Third world networkers - how to disable annoying Itunes backup on windows

Locate your iTunesPrefs.xml file.

It’s usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes or C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes.

make sure that hidden files are visible in the Windows Explorer
  
Backup your iTunesPrefs.xml file
    Open iTunesPrefs.xml using a capable text-editor (e.g. Notepad++, Ultraedit, but not MS Notepad)
    Search for a section called User Preferences and paste the following snippet into the User Preferences Section after the first :

    DeviceBackupsDisabled
   
    dHJ1ZQ==
   

     Save the file and restart iTunes. Backups should now be disabled. 
To enable backups again delete the XML Snippet from iTunesPrefs.xml file.

Third World Networkers Guide to End-2-End broadband Service

So lets take a typical user on the Safaricom network. He has a mid range phone, lets say a Nokia E72, or an IDEOS from Huawei.

He clicks on the you his 'buy this' Icon, selects a video somewhere on the internet, pays via MPESA, the processor screams and cycles around calls up a couple of routines, fires up the video player or browser, creates a moving object on his screen, he's happy. Now lets take a look at exactly what goes on in the background from the moment he 'clicks'.

For a network operator to offer really great service, they need to have full end to end control of the network, the enduser device and the content. The End 2 End view of the mobile service in this case the 'video' is best premised from the perspective of the user. His/Her ability to watch their movie in a frictionless manner after paying for it is the goal.

From an implementation perspective, severalservice providers are involved:

• - The Mobile network operator - lets say Safaricom.
• - The guy providing video,
• - The guys pocessing the payment

Does the consumer in most cases know of the multiple 'service providers' involved? nope! most don't, in most cases they shouldn't.

For most of us users, the mobile view we hold is that the operator is responsible for the access and content. Unfortunately the Operators 'span-of-control' is often limited to internal content or external content endorsed by the operator eg content served by Mobile network operators like bernsoft for Safaricom. Other than that there are multiple considerations involved in optimizing E2E service delivery.

While  a network operator will undertake alot of effort to ensure a memorable experience to the end user; maybe by using agreements sometimes commercial and standards, or sometimes co-operation with content providers, it is not always the case. Guys like Google and Facebook make alot of effort to co-operate with network operators. Others like CNN; not so much.

Components to consider if you want to have E2E QOS:

1. The UE - aka handset - Unless its a certified unmodified device, the operator can't claim control here.
2. RAN - Radio Access Network: On the one hand, the mobile service provider has full control over the nodes that make up the RAN. We now have QOS and standards defined to take care of this area.  On the other hand, there is another aspect of the RAN over which the mobile service operator has only very limited control: the literal, over‐the‐air portion.
3. Backhaul : If you own it, you control it.
4. Core Network: mechanisms can be implemented here that participate in network
   management and optimize the QoS since the operator almost always has control.
5. Operator Owned content like the safaricom portal content: Content includes both the applications as well as any digital media that are part of the customer’s service subscription. For this there is full control by the mobile operator and it is almost always optimized to as close to the user as possible.
6. Internet and other external content: Only at the point of Ingress/Egress. So if Facebook suddelny goes offline, don't expect the mobile/network operator to know or even care. Poorly written applications can introduce QoS issues not only for the user of the application,but for other users as well. I've seen and had to mitigate this several times on our network.
7. Branded content: It sometimes happens that external entities offer branded content. For this the operator has limited control.

Also consider mobility,viruses and general end user demand variations. All this add up to the complexities involved in running and optimizing a network.

Third World Networkers guide to a re-organization

If you know where I work then you know the entire company underwent massive reorganization. It just happened that at around the same time I was busy 'gaming' Cisco into giving me a CCIE. So sleepless nights. Being re-organized was not helping. I needed the CCIE as a credible 'credibility indicator'. Just in case shit hit the fan while facing me. Unlikely but not far fetched.

I imagined being in a box, one of many, with our new CEO moving them around not even knowing I'm inside. Would he hear me if I let out a scream, I wondered? Haha don't be silly Gitau, you've never even bumped into him on the corridor; Your sister that doesn't work here met him before you. Scream away! sigh...

What if he got tired before the game ended. I like his vision and plans.Our customers could use that kind of thinking. I didn't believe in the team entrusted with the change at the time. It can't be change if you don't change the people right? They had a lot to prove to me. My jury is still sitting.

Would whoever he'd trust with the final 'execution' move around the boxes in a manner that lets me work better. I am very trusting, but I doubted it. So first things first:

I updated my resume, and passed the CCIE. In this day and age, it is irresponsible to not take measures that ensure you are on top of things. I had two job offers within a week. I was on solid ground. I had a new bounce. Life was good.

I promised to give myself lots of time to work through things I decided on two whole months of 'no moves' just to take some time to think and plan. I plan a lot. Passing ended a two year journey so two months was nothing.

I also started touching base with old friends in the industry. I have good friends, they believe in me. I got a slot to speak at AFNOG (Africa Network Operators Group), and an offer to speak at ISOC (Internet Society), they would have paid for my trip - I did AFNOG, never did ISOC, i should have done both and saved some money. Stupid me!. I learnt something, moving on.

I also got asked by one other friend through another friend if I would teach at their school. I agreed to do one class,very short notice, lots of pressure, just my kind of fun and just to get some classroom experience. First class - IP/ethernet backhaul, it went very well. They even paid me. Awesome.

So now i knew I could at least teach over and above my current skills. I spoke to about 200 technical people about a technology I'm passionate about in Dar on the 7th June.

I intend to do alot of these presentation/teaching gigs. It is a very engaging process and I have learnt during this process very different things from those in my technical background. I imagine each speaking engagement will teach me something new, each set of trainees will bring new experience and I will take all the criticism and advice in my stride, I can see myself improving with each new opportunity.

I recognized there were some lessons here that other third world networkers' could use.

First of all each reorg brings forth a disequilibrium, complexities and confusion. For a while it was hard to get things done. I actually took two weeks off because I couldn't stand wasting my time waiting, and i could use it for other things, thats all it seemed we were doing; waiting for the process to end. Imagine if someone came to your house and rearranged your socks, every day for two weeks. Your morning routine would definitely change.

If you are in charge of change, please do it swiftly, communicate clearly.

Secondly realize there will be new characters to deal with. Probably a new boss in your work life. Brush up on interpersonal skills in case you had forgotten.

Thirdly reorganizations create great opportunities to grow. If you design networks or software, then you are already accustomed to change. Take it in your stride. Keep walking.

Its also a great time to make changes you always wanted. For instance a lot of projects tended to be driven by time. 'do this fast, we need it now', it promoted a lot of shoddy work in the past. Careful design, tests and all the other best practices be damned. change that now. I was very impressed with the opportunity to steer processes and ensure best practices get followed.

If you can't and it still pisses you of, quit, or start making plans to quit gracefully before your job kills you.

4'thly please please note it's not your fathers company. On the same note you don't work as a charity, expect to be paid for your work.

5'thly Optimize your life for change. Find your peak efficiency point, operate at it, deliver. I assume you are getting paid to work.

Save some cash. Try and clear all your bad debts, marry wisely. If your wife or husband or girlfriend or boyfriend is the sort that walks the moment you hit bad times. Walk on, seriously, sneak away tonight, come to my place:-).

other notes:
Then you  have to figure out how to be successful in this new structure. The executive goal in our case was laid out very clearly, very publicly. All I needed was to know where I fit in so I could get on with it.

The take home lesson here is; even if you don't 'feel' the structure right now, unless you become part of the process, you might end up becoming just that guy on the sidelines. In our case I actually got a chance to change a number of things I felt had not been working out for me. I still can't stand others. But such is life.

There will be cracks, steer your issues away from them. Escalate fast, there's a high chance everyone is going through the same thing. Don't even bother talking or reasoning with negative guys. Change is hard enough as it is. Be politely blunt - to a fault. Trust me every one is afraid during a reorg including your boss, his boss, everyone, just do your thing.

The critical things that lead to success don't change. Teamwork and collaboration are still necessary. Pursue them. Keep the teams small, hope it stays that way for a bit longer together this time. Team culture is important. don't be a 'caffeine grasping egomaniac I can do it all hero'. that sort of praise doesn't scale. I've had very successful projects working, learning and mentoring teams. It helps.

lastly: follow through on objectives. Clarify your exact role as an individual and for the team. If you hold a leadership position, work with the team on this. I can't emphasize how important this is. To me. It really is time to quit if you can't tell what your role and objectives are. It might just be your manager acting up too. Dump him/her. There's a lot of life going on out there.

Third world networkers inflight diary - Nairobi --> Dar

So I'm aboard a  Fly540 to Dar for a techies meet. They had the best fly back/return trip time for me. I also discover they are cheap. My trip budget is about 500USD, life will be extremely difficult if i go over that budget.

Its a boring, 1 hr flight, clouds fly by beneath me, that calms me; there's a lady in orange that keeps walking around. She seems to be offering on board maid service. She's friendly, I'm in a sour mood. I decide to not ruin her day. I fake a smile.

Directly opposite me is a couple, i think the guy is nigerian and lady's from Dar. I know because he sounds a bit like a nigerian colleague at work. The lady has that melody like swahili. It just rolls off her tongue. 'ukifika dar jameni usije enda ulevini!'. Boy are they loud. Do nigerians know swahili?

There's a mother holding a baby, a she? a he? who knows, but it's hungry. Mother's probably not comfortable breast feeding at high altitude. He/She cries.

I power up my notebook and listen to a guy called Vast begging a girl not to take her love away. I know abit about lost love, so I feel for the guy. I should learn to play this on the guitar, for when i start dating.

I count about 27 people on this flight. It's a canadair cl-600-2b19 regional jet. They apparently have 3 of these twin engines with a 50 passenger capacity. I hope they are not making a loss on the trip. I make a point to invest in an airline in the future. Farms and clinics are great. short haul cheap airlines might just have a future.

They; fly540 were the cheapest flight I could find. I take a pause, this trip was self sponsored due to some very last minute changes. I am versatile. I hate feeling disorganized. I am organized, i tend to plan things alot. I come from the just fucking do it fast and don't be stupid school of thought. It's my school so agree to disagree and move on. I plan, i collect facts, i put them together. Its my thing. I love it. I'll be happy sharing something with AFNOG. I owe some guys there alot.

Almost everyone on this third world flight has a laptop or Ipad. I have a smallish notebook. It's an Acer got from Indonesia. The perfect companion. I hate Ipads. For no reason. I might love them in the morning. I stare at the baby. He starts crying. I must have sent him a bolt of bits, or an over stuffed IPv6 packet. Maybe at his age he can only digest IPv4. Who knows.

Its a weird flight this one, before I got on, There's a guy called Noah that just asked for my Bio. He must be on the program committee, at afnog, I'll find out soon enough. He felt like a likeable fellow. I saw the request at the airport just before boarding. He wants my title, what I do, where I do it, maybe why I do it? etc.

I have held many titles in the last two years. principal data engineer, technical lead, network architect; last one I saw was 'network architect', I suspect because of all my design work, a functional network and superior intellect, the official letter said manager - network architecture and design. In case you're wondering, I like the network architect title. Depending on where I am, and who I'm talking to , I drop the 'manager'. Both work for me. It doesn't matter. My skills, leadership or otherwise speak for me.

It's a sweet role, the toys are lovely, the fruit of lots of labor very visible. I'm just not comfortable financially to be well focused. That and a CCIE means you get the occasional odd offer. Motivation is something personal to all of us and I clearly have different things that get me all fired up and committed.It would be nice to sit in a panel and discuss 'what drives us'.

Afnog has come a long way. 11years! I'll just explain what I do to the guys, I sent the network architect line for bio info. I hope we fill a hall. Should kill a good 5 minutes on the podium. I think of a joke to accompany it. I smile at my own funniness. Hilarious. Haahaha! I make a point to dilute the joke. Don't kill them before you deliver your message. We need to critically think about IPv6, our collective role in it's success, we need to finally stand up and be counted. I send a hex bolt towards the baby. No tears. hmm.... maybe he's ready for IPv6 after all.

Fly540 have an inflight magazine. Its full of Ads. Maybe they should write stories about their passengers. Heck they should make passengers submit stories while on the flight. Maybe I should write for them. Oh shoot they should write about me...in flight diaries?

Vast is done crooning. Next up, Anjunabeats in Ibiza 2010, right after Keane.  I plan on going to Ibiza later for this years holiday. Anjunabeats sort of wins the musical contest. Everybody's changing by Keane does inspire me a bit. I play it again, I compose a resignation letter and another one re-applying for the same job, then wonder if they would hire me back. I wonder if I would hire me back. Ahh the joys of being idle. I trash the letter. Chicken!

The clouds look beautiful,they fire up my neurons. Spatial temporal reasoning at its best. It's just abstract. Like suspended cotton they look, or floating rice, or coagulated milk. I stare at the patterns, marvel at nature. For some weird reason I think about peeing pouring hot coffee through them, and wonder if it's hot and misty when it lands. If I ever have an alternate me or an avatar he'll be weird, people will kick him vomit on him just for kicks....I slap myself back to reality...

My reality is interesting: IPv6,NGN,evolved packet core, mpls, pseudowire, otv,inter provider QOS, NNI,PPI, cloud ahh cloud, I look down the window again, I hear people store data in the clouds nowadays.

I'm disappointed, it's nothing but white down there, I thought bits were black? I must be looking at the wrong cloud, or all data is stored in the US clouds? maybe it's a cloud quality issue? maybe third-world clouds don't work...maybe its my pee coffee? who knows...I just don't see any data, I look out again and realize it might be there, just encapsulated in cloud...bummer!

I arrest my imagination. Too much. Ding! the fasten seat belts light up, time to stop typing....I blame the altitude for anything you find weird today....I wonder who reads this stuff, if you've read this far, let me know why! something could be wrong with you....unless you're en route to Dar:-)

Cloud what?

Look If you are one of those bozo CIO,CTO,CCC,CKT or whatever acronym that will make me rich by moving your stuff to a cloud while concurrently being thoruoughly clueless about it, please:

1: Get my contacts right. You might forget it during a meltdown and I need the money.....
2: And this is important, learn,read up on cloud services, what they are, what to do when the clouds go 'poof' automagically. Just because jesus rode one doesn't make them fool proof.

Seriously guys, you still need redundancy, you still need to think about the design and you most definately need regular audits no matter who is providing the service to you. Yet another reason I don't advocate for Kenyan companies hosting anything outside our borders....especially if its mission critical like those idiots who installed systems that monitor 'patients pacemakers' in the 'clouds'.

If you are a network admin, get clued in on this 'cloud thing', its gonna be bread and butter alongside IPv6. Start small, install vmware, mess around with esx, steal a nexus switch or oh well justlearn something to sound intelligent when the friggin' cio/cto wants to talk cloud....
http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com/blog/2011/04/the-silver-lining-of-amazons-cloud-issues/
I especially liked this one:
http://evilrouters.net/2011/04/29/the-ec2-ebs-outage-what-amazon-didnt-tell-you/

Looking into 3G - and why my skype failed

I spent a frustrated morning try to upload/restore a friends backup to his server and skype my cousin at the same time. I am currently using the safaricom 3G service as my primary connection but had to fall back to an alternate providers broadband for this upload (I required a consistent uninterrupted service for this upload). 3G has always served me well - since i moved my lab - more like sold some of mine to use the work lab...

In the meantime, I started messing around with some tools trying to figure out this 3G 'issue' and the effect of large buffers more out of curiosity - It (3G) really serves me well when its working, that and I was bored...

A few things to note:
- Today is a saturday so I expect more contention since the sites around here serve residential/home users. Which means that with my large files, TCP is  wrecking havoc as usual.

Buffers on all the network elements are shared and distributed among all clients, the radio controllers are shared and obviously we share the internet backhaul networks. That initial connection to the Radio is what I was curious about.

We have gone through cycles of high capacity at the edge, then at the core then to the edge again. In the past it used to be that Dialup users in Kenya rarely cumulatively filled an ISP's capacity, Newer technologies like DSL, frame relay, ppp multilink saved the consumer but moved the bottleneck to the core.

The internet has a single method of mitigating/signalling congestion. By dropping packets.This is the only way you notice that 'hey, that packet never arrived, and do something about it'. Windowing (tcp) is built around this mechanism. The other mechanism is known as Explicit congestion Notification (ECN). It's like telling your friend on your way to work driving in the opposite direction ', Hey, the road is flooded back there', use another route or dont go at all.

The best solution is always more capacity, however you can only get so much with 3G/edge/gprs. What most computers and home routers have nowadays is huge buffers. Buffers increase delay - because you pack the packet longer. Which means some packets get to their destination pretty much useless. Its like being in traffic jam past a doctors appointment time. getting there late is useless. So the very solutions you build in (longer jam controlled by a traffic cop) tends to break the network more.

Remember the internet and our networks rely on packets dropping to deal with congestion. excessive buffering breaks that.

So back to 3G; please note most of what powers 3G and Edge (actually lets focus on 3G) was designed at a time telecommunication networks didnt care much about data. So obviously transmitting 1500bytes as a single packet is pretty much impossible (ie the MTU on most of those systems is much much lower). This obviously calls for alot of what tcp is known for - fragment, transmit, reorder and ----buffering.

Unfortunately I decided on this article at a time when the 3G network seems to be okay. at least the RTT are not as bad as earlier in the day.

C:\Documents and Settings\jgitau>ping 196.201.208.2

Pinging 196.201.208.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.201.208.2: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=56
Reply from 196.201.208.2: bytes=32 time=104ms TTL=56
Reply from 196.201.208.2: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=56
Reply from 196.201.208.2: bytes=32 time=111ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 196.201.208.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 111ms, Average = 95ms

So what could possibly have been happening - when things were not working out for me: When you are served by a busy RNC, you have to wait for some time to retransmit the damaged packets, or the RNC to retransmit it to back to you (tcp 101). Most of these are buffered waiting completion (remember each packet is fragmented then put together for onward transmission). Also remember TCP is end to end, however on a 3G network, the said 'end points' are actually multiple endpoints. You probably use up about 8 - 10 IP addresses for each connection - RNC to the Core, SGSN to GGSN, GGSN to the Internet etc- each of those elements have to bring up a session for you to transmit....

By not signalling congestion, the buffers fill up because the endpoints never backed off. The buffers stay full until the load lessens.  Suddenly all of you 'clients' are suffering and complaining but the RNC can't really do much for you now can it?...So is buffering bad?

This whole thing becomes worse when you try tuning stuff and realize that the bandwidth for 3G is variable. I say pick an amount lets say a conservative 128K and tune your system with if you are so inclined.

I have no point here today other than to say that 3G networks are not easy to predict. The RNC is the first bit that actually deals with your packet and more often than not is going to be the first culprit when congestion occurs. Everything else from there on is able to handle larger packet sizes. ehh no wait there's an SGSN just after that:-)....End to end qos could help but I know of no one implementing it...I however look forward to LTE and maybe a technology like HSUPA - what that does is eliminate the number of buffers you have to deal with.

Sooo tools I use frequently or would like to use more of: - I put some of them here just so I remember where to find them....:-)
tstat
Mlab has  set of tools
xplot
tcptrace
netalyzr and a sample output from my 3g connection

sample output:

Network buffer measurements (?): Uplink 3500 ms, Downlink 430 ms
We estimate your uplink as having 3500 msec of buffering. This is quite high, and you may experience substantial disruption to your network performance when performing interactive tasks such as web-surfing while simultaneously conducting large uploads. With such a buffer, real-time applications such as games or audio chat can work quite poorly when conducting large uploads at the same time.
We estimate your downlink as having 430 msec of buffering. This level may serve well for maximizing speed while minimizing the impact of large transfers on other traffic. 

Note the Uplink buffer above. So obviously my skype suffered if i uploaded the 'huge' files on one computer while skyping on another.

why designing networks is cool!

When companies engage a network designer be it in house or a consultant, one of the most beautiful things is that post implementation feeling; there's always a change. Mostly for the better. The value is visible, the ROI immediate - well almost.

Quite a number of design recommendations are left out, compromises are made, its very engaging. Also, as was with the last major design work I undertook, some companies do actually get into the design process with a clear understanding of the role they must play, what is required, the support they must accord and a willingness to let their networks be transformed by it (the process). I'll also add having the right engineering team to push some good decisions that look unnecessary to the management is sometimes necessary.

There has to be a management solidly behind innovation, new technologies and technique of doing things. For instance the choice between eigrp/OSPF or ISIS should really not start a debate with management ditto anycast vs load balancers for some services? let the guys decide and justify their design.

Good design also happens to be a single element in the overall system. It has to be supported by the business. It has to influence the business, It has to be fed by the business, it has to fit into it's culture, support its products.

In the end its fun watching a good design get implemented, its even better watching others work on it, change things, enhance it, grow it. It's very satisfying.

More exams!!

several things are slowly taking shape. one is annoying:

I still can't find a credible cisco learning partner to work with towards getting a ccsi.


It could however prove to be an interesting opportunity too...

8 June, 2011 - World IPv6 Day

I hate that this blog hasn't focused a lot more on ipv6. I take solace in the fact that mobile networks are not going to ipv6 soon (mainly out of ignorance if you ask me), Infact I suspect they will have to be forced to use it since no one will be thinking about it if the decision is left to the guys I see making current decisions in the telco space (imagine if apple released an IPv6 only iphone).

Mobile operators stand to benefit the most from IPv6 mainly from M2M applications/communications. Incidentally People so afraid of change are unfortunately in charge of moving us forward (from the regulator to the operators). Focus on mobile number portability has wasted lots of time. a few people saw it as the dead end it seems to be.

Its a clear case of the blind leading the sighted:-) I see it in the whole industry, there's alot of talk in mailing lists about 'issues' but no action *Please read disclaimer below if you're about to rant*. Politics doesn't get work done.

It will be a consultants field day:-) when IPv6 gets forced on the networks. Closer to home, we have some internet peering but dont have a single service on IPv6 (2c0f:fe38::/32): from the cable and wireless looking glass you'll find us represented:-) I would really like to have some IPv6 pdp contexts activated, an IPv6 dmz, to test end to end mobile IPv6.

inet6.0: 5546 destinations, 31745 routes (5535 active, 0 holddown, 14 hidden)
+ = Active Route, - = Last Active, * = Both

2c0f:fe38::/32     *[BGP/170] 2w3d 09:10:07, MED 0, localpref 80
                      AS path: 6453 33771 I
                    > to 2001:5002:100:4::2 via ae0.1404

* so yes our network is IPv6 ready, we can definately provide IPv6 connectivity but we again haven't really tested any service - yet, and you wont have many places to 'go' to that areipv6 enabled. I however wish you'd begin testing. Believe me you'll save money in the near future.

we haven't progressed the IPv6 initiative as much as we should have in Kenya either, the network guys seem ready. The local exchange point has a bunch of us IPv6 peering, but we as yet have no applications running on it - apart from DNS and hmm I wonder if the google global cache reachable through KIXP is IPv6 enabled.


tracing to the ipv6.google.com uses our international link so I guess not, or I used the wrong fqdn.

Primary#traceroute ipv6 ipv6.google.com

Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to 2A00:1450:8002::93

  1 2001:5A0:C00:100::35 [AS 6453] 292 msec
    2001:5A0:C00:100::15 224 msec
    2001:5A0:C00:100::35 248 msec
  2 2001:5A0:2A00:100::1 [AS 6453] 180 msec 180 msec 180 msec
  3 2001:5A0:2000:400::2 [AS 6453] 188 msec 188 msec 184 msec
  4 2A01:3E0:FFF0:400::D [AS 6453] 188 msec 188 msec 188 msec
  5 2A01:3E0:FF80:100::9 [AS 6453] 200 msec 196 msec 196 msec
  6 2A01:3E0:FF20::3A [AS 6453] 196 msec 220 msec 196 msec
  7 2001:7F8::3B41:0:1 [AS 6453] 200 msec 228 msec 200 msec
  8 2001:4860::1:0:10 [AS 6453] 228 msec 200 msec 200 msec
  9 2001:4860::1:0:8 [AS 6453] 208 msec 208 msec 204 msec
 10 2001:4860::8:0:2AC3 [AS 6453] 212 msec 212 msec 212 msec
 11 2001:4860::2:0:87D [AS 6453] 212 msec 208 msec 220 msec
 12 2001:4860:0:1::25 [AS 6453] 216 msec
    2001:4860:0:1::23 212 msec
    2001:4860:0:1::25 220 msec
 13 2A00:1450:8002::93 [AS 6453] 208 msec 212 msec 208 msec

I hope and wish to have a full IPv6 DMZ (dns,smtp,ntp,pop,www,wap,looking glass etc) by the IPV6 day.

So...scoot over to the isc . its important to note here that whether we like it or not, among others, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Akamai Technologies, Limelight Networks, W3C, Bing (Microsoft), Tom's Hardware, Rackspace, Verizon, and Juniper have committed to participating in the experiment (wikipedia).We will all participate if our users visit sites affiliated with the networks above. so we might as well do something about our infrastructure.

what are you doing about it?

I am not directly responsible for this infrastructure at work anymore but I'll definately make a concerted effort to ensure our customers don't get caught off guard. and now Im sleepy:-)

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and other things Im catching up on

Sundays tend to find me at home just hanging out with friends. Today was extra great I did just that with a bonus. I've met someone new (to me) that might very well join my 'the circle of trust'.

We (happened to be all CCIE's) - note Kenya has 7 8 CCIE's so getting more than 3 together is always quite interesting - we basically threw ideas discussed the current networking trends, opportunities, where we are, what we are, who we are, how things are done here vs how they happen elsewhere whether there's opportunity to do better than others etc etc....well obviously this paragraph has nothing to do with SDN...

SDN (software defined networking) is an NGO promoting change in the way networks are run and managed.

It's based on openflow, a relatively new protocol and its supported by some of the biggest users and buyers of networking equipment. Looking at the list of  members this evening tells me that this will be a definite game changer in the future.

Soon I hope to get to test the protocol. Indigo have a list of supported hardware. The opengear sounds like something I might just have. If I get at least two, we'll give it a test drive. Either way the idea of commoditiz'ing networking gear is very appealing.

anyhow here's a list of places to check on openflow:

1. : this podcast here is a good start
2. : openflow networking website
3. : Ivan's analysis of the same
4. : on networkworld
5. : A company actually making and hoping and I believe will sell the switches
6. : and another one

also there's a Linux Software Reference System which lets you run openflow on a linux pc with multiple NIC's. Expect something on openflow here at some point in the future. When working with SME's, i expect cheap networking gear like this to feature prominently. Mikrotik is so far my favorite, we'll see how openflow and SDN fare.

*Other areas I'm trying to catch up on:-

• IOS-XR - on CRS-1's
• NX-OS - this one will be tricky. Rumor has it that our new data center (an area I'm weak in) will be running a couple of Nexus. I might have to make new alliances to get a hold of some switches running NX-OS. I am totally clueless on this and can't wait to just power one up.
• LTE - I just ordered three books on LTE (Safari doesn't have much on this). So in a months' time I'll be focusing on it. I might very well move to the section dealing with LTE at work if only to get a grasp of what the vendors are doing. the base level knowledge will have to be read though.

Google technician!

Greg had me all giggly this morning with this post and this one :

“Google Technician” — A google tech is one who googles an issue and sys­tem­at­ic­ally tries every sug­ges­tion that is returned without under­stand­ing or regard for the valid­ity of the response.

I find the google techs quite interesting (as per the definition above), I think the same applies to those that pick scripts off the net and try them until something breaks or works (most of the times things work) which sort of fuels the 'google tech' movement.

Why It's not about the "G' 's! and the 'b' 's

Every once in a while it happens that my TV is on while Im messing around on the laptop. One of the 'news' items on the last week was that one of the Telco's was launching a broadband service that would guarantee well over 8MegaBytes of data. huh! This was followed by the usual market speak....it will be super fast..yada yada yada!!!

On the same note the papers have all sort's of G's being advertised. 2G,2.5G,3G and next up for your consumption is 4G.....

Sometimes the market speak can be quite hilarious, other times- not so much. On the Kictanet mailing list, a search for complaints, promises, bandwidth, unlimited etc gives an indicator of the kind of confusion marketing a service purely on offered capacity and 'take home bits' without making an attempt at educating the consumer can create. The case linked above helped get out some very interesting issues.

One I thing we (the industry) need to take a keen on is the fact that the more info consumers have, the easier it gets. Information on coverage,regional QOS (site to site latency/jitter) etc shoul d probably be availed. Customers should be allowed a forum to vent and networks use that as a honey pot of sorts. Do we support IPv6? provide the info before its asked for. Network engineers need to collaborate more.

Managing customer expectations/interactions and the role of CCK    as a consumer advocate is also not very clear.

Considering ISP's have been there longer than traditional telco's in the data arena, its funny they still do not have a QOS policy for data. (I take that back, even if they had one I'm not too sure they can enforce it - they can try but ehhh)....It might turn out to be the old Jambonet 'block' all VOIP musical chairs with ISP's...somehow Jambonet used to be left standing....now those were good days!!!

If I am in a coverage hole for 3G, am I right in accusing the vendor of poor service? what if my phone 'hops' from 3G to 2G, If on an unlimited data plan what gives, what is this downgrade my speed (bps) maneno? did I pay for a specific QOS? If I did how do I measure it? can the guy selling it to me even measure it? what of Wimax, LTE when it gets sold...?....

stp, sctp and tcp

It was during a discussion about the migration strategies for the R4/R99 and some LTE test gear that it was disclosed a new STP (Signalling transfer point) would be integrated at around the same time the new core would be coming 'live'. Some of the MPLS vendor's guys have not worked on a mobile core before so it's a learning experience for everyone.

It got more interesting when a 'new' protocol SCTP was mentioned as being in extensive use. One of the guys is a new ccie and as you can imagine his TCP knowledge is still fresh in his mind. It thoroughly bewildered him why SCTP was even necessary in the first place. We white boarded quite a number of reasons with explanations (it makes it easier for the migration if we're all semi clueful of what's going on on the network) so we tend to stop 'everything' and explain alot.

rfc2960 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2960.txt) gives a very clear explanation. Please head over there to see why SCTP is necessary for some applications.

I also expect alot more implementations and use of SCTP over the coming years.well at least I expect it at work. It has a mature socket API so writing applications for this is not a big problem for experienced and novice programmers who dont mind putting in some time.

At work I've changed some apps to sctp to gain the 'multihomning advantage', other than that there's really nothing to get excited about. It's however good to have an idea that such a protocol exists, if nothing else, it makes for exciting 'beer' talk.

back...yes Im back and it feels good....

Yani, that was one looong busy buuusy week.....Didn't get much done...however this weekend sort of saved it. I got through almost everything to get me sort of set for the February deadline for the written exam. Hopefully some projects at work won't come in the way, and if they do they better be fun..On the solaris+squid+wccp, my advise is don't run it in a busy production environment, far too many things coud go wrong...

OSPF from the ground up from tomorrow.....