IDG Contributor Network: Making use of Cisco’s labs to practice for certifications

A major hurdle for students wanting to achieve the various Cisco Certifications has always been equipment. Sure, a student could purchase a few used devices via an auction site for something like the entry-level CCENT Certification, but what about more complex certifications that might require thousands (or more) worth of gear? Rack rental companies tend to come and go and can be very unreliable. Cisco is finally really attacking this issue for students thanks to exciting virtualization technologies. This article presents some current options available today. First up is Cisco VIRL. VIRL stands for Virtual Internet Routing Labs. What makes VIRL so exciting is a low price tag for its annual subscription (approximately $150 per year with a $50 off coupon) and a decent variety of devices for virtualization. The list includes:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Software and the bogeyman

This post about the July 8 glitches (United, NYSE, WSJ failed) keeps popping up in my Twitter timeline. It's complete nonsense.

What's being argued here is that these glitches were due to some sort of "moral weakness", like laziness, politics, or stupidity. It's a facile and appealing argument, so scoundrels make it often -- to great applause from the audience. But it's not true.

Legacy


Layers and legacies exist because working systems are precious. More than half of big software projects are abandoned, because getting new things to work is a hard task. We place so much value on legacy, working old systems, because the new replacements usually fail.

An example of this is the failed BIND10 project. BIND, the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon, is the oldest and most popular DNS server. It is the de facto reference standard for how DNS works, more so than the actual RFCs. Version 9 of the project is 15 years old. Therefore, the consortium that maintains it funded development for version 10. They completed the project, then effectively abandoned it, as it was worse in almost every way than the previous version.

The reason legacy works well is the enormous regression testing Continue reading

Installing netmiko on Windows

Netmiko is a Python module by Kirk Byers that provides a wrapper around the Paramiko SSH module for doing screen scraping and CLI automation on network devices.

Paramiko has some dependencies that make installation on Windows a tad tricky. Here's a quick way to get it done:

  1. Install Anaconda.
  2. From the Anaconda shell, run "conda install paramiko".
  3. From the Anaconda shell, run "pip install scp".
  4. Install git for Windows.
  5. Clone netmiko with "git clone https://github.com/ktbyers/netmiko"
  6. cd into the netmiko directory and run "python setup.py install".
Done! Screen scrape away, and don't forget to hound your vendors for real APIs... :-)

Installing netmiko on Windows

Netmiko is a Python module by Kirk Byers that provides a wrapper around the Paramiko SSH module for doing screen scraping and CLI automation on network devices.

Paramiko has some dependencies that make installation on Windows a tad tricky. Here's a quick way to get it done:

  1. Install Anaconda.
  2. From the Anaconda shell, run "conda install paramiko".
  3. From the Anaconda shell, run "pip install scp".
  4. Install git for Windows.
  5. Clone netmiko with "git clone https://github.com/ktbyers/netmiko"
  6. cd into the netmiko directory and run "python setup.py install".
Done! Screen scrape away, and don't forget to hound your vendors for real APIs... :-)

Here’s how Google wants you to buy stuff on mobile

Google is rolling out a new service that lets users buy retail items directly from the search results page on mobile devices, in an effort to make mobile search more useful and give advertisers a new way to attract customers.A new link reading “Buy on Google” will appear in the ads that show up after users search for certain retail items. Clicking on that link will take you to a retailer-branded product page hosted by Google where you can get more information about the product, like reviews, and select item quantities. A checkout button will let you enter and save payment information, and provide a shipping address, before placing the order.Google had been rumored to be prepping the service, which it calls Purchases on Google. On Wednesday, the company talked a little more about how it will look and work, in announcements online and during a retail-focused event in New York.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Playing in the Lab: LiveAction Administrative Fun

I’m newer to LiveAction but what I have seen thus far I have definitely liked.  But admittedly with GUIs I sometimes still feel like a “CLI girl living in a GUI world”.

During the past week I was noticing that when I was in my Live Action client view… looking at the “dashboard” I would suddenly find myself back at the main LiveAction client view.  I asked a co-worker name Robert if he had ever seen that before.  He had not.  So I showed it to him.  He noticed something I had not.  There seemed to be a “trigger event” that was associated with the changing screens.

…. Hope you have fun with the video and playing in the lab with me.  :)

Click on the diagram below to go play.  :)

Approx time: 16 Minutes

 

LA_Admin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cisco indirect infringement case against Arista dismissed

A federal judge dismissed Cisco’s indirect infringement claims against Arista Networks, a complaint that accompanied a patent and copyright infringement case against its data center rival.The patent and infringement litigation, filed late last year, still stands and is proceeding.+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Suing Arista was always the plan+According to Courthouse News Service, U.S. Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman earlier this month dismissed the pre-suit indirect infringement claims since Cisco conceded that it is not seeking damages for those claims.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google, ISPS offering free broadband to low-income families

Google and seven other ISPs have joined a new U.S. government pilot program to connect 275,000 low-income households to the Internet for free or at reduced rates.U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss the initiative, called ConnectHome, Wednesday in Durant, Oklahoma. Durant serves as the capital of the Choctaw Tribal Nation, one of the communities taking part in the program.In Durant, like in many parts of rural Oklahoma, the library is a town’s only location with a high-speed Web connection, the state’s director of libraries said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

More ProxyHam stuff

Somebody asked how my solution in the last post differed from the "ProxyGambit" solution. They missed my point. Just because I change the tires on the car doesn't mean I get credit for inventing or building the car. The same thing with this ProxyHam nonsense: nobody is "building a solution". Instead, we are all just using existing products the way they are intended. We are all just choosing a different mix of components.

People get all excited when they see a bare Raspberry Pi board, but the reality is that there's nothing interesting going on here, no more than lifting the hood/bonnet on your car. This is photograph from ProxyGambit:


What ProxyGambit is doing here is using cellular data on the far end rather stealing WiFi from Starbucks or the local library. Their solution looks fancy, but you can do the same thing with off-the-shelf devices for a lot cheaper. Here is the same solution with off-the-shelf products:


This is just a TL-WR703N ($26) router with a 3G USB dongle. You can get these dongles cheap off eBay used, or new for around $17. Combined, they are cheaper than a Raspberry PI. If you want to customize this, Continue reading

EU air passenger data retention system ready for take-off, says Parliament

Air passengers entering or leaving the European Union could soon have their personal details stored and shared among EU countries, after lawmakers voted Wednesday to move forward with the proposal.The creation of the passenger name record (PNR) system, recording such details as who flew where, when, and how they booked, is intended to help law enforcers fight terrorism and serious crime, but civil rights groups say it is disproportionate and undermines fundamental privacy rights.The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) quickly dealt with almost 900 amendments filed on the proposal, including two calling for its outright rejection, before agreeing to enter negotiations on a final text with the European Commission and the Council of the EU, composed of representatives of national governments.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open Compute Software Interface Platform Control Demonstration

This four minute demonstration from Mellanox is really well done. It provides a simple and direct demonstration of the OCP Platform Control system. I note the simplicity of the linux commands to drive the configuration of the switch. Especially, if you use Ansible/Puppet etc, you will appreciate how easy it is to configure and monitor […]

The post Open Compute Software Interface Platform Control Demonstration appeared first on EtherealMind.

Network Break 44

Network Break 44 analyzes cloud spending numbers from IDC, the impact of virtual appliances on hardware purchases, EMC and Symantec storage moves, and a new OpenStack appliance from Mirantis.

Author information

Drew Conry-Murray

I'm a tech journalist, editor, and content director with 17 years' experience covering the IT industry. I'm author of the book "The Symantec Guide To Home Internet Security" and co-author of the post-apocalyptic novel "Wasteland Blues," available at Amazon.
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The post Network Break 44 appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Drew Conry-Murray.

Darkode computer hacking forum shuts after investigation spanning 20 countries

Law enforcement agencies from 20 countries working together have shut down a major computer hacking forum, and U.S. officials have filed criminal charges against a dozen people associated with the website, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.Darkode.com on Wednesday displayed a message saying the site and domain had been seized by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.Darkode, a password-protected online forum for criminal hackers, represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers across the world, according to David Hickton, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Through this operation, we have dismantled a cyber hornets’ nest of criminal hackers which was believed by many, including the hackers themselves, to be impenetrable.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI, international law units smash infamous hacker bazaar Darkode

The FBI in concert with Interpol and other worldwide law enforcement teams say they have taken down the international cybercriminal site marketplace Darkode and arrested 70 people involved with the site. Darkode was an online, password-protected forum in which hackers and other cyber-criminals convened to buy, sell, trade and share malware, ransomware, information, ideas, and tools to facilitate unlawful intrusions on others’ computers and electronic devices, the FBI said. +More on Network World: GAO: Early look at fed’s “Einstein 3” security weapon finds challenges+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Let users choose enterprise cloud applications

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Asked whether he was considering a cloud application for his company, a CIO of a mid-size organization said the downside risk of ripping and replacing the company’s existing on-premises application outweighed the productivity gains the cloud application might bring. Part of that risk, he felt, was his job security.

That sentiment is common. IT professionals, after all, are responsible for keeping the organization’s applications running and ensuring the security of sensitive data. When they do decide to make a software change, IT leaders traditionally consider criteria such as:

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

Objectivity Never Rests

objectivity

Being an independent part of the IT community isn’t an easy thing. There is a lot of writing involved and an even greater amount of research. For every word you commit to paper there is at least an hour of taking phone calls and interviewing leaders in the industry about topics. The rewards can be legion. So can the pitfalls. Objectivity is key, yet that is something where entire communities appear to be dividing.

Us Or Them

Communities are complex organisms with their own flow and feel. What works well in one community doesn’t work well in another. Familiarity with one concept doesn’t immediately translate to another. However, one thing that is universal across all communities is the polarization between extremes.

For instance, in the networking community this polarization is best characterized by the concept of “ABC – Anything But Cisco”. Companies make millions selling Cisco equipment every year. Writers and speakers can make a very healthy career from covering Cisco technologies. And yet there are a large number of companies and people that choose to use other options. They write about Juniper or install Brocade. They spend time researching Cumulus Linux or Big Switch Networks.

Knowing a little about Continue reading

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