Troubleshooting NTP With Wireshark

Many of my regular customers refer to me as the ‘Network Janitor’ because I seem to gravitate to ‘cleaning up’ networks.

In some cases, yes physically cleaning up and organizing datacenters, wiring closets, etc – kind a network version of a personal organizer. In most cases though I clean up the network from the packet perspective.

For years I have been preaching concepts such as ‘The pc bootup and login baseline’ as well as “The VLAN or subnet broadcast analysis”. In both cases, I look for unnecessary traffic to make things run smoother and more efficiently.

In my throughput class I explain how quickly things get messy using basic math. For example, assume you have a 7% broadcast rate on switch where everybody has a 1 Gbps connection. 

How to Document Why a Network Is Slow — Stop Guessing and Start Measuring

“It’s slow” has to be one of the most common—and least useful—phrases a network troubleshooter hears. Slow compared with what? When does it happen? Is everything slow, or just one application, server, file, or connection? In this network troubleshooting video, I walk through why documenting the problem before jumping into troubleshooting can make such a huge difference. A vague complaint can send a technician down a troubleshooting rabbit hole, while a measurable problem gives you something you can actually investigate and compare.

One More Thing (Paul W. Smith )

 Everyone loves a good saying.  Aphorisms – those terse statements instilled with a modicum of truth – are a popular part of our language.  The term originated with Greek physician Hippocrates who once aphorized, “To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.”  Ironically, he is also regarded as the Father of Medicine.  The more aphorisms are used, the more credibility they accrue.  

It is widely known that actions speak louder than words, he who hesitates is lost, and if you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.  It is reassuring that a barking dog never bites, and that absence makes the heart grow fonder.  

Create a Wireshark Auto‑Capture Shortcut: Instant Packet Sniffing on Launch

In this video, I show you how to streamline your workflow in Wireshark by creating a Windows desktop shortcut that launches the program and immediately begins capturing packets. Instead of navigating menus or manually starting a capture each time, the tutorial walks you through a simple command‑line tweak that transforms Wireshark into a one‑click network analysis tool. It’s a small optimization with a big impact, especially if you frequently monitor network traffic.

Next Generation Autonomous Control - Dynamic Artificial Intelligence DAI (Mr. Lenko)

Real-time autonomous control for distributed and edge devices using a hybrid of real-time Neural Networks, Inference Engines, and Evolutionary Computational Structures.

When Is A Lost Packet Not Lost?

I was working with a customer and started explaining the concept of what I affectionately refer to as, “application baselining”. I asked my client to pick an application to test and he chose his favorite network monitoring application.