Tool Behavior Exercise - Netscout Optiview XG

 I’ve been preaching, “pick the right tool for the job” for years. The other day someone had an excellent question and asked me, “How do you know what the right tool is?”.

I explained that many times it can be pretty obvious. For example, reach for the RJ45 crimper when an end is damaged and needs to be replaced, or when you make your own patch cable.

Other times, it gets tricky since many of your tools may overlap with the functionality of your other tools. For example, an Optiview XG can capture packets, generate traffic, test cables, perform device discovery, use SNMP to monitor, etc.

Change is Necessary (M.O’Sullivan)

I applaud entrepreneurs for what they have achieved, through hours of dedicated, hard work, extreme commitment and at times ‘brute force’ to make success happen; however, as the old adage states ‘if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got’! So the question I often ask myself is “do entrepreneurial owners, presidents, CEO’s, etc. of small-to-medium enterprises (SME’s) readily accept that change is inevitable and necessary”?

The Highlighted Route (Paul W. Smith)

 

It is in our nature as humans to plan. Some of us do it formally, writing down step by step instructions with a well-defined goal in mind. Others plan at a smaller scale, often thinking about step 2 after step 1 is underway. If you are out doing errands, advanced planning can save time with a more efficient route. If you are doing a project, planning can help avoid painting yourself into a corner (literally). When it comes to travel, planning might include packing things you will need or putting a hold on the mail, but it most definitely will involve some sort of pre-determined route. Airline pilots do this sort of route planning routinely to conserve fuel, avoid bad weather, and arrive at their destination on time. They submit a formal flight plan to document their intentions.

Automating Packet Analysis with Sharkd and Python

 Have you ever had one of those days when your packet analysis seems doomed?  We start looking and quickly realise that there are duplicates of all the packets in one direction.  So we process the file with your favourite de-dup tool and try again.  Next we find some packets were dropped during capture.   Hopefully, we have enough.  Hang on, where's the traffic to the server?  Things are going from bad to worse and we are already 2 hours in.

Replay: How TCP Works - The Timestamp Option (by Chris Greer)

 

In the TCP handshake, you may see an option called timestamps, shortly followed by scary-looking “TSval” and "TSecr" numbers. What are those values and how can you interpret them? Let’s dig.

What is a TCP Timestamp?