Command lines to setup IP address and DNS of Windows PC

When I use my Windows notebook as connectivity tester, I often have to switch the IP address configuration from DHCP to some fixed IP, and back and forth. Also, different customers have different assigned fixed IP addresses.

Net workers' nightmare came true. Lesson from April 21 outage of Amazon.com

The incident summary of April 21 outage of Amazon.com has been published for a while. It reminds me some typical nightmares of an Net worker like me.

The "prelude" of that incident was because of network execution error, as this:

..... The configuration change was to upgrade the capacity of the primary network. During the change, one of the standard steps is to shift traffic off of one of the redundant routers in the primary EBS network to allow the upgrade to happen. The traffic shift was executed incorrectly and rather than routing the traffic to the other router on the primary network, the traffic was routed onto the lower capacity redundant EBS network. .....

"April 21 2011" incident of Amazon.com: not the end of the "Cloud Era"

Many reports (such as this) mentioned the "April 21 2011" incident of Amazon.com.

If Amazon.com does not lie on its status history, this incident looks to me quite controlled and not that surprising! The failures are almost contained in North Virgina data center.

No more IPv4 unicast addresses in IANA's pool since Feburary 2011. Be cautious, but not panic!

It does NOT mean "the world ran out of ALL IPv4 addresses" now. It only means no more IPv4 unicast addresses are "as reserves". There are still some in five RIRs' pool today!

(However, it is quite close. When those in RIRs are also used up soon after, then we can really say "no more IPv4 addresses".)

This is just an important reminder for you to speed up your migration to IPv6! However, as I pointed out before, don't get panic about this!

No more HyperTerminal on Windows 7? Try Putty!

  Bits per sec    :  9600  
  Data bits       :     8 
  Parity          :  none 
  Stop bits       :     1 
  Flow control    :  none 

(This post is re-posted in English from my original post.)

We are all used to start HyperTerminal included in old Microsoft Windows XP to do initial console configurations of routers and switches. However, starting from Windows Vista (and also Windows 7), no HyperTerminal software anymore! Now how can we do console configuration in Windows Vista or Windows 7?

In fact, Putty, the software we use as daily Secure Shell (SSH) client, can also be used to do console configuration on routers and switches.

"CCIE is just the beginning" I totally agree!

Golden Needles Field (DSC_0547),
originally uploaded by Li-Ji.

I like this quote of Himawan! This post is for those who are preparing to get or just got an CCIE certification!

Himawan Nugroho:

CCIE is NOT supposed to be the final target.
CCIE is just the beginning.

Source:
inevitable: What is CCIE?

Have a backup plan before power off your routers, especially for old ones

Entrance of the Taoyuangu Trail (DSCN0349),
originally uploaded by Li-Ji.

Even Cisco routers are reliable enough to run non-stop for several years, it does not guarantee it to power on normally after simply one power off.

Soft phones can never replace all hardware IP phones

Intersection (DSCN0462),
originally uploaded by Li-Ji.

I was in a voice conference inside company Intranet using a soft phone in my Intel Core i5, 2G DRAM notebook. Unfortunately, I encountered voice loss several times during the conference. I noticed it might not be the problem of network QoS, because when voice loss happened again, my notebook was also busy accessing the hard drive, which is also 7200 rpm model.

Long scheduled down time again! People are watching!

Screen capture upon Facebook down incident
(Sep. 24, 2010).

I received this notification from Cisco Network Academy mailing list. WOW! It's going down for 72 hours! That is 3 whole days!

Subject: Reminder: Scheduled Academy Connection Downtime begins January 8 (1 AM GMT)
...
Cisco Networking Academy is upgrading its data center infrastructure. This change will help Cisco in continuing to give you excellent services and support.

During the upgrade, Academy Connection and all Academy Connection services will be unavailable for 72 hours. The outage will start Friday Jan 7th at 5 pm and finish on Monday Jan 10th at 5 pm (San Francisco (-8 GMT)).
...

Fw: Cisco Positioned as a Leader in the 2010 Magic Quadrant for SSL VPNs

The Magic Quadrant.
Captured from original Gartner's Report

I am refreshed by a blog post on Cisco's "The Platform" blog, that Cisco is now "positioned as leader in SSL VPNs".

Cisco Blog, The Platform, Cisco Positioned as a Leader in the 2010 Magic Quadrant for SSL VPNs

(Yes, Cisco used to call SSL VPN as WebVPN.)