So, when they contacted me to let me know that they were releasing a new major upgrade to SpiceWorks, I thought I would try to help them get the word out here.

The latest rev offers Twitter Integration, 3rd Party Application Plug-ins and Network Mapping. Here are the details on those features from the SpiceWorks press release:

• Network Mapping – the fully-integrated network mapping application automatically creates network diagrams that graphically display network elements, their relationships, and bandwidth consumption. The “Hotspot” mode uses enhanced visualization features to help IT managers visually monitor and troubleshoot network problems in real-time.
• Management Application Plug-ins – top technology vendors, including Microsoft, LiveOffice, Intel and Trend Micro, have built management widgets that plug into Spiceworks to help users better manage technology from those vendors. The LiveOffice Mail Archive Widget, for example, allows users to archive email accounts from within Spiceworks in a couple of clicks. The Microsoft License Organizer allows users to automatically track Microsoft licenses and to order additional licenses when needed. Additionally, Intel offers a plug-in that allows IT pros to see which computers are vPro-enabled.
• Help Desk Tickets Anywhere – users can control the Spiceworks help desk from any email-enabled device, including mobile phones. With a few simple key strokes, users can create new tickets, edit & update existing tickets, and delete tickets from anywhere – whether right next to a user’s desktop or half-way across town.
• Social Windows Event and Twitter Alerts – users can now see how other IT pros have prioritized and managed various Windows Events. With one-click they can view Windows event background pages and read community group discussions on how to best troubleshoot and resolve related problems. In addition, activity updates sent from within Spiceworks can now be automatically updated or “cc:’d” to a user’s Twitter account. These features help small businesses to use social networking tools to resolve and stay better informed on IT issues.

You can try out the latest version for yourself (no evaluation timeout) by signing up at the SpiceWorks website. I figure that if its already used by 700,000 IT Professionals, I can’t go wrong!

The title says it all- 10 dumb things you can do to your Cisco router and how to fix them

You must configure a key chain with keys to enable authentication. Although you can identify multiple key chains, we recommend using one key chain per interface per routing protocol. Upon specifying the key chain command, you enter key-chain configuration mode. A key chain must have at least one key and can have up to 2,147,483,647 keys.

Before you manage authentication keys, authentication must be enabled. To manage authentication keys, define a key chain, identify the keys that belong to the key chain, and specify how long each key is valid.

Each key has its own key identifier (specified with the key key-chain configuration command), which is stored locally. The combination of the key identifier and the interface associated with the message uniquely identifies the authentication algorithm and Message Digest 5 (MD5) authentication key in use.

You can configure multiple keys with lifetimes. Only one authentication packet is sent, regardless of how many valid keys exist. The lifetimes allow for overlap during key changes but please note that the router must know the time.

To configure a key, use the global configuration key chain (name of chain) command then the key-string command inside key configuration mode.

For more information on managing Cisco IOS authentication keys, please see Cisco’s IOS IP Routing Command Reference for the key chain (and other key related) commands.

1. Get VPN – Group Encrypted Transport – Developed by Cisco in 2006 to allow secure connections over the Internet which is very easy to implement and maintain.
2. GDOI – Group Domain of Interpretation – Provide a “key” to decrypt or encrypt your data – related to ISAKMP – see RFC3547 for more information.
3. MTU -  Maximum Transmission Unit – In relation to IP, it sets an upper packet size limit for maximum packets.
4. ICMP – Internet Control Message Protocol -  Messages that are contained within IP packets such as 0 for Echo Reply or 5 for Redirect. ICMP could be called the network managment protocol for IP.
5. WCCP - Web Cache Communication Protocol – WCCP is a protocol for communication between routers and Web caches. Two versions exist: WCCP Version 1 (WCCPv1) and WCCP Version2 (WCCPv2). The two versions are incompatible. Cisco IOS images can support either of the two versions or both.

For more information see the Cisco Internetworking Terms and Acronyms.

To see the full article, visit: Use SNMP with VMware ESX to monitor server statistics

• Hostname
• IP address
• Operating System
• Application Statistics
• Services Running
• CPU
• VM Memory
• Disk Usage by VM

You can download a free evaluation of PacketTrap Perspective and their virtualization features at their website.