Web filtering with the Cisco ASA

Hi folks, so web filtering is a popular feature in firewalls these days. Administrators want the ability to block certain web sites and firewall companies know that this is a valued feature. More often than not, you have to pay extra for this functionality.

This is all good and well until you are running a small business where every dollar counts. Luckily with the Cisco ASA you can implement web filtering without subscribing to a web blocking service. You can still subscribe to a service if you want to, but you aren’t forced to.

Instead you can use class-maps in the ASA to provide the ability to do this. This should only be done in small environments however. Once you go to a larger environment you should buy the subscription service. Please visit this link for instructions on how to do this.

-RP

CCNP Boot Camp

Hi folks, so for the last week I’ve been in Florida at a CCNP boot camp studying and training day in and day out. I have one more week to go and I have to say it has been quite intense. The CCNP ain’t anything to take lightly. This certification will chew you up and spit you out!

Luckily the great folks at Boson have a boot camp available and i’ve been lucky enough to get a great instructor, Bryan Baize. Bryan Baize (CCIE 16139) is a CCIE (the PHD of network certifications in my opinion) and a fabulous instructor. His ability to recall the most obscure facts and answer all of your questions and his ability to convey concepts to the students is just great.

As a former IT instructor myself, I can wholeheartedly recommend using the Boson boot camps as part of your training regiment for the CCNP. I will keep you guys up to date on my progress in my quest for this certification. One more week to go!

-RP

Microsoft Direct Push Technology

Hi folks, so I wanted to talk a little bit about push technology as it relates to mobile devices. This is something that RIM has had for a long time with it’s BlackBerry devices. This was one of the major things that set RIM apart from the competition.

For example, push technology is when you get a new email or a new calendar appointment and the server side pushes down the changes to your mobile device without your device having to continously poll the server for changes.

Microsoft introduced this tech to Microsoft Exchange 2003 with service pack 2, and it also exists in Microsoft Exchange 2007. No longer do you need to worry about polling the server for changes, instead you can get instant updates as they happen thanks to push technology.

Unfortunately your older Microsoft based phones will not support this as you require newer Microsoft Windows Mobile software which is usually only supported on newer devices. The new Palm Pre for example also supports this technology and is poised to be quite the phone based on all the hype I’ve been hearing. It will be very interesting to see what portion of the market share Palm can steal from the iPhone and the BlackBerry Storm!

-RP

Direct Connect SAS storage for HP Blades

Hello again folks, in the SMB world, especially during these economic times, we can’t always spend all the money we want on storage. Generally customers are limited to looking at some pretty low end storage options.

I have always been a proponent of usings Blades in the SMB along with virtualization to reduce costs for the SMB. But what do you do for storage? Well the most common thing people look at is iSCSI vs FC. Usually people end up going the iSCSI route due to it’s lower cost factor.

Well another thing you can look at is direct attached storage. HP offers something called Direct Connect SAS storage for their HP BladeSystem. This can give you up to 420 TB of zoned or up to 192 TB of shared storage. This can be an attractive alternative for the SMB.

The way it works is by use of controllers installed in the blade severs along with blade switch interconnects and then finally either an MSA2000sa for shared storage or an MDS600 for direct attached storage. You can read more about the solution from HP here.

-RP

Why VMware Workstation is your best friend

Hi folks, so in this day and age of virtualization, and many operating systems, how do you cope? With VMware Workstation of course! Gone are the days of requiring multiple PCs to try and create a test lab to try out different operatings systems, or to setup large lab scenarios.

Like I mentioned in a previous blog post, I highly recommend that IT consultants purchase a copy of VMware Workstation. You can install it on your laptop and easily create virtual environments to test out things you might commonly run into. For example I have a test environment set up on my laptop for all the Windows OS’ I commonly see at client sites. Then if I need to test a new patch, or try out a new solution I can just try it out on one of my test virtual machines. If it blows up I can just revert back to my last snapshot.

Now having said that, VMware is offering a new deal if you buy it now. If you buy VMware Workstation before July 6th, 2009 you will get a free online training course from VMware. This is great for those of you who are just getting started in the virtual world. You can take advantage of this offer here.

-RP

Buying a laptop for consulting

So you finally decide it’s time to turn in your old clunker of a computer and buy a shiny new laptop for your IT consulting business. What do you get? Brands aside, what specs do you want on a laptop in the wide world of consulting? How much horsepower do you really need?

Well lucky for you I have gone through tons of laptops in my time consulting and I have come up with a veritable list of must haves for the IT consulting geek! You see in the world of IT consulting, you are constantly on the move and a laptop is your best friend. Gone are the days where you sit in an office and get to work from an all powerful workstation. Sure, I have a nice workstation at home, but I find that I use my laptop the most when going from client site to client site.

Here is my list of must haves in your laptop as a consultant:

• Lots of RAM! - Now with virtualization at the forefront, I would get a minimum of 4 gigs of RAM if not more (make sure your laptop can support more) so you can have lots of virtual machines open on your laptop at the same time
• Multi-core CPU – With the meteoric rise of virtualization, it’s a good idea to have multi-cores so you can turn your laptop into a wonderful test environment without riding your laptop into the ground
• Windows 64 bit (XP/Vista/2008/Windows 7) – A 64 bit version of Windows is essential to use all that RAM. If you limit yourself to a 32 bit version then you aren’t going to be able to use all that RAM to run virtual machines.
• VMware Workstation! - This is my preferred software of choice for creating virtual test environments on my laptop. In my opinion VMware Workstation rules the roost!
• The largest fastest hard drive you can find! – If you have to decide between large and fast, I would lean towards large first. You’re going to need all that space to store your virtual machines. You could instead get the fastest hard drive you can find and then get a small external USB hard drive for extra space too.
• A USB to serial cable! – How are you going to configure all those switches/routers as a consultant without a serial port? Get a good USB to serial cable adapter and use that to connect your laptop to these devices.
• A large USB key! – I carry around a 16GB USB key to transfer large patches and data between machines when needed. Also make sure you encrypt any sensitive data you place on your USB key, there are a lot of free solutions out there. This will save your behind if you lose your USB key
• A portable mini USB powered switch – This will come in extremely handy when you need to connect multiple devices and your laptop to a network and you won’t have to lug around a clunky power adapter in your laptop bag to power the switch.
• A good video card! – Don’t cheap out on your video card, you’ll regret it instantly. In these days of multimedia overload, you can’t go without a good card, make sure you buy a laptop with a good video card with lots of power.
• A CD/DVD burner drive – This almost goes without saying. You’re going to need this to burn countless installation and patch CD/DVDs. It’s part of being a consultant!

-Cheers, RP

New offerings in the switch world from Cisco

Hi folks! I have some great news from the Cisco front. Our friends at Cisco have decided to release a new version of their 2960 switches called “LAN Lite”! This is a new version of the Catalyst switch with slightly less features to bring the price point down for people who don’t need everything that the full 2960 normally provides.

This series of switch is aimed at the SMB market that needs POE switching for voice and data for unified communications. More and more we are seeing companies requiring enterprise level equipment to facilitate unified communications in their SMB networks. This isn’t easy for these SMB companies because enterprise level equipment can get quite expensive. Cisco has seen this need and is now offering the necessary equipment to fulfill these needs at a lower price by offering “LAN Lite”.

You can read more about it and compare the different versions here at Cisco’s web site. You can also go here to this other link at Cisco’s web site to read more about their offer.

-RP

The importance of wireless site surveys

Hello again! Here’s some more information for you techs delving into the world of wireless. Wireless site surveys! One of the things I find often overlooked when implementing a wireless strategy, is the lack of one! Even when people listen to me about putting in the proper access points and controllers, sometimes they just don’t think about placement.

Now I don’t understand why on earth you wouldn’t do a wireless site survey. A proper survey can save you tons of headaches for your users and for yourself, as well as save you on countless hours of troubleshooting. Access points should not be installed into an organization with no regard to placement, that’s just a dumb idea. You’ll more than likely end up by way too many access points to deal with a given situation and end up wasting your money.

Instead, you should hire a wireless certified individual or company and have them come in and run a wireless site survey. They will come in and scan the surrounding area that you need to have wireless coverage in and they will present you with a nice report that shows you exactly how many access points you need, and where to place them for maximum coverage. Then from this report, you will have a good idea of which wireless controllers and access points you’ll need to buy.

Remember, don’t go into wireless blindly, take your time, do the proper legwork and install a solution that will make your users happy and make you look great!

-RP

Implementing wireless in your business

Hello again folks, once again I wanted to talk a little bit about wireless connectivity. More and more, people are finding that they are requiring wireless access in their organization. Unfortunately a good majority of them are going about it the wrong way.

What do I mean by this? Well let’s take a small business for example, one with just a few people and a very small sized office. If they need wireless access all they need to do is go to their nearest electronics retailer and buy a small Linksys or D-Link wireless router and hook it up and they’re good to go. Simple, effective,  cheap, not so bad at all.

But now take the slightly larger business, with many people and a larger office than a single wireless router or access point can serve. I’ve seen way too many people try and setup wireless by buying multiple home based wireless routers and spreading them across their premises with no rhyme or reason to try and get the best coverage. Also the larger the building(s), the more management the administrator ends up having by having to go and configure each access point individually.

Never fear, there is a better way. Our friends at Cisco and HP(technology recently acquired from Colubris) both have competing solutions that will serve your needs. The idea is to use a Wireless Controller device which you configure which then in turn controls your access points by use of LWAPP(Lightweight Access Point Protocol). LWAPP allows you to control and configure multiple access points from a centrally accessed wireless controller. The controller pushes out it’s configuration to all of these access points making administration quite easy.

-RP

BlackBerry app making a buzz!

Hi folks, so there is this cool new app for all you BlackBerry users out there. It’s called BuzzMe and it’s made by BigTinCan!

What does this app do? It vibrates your BlackBerry of course! Now you may ask, why the heck would I want that, my BlackBerry already vibrates! True, but does your BlackBerry ring and vibrate at the exact same time? You see BlackBerries alternate between ringing and vibration as opposed to both at the same time, which is really silly if you ask me. They should just add this as a feature already.

Since RIM hasn’t done this yet, you have this app called BuzzMe. You start it up and it runs in the background and then you turn off vibration in your phone and just leave your ringer on tone. Then when people call you, your ringer goes off and then the BuzzMe app starts vibrating your phone at exactly the same time.

You get all this functionality for free but if you buy the pro version you can have the program autostart with your phone when you reboot that way you don’t forget about it. Also it allows you to set this functionality for things other than just phone calls. You can get the full details at BigTinCan’s web site.

-RP