Domain-Name Jail is Not Fun
I was minding my own business rounding the monopoly board. I rounded "Go" but this time I didn't receive $200. I had to pay $200 and I went directly to Jail. Take it from me that being in Internet domain-name jail is not enjoyable and should be avoided. I sure wished I had a "get out of jail free" card right about now. I thought I would share my tale with you so that you can avoid the pitfall that I fell into. Read more
2010 Predictions
I have never written down my predictions at the start of any year. Nor have I ever written down my new-year's resolutions although I definitely could use improvement. I find that each year is just as chaotic as the previous one and with technology changing as rapidly as it does predictions are sometimes pointless. I was reading last week's Network World magazine and the title article "Outlook 2010". It started me thinking about what we can expect this new year.
Easy predictions Read more
Service Provider Contradiction Affliction
You can't help but notice the volume of mobile provider ads on TV where company A complains about the lack of coverage or speed of company B's wireless network. We haven't seen this type of mudslinging since last year's political elections. Each service provider tries to highlight how their download speeds are faster than the competition. However, they are also secretly or not-so-secretly planning to limit the bandwidth available to their subscribers. Read more
gogoNET by gogo6: New Social Networking Site for IPv6
The IPv6 community has always been a pretty tight-knit community. IPv6 has taken a while to become mainstream and those who are focused on the protocol have had plenty of years to get to know each other. Now is your chance to join the IPv6 community if you haven't already. There is a new social networking site called gogoNET which is dedicated to those who are interested in IPv6 technologies. Read more
10GE and Network Oversubscription Ratios
Lately I have seen many data center designs that contain 10 Gigabit Ethernet links at the access, distribution and the core hierarchy layers. Traditionally, the bandwidth increases as you reach the core of the network. Historically, networks were like trees. The access network "leaves" are smaller, the distribution network "branches" are a little bigger, and the core network "trunk" is thick. However, due to the prolific use of 10 GE interfaces traditional network design oversubscription ratios are not achievable. Read more
BackTrack4 Uses IPv6 to Cover Tracks
This past week I was working on performing a security assessment and I was using the latest version of BackTrack 4. I noticed that it has Miredo support to help auditors establish a secret IPv6 back-channel to their exploited systems. This shows that the security community is recognizing how IPv6 can be used as a backdoor to owned systems. Read more
Observe IPv6 Traffic Encapsulated Within IPv4 Packets
In the past few weeks several organizations have asked me about these "funny" packets they see leaving their networks destined for the Internet. These packets turned out to be IPv6 packets encapsulated within an IPv4 header (IP protocol 41). IPv6 packets that are encapsulated in IPv4 packets may be created unintentionally or they may be malicious activity that is trying to avoid detection. To understand this potential security issue you need tools to help you inspect this type of traffic. Read more
New IPv6 Features in Cisco IOS 15.0
You may have heard that Cisco has released IOS version 15.0. This new IOS version has many new advancements. However, it only has a few new IPv6 features for multicast and OSPFv3. Based on the IPv6 features that have come out in IOS 12.4T we should expect many new IPv6 features in IOS 15.0M and IOS 15.0T in the coming years. Read more
Windows 7 and IE8 Slowness Problems Fixed
Recently I upgraded to a new laptop running Windows 7 Enterprise and it came with IE8. The Ie8 browser was so incredibly slow it was unusable. However, I found a way to correct the problem. If you are having similar performance issues with IE8 you may find this information helpful for speeding up this bloated browser. Disabling Add-ons and installing the Google Chrome Frame plug-in may help you speed up IE8 to the level of "acceptable". Read more
The IPv6 Internet is Growing
Recently I have noticed some concrete evidence that the IPv6 Internet is growing. Reports that document IPv6 Internet traffic volumes show that the amount of IPv6 traffic is increasing. The IPv6 default-free zone BGP routing table has doubled in size in a year. The number of organizations being allocated IPv6 address blocks is increasing. Even though IPv6 Internet traffic volumes are still very small compared to IPv4; all these facts point to an upward trend in IPv6 usage. Read more
10 in IPv6 Does Not Equal 10 in IPv4
I encountered a funny situation this past week while deploying IPv6 on a tunnel interface. I realized that when you use 10 for the most significant digits in an IPv6 address it does not mean that is the tenth address in that network. We are trained to think in terms of decimals from the very beginning of our education as children. Breaking out of that mindset and thinking in hexadecimal is an essential skill for operating a network in an IPv6 world. When starting to deploy IPv6 it is important to start to learn to think in Hexadecimal. Read more
I Remember When I Used a Public IPv4 Address
I don't know about you, but it has been a long time since my laptop was assigned a public IPv4 address. Most of the time my laptop has a private RFC1918 IPv4 address. Rarely does my computer have a public IPv4 address for the purposes of creating IPv6 6to4 tunnels. Therefore, I must use IPv6 transition techniques that encapsulate my IPv6 packets in other forms so I can reach the IPv6 Internet. When was the last time that your individual laptop or desktop computer was assigned a public IPv4 address? Read more
Networking around the World
The past few weeks I have been out of my home country (USA) and working on an international project. I find these more interesting than typical projects in the US because they represent an opportunity to explore new places and learn about new cultures. I arrived in this country at night and went directly to the hotel. In the morning when I opened up my web browser I was greeted with a clear indication that I was not in my home country. Read more
Finding an IPv6 ISP
If you haven't already, now is the time to start to determine your strategy for IPv6 Internet connectivity. You should understand what IPv6 capabilities your existing ISP has and know what to look for when selecting a new IPv6-capable ISP. The sooner you have this information the sooner you will be able to craft your strategy. There are several places where you can find information about how ISPs are deploying IPv6 connectivity. Read more
CCIE Recertification – Not Again!
This week I passed a CCIE written/recertification exam for the 8th time in my life. In September I will achieve 10 years of maintaining my CCIE certification. However, this isn't the last time I will have to recertify. Cisco's policies state that a CCIE must continue to take a recertification exam every 2 years forever, and ever, and ever. Read more
NANOG46 and Cisco Live had Significant Focus on IPv6
Although I wasn't able to attend in person the North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG46) meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 14 to June 17, 2009, I did review the presentations from the conference. I was astounded by the number of IPv6-related presentations at this NANOG meeting and the IPv6 presentations at Cisco Live. There were some exciting announcements made at these meetings regarding IPv6 deployments that I wanted to call your attention to. Read more
IPv6 Traffic: Do Not be Overly Alarmed
Some recent Network World articles have been written about the fact that organizations have IPv6 traffic on them even though they have not explicitly enabled IPv6 on their hosts or network devices. I don't want you to overreact to this news or to unnecessarily spread fear-uncertainty-and-doubt about IPv6. As far as the protocol goes, it is not drastically different than IPv4. There are steps you can take to protect your organization while preparing for your migration to IPv6. Read more
Take Care of Your Brain
It is obvious that being a good IT professional takes some brainpower. With optimal brain function you will be able to remember all sorts of technical details, troubleshoot problems faster, come up with creative approaches to tough technical challenges, and help you manage the stressful life as an IT professional. You need to remember to take care of your brain to optimize your performance. Read more
Cisco Live 2009 San Francisco
This past week I was fortunate enough to attend Cisco Live 2009 in San Francisco California. I wanted to share with you my experiences this week in case you weren't able to be there. If you have never been to a Cisco Live event I highly recommend that you make your plans to attend the 2010 event in Las Vegas. Read more
Ethernet on a Ring
If you are considering a network design that has a ring topology and you desire to use Ethernet then you should first be aware of the issues of using Ethernet with a ring architecture. Ethernet is traditionally thought of a as a bus or star topology. With the pervasiveness of Ethernet technology you may find yourself contemplating using Ethernet with a ring architecture. These new extensions to spanning tree allow for fast convergence of Ethernet ring topologies. Read more
- About Core Networking and Security
- Scott Hogg is the Director of Advanced Technology Services for Global Technology Resources, Inc. (GTRI). Scott provides network engineering, security consulting, and training services to his clients, focusing on creating reliable, high-performance, secure, manageable, and cost effective network solutions. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from Colorado State University, a M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado, along with his CCIE (#5133), CISSP (#4610), among many other vendor and industry certifications. For the past 7 years Scott has been working with IPv6 technologies. Scott is the author of the Cisco Press book IPv6 Security and has given numerous presentations and demonstrations of IPv6 technologies. He is also currently the chair of the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force.
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