Book review: The Book of GNS3

GNS3coverNo Starch Press recently offered me a preview copy of a new book about the GNS3 network simulator, titled The Book of GNS3 written by Jason Neumann. This book covers the new version of GNS3, GNS3 1.x. Here is my review of The Book of GNS3.

The Book of GNS3 effectively serves as a user manual for GNS3. It offers detailed installation and configuration information for GNS3 1.x in one easy-to-access volume. Experienced users will find some new information in this book, especially about the new features available in GNS3 1.x. However, I think the main beneficiaries will be new or inexperienced users of GNS3.

GNS3 is usually used by people who wish to emulate networks of commercial routers from vendors such as Cisco and Juniper. Understandably, Mr. Neumann spends most of the book discussing how to set up GNS3 to run commercial routers and, as much as is possible, switches.

How does this book help those who want to use open-source routers in GNS3? Read the rest of my review to find out.

Coverage of Open-Source Routing topics

While I read through this book, I looked for the parts that are relevant to my interests in Continue reading

ProxyHam conspiracy is nonsense

This DEF CON conspiracy theory is about a canceled talk about "ProxyHam", which has been canceled under mysterious circumstances. It's nonsense.

The talk was hype to begin with. You can buy a 900 MHz bridge from Ubquiti for $125 (or MicroTik device for $129) and attach it to a Raspberry Pi. How you'd do this is obvious. It's a good DEF CON talk, because it's the application that important, but the technical principles here are extremely basic.

If you look careful at the pic in the Wired story on ProxyHam, it appears they are indeed just using the Ubuiti device. Here is the pic from Wired:


And here is the pic from Ubquiti's website:


I don't know why the talk was canceled. One likely reason is that the stories (such as the one on Wired) sensationalized the thing, so maybe their employer got cold feet. Or maybe the FBI got scared and really did give them an NSL, though that's incredibly implausible.

Anyway, if DEF CON wants a talk on how to hook up a Raspberry Pi to a UbiQuiTi NanoStation LOCOM9 in order bridge WiFi, I'll happily give that talk. It's just basic TCP/IP configuration, and if you Continue reading

CIA: Julia Child and the shark repellant recipe

CIA Sometimes some of the coolest stories get lost in history. The CIA recently noted one of them – famous French food chef and author Julia Child’s critical involvement in developing a shark repellent recipe for military personnel and explosives during WWII.+More on Network World: The hot art in the CIA’s cool art collection+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM, Nvidia rev HPC engines in next-gen supercomputer push

Hard on the heels of the publication of the latest Top 500 ranking of the world’s fastest supercomputers, IBM and Nvidia on Monday announced they have teamed up to launch two new supercomputer centers of excellence to develop the next generation of contenders.Created as part of IBM’s supercomputing contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, the new centers will be located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and will focus on development of the forthcoming Summit and Sierra supercomputer systems, which are expected to be delivered in 2017. The Summit supercomputer will be housed at Oak Ridge, while the Sierra will be situated at Lawrence Livermore; both are due to become operational in 2018.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US to begin talks on drone privacy standards

A U.S. government agency will start its third attempt to develop voluntary privacy standards for an emerging area of technology, this time with a series of meetings on drone privacy scheduled to begin Aug. 3.The U.S. National Telecommunication and Information Administration has already hosted similar discussions on mobile app privacy and facial recognition privacy but with mixed results. Privacy groups pulled out of the facial recognition discussions in June, saying the process wouldn’t lead to enough protections for consumers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The 10 most powerful supercomputers on Earth

The biggest supercomputers out thereThe twice-yearly top500 listing of the world’s most powerful supercomputers is out, and even if there are few surprises, the presence of a brand-new system on the top 10 is intriguing. Here’s your illustrated list of the 10 mightiest computing machines on the planet, as of June 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

UK man arrested for stealing half a penny’s worth of power to charge iPhone

As ridiculous as it was when police in Georgia arrested an electric car owner for stealing five cents of electricity, it may be more ridiculous that a UK man was arrested for stealing about a 'penny's worth' of power after charging his iPhone on a train.The entire episode was "ridiculous," artist Robin Lee told the London Evening Standard. He had plugged his iPhone into the train to charge it during a trip that took about "eight or nine minutes" and was then arrested for "abstracting electricity."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle extends cloud suite to cover entire order-fulfillment process

Oracle took another step forward in its efforts to bolster its cloud offerings Monday with the launch of two new products designed to help companies conduct their entire order-fulfillment processes in the cloud.Oracle Order Management Cloud and Oracle Global Order Promising Cloud are both extensions of the company’s Supply Chain Management Cloud and aim to provide modern order-management, visibility and fulfillment capabilities.The new Order Management Cloud focuses on order capture and fulfillment with the goal of improving order handling. Among the potential benefits for users are centralized order monitoring and the ability to proactively manage order exceptions. Companies can also define, implement and maintain their own fulfillment policies without the need for technical programming tools, Oracle said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Interviewing for the “Ideal Candidate”: Looking for “Nerdvana” – New Packet Pushers Blog

I was going through a stock photo website the other day and came across a “formula” that was supposed to equal the “perfect job candidate”.  I chuckled a little out loud.  The person sitting next to me looked over at what was on my laptop screen. Paused. Then asked me what I look for when I’m interviewing someone.  What is my “perfect job candidate?”

perfect_job_candidate_136353023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…. For the rest please go to Packet Pushers

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http://packetpushers.net/interviewing-for-the-ideal-candidate-looking-for-nerdvana/

Speaking Geek at Solarwinds’ Thwack Community

geekspeak

Thwack!

For the new few months in addition to posting here, I’ll be making some blog posts over on Solarwinds‘ Thwack Community in their “Geek Speak” blogs, on the general topic of network management. I won’t be reposting the content here, but I’ll be sharing the links each time I post, and I hope you can find a moment to read them, rate the post if you are that way inclined, and maybe even comment! I know have some very smart readers, and Thwack has some smart users too, so the conversation should be great!

Solarwinds Thwack is a light-hearted community providing specific product support and templates for Solarwinds products, but also offering more general support on networking-related issues through blogs, community forums and product forums. It’s kind of a fun place to dig around, and the users are usually not short of an opinion on most topics. Signing up for an account is easy and free, and then you can post comments and join in the discussion!

Here’s the intro to the first post in the series, called “Do You Monitor Your Network Interfaces? at Geek Speak”

Thwack Blog Post 1

Hope to see you over there!

 

Disclosures

I am participating in the Solarwinds Continue reading

Cyberespionage group Pawn Storm uses exploit for unpatched Java flaw

A sophisticated group of hackers known for targeting military, government and media organizations is currently using an exploit for a vulnerability in Java that hasn’t been patched by Oracle.The zero-day exploit was recently observed by researchers from antivirus vendor Trend Micro in attacks against the armed forces of an unnamed NATO country and a U.S. defense organization. Those targets received spear-phishing emails that contained links to Web pages hosting the exploit.The cyberespionage group, known as APT28 and Pawn Storm, has been active since at least 2007. Some security vendors believe that it operates out of Russia and has ties to that country’s intelligence services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Huawei buys software networking tech from Irish Amartus

Chinese networking giant Huawei has bought the software-defined networking (SDN) division of Irish telecom software maker Amartus.Amartus’ senior team and product staff in Ireland will join Huawei, which sees the acquisition as a way to expand its investment in research and development in Ireland and Europe, it said in a news release.The part of privately held Amartus that remains unsold will continue serving current customers and will focus on providing telecom software development, integration expertise and services to vendors and service providers.Amartus’s main product is Chameleon SDS, which it describes as a “service orchestration platform” for cloud and network services. It allows telecom operators to control networks virtually and automate the delivery of network services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IoT analytics brings new levels of innovation to new product development

Studies show that around 40% of products fail. But what if product designers could understand what features are most and least popular, which components tend to fail sooner than others, and how customers actually use products versus how designers think they use them? And, what if product developers could then utilize these insights to develop products that perform better, potentially cost less and, most importantly, are aligned with actual customer needs?

Innovative product development teams in pretty much every industry are beginning to look at ways to translate enormous streams of real time machine data into actionable information to improve the product development process by understanding where product innovation is necessary, which features are most desirable, and how to lower their overall cost of ownership.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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