All about networks

  • Solarwinds Geek Speak

    I’m sharing some articles I wrote on the Solarwinds Geek Speak blog.  I recommend you start with the 80/20 rule below post below before reading through the rest. The 80-20 Rule of Analysis and Optimisation Start with Continuous Improvement, then do DevOps The pain of network variation – part 1 The pain of network variation…

  • Reserved Internal Address Ranges

    I’ve added a new question to my own network integration checklist, specifically when integrating chassis-based or integrated solutions: Does the system use any reserved internal address ranges?

  • Strain relief

    I’ve got a problem with sagging cables, and I’ve got a simple solution. Examine the side-by-side images below which show the same fiber connection between a switch and a firewall. The image on the left shows a sagging cable which crosses in front of the switch in the rack unit just below it. As you may know, this cabling install…

  • Effectiveness – Network Truths, Principles and Fallacies

    I recently gave a 13-minute talk to the Irish Network Operators Group (INOG).  In this talk I argue that you can become more effective, and a happier engineer by standing back and reflecting. The talk discusses how you work –  with reference to some great truths, principles and fallacies. I introduce The twelve networking truths…

  • Clear Pricing for Network Services

    I had to buy some switches recently and needed to gather a second quote from another vendor. I went to the Dell website and was pleasantly surprised to quickly find a clear price and a buy-now button for each device on their website. Normally you’d need an account of the vendors portal to get this information, so it is refreshing…

  • Writing elsewhere on the net

    Hi Folks, I write for a few other publications, so I’ve made this handy page to link to external articles. I’ll update this page as new articles are released. Human Infrastructure Magazine Issue 23 – How To Unblock Your Project Issue 27 – Email Stinks For Process Documentation Network Computing Demystifying The 10x Network Engineer The…

  • Include the why

    I recently stumbled upon an interesting speech from 1984 by Charlie Munger of Bershire Hathaway fame. Charlie is Warren Buffet’s right-hand-man, and a straight talking genius in his own right. It’s a fairly long speech and Charlie has a few very interesting things to say, but one particular section on ‘explaining the why’ really struck…

  • Getting started with Network Packet Generators

    A friend of mine has just ordered a shiny new packet generator for his network lab. I’ve spent some time working as a QA engineer in a network lab and wanted to share some advice. You can purchase stateful and stateless packet generators from major vendors like Spirent, IXIA or Agilent. If you just need…

  • 5 ways to fail – WAN link acceptance

    I’ve had an interesting few months doing WAN circuit turn-ups for a new Data Centre. I dealt with three major carriers, and each experience was worse than the next. I’m not sure why I held such high expectations but I was surprised by their hopeless inefficiency in delivering what should have been a standard product. In this post…

  • Does your Wave2 AP need NBase-T?

    Cisco recently launched the 2800 and 3800 series 802.11ac wave-2 access points. The 3800 Datasheet quotes a theoretical maximum throughput of 5.2Gbps when operating in Dual 5GHz radio mode (2 x 2.6Gbps). If you ran two cables to your AP you could use the second ethernet port to create a 2 x 1Gbps LAG. However there is…

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