Is It Time To Dump Microsoft?

Should enterprises ditch Microsoft because of security concerns? Microsoft’s numerous vulnerabilities and questionable responses make it a significant risk for continued use. At the same time, Microsoft’s strong integration and utility in enterprise environments make it attractive for continued use. Johna Till Johnson and John Burke debate. They also weigh considerations including the challenges of... Read more »

Meta Llama 3.1 now available on Workers AI

At Cloudflare, we’re big supporters of the open-source community – and that extends to our approach for Workers AI models as well. Our strategy for our Cloudflare AI products is to provide a top-notch developer experience and toolkit that can help people build applications with open-source models.

We’re excited to be one of Meta’s launch partners to make their newest Llama 3.1 8B model available to all Workers AI users on Day 1. You can run their latest model by simply swapping out your model ID to @cf/meta/llama-3.1-8b-instruct or test out the model on our Workers AI Playground. Llama 3.1 8B is free to use on Workers AI until the model graduates out of beta.

Meta’s Llama collection of models have consistently shown high-quality performance in areas like general knowledge, steerability, math, tool use, and multilingual translation. Workers AI is excited to continue to distribute and serve the Llama collection of models on our serverless inference platform, powered by our globally distributed GPUs.

The Llama 3.1 model is particularly exciting, as it is released in a higher precision (bfloat16), incorporates function calling, and adds support across 8 languages. Having multilingual support built-in means that you can Continue reading

Meta Llama 3.1 now available on Workers AI

At Cloudflare, we’re big supporters of the open-source community – and that extends to our approach for Workers AI models as well. Our strategy for our Cloudflare AI products is to provide a top-notch developer experience and toolkit that can help people build applications with open-source models.

We’re excited to be one of Meta’s launch partners to make their newest Llama 3.1 8B model available to all Workers AI users on Day 1. You can run their latest model by simply swapping out your model ID to @cf/meta/llama-3.1-8b-instruct or test out the model on our Workers AI Playground. Llama 3.1 8B is free to use on Workers AI until the model graduates out of beta.

Meta’s Llama collection of models have consistently shown high-quality performance in areas like general knowledge, steerability, math, tool use, and multilingual translation. Workers AI is excited to continue to distribute and serve the Llama collection of models on our serverless inference platform, powered by our globally distributed GPUs.

The Llama 3.1 model is particularly exciting, as it is released in a higher precision (bfloat16), incorporates function calling, and adds support across 8 languages. Having multilingual support built-in means that you can Continue reading

Scaling The Datacenter: Five Best Practices For CSPs

In today’s dynamic technological environment, service providers such as cloud service providers (CSPs), managed service providers (MSPs), software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, and enterprise private cloud operators face a myriad of challenges in the modern datacenter. …

Scaling The Datacenter: Five Best Practices For CSPs was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Privacy and DNS Client Subnet

>To ensure service consistency in a Content Distribution Network (CDN) replicated instances of the content are named with the same DNS name, and the DNS conventionally offers the same resolution outcome to each user when they query for the IP address of the content server. How can the CDN "steer" each user to the closest instance of the desired content to optimise the subsequent content transaction? At the same time the user is revealing their location within the network to inform this steering decision. To what extent is such a steering function compromising the privacy expectations of users with respect to the location and their online actions?

Tech Bytes: Prioritizing and Managing IoT/OT Vulnerabilities with Palo Alto Networks (Sponsored)

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we discuss vulnerability management for IoT and OTT devices with sponsor Palo Alto Networks. These devices–think video cameras, sensors, medical equipment, industrial control systems, and so on–present unique challenges when it comes to finding, prioritizing, and managing software vulnerabilities. Palo Alto Networks’ machine learning-based solutions offer visibility, risk prioritization,... Read more »

NB487: The BSODs Strike Back; SolarWinds Sorta Dodges SEC Bullets

Take a Network Break! This week we cover the CrowdStrike/Microsoft patch debacle, why SolarWinds isn’t entirely out of trouble following a judge’s dismissal of most–but not all–of an SEC lawsuit, and why an AT&T breach revelation highlights third-party risk. Juniper announces an AI infrastructure testing lab and enhancements to its capabilities to operate AI infrastructure,... Read more »

Countdown to Paris 2024 Olympics: France leads in web interest

The 2024 Summer Olympics, or Paris 2024, is set from July 26 to August 11 in France. The opening ceremony, scheduled for Friday, July 26 at 17:30, will take place for the first time not in a stadium but in the open space of the Jardins du Trocadéro by the Seine River in Paris. We’ll monitor relevant Internet insights throughout the event, but here we analyze some pre-event trends, from the popularity of Olympic websites by country to the increase in Olympics-related spam and malicious emails.

This year’s Olympics will host 329 events across 32 sports, featuring the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic event and the return of skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing from 2020. Similar to our 2024 elections coverage, we will maintain a Paris 2024 Olympics report on Cloudflare Radar, updating it as significant Internet trends related to the event emerge.

From our 1.1.1.1 resolver, DNS trends show heightened interest in the Olympics, especially from France. 24% of DNS requests for official Olympic-related websites came from the host country, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, with 20% and 17% respectively.

Here’s the breakdown of countries responsible for at Continue reading

Countdown to Paris 2024 Olympics: France leads in web interest

The 2024 Summer Olympics, or Paris 2024, is set from July 26 to August 11 in France. The opening ceremony, scheduled for Friday, July 26 at 17:30, will take place for the first time not in a stadium but in the open space of the Jardins du Trocadéro by the Seine River in Paris. We’ll monitor relevant Internet insights throughout the event, but here we analyze some pre-event trends, from the popularity of Olympic websites by country to the increase in Olympics-related spam and malicious emails.

This year’s Olympics will host 329 events across 32 sports, featuring the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic event and the return of skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing from 2020. Similar to our 2024 elections coverage, we will maintain a Paris 2024 Olympics report on Cloudflare Radar, updating it as significant Internet trends related to the event emerge.

From our 1.1.1.1 resolver, DNS trends show heightened interest in the Olympics, especially from France. 24% of DNS requests for official Olympic-related websites came from the host country, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, with 20% and 17% respectively.

Here’s the breakdown of countries responsible for at Continue reading

Thinking about Network Automation after AutoCon1

If you were fortunate enough to attend NAF's AutoCon1 in Amsterdam, and you didn't bolt for the evening festivities early, you might have seen my presentation and are well aware of my love for all things Space! (BTW..guess what happened 55 years ago Saturday!) Imagine my delight at the synchronicity of finding Joseph Klibansky's The READ MORE

The post Thinking about Network Automation after AutoCon1 appeared first on The Gratuitous Arp.

La Corrida de Torero – torero in client/server mode

Con el protocolo de inauguración comenzó oficialmente el Carnaval Autlán 2024 We first took a look at torero in "standalone" or local mode. In this mode, torero helps you execute scripts from your repository as "services". This includes automatically building the required environment so all those steps to clone or update both your repository and READ MORE

The post La Corrida de Torero – torero in client/server mode appeared first on The Gratuitous Arp.

Opensource LLM Models – Meta llama / Meta Codellama ? Deploying In-house ? Context of Networking!

Disclaimer: All Writings And Opinions Are My Own And Are Interpreted Solely From My Understanding. Please Contact The Concerned Support Teams For A Professional Opinion, As Technology And Features Change Rapidly.

In a world where even your toaster might soon have a PhD in quantum physics, LLMs are taking over faster than a cat video going viral! LLMs are becoming increasingly powerful and are being integrated into various business and personal use cases. Networking is no different. Due to reasons like privacy, connectivity, and cost, deploying smaller form factor models or larger ones (if you can afford in-house compute) is becoming more feasible for faster inference and lower cost.

The availability and cost of model inference are improving rapidly. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 is well-known, Meta and other firms are also developing LLMs that can be deployed in-house and fine-tuned for various scenarios.

Let’s explore how to deploy an open-source model in the context of coding. For beginners, ease of deployment is crucial; nothing is more off-putting than a complicated setup.

Reference : Ollama.com (https://github.com/ollama/ollama?tab=readme-ov-file) simplifies fetching a model and starting work immediately.

Visit ollama.com to understand what a codellama model looks like and what Continue reading

Weekend Reads 071924


On the other hand, these same minimal overheads imply that DNS over UDP cannot perform prompt detection of packet loss and cannot efficiently defend itself against various approaches to tampering with the DNS, such as source address spoofing, payload alteration and third-party packet injection. Perhaps most importantly, the way UDP handles large payloads is a problem.


User interface (UI) design is currently experiencing a transition from traditional graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to systems designed to recognize a personﾒs gestures and movements.


The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with two other international consumer protection networks, announced on Thursday the results of a study into the use of “dark patterns” — or manipulative design techniques — that can put users’ privacy at risk or push them to buy products or services or take other actions they otherwise wouldn’t have.


One of the most concerning aspects of social media is that much of its influence evades our notice. We don’t realize that we’re being influenced, or shaped to think a certain way, or view the world through a specific lens.


Chinese automobile conglomerate Geely has made significant strides since I last wrote about their Geesat LEO constellation for mobile vehicle connectivity.


Continue reading

Terraform for Network Engineers: Part Four

Terraform for Network Engineers: Part Four

Welcome back to the final part of my Terraform for Network Engineers series! In this installment, we're diving into the often tricky territory of managing the state file in Terraform. I'll also walk you through the concept of remote state management and show you how it can streamline your infrastructure management. Let's get started!

Managing the State file

The state file is the backbone of Terraform. It keeps a detailed record of the resources you've created and their current state. Terraform relies on this file to figure out what changes need to be made whenever you run terraform apply. By default, Terraform saves this file locally as terraform.tfstate.

While this works fine if you're the only one handling the infrastructure, it can quickly become a headache for a team. Multiple engineers working on the same setup can run into conflicts and inconsistencies. The solution? Store the state file remotely in a shared location that everyone on the team can access. This way, everyone stays on the same page, and your infrastructure management becomes much smoother.

Remote State Management

Remote state management is all about storing the state file in a place that everyone on the team can access. This Continue reading

Why Your Mobile App Needs Client-Side Network Monitoring

The vast majority of mobile applications rely on making network requests to deliver a successful user experience. However, many engineering teams do not have client-side network monitoring. Instead, they rely exclusively on network performance is from a backend perspective. Not All Requests Make It to Your Backend Servers Your backend can only measure the behavior of network requests that actually reach your servers. Below are a few reasons why requests would fail to make it there. No Internet Connection There are scenarios where it is not obvious to mobile users that they don’t have a connection. For example, a user can be connected to a WiFi access point, but the upstream connection from the access point is down or has intermittent connectivity. Interrupted Connection Even if you initially make a successful connection to a backend server, there’s no guarantee that the request will complete successfully. This is more common with mobile Continue reading

Exploring Internet traffic during the 2024 U.S. Republican National Convention

Internet traffic typically mirrors human behavior, with significant fluctuations during large political events. This comes during a time when the United States is in election mode, as political campaigns are in full swing and candidates for various offices, primaries and caucuses make their case to voters and debates are being held. This week, the Republican National Convention was hosted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from July 15 to 18, 2024. We examined traffic shifts and cyberattacks since June 2024 to see how these events have impacted the Internet.

Attacks on political related websites

Cyberattacks are a constant threat, and aren't necessarily driven by elections. With that said, notable trends can often be observed, and we’ve seen before how specific geopolitical events can trigger online attacks. For example, we saw cyberattacks at the start of the war in Ukraine to more recently in the Netherlands, when the June 2024 European elections coincided with cyberattacks on Dutch political-related websites that lasted two days — June 5th and 6th. The main DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service attack) attack on June 5, the day before the Dutch election, reached 73,000 requests per second (rps).

Shifting our focus to the United States in particular, Continue reading

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