LoveMyTool - Open Community for Network Management and Monitoring

OSTU: Examining A File Copy Comparison (by Tony Fortunato)

Instructor Profile - Tony Fortunato is a Senior Network Specialist with experience in design, implementation, and troubleshooting of LAN/WAN/Wireless networks, desktops and servers since 1989. His background in financial networks includes design and implementation of trading floor networks. Tony has taught at local high schools, Colleges/Universities, Networld/Interop and many onsite private classroom settings to thousands of analysts. Tony is an authorized and certified Fluke Networks and Wireshark Instructor. His Pine Mountain Group CNA Level I and II certification demonstrates his vendor neutral approach to network design, support and implementations. Tony has architected, installed and supported various types of Residential Wireless High Speed as well as hundreds of WIFI hotspots. Tony uses a variety of technologies from Powerline, Wireless and wired technologies to find the most cost-efficient and reliable solution for his customers. Tony combines custom programs, open source and commercial software to ensure a simple support infrastructure.

Tony walks you through the basics of starting an application baseline or comparison.

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Free Tool and Free Tips for Network Configuration Management (by Josh Stephens)

Author Profile - Josh Stephens is the Head Geek and VP of technology at SolarWinds, a leading provider of network management software based in Austin Texas. Josh has extensive experience in network management systems, network engineering, and software development. His 15-plus years of experience in technology include designing and deploying advanced networks and network management systems within organizations including the US Air Force, Sprint, MCI/UUNET, and WalMart. He has received several industry certifications including those from Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and HP.

Opening – by Tim O’Neill - I am always on the lookout for cool tools for the Lovemytool readers, especially when they are FREE!

I had recently received an announcement of this new tool that could save you some of your valuable time. Plus as I get older I realize that one simply cannot remember everything including Configurations and I HATE Scripting ... It seems to me that as advanced as we are, everything should be visualized and controlled by simple, traceable, change management focused, safe and secure GUI’s. Well, that is not the case so here is a sweet tool to help every one of you command config people save some time and burning up those “little grey cells”!

I remember meeting the Younce brothers at Walmart when I was with the original Network General Team as the CTM – That is “Chief Trouble Maker”. Then they started Solarwinds and WOW has it come far and done well. I had used their very cool and advanced Engineering Tools for years, until I lost my license.

Well back to the subject - Check out this new Free Tool and look over their exciting Orion technology. I have often wondered why companies do not give away more solutions to prove that their Technology is the best and that they want to be part of THE SOLUTION?

Many Thanks to SolarWinds and Josh –

I wish you less Stress and More Success - Oldcommguy

Using Event-Driven Analytics to Improve Knowledge Workers' Processes (by Mike Darrish)

Author Profile - Mike Darrish is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Industry Specialist at OpenConnect Systems, where he works on teams delivering process improvement in large enterprises. Prior to OpenConnect, Mike worked for over 25 years in large enterprises and startups providing IP connectivity, network management, IT performance improvement and financial services. His roles have included programmer, systems administrator, network analyst, instructor, technical and management consultant, and a variety of sales support and sales management positions. Mike lives in the Atlanta, GA area.

World class methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma are well known, proven approaches to process improvement in the manufacturing sector of the US economy. As a result, according to the US government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturing productivity doubled between 1987 and 2007. Since these methodologies were adopted much later in the services sector, productivity there increased only 22% in the same time period. See Figure 1.

Top Network Trends in 2010 (by Stephen Brown)

Author Profile - Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance. The company continues to lead the industry in ROI with its advanced Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture, which successfully integrates comprehensive analysis functionality across heterogeneous networks through a single monitoring interface. Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries.

Stephen Brown is the Product Marketing Manager for network analysis vendor Network Instruments with nearly a decade of experience in network management and security. Areas of interest include data loss prevention, network compliance, and VoIP management. Stephen is a member of InfraGard and graduated with a degree in Marketing from the University of Iowa.

A few weeks after the holidays seemed like a good time to look forward to a new year in network management. Gazing into my crystal ball, here are the trends that we see on the rise or meeting their demise in 2010. Rather the discussing obvious trends of increased server virtualization and cloud-based technologies, I tried to go out on a bit of a limb. It'd be great to hear what you think of my predictions – right on the mark or have I been drinking too much eggnog.

Let Me Be Perfectly Clear: Job Prospects in 2010 (by Paul W. Smith)

Author Profile - Paul W. Smith, a Founder and Director of Engineering with INVENTtPM LLc, has more than 35 years of experience in research and advanced product development. 

Prior to founding INVENTtPM, Dr. Smith spent 10 years with Seagate Technology in Longmont, Colorado. At Seagate, Dr. Smith was primarily responsible for evaluating new data storage technologies under development throughout the company, and utilizing six-sigma processes to stage them for implementation in early engineering models. While at Seagate, he was a proud member of the team that brought the world’s first notebook disk drive with perpendicular recording technology to the market. 

Dr. Smith holds a doctorate in Applied Mechanics from the California Institute of Technology, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.     

 

If you think your boss (assuming you still have one these days) is a micro-manager who constantly has you under the microscope, you can probably summon up some empathy for President Obama. One of the most visible “new hires” of these trying economic times, he survived a strenuous interview process to land a prime position, relocation and benefits included.

Politics aside, Obama began his new job in an unprecedented time, bringing his charisma and promise of change to an American people who were hammered by looming bank failures, double-digit unemployment, and the escalating expense, in dollars and lives, of at least two overseas wars. It comes as no surprise that the clothes he (or his wife) wears, the amount of grey on his temples, the wrinkle-count of his face, the words he utters, and even the status of his jump-shot are chronicled daily in great detail.

Analysts with sophisticated computer software and nothing better to do have discovered that Obama’s favorite phrase is “Let me be perfectly clear.”