PacketLife

I was admiring Jeremy Stretch’s blog over at PacketLife on Twitter, and he responded to remind me that there was a whole community of great networking blogs. So I checked them out, and so should you. The full list is here.

Aaron’s Worthless Words: Don’t let the title throw you, Aaron Conaway’s 12 years of experience with “designing, implementing, and supporting aspects of the network from switches to routers to firewalls to load balancers” makes this blog a great go-to for in-depth explanations and insights into networking processes.

Ethereal Mind: Greg Ferro is a freelance Network Architect and Senior Engineer and Designer. He writes this blog as a way of giving back to the IT community, a guy after our own hearts! (He’s also on Twitter.)

Evil Routers: Jeremy has “designed, redesigned, implemented, configured, and managed large networks serving thousands of users” and has taught numerous courses on networking, security, and Windows Server. His expertise translates into mini-lessons and IT adventures in each blog post. He recently quit his job and outlines his reasons why as well as his passion for IT, which I’m sure many of you can relate to.

Fry Guy’s Blog: Jeff is a Cisco CCIE in Routing and Switching #22061. His blog covers all aspects of his adventures in networking, including book reviews and his conference schedules. Get mini-versions of his blog posts at his Twitter.

PackLife Blog: Check out the PacketLife blog for more things networking including tutorials, or chat with him on Twitter.

Other great networking finds…

Packet Maniac: This guy is a network engineer and architect with experience with packets and frames and Cisco equipment. He believes that “no network is too big or too small to conquer.” He’s also on Twitter!

Archimedius: Greg Ness “rants and rambles” about networking, security and virtualization.

Network Janitor: Kurt writes about all of the things he’s learned as a Network Engineer and as a guy studying to be one (CCIE and JNCIE). He specializes in design advice, building multi-provider and multi-technology network solutions, and IPv6 consulting. Check him out on Twitter as well!

The Networking Nerd: Tom Hollingsworth is also a Network Engineer who describes himself as a “voice/routing/switching/security nerd.” He’s currently studying for his CCIE, so wish him luck at his blog or on Twitter.

Where do you keep up with the goings-on in the networking world?

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.

If you’ve read one of the books on this list, or if you’d like to suggest another title, and you’d like to provide a review, please get in touch with me at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com! Check out last year’s networking professional reads list for more titles.

Cisco is one of the most trusted names in networking these days. It’s no wonder that the books they publish remain the highest among recommended resources for those new or seasoned in networking. Here are a couple of titles from the CCIE Professional Development books that might be of interest to networking professionals:

• Deploying and Troubleshooting Cisco Wireless LAN Controller – From the publisher: “This is the only complete, all-in-one guide to deploying, running, and troubleshooting wireless networks with Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs) and Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP)/Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP).” The book includes “start-to-finish coverage of implementing WLCs in existing wired and wireless network environments.”
• Network Security Technologies and Solutions – What’s a network without top-notch security? As good as breached. From the publisher: “With an easy-to-follow approach, this book serves as a central repository of security knowledge to help you implement end-to-end security solutions and provides a single source of knowledge to covering the entire range of the Cisco network security portfolio.”

Check out some other titles that have been well reviewed in the networking community:

• Network Mergers and Migrations – From the publisher: “Network Mergers and Migrations provides readers with a comprehensive guide for network migration activities by detailing a variety of inter-networking case studies. Both enterprise and service provider scenarios are examined, from MPLS Layer 3 VPN migration approaches to comprehensive network protocol consolidation and integration. Case studies are provided with solid state-of-the-art protocol analysis and with practical application notes focused on specific functionalities. This is a book that truly describes the challenges that involve networks in modern environments, in both enterprise and service provider milieus.”
• The Illustrated Network – From the publisher: “This book takes the popular Stevens approach and modernizes it, employing 2008 equipment, operating systems, and router vendors. It presents an illustrated explanation of how TCP/IP works with consistent examples from a real, working network configuration that includes servers, routers, and workstations.”
• Network Access Control for Dummies – From the publisher: “If you’re interested in researching or implementing a Network Access Control (NAC) solution for your network, here’s the book for you. Authored by three Juniper Network’s managers, Network Access Control for Dummies provides an excellent overview of how a comprehensive, standards-based NAC solution works.”

Have a suggestion for another networking professional’s must-read? Let us know in the comments section or send me an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com and we’ll add it to the list!

Another point Michael made is something I’ve seen ever since I started working in this field:

But more often than not, the folks in the branch office tend to do what they please when it comes to servers. It’s only when that activity starts having a negative impact on the network that corporate IT takes any notice of what’s happening in the branch office.

In other words, the typical branch office is often ignored – sometimes forgotten about – when it comes to computing resources. I don’t know if this is a flaw of a centralized IT management model or just a sign that the average network manager is too overwhelmed. Regardless, it’s a problem that cannot be ignored if you’re going to manage IT and, more specifically, virtualization and network bandwidth at remote offices. Perhaps an impending “virtualization management crisis” is indeed on the horizon?

Certainly something to think about.

Kevin Beaver is an independent information security consultant, keynote speaker, and expert witness with Principle Logic, LLC and a contributor to the IT Watch Blog.

The Spiceworks team has been hard at work on some presents for system administrators in medium-sized businesses hoping to get better control of their network: The free network monitoring package doubled the size of networks it officially supports from 500 endpoints to a 1,000.

As an added bonus, in the spirit of universal good will towards man, the tool now supports user-generated language packs that span the globe.

This isn’t the first time 500+ endpoint companies can use Spiceworks: The tool didn’t have a hard-limit set in. But Jay Hallberg, a co-founder and VP of marketing, said that the company decided to roll out support for some of the most-wanted features by their larger user bases.

“We looked around our userbase and found a lot of people with over 500 devices and 500 employees using Spiceworks quite successfully, and they asked for features that were more important for networks their size, so we added those,” he said.

Those feature sets primarily focused around improved:

• Network monitoring and inventory support
• More sophisticated features for helpdesk employees
• More real-time monitoring

Read the full press release on Spiceworks 4.5 update yourself, and let me know any stories, success or otherwise, you’ve had with the tool in the comments or at Michael@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.