Oct 15 2009 6:44PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
network analysis,
protocol analysis,
packet analysis,
packet capture,
training,
education,
wireshark,
ethereal,
tcp/ip,
trace files,
Networking,
tools,
Monitoring,
reporting,
IT education,
performance monitoring,
troubleshooting,
howto,
Metrics,
analysis,
Laura Chappell
Laura Chappel, the BitGirl, is at it again with another in her series of Wireshark Jumpstart webinars. The next one is called Wireshark Jumpstart 201: Filtering on the Good, the Bad, the Ugly. It will be held on October 27 - 10:00am-11:00am PDT (GMT-7). If you manage networks or want to manage a network, a good understanding of protocol and packet analysis will help you immensely with your career.
Some things you will learn in this webinar:
- Using the Default Capture and Display Filters
- Creating a Few Hot Capture Filters
- Filtering Tips and Tricks for Troubleshooting
- Filtering Tips and Tricks for Security
Even if you are very familiar with Wireshark or other packet capture and protocol decode tools, Laura’s seminars are well worth attending. You might even find out a little tidbit here or there because Repetition is one of the keys of learning. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend this webinar since I will be on a golf vacation in North Carolina. So, if you attend this event, please come back and share with me and other IT Trenches readers what you learned and how valuable the webinar was for you.
Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!
Oct 7 2009 5:34PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
economics,
technology,
education,
career,
IT,
information technology
Well, by my title I don’t mean entirely end the recession, and especially not just through IT education alone. I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a snippet about an upcoming story. Unfortunately, I was unable to hear the entire story. However, the topic of the upcoming story raised an interesting question about the link between economic stimulus and education. I tried finding the story online but have been unable to find it to cite here. Maybe I just imagined it, but the story topic was about the GI Bill and how it helped a nation recover economically after the Great Depression and a costly war. The story preview continued to say that the nation grew economically and scientifically in the years following the war. It is as a result of those who were educated under the GI Bill that a new world of technology was shaped:
- Man in space and man landing on the moon
- Satellites
- Lasers
- Solar cells
- Transistors
Just think about all the marvels that have appeared in our world since the mid-1940’s. The relationship between those educated under the GI Bill and these technological advances is easy to see. Now, fast forward to today and the current economic conditions. What will happen in the next few years in the world of technology as a result of those who have lost jobs, being retrained in new skills and starting new careers? Maybe technological advances won’t be as rapid as those in the post WW2 era, but I expect some life-changing advances due to the education and skill changes resulting from the current education stimulus packages.
Electronic medical records, for example, will change both the patient’s and health care professional’s lives. The technology advance may not be sexy like lasers, but it may have a greater impact on the country we live in as a whole. Maybe we are living under the Chinese curse that goes “May you live in interesting times!“
Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!
Sep 30 2009 12:33PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
humor,
network performance,
education,
network support,
user education
Okay - if you support networks and have to explain why the network is slow or application performance is not what the users expect, why not use some of the following responses? These statements may or may not have been used in real life. What responses have you given to users when there really wasn’t a problem?
- Unfortunately we have run out of bits/bytes. Don’t worry, the next supply will be coming next week.
- The routing tables are all filled. There is going to be at least a 15-20 minute wait until you can be seated.
- Those packets have to go uphill to their destination. Gravity impacts network performance when you access services at that location.
- That is due to a BNC error. (i.e. brain not connected)
- The developer used a spell checker on that program. The fix will be delayed.
- The parallel processors are running perpendicular today.
Maybe a smile came to your face today while reading this. Maybe you have some similar comments to share with ITKE readers. Feel free to leave some words of wisdom for other IT Trenches members.
Thanks for reading & let’s continue to be good network citizens.
Aug 28 2009 4:21PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
malware,
bootkit,
rootkit,
antivirus,
threats,
vulnerabilities,
research,
blackhat,
hacker,
least user authority,
least user privilege,
Database,
Development,
information security,
infosec,
education
The media archives have now been posted on the BlackHat website from the BlackHat technical conference held in July 2009. This is the place to go if you want to see some of the latest information security research and the threats that are REAL and may become real someday. I posted a previous blog entry on the presentation about the Bootkit - rootkit - malware bypasses disk encryption!
Some of the presentation titles:
I Just Found 10 Million SSN’s
Sniff Keystrokes With Lasers/Voltmeters
Side Channel Attacks Using Optical Sampling of Mechanical Energy and Power Line Leakage
Anti-Forensics: The Rootkit Connection
Reversing and Exploiting an Apple® Firmware Update
The Language of Trust: Exploiting Trust Relationships in Active Content
Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems: Making A LOT More Money on the Web the Black Hat Way
The Conficker Mystery
These are just some of the titles available in the BlackHat 2009 Technical Conference media library. Check it out even if you are a web developer or an IT professional who manages desktops or networks or staff members who perform these tasks. You need to know what you are up against and possible methods to fight the threats.
Thanks for reading & lets continue to be good network citizens!
Jul 24 2009 6:47PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
Microsoft,
e-learning,
education,
online training,
Exchange Server,
Microsoft Virtualization,
web 2.0,
Windows 7,
Windows Vista,
Vista,
Windows Server 2008
In today’s business environment it is always a challenge to get technology training as it seems like training is one of the first things to get cut.
Microsoft has always been a great source of free training material that can help make IT professionals and user’s use of technology much more effective. A Microsoft training resource you may not have heard of is Microsoft Learning Snacks. These are short (most between 3-20 minutes long) Silverlight-based self-paced presentations that you can watch at anytime from your computer. The topics available include:
- Core Infrastructure Optimization
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Virtualization
- Web 2.0 Development
- Windows 7
- Windows Essential Business Server 2008
- Windows Server 2008
- Windows Vista
If you have a little craving for education and your budget does not permit you to go to offsite training, check out the Microsoft Learning Snacks. And, as is true with most snacks, you won’t be filled up here but maybe this will guide you into gaining a better understanding of these Microsoft technologies.
Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!
Jul 24 2009 6:03PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
wireshark,
ethereal,
network analysis,
bot,
data capture,
tutorial,
education,
Laura Chappell,
information security,
packet analysis,
packet capture,
network security,
Security
My favorite Bitgirl (Laura Chappell) is at it again in this 15 minute presentation. She came across a host on a network that appears to be infected with some bot application. Take a few minutes and watch and learn! Maybe you will see something you can use or better understand some odd behavior on your local network.
Analyze a BOT infected host using Wireshark Tutorial
Beware - there is a trick question in the presentation. Think hard… you probably know the right answer!
Thanks for reading & let’s continue to be good network citizens.
Jul 20 2009 6:36PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
network analysis,
protocol analysis,
packet analysis,
packet capture,
training,
education,
wireshark,
ethereal,
tcp/ip,
trace files,
Networking,
tools,
Monitoring,
reporting,
IT education,
performance monitoring,
troubleshooting,
howto,
Metrics,
analysis,
Laura Chappell
There are more upcoming sessions in the Laura Chappell seminar series called Wireshark 101Jumpstart tutorials. Check out the schedule at Chappell University website. Some of the things you will learn include:
- Wireshark elements and capabilities
- Tapping into the wired or wireless network
- Capturing and filtering basics
- Graphing basics
If you cannot attend the seminar, you can still register and download the seminar notes and gain access to the trace files used in the session. If you manage a network, you should learn this stuff! Be sure to register and attend early. The sessions are limited to 1000 viewers and these fill up FAST!
See my entry
for a how attending one of these seminars helped address an issue I was having with using Wireshark.
Thanks for reading and lets continue to be good network citizens!
Jun 26 2009 2:56PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
Microsoft,
virtual machine,
Virtual machine management,
solution accelerator,
technology,
technology management,
tool,
toolkit,
education
Microsoft has a very large library of Solution Accelerators. These solution accelerators are meant to be detailed guides and toolkits to help organizations be successful in the planning, deployment and management of Microsoft products and technologies.
One accelerator that recently came to my attention is the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool. According to the Microsoft website:
The increasing use of virtual machines—for purposes ranging from support of older operating system environments to power savings—has created new challenges for IT.
In particular, virtual machines may be left offline (stored in a non-operating state) for extended periods of time, which conserves resources when the server capacities of the virtual machines are not needed or frees up physical computing resources for other purposes.
However, offline machines do not automatically receive operating system, antivirus, or application updates that would keep them compliant with current IT policy. An out-of-date virtual machine may pose a risk to the IT environment. If deployed and started, the out-of-date virtual machine might be vulnerable to attack or could be capable of attacking other network resources.
Therefore, IT groups must take measures to ensure that offline virtual machines remain up-to-date and compliant. At present, these measures involve temporarily bringing the virtual machine online, applying the necessary updates, and then storing it again.
In the future, image updating solutions may be able to update virtual machines while they remain offline. Until such solutions become available, the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool, a Solution Accelerator from Microsoft, provides a way to automate the process of updating virtual machines. This tool is now available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center.
Business Scenarios
You can use this Solution Accelerator to help you with business scenarios such as these:
- Your IT organization is converting physical servers to virtual machines to reduce costs, including administrative overhead. How can you regularly update offline virtual machines while minimizing administrative costs?
- Your IT organization has thousands of virtual machines stored for months at a time in a number of libraries. How do you keep the virtual machines reliably up to date?
This tool can be useful to those organizations already managing virtual machines or those considering deployment. Maybe it can make your life a little easier. Why not leave some feedback if you have used or are considering this tool?
Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!
May 26 2009 7:34PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
network analysis,
protocol analysis,
packet analysis,
packet capture,
training,
education,
wireshark,
ethereal,
tcp/ip,
trace files,
Networking,
tools,
Monitoring,
reporting,
IT education,
performance monitoring,
troubleshooting,
howto,
Metrics,
analysis,
Laura Chappell
I recently posted an update about Laura Chappell’s Chappell University Online seminars. I attended one of these seminars today. What a great experience! I always try to attend Laura’s events and always pickup a tidbit that makes my life as a network manager easier. She gives you information about tools you can use to fight the battle of “the network is down”. Most of the time the network is behaving as designed. It’s poorly written applications or too high user expectations that create issues. So, if you want be the expert on fighting the network is “bad” syndrome - check out Laura’s presentations - I did and I learned something new… Continued »
