networks

Years ago - back in about 1998 - there was an incredibly useful tool called the Internet Ports Database running on the domain portsdb.org. I used it about once a week back then, so I was pretty irritated when the site just disappeared over night.

Finally, I've gotten around to producing my own version. You can find the interactive version here: Internet Ports Database. There is also a version for use in scripts. Use curl to send a GET request to http://www.daemonchild.com/pdb/ports.php?port=[port number] and you'll receive a simple format list of ports.

At the moment, CheckPoint are busily withdrawing support for R65. This means we're doing a load of upgrade work from R65 to later versions such as R71 and R75. Quite often, the best way forward would be to perform a clean installation of the SecurePlatform (SPLAT) operating system. However, it's typical that there will be a bunch of configuration that you'd want to take with you. One of the most important of these configuration items are the routes. This article describes how to export the routes and reimport them safely onto a newly installed SPLAT box.

To enable SNMP polling of a CheckPoint SecurePlatform appliance from a network management tool, such as NetIQ or SolarWinds, do the following...

In the early days of the Internet data links were slow and lots of traffic was based on single character transactions. For example, the telnet protocol sends a single byte at a time as you type. This isn't great use of the available bandwidth as the overhead of delivery is very large. An IP header is (a minimum of) 20 bytes and a TCP header is another 20 bytes. That means that to deliver one byte of data, cost a minimum of 40 bytes. That's 40:1. Not good. To make this worse, each packet will require an ACK packet to come back from the other end of the connection.

Wireless networks are desirable to many organisations because they increase workforce flexibility and save cabling costs. In older offices, listed buildings, and businesses based in the outdoors, wireless maybe the only way to provide network access to all parts of the workplace environment. Some businesses even provide wireless networks to reach out to visitors and customers to entice them into their premises and allow them to work from there. Wireless networks will enable the coming myriad of tablet and slate machines to function as seamless Internet terminals. They are here to stay.