Ok, I'm Guilty..

A few years ago my garage door died after a lightning storm. Lesson learned, i now have a whole home surge protection system installed. Since I was on the road, my wife called "the professionals" to install a new unit.

When I returned home, I was pleasantly surprised that there was one less thing for me to do. The first time I used it I knew something wasn't quite right but I had no time or energy to look into it. And like all IT implementations "It works, so move on.".

Over the past few years, I would comment to my wife that the garage opener looked misaligned but was quickly reminded that i had a ton of other stuff to worry about.

One day i went to use the garage door opener and heard a "crack and snap". Watching the chain dangling was a sure sign that something wasn't right ;)

I got the ladder to check things out hoping the chain just jumped the sprocket and I could fix it quickly. Nope... to my surprise, the shaft that the sprocket was connected to had snapped. upon closer inspection, I could see a pile of metal filings (see photo below) indicating that the shaft had been wearing away for a while.

This reminded me of the countless network equipment, applications, computer configurations and installs where I'm always preaching to make sure you test and check things out before you leave.

In this case, I am willing to accept being guilty, lazy, and putting off something I knew wasn't working correctly.

I purchased a new garage door opener and noticed all the shortcuts the 'professionals' took with the previous installation explaining the misaligned unit. Now I know why my wife and I prefer to do our own home renovations or check any work done by anyone other than us.

Cost of being lazy and procrastinating; $350 and a half a day to purchase/install the new unit.

The Importance of In-Line Network TAPs

 

Your security tools are as good as the data that is put into them.

The effectiveness of any system, including your cloud environment, analytics tools, IPS (Intrusion Prevention System), and IDS (Intrusion Detection System), depends on the information provided to it. It has never been more crucial to know where you are getting your data from and if you are seeing the whole data stream.

5 Things To Do With Your NetAlly Aircheck and General WiFi checks

While working on site, a client was impressed with all the ‘quick’ things I did with my various tools. He then commented that I should write some of your tips and tricks up. At first, I thought I already do that, but then realized that I haven’t done it for all of my tools.

So here you go, some tips and tricks for using the Netally Aircheck G2.

Practical Wireless Site Survey Tips and Tools for Effective Wi-Fi Analysis

I have received a lot of emails expressing interest in Wi-Fi site surveys. Everything from outdoor point to point, factories, and of course, office environments. 

This video provides a practical overview of conducting wireless site surveys, focusing on straightforward, adaptable methods rather than rigid rules. The presenter highlights essential planning steps, tool selection, measurement techniques, and data interpretation to ensure reliable Wi-Fi performance assessment both indoors and outdoors.

Wireshark 4.0.0 Simple Layout Fix

For those of you who do not use Wireshark regularly and just upgraded to version 4 , will notice the default layout has been changed from the ‘stacked’ view to the 1x2 display.

I figured I would show you how to put it back if you prefer the old format.