It Doesn't Take a Brain Surgeon (Paul W. Smith,)

 

For many of us, college is that season of life when we are compelled to choose a career path, long before we have any idea of who we are or what we want. Back in my college days, many of my fellow students were the progeny of doctors, lawyers and engineers who saw no other viable option than to follow in the footsteps of their parents. Others who had a propensity to argue chose to pursue the law, while those geeky types who were always taking things apart as kids went into engineering. And those rare students with a 5.0 GPA (how is that even possible?) and whose faces were always buried in a book? They were destined for Med School.

TAP versus SPAN, RSPAN or VACL?

Is using a SPAN port a viable data access technology for today’s business critical networks, especially with today’s ever increasing pressure to satisfy Data Security Compliance, Lawful Intercept and Deep Packet Inspection requirements? In today’s world we now have the GDPR requirements that “Require” 100% data inspection and retention! Plus, Deep Packet Inspection with Firewalls must have full visibility of every frame and part thereof!

So “REAL” TAPs both Electrical and Photonic are even more in demand!

Quick Faraday bag test with my NetAlly Aircheck

I thought I would see if these faraday bags can really block RF signals, so I used my NetAlly Aircheck to monitor my cell phone's wifi while I pinged it from another computer. I figured I have the tool and a client asked me if those bags actually work, so I figured why not give it a try.

I find that a lot of portable wifi devices cycle the wifi off if there isn’t any traffic, hence the ping from the other computer.

I was pleasantly surprised that the bag did block the wifi signal from my phone. I repeated the test several times to be sure and even noticed that the wifi icon on my phone actually disappeared.

4 Ways Big Data Network Monitoring Benefits Your Business!

 By its very nature, big data exceeds the capability of most corporate networks.

Simply due to the sheer volumes of data that big data projects use, traditional networks are finding themselves unable to cope with the pressures. Thus, new ways of managing data have had to be created.

After all, according to IDC, there will be 450 billion Internet transactions every day. Walmart now processes over 1 million customer transactions per hour, generating 2.5 petabytes of data. Every minute, YouTube produces 48 hours of new video content. Every day, Facebook processes 100 gigabytes of data.

Old School vs New Tool - CDP Discovery

In this video, I compare how long it takes the NetAlly LinkRunner G2 and a Windows laptop running Wireshark, to determine what switch and port it is connected to. In my opinion, this is the most common task that most IT professionals perform.

I too have been in that scenario where I'm tracing a cable in someone's office and it goes behind the desk or partition. If you are lucky, you can pull the desk aside, slide your phone behind the desk to get a photo of the cable label. In some cases, the label is missing. Would you trust the label in the first place?