Nervous about viruses
The latest server virus alerts are making us nervous. We patched our servers and want to ensure quality of service (QoS) between our Internet-connected sites so our important network traffic will get through in time, even when the Internet is slow.
It's good that you keep up with the security patches for your Internet servers. Most successful online attackers gain entry through well-known, unpatched holes for which solutions exist. Everyone should ensure that their system administrators can keep up with server operating system and security update patch installations.
Ensuring QoS between multiple Internet connected sites is difficult because TCP/IP is a best-effort datagram delivery service. Carriers provide network traversal service-level agreements, but you're at the mercy of their implementation and all the physical networks your traffic rides on to guide your data packet to its destination in time to meet your QoS requirements. How to deliver guaranteed QoS over the Internet remains unclear, but we call it Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS). When the standards are standard we may have something. Until then, ensuring Internet QoS means having realistic expectations, buying Internet connections that minimize the number of peering points crossed, and minimizing the data transfer requirements of your business tasks.
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As a network architect at Change at Work in Houston, Blass understands the strain of developing and managing networks. Send your problems to dr.internet@changeatwork.com
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