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  • How to Upgrade Cisco IOS in a Cisco Router or a Switch

    Any software is pron to have software upgrades either to fix a bug or a Security vulnerability or even for the fact the software has reached its end of life.

    While Network devices and appliances are no exception, the upgrade process requires a lot of precautions and measures are taken to ensure that the upgrade process doesn't fail or cause problems post installation. Upgrading Cisco IOS is no exception. Care has to be taken to ensure that the newer version is tested on a test bed before deploying in the production network especially if we are talking core network switches and routers.

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  • How to enable Spanning Tree Portfast in Cisco Catalyst switch (IOS)

    STP Portfast is a feature in Cisco IOS which allows a switchport which is participating in STP to directly transition from Blocking mode  to Forwarding mode when a device connects and the link goes up. This can improve the initial connect time and can fix some issues with Windows based devices connecting to the Active Directory domains.

    STP Portfast is ideal for ports which connects directly attached devices and certainly not for the ports which connects a hub or a switch. Hence, good to set switchports that directly connect end devices on your Access switch.

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  • How to configure DHCP server on Cisco Routers and switches with Cisco IOS

    DHCP, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol  is the protocol used by network devices like a PC or a printer (DHCP clients) to obtain IP Address, Default Gateway, Domain Name, DNS Servers, NetBIOS servers and more that helps the device to work properly in an IP Network.

    While in an ideal scenario, most if not all organisations run the DHCP server on  a Windows server or a Linux/Unix server. While this is justfiable in bigger corporate and enterprise networks, a smaller network like a branch office can be supported by a local Router, Switch or a Firewall can run a DHCP server without the need of an additional server hardware to run DHCP. Most of the routers, firewalls and some switches do have a DHCP server builtin. Most of the new Cisco Routers and Switches running Cisco IOS can run a DHCP server.

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  • How to configure NAT in Cisco IOS (NAT Overloading) – Part 1

    NAT, Network Address Translation in simple terms translates an IP address into another. Network Address Translation is of different types like

    Static NAT (One to One)

    Dynamic NAT (Many to Many)

    Overloading (Many to One)

    We will focus on Overloading form of NAT. This is called as Port Address Translation (PAT) or even Network Address Port Translation (NAPT). NAT Overloading translates many private IP addresses from a Local Area Network (LAN) onto a single registered legal Public IP address. Here, the source IP and the source port gets translated to the Public IP and a different source port.

    Typical network configuration would be on an Internet Router which enables all the hosts in the LAN to connect to the Internet using one single Public IP address.

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  • Secure Internet Explorer browsing with Haute Secure plugin

    Haute Secure is a free Internet Explorer plugin that secures you from loading bad content or malicious content or download and install malware onto your PC. When the Haute Secure add-on on your internet explorer comes across bad content it will block access to the website and prompt you for further option. It will also warn of malicious content try to load from known website. With Phishing scams, malicious malware spreading minute and the identity theft scams, it is important that we secure the browsers thereby no malicious content is downloaded onto the PC. Haute Secure supports only Internet Explorer at the moment but Firefox is expected to be onboard soon. There is also a Windows Vista 64 bit supported version available download. (more…)

  • Insecure application Audit – Secunia Personal Security Inspector(PSI)

    Secunia Personal Security Inspector (PSI) is a great tool for Windows Operating Systems (Windows 2003,Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows SP4 )to assess the installed applications on your system for patch status of installed applications and audits the applications for insecured versions and End Of life status.

    While Secunia PSI is not a replacement to a Antivirus, Firewall or a malware protection software, it does lend a great deal of help in auditing the applications installed on the system and to report Insecure, End Of Life applications.

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  • Packet Trap – Free Network Diagnostic suite & Monitoring tool

    Packet Trap pt360 Tool suite is a Windows based free Network Diagnostic tools suite and a Network Monitoring tool. Packet Trap has a nice Dashboard with drag and drop dashboard components.

    At the first look, Packet Trap is very impressive, simple, easy to use, easy to understand, simple and easy navigation and menu options. All the diagnostic tools are graphic and provides a great advantage as a one stop shop for most of the Network troubleshooting. What is even more impressive is that the monitoring system being integrated into a Network Diagnostic suite which allows an admin to monitor and troubleshoot all from one place and they all can export the results in nice HTML format.

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