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Sizing Your UPS: Watts and Volt-Amps

Thu, 2011-06-09 10:05

Great, concise article from APC explaining the difference between Watts and Volt-Amps...key when sizing a UPS for your Cisco gear.

Cisco Security Advisories - AnyConnect Client and 7900 Series Phones

Wed, 2011-06-08 07:10

Cisco release a couple severe security advisories last week that are worth taking a look at if you use either the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client software or Cisco 7900 Series IP Phones. I'll try to break them down in english below to help you see if you are vulnerable.

Epic Blue Screen of Death

Mon, 2011-06-06 12:47
DFW_BSOD

Don't you just hate it when your 16 screen display stops working due to a Windows problem? It gives you that not so fresh feeling.

I'm sure the IT staff at DFW Airport felt that way yesterday when this awesome set of screens was proudly displaying Microsoft's OS at its finest moment. Credit for the photo goes to a road-warrior buddy of mine, Brendan. Thanks for sharing the love.

Cisco 4500 In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)

Thu, 2011-06-02 07:31

Came across a nifty video featuring Jimmy Ray Purser demonstrating the Cisco 4500 Sup 7E and the new single line In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) feature. 

If you are unfamiliar with ISSU, it basically lets you upgrade a router or switch to new code without taking a significant outage to reboot.  In the 4500 Sup 7E, Jimmy mentions a 10 millisecond outage during the upgrade - much better than several minutes. 

The video is embedded below. If you don't have flash, the link to it on YouTube is also below.

Cool, free tool-of-the-week: WinMTR

Wed, 2011-06-01 08:48

Thanks to Etienne who emailed me this fun Windows port of a Linux tool allowing you to perform a continual traceroute (thus, identifying the 'slow spots' in your network).


WinMTR-main-window

Administrative Distance

Tue, 2011-05-31 07:20

If you find yourself forgetting the default administrative distance values after you’ve completed an exam, this post is for you.

When routers learn of a route from more than one source, they need a way to pick the “best” one. Administrative Distance is used when such a situation arises. Lower administrative distances are considered more reliable than higher AD’s. The following table is a quick reference for those studying for exams and need to memorize the default administrative distances on Cisco gear:

 

Scale of the Future

Wed, 2011-05-25 05:21

So, I generally don't share info about Health or Fitness products, but this one is totally worth an exception because it can attach to your network! 


The Withings Wifi Body Scale is a normal scale with the added ability to attach to a wireless network and upload its data to a central server to be viewed after the fact. It's bit on the pricey side when compared to a non-networked, traditional scale that simple provides your weight. However, it is quite comparable in price to other digital, sleek looking scales that provide BMI and other information. 

This thing can also track multiple users automatically. Just step on and it should recognize who you are. The whole family can geek out together while tracking their vitals!

Got an iPhone or iPad? Then this is for you because there is a Free iPhone and iPad App that goes with this scale. Available in the iTunes App Store to monitor your vitals on the go. 

New Cisco iPhone App

Tue, 2011-05-24 10:02

I just installed the Cisco Technical Support application on my iPhone. Pretty nice! Okay, realistically, I'm always using my laptop to access this same content...faster, quicker typing. However, this app would come in handy in a pinch should 3G internet be the only thing available.

Cisco Sued for Helping Build China's Great Firewall

Mon, 2011-05-23 18:04

According to reports all over the place, Cisco has been slapped with a lawsuit for allegedly helping China build a security system that has lead to the torture, and in one case death, of the members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. 

The firewall system named the Golden Shield gives China's government the power to identify, track, and monitor those who are opposed to Chinese government. The suite contends that the information provided by the Golden Shield lead to the arrest of several members of the Falun Gong group who were tortured, one beaten to death. 

Symantec to Acquire Clearwell Systems

Mon, 2011-05-23 06:51

You may have heard Symantec has announced its intention to acquire Clearwell Systems, Inc., a leader in the eDiscovery market. What exactly does that mean? Well, in the age of information when knowledge is capital, large organizations stand to gain from managing their information well. If a company stays on top of their information management, they will lessen the risk of data loss to competitors and are more likely to be in compliance with regulators. 

Clearwell is the recognized leader in the eDiscovery market. Add those strengths to Symantec with their data archiving and backup expertise and you have a potential information management power house. 

CCIE Wireless Update Scheduled

Thu, 2011-05-19 22:50

Cisco's CCIE Wireless exam is scheduled for a refresh later this year. Beginning November 18, 2011, the Version 2.0 blueprint will go into effect ushering in a new era of wireless exam topics. 

The new written exam topics are much more in depth and spelled out than they used to be. The old exam outlines seemed to be high level bullets, whereas the new exam topics are very detailed and specific. The most notable update can be summarized in one word: Troubleshooting.  The word troubleshoot shows up over 40 times in the new Lab objectives whereas there are only 5 occurrences of the word in the old objectives. Not exactly subtle...

Survey Shines Light on DNS Servers

Tue, 2011-05-17 00:24

While clicking through Infoblox's website, I came across an interesting study.  Commissioned by Infoblox last year to measure the number of DNS servers on the Internet, this study quantifies how DNS servers on the Internet are configured and how they behave. There's some interesting information in the study and answers to questions such as: 

  • What implementations and versions of name server software used?
  • Is recursion supported?
  • What SOA and TTL values are in use in a zone?

There's also a cool bit of trivia: The geographic location of name servers. 

Worth taking a look if you dig statistics or are a DNS nut. Here's a link: DNS Survey.

Integrated Architecture for F5 and Infoblox DNS

Mon, 2011-05-16 07:36

While searching for a related topic, I came across this interesting white paper entitled: F5 and Infoblox DNS Integrated Architecture: Offering a Complete Scalable, Secure DNS Solution.  Essentially, if you have F5 BIG IP GTM's on your edge and you are using Infoblox for external DNS, you can integrate the two products to create a Highly Available DNS and DNS Sec architecture. 

This white paper is hardly what I would call exhaustive. It's more of a suggestion on how this type of thing can be done. It's only 18 pages long including the title page, so definitely an easy read. I highly suggest a quick flip through if this is your cup of tea. 

Click here for the PDF.

Jedi Robots

Wed, 2011-05-11 19:31

For all you Star Wars fans out there that also like robotics, this one's for you. Industrial robot company
Yaskawa is demonstrating their product's precision sword-fighting skills at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai, China.  

Check out the video below.

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Dr. Radut