No evidence feds hacked Attkisson

Former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson is coming out with a book claiming the government hacked her computer in order to suppress reporting on Benghazi. None of her "evidence" is credible. Instead, it's bizarre technobabble. Maybe her book is better, but those with advance copies quoting excerpts  make it sound like the worst "ninjas are after me" conspiracy theory.

Your electronics are not possessed by demons

Technology doesn't work by magic. Each symptom has a specific cause.

Attkisson says "My television is misbehaving. It spontaneously jitters, mutes, and freeze-frames". This is not a symptom of hackers. Instead, it's a common consumer complaint caused by the fact that cables leading to homes (and inside the home) are often bad. My TV behaves like this on certain channels.

She says "I call home from my mobile phone and it rings on my end, but not at the house", implying that her phone call is being redirected elsewhere. This is a common problem with VoIP technologies. Old analog phones echoed back the ring signal, so the other side had to actually ring for you to hear it. New VoIP technologies can't do that. The ringing is therefore simulated and has nothing to do with whether it's ringing Continue reading

The deal with the FTDI driver scandal

The FTDI driver scandal is in the news, so I thought I'd write up some background, and show what a big deal this is.

Devices are connected to your computer using a serial port. Such devices include keyboards, mice, flash drives, printers, your iPhone, and so on. The original serial port standard called RS232 was created in 1962. It got faster over the years (75-bps to 115-kbps), but ultimately, the technology became obsolete.

In 1998, the RS232 standards was replaced by the new USB standard. Not only is USB faster (a million times so), it's more complex and smarter. The initials stand for "Universal Serial Bus", and it truly is universal. Not only does your laptop have USB ports on the outside for connecting to things like flash drives, it interconnects much of the things on the inside of your computer, such as your keyboard, Bluetooth, SD card reader, and camera.

What FTDI sells is a chip that converts between the old RS232 and the new USB. It allows old devices to be connected to modern computers. Even new devices come with RS232 instead of USB simply because it's simple and reliable.

The FTDI chip is a simple Continue reading

GNS3 1.1


I was never a big fan of GUI tools, so I used dynagen and dynamips for my network designs. But since 15.2 was the last version released for 7200, dynamips is no longer useful (especially for IKEv2 and OSPFv3 stuff)

I was hoping that Cisco would release VIRL, and they promised to do so for the past year and a half, but it looks like it will never come. Shelling out 10K$ for CML (the payed version of VIRL) is a bit too much for most of us. But there is a good alternative:

Not long time ago GNS3 version 1.0 was released and soon after version 1.1. was released too. And after long time of being a backer for their funding campaign I have decided to try GNS3 with IOU.

After installing GNS3 on both linux and windows (vmware required), I found that GNS3 is really easy to use, and that IOU is AMAZING. IOU is sooooo fast, and everything just works(tm). I wish I had it years ago!

Goodbye dynamips and dynagen, and thank you so much.

Hello IOU and GNS3. I know it will be a start of a wonderful friendship :)


JNCIE study lab setup.

Boom – you’ve got to love Junosphere.  I just created the Proteus JNCIE study lab in 35 minutes flat.   I made the topology of 13 routers, gave everything a hostname, loopback and interface descriptions and then just fired it up.   When I did my CCIE I was there for >weeks< trying to get the right kit plugged together!

Have a look below:

proteus


Free Seminar – Advancing Security with the Software-Defined Data Center

We’re excited to take to the road for another edition of our VMware Software-Defined Data Center Seminar Series. Only this time, we’ll be joined by some great company.

VMware & Palo Alto Networks invite you along for a complementary, half-day educational event for IT professionals interested in learning about how Palo Alto Networks and VMware are transforming data center security.

Thousands of IT professionals attended our first SDDC seminar series earlier this year in more than 20 cities around the globe. Visit #VirtualizeYourNetwork.com to browse the presentations, videos, and other content we gathered.

This free seminar will highlight:

  • The Software-Defined Data Center approach
  • Lessons learned from real production customers
  • Using VMware NSX to deliver never before possible data center security and micro-segmentation

Who should attend?

People who will benefit from attending this session include:

  • IT, Infrastructure and Data Center Managers
  • Network professionals, including CCIEs
  • Security & Compliance professionals
  • IT Architects
  • Networking Managers and Administrators
  • Security Managers and Administrators

Agenda

  • 8:30 a.m. Registration & Breakfast
  • 9:00 a.m. VMware: Better Security with Micro-segmentation
  • 10:00 a.m. Palo Alto Networks: Next Generation Security Services for the SDDC
  • 11:00 a.m. NSX & Palo Alto Networks Integrated Solution Demo
  • 11:45 a. Continue reading

New CCIE Service Provider Version 4.0 Blueprint Announced

Cisco has announced their plans to transition the CCIE Service Provider certification blueprint from Version 3.0 to Version 4.0 starting May 22nd, 2015.  The official announcement for the Written and Lab Exam Content Updates can be found here.

There are four key points to this announcement, which are:

  • Lab Exam format changes
  • Hardware & software version changes
  • New technical topics added
  • Old technical topics removed

CCIE SPv4 Lab Exam Format Changes

The Lab Exam format of SPv4 has been updated to follow the same format as the new CCIE Routing & Switching Version 5.0.  This means the exam now consists of three sections: Troubleshooting, Diagnostic, and Configuration.

CCIE SPv4 Hardware & Software Version Changes

Following along with the current CCIE RSv5, CCIE SPv4 now uses all virtual hardware as well.  Specifically the new hardware and software variants are as follows:

  • ASR 9000 running Cisco IOS XR 5.2
  • ASR 1000 running Cisco IOS XE 3.13S.15.4(3)S
  • Cisco 7600 running Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S
  • Cisco ME 3600 running Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S

Both the IOS XR and IOS XE variants are already available as virtual machines that you can download from cisco.com Continue reading

Juniper’s Day One: Junos Cup 2014 Book

Some fun today. Juniper recently ran a competition they called the Junos Cup 2014. It was modeled after a world cup of sorts, with each challenge involving a country in the name, four Tournament and then – because in the … Continue reading →

If you liked this post, please do click through to the source at Juniper’s Day One: Junos Cup 2014 Book and give me a share/like. Thank you!

Basic OOP Python

I’ve just started with object oriented programming in Python so I thought I’d cover some of the basics here. Please don’t assume this is a thourough tutoriol on OOP! The beauty of OOP is that it allows me to create a template with which I can create objects. The building blocks of the object sit […]

PS Show 35 – OEM SFP and QSFP Modules – Do They Work ?

Do you really need genuine SFP and QSFP modules in your network equipment ? We talk technical with a supplier of OEM modules for your network equipment about the technology, functions and operation of non-vendor SFP optics and modules.

Author information

Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus.

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The post PS Show 35 – OEM SFP and QSFP Modules – Do They Work ? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Greg Ferro.

CCIE SP version 4 has been announced

Cisco has been updating their certifications lately. The CCIE RS got bumped to version 5 and went all virtual. The CCNP RS was then also updated and now it’s time for the CCIE SP.

It seems that Cisco has done a better job lately of tying all the certifications together and providing a more unified exam format. At least this is the indications I’m getting for the CCIE track.

CCIE SP v4 will use the same exam format as the CCIE RS v5. This means that there will be a diagnostic (DIAG) and troubleshooting (TS) module at the CCIE SP lab. First let’s go over the exam domain.

SPv3vsv4

My impression from this is that the v4 blueprint is a bit more generic. This makes it easier to develop the exam content and I also get the feeling that it’s getting more important to have a high level understanding of the different technologies and architecture.

The exam is designed to be dual stack, so you can’t afford to be weak on v6, you must master the v6 topics at the same level as v4. If you get certified you may use the IPv6 Forum Gold logo.

The following topics have been Continue reading

Conformity as an inhibitor to strategy

Early in life, we are all made acutely aware of the power of peer pressure. Most of us probably attribute it to a deep need for belonging. But what if that deep sense of belonging is less about social acceptance and more about how we are psychologically wired? In fact, the pursuit of conformity goes beyond mere social dynamics; it is rooted in how our cognitive selves.

While this plays out in very obvious ways for individuals, the dynamics actually hold true for organizations. And for companies, the stakes might be even higher.

A guy named Solomon

In the 1950s, an American psychologist named Solomon Asch ran through a series of experiments to test the effects of conformity on individuals. His studies have been published several times, but one test in particular gives a fascinating look into how we operate.

Asch took a number of participants and asked them very simple cognitive questions. To conduct the study, Asch brought participants into a room that had seven other people. However, these seven people were actually part of the study. The eight individuals were shown a card with a line on it, followed by a card with three lines on it. The Continue reading

New Webinar: Scaling Overlay Virtual Networks

You can get an overlay virtual networking solution from almost every major hypervisor- and data center networking vendor. Do you ever wonder which one to choose for your large-scale environment? I’m positive you’d get all of them up and running in a one-rack environment, but what if you happen to be larger than that?

We’ll try to address scalability hiccups and roadblocks you might encounter on your growth path in Scaling Overlay Virtual Networks webinar (get your free ticket here).

Read more ...

Is November 12 D-Day for 512k prefixes?

Is November 12 D-Day for 512k prefixes?

by Brian Boyko, Technology Contributor - October 28, 2014

During his presentation on October 7th at NANOG on the trends for prefixes over the past half-decade, Jim Cowie, chief scientist at Dyn Research, found something interesting: We may be reaching “512K day” as soon as next month.

Back in 2009, a typical IPv4 routing table contained only 269k entries. Today, in 2014, it is around 471k, and it is projected to be 519k in 2015… if not sooner. See the chart below from Cowie’s presentation.



Many older but still-in-use Cisco routers can only handle 512k border gateway protocol (BGP) routing entries in their TCAM memory. Indeed, a major outage occurred on August 12th of this year, when an accidental de-aggregation of 20k prefixes pushed the consensus routing table size over that 512k limit.

Was this an aberration, or an industry wake-up call to the fact that we are rapidly approaching a persistent 512k number of BGP entries? The chart above certainly suggests that latter. Cowie predicts that as the consensus BGP routing table hits 512k organically, we'll have a much larger and longer outage as everyone works to upgrade or replace Continue reading

Junos – Wildcard Ranges, Interface Ranges and Configuration Groups

Until recently I have worked almost exclusively on Cisco ASA and IOS platforms. Within the last six months I’ve added Juniper’s Junos platform into my repertoire. The story for how this came to be is one for another post I hope to write soon. For those who aren’t familiar, Junos is a whole different ball […]

Author information

Christian Talsness

Christian Talsness

I've done stints at a start-up, in IT consulting, and most recently in corporate IT as a Network and Security Engineer. I'm a life long geek, and I love fixing broken things. When I have some spare time, I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, reading and wood working.

The post Junos – Wildcard Ranges, Interface Ranges and Configuration Groups appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Christian Talsness.

Checking community interest for a new kind of networking site

A couple of days ago I got an idea for a new kind of networking site. The idea is to do something similar to dpreview.com but for network products.

I work a lot on network designs these days and part of the design is always what device to choose. Maybe I need a product that does NAT, IPSEC, 200 Mbit/s of throughput and has at least 4 ports. This is the kind of knowledge that you get from working on design and staying up to date with products from different vendors. There is not a community for people where they can find a broad range of products and get help choosing the right one based on different search criteria such as number of ports, features and the throughput.

What I would like to do as well is to have people write about the products. The product page said 200 Mbit/s but I got 500 Mbit/s with IMIX traffic. After enabling IPSEC I only got 80 Mbit/s. These kind of figures are very difficult to find. There could then be some kind of rating or voting system to rate if the post is helpful to sort out if people are Continue reading

Fire your mobile app programmer and build it yourself

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.

Everyone used to hire mobile app developers to build custom programs, but that often resulted in shoddy, insecure programs that sometimes didn’t even work. And even when the software suited the need, chances are it was a colossal waste of money.

Today you can program without programming. Even business people can define and build apps that suit their needs – in just hours or days, depending on the complexity. Or have them built for you for as a low as $500 from a provider harnessing the same automated software creation tools.

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

Using Scapple To Help Manage Complex Network Changes

I’ve blogged about Scapple in the past, describing how I’ve been using Scapple to do basic network diagrams. If you are willing to give up some of the fancy features you get with an advanced diagramming tool like Visio or Omnigraffle, Scapple can take you reasonably far. In preparation for a recent change […]
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