Category Archives: Internet

Internet Performance Monitoring that Makes Sense

Do you ever wonder how the Internet is performing? Latency, packet loss, etc??? I do…mainly because I’m a curious type of guy. I’ve looked for different monitoring sites on the Internet, but most seem to be crude, simplistic, or just plain dumb! However, I did find this site that actually has valuable information in a simple presentation…

http://www.internethealthreport.com/

Internet Health Report

Internet Health Report

The “Focus” settings don’t really do much, but do play with the “Metric” and “Period” settings…there is some very interesting data you can get doing this. And when you hover above a cell, a small pop-up shows additional information. This site is hosted by “Keynote by Dynatrace”…I’m not familiar with them, but they provide solutions in the programming area concerning mobile application testing…very cool!!

Enjoy!

A Shocking, Amazing and Jaw-Dropping Post Today

There are days when I just can’t stand to see the state of the Internet. And today is one of those days….ugh!! It used to be that the Internet was a resource for one and all…a place to get and give information, to lend a helping hand, and to provide encouragement where needed. Sure, you can still do that, but now you have to navigate through a quagmire of commercialism. Everybody wants you to click on their links, earn a few pennies more…”Such a Wonderful Story, but What She Did Next Just Shocked Me!!”. Give me a break for crying out loud!!

Just look at Facebook as an example…I’m on it so that I can stay in touch with my kids. But the tons of junk you have to put up with is incredible. I’m at the point of why bother…it’s just not worth it.

But, my kids use it, and I love seeing their posts. After college, they ended up halfway across the country. (Note…don’t let your kids transfer to far-off colleges…they may never return!!). Guess I’ll keep using Facebook…at least for another day. Or two.

Using Google for Better Website Searching

Here is a tip that really helps when searching the Internet…

When you are visiting a website and use that website’s Search  function, you may not always get the desired results. It happens a lot, let me tell you. A great example is Cisco’s website. They have a search function in the upper right corner of their webpage, but when using it, you tend to get a lot of marketing materials or other documents unrelated to what you are searching for. It drives me crazy sometimes. Here is a better way to handle this…

Let’s say you are wanting to research configuring port channels on a Cisco switch. You could search on Cisco’s website for “switch portchannels” and see what you get. (Go ahead and try it.) Next, go to Google and search for “switch portchannels site:cisco.com”. That last search option tells Google to limit the search to just cisco.com. Try it and compare the two searches. Yes, this is a simple example, but let me tell you this technique works great. I use it frequently, and not just for Cisco, but for any search that I need targeted to a particular site.

So remember the “site:” parameter when using Google…it will give you better and quicker results.

If you are interested in other Google tips and tricks, check out their related webpage.

IPv6 Adoption Rate via Google Metrics

Are you curious about the adoption of IPv6? How is the US doing compared to other parts of the world? Well, thanks to Google, you can keep tabs on IPv6. (Google really does know all and see all. Never forget that!) Check out their IPv6 adoption graph…very cool stuff! Also note the other tab showing Per-Country IPv6 adoption.

I’ve been following this graph for a long time…and the rate for IPv6 is increasing. I made a comment with some friends a while back that I would end up retiring before I actually had to configure a public facing IPv6 interface. I have a feeling that I will be proven wrong.

What Is – DHCP

DHCP – Dynamic Host Control Protocol

This is a wonderful and time saving little protocol. You already know that every device on a network has to have an IP address…but…how do you configure all of those devices and their IP address? Well, you could do it manually. Once. Twice. Maybe several times. But you would quickly realize the manual way is a pain in the butt….there has to be an easier way! Well, there is. Enter DHCP.

When you turn on most devices, as they boot up, they send out a packet onto the network basically saying “Help…I’m booting up and I need an IP address. Can anyone help me?” And if you have a server (or other device) running a DHCP process, then the answer is yes. The DHCP server will reply with an IP address, and several other bits of needed information, and just like that…the device has an IP address and can start communicating on the network.
Isn’t that cool? I think it is. I will post more about DCHP in the near future and we will see exactly what goes on during a DHCP request.