Someone just pointed me at the Ethereal to Wireshark migration guide posted at http://www.wireshark.org/migration.html
This is a shameless copy of this excellent (and funny) guide:
Migrating
Migrating from Ethereal to Wireshark is a long and arduous process. A typical migration project requires the following resources:
* 1 (one) project manager (PMP certification preferred)
* 1 (one) assistant project manager
* 2 (two) pirate hats
* 2 (two) system administrators
* 1 (one) duck
* 2 (two) network administrators
* 4 (four) support staff
* 2 (three) bags of hammers
If you allocate full-time staff to the migration, it can take as little as six weeks for preparation and planning, and four weeks for the migration itself. Past migrations have resulted in some maiming and blood loss. A recent survey of human resources directors found that the amounts were within acceptable tolerances.
The complete migration procedure is detailed below:
1. Place the pirate hats near the project manager, assistant project manager, and system administrators. Allow time for them to start fighting over the hats (about 3.5 seconds).
2. Place the duck on top of a core switch and allow it to nest.
3. Casually mention to a support person that you heard a quacking noise near the data center. Allow time for word to get to the network administrators, and for the support staff to gather together to watch the spectacle.
4. To ensure that you're not disturbed, keep the bags of hammers nearby and maintain a stern expression.
5. Uninstall Ethereal.
6. Install Wireshark.
Note: Steps 5 and 6 should take about three minutes.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Funny: Ethereal to Wireshark Migration Guide
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Funny story: OSPF
While working in a Support Organization of a networking company, I come across a lot of funny and interesting stories. Here is one of them.
One of our customers, who's name we of course will not mention, opened a Support case. He complained that his routers were suffering from a high CPU load and thus the routing table was not up-to-date. Very quickly we came to the thought that is had to be because of OSPF not updating the hardware table quickly. At some point I asked him how many OSPF routers he had in the Area. His answer was 1500!!!
One might say that 1500 routers in 1 OSPF area can occur in large networks. This sure can happen, but then it is time for a redesign of the network. Let me explain why this isn't a good idea.
OSPF calculates the shortest path for each route. This means that if 1 router goes down, it will need to re-calculate the shortest path. With 1500 routers in 1 Area it will result in a lot of OSPF changes and thus a lot of re-calculations. Add all packets sent to the OSPF All-Routers Multicast group and you will have a swamped CPU.
What would be a good number of routers in 1 Area then? There is no clear answer for that. When asking around a number between 200 and 250 seem to be common. Keep in mind that there are routers with a stronger CPU and routers with a smaller CPU (mostly elderly routers). Remember that even the smaller sized routers need to be able to update their tables, otherwise they can choke the rest of the network. If they can't keep up with the rest, place them in a Stub Area or replace them.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Major networking equipment manufacturers sued
It seems that almost all major networking equipment manufacturers are sued by a company called Network-1. Named companies in the lawsuit are Cisco Systems, Cisco-Linksys, Enterasys Networks, 3Com Corporation, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, Netgear and Adtran.
What happened?
According to Network-1 they have been granted a patent for "Apparatus and Method for Remotely Powering Access Equipment Over a 10/100 Switched Ethernet Network”, also known as IEEE 802.3af PoE standard. Back in 2005 Network-1 has won a lawsuit from D-Link which resulted in a license agreement where D-Link will pay D-Link 3,25% of net sales to Network-1.
What will happen?
I cannot tell. Probably a long term litigation will start where each of the above companies fight their own war, or maybe a pack will arise where they all fight Network-1. My guess is that, because of the D-Link litigation, all companies will have to pay a certain amount of money as well. I will keep you all updated though.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
More information on Juniper's switching product
January 29th, that will be the date Juniper will launch their switching product. As the date is coming closer, rumors are increasing and I'll just add a little bit :)
Juniper calls the switching line "Hurricane". This is the codename for their custom CPU. The switches are based on Marvell's ASCIC's. The line will consist of 6, 9 and 13 slots. All are 100Gbit/s per slot ready. There will be modules with 10x 10GE ports, but they will arrive later.
I'm really curious what the product will look like, is capable of and what it will achieve. Only future will tell us, well see!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
What will 2008 bring us?
I all, we're back!
It has been a while since something news has been posted around here. With 2008 almost kicking in it is a good moment to start posting again. Next year will be full of interesting background info on Networking vendors, funny stories and more nonsense.
As the topic already mentions: What will 2008 bring us? Well, a lot!
First of all Juniper will announce their own switching product running JunOS. Rumors are there for a long time already, 2008 will finally bring them. I heard it will be an OEM/ODM box, but nevertheless it will be Juniper branded.
Then Foundry. Foundry has started recruiting people in the Netherlands to open up an European based TAC. Don't know if it is because Foundry can't find people in Silicon Valley or they believe it's cheaper in Europe...
Last will be Extreme Networks. Their TAC organization will change a lot. It seems the current Level 2 TAC will be moving in a more customer facing TAC. More details will follow shortly. Question is, will it help the customer in getting better support? We'll just have to wait and see.
That's it for now. As I said, more to come next year. We'll be back soon!
Friday, March 30, 2007
Info - IBM reveals 160Gbps chipset
On March 26th IBM announced it will reveal a prototype optical transceiver chipset which can achieve 160Gbps. Current chipsets can achieve only 20Gbps. This is a huge improvement at a time where switch and router manufacturers are hitting these limits.
The complete story can be found here
Friday, March 16, 2007
Info - Cisco Acquires WebEx
Not really in depth networking but still worth mentioning: Cisco announced that it will acquire WebEx for a whopping $57 per share. Cisco will spend a total of $3.2 billion. WebEx's shares increased 22.03% yesterday to $56.38.
Cisco will attempt to get a better hold of the SMB market by offering more services. WebEx is an unique extra feature for their customers.
The complete press release can be found here