When you are using rsync to copy/synchronize files from A to B it's very useful to know that it's possible to set a Bandwidth Limit. This is very nice for remote backups so your internet connection won't be 'choked'

Take a look at this video explaining it:

Or if you just want the command:

rsync --stats --progress --bwlimit=750 -auv /FolderA /FolderB

When you are studying for any networking-exam like Microsoft's, Cisco or from any other vendor it's useful that you know how to perform binary and subnetting calculations.

Also for work it might be very useful to know how to create the correct summarizations and to see in the blink of an eye what the broadcast address, network address and the number of hosts of a given ip+subnetmask is.

To make your life easier I decided to create an eBook which explains you exactly how to do it and i'll teach you my strategy how to solve these questions fast...off the top of your head!

I'm inviting you to take a look at this page.

Are you studying for your CCIE R&S but do you have no idea what the real exam will look like?

Cisco created a very nice video showing you what the Lab exam will look like! Strongly recommended to watch this before you go take the exam:

CCIE R&S Lab Exam Demo

Whenever i'm in the train, car or at the gym I like to listen to some podcasts, for me it feels like i'm spending my time better then listening to for example the radio, or watching TV while doing some cardio exercises.

One of the podcasts I like are from the "Packet Pushers". A couple of CCIE'ers decided to have some discussions and record them for you to download, it's very cool to listen to!

Check it out at:

http://packetpushers.net/

Ever wanted to know more about Linux, but never found the right book?

There are no excuses anymore, there's a great free book you can download called "GNU/Linux Advanced Administration".

Chapters:

1. Introduction to the GNU/Linux operating system
2. Migration and coexistence with non-Linux systems
3. Basic tools for the administrator
4. The kernel
5. Local administration
6. Network administration
7. Server administration
8. Data administration
9. Security administration
10. Configuration, tuning and optimisation
11. Clustering

So what are you waiting for? Go grab this book over here:

FTA Academy

It's possible to get an IPv6 public address from behind your IPv4 NAT network, and access the internet. To achieve this we need to build a "Teredo" tunnel, what happens is that you get an IPv6 address from a Teredo provider, and everytime you send a IPv6 packet it's being encapsulated in a IPv4 packet.

Let's install it, i'm using Ubuntu 10.04 to achieve this:

sudo apt-get install miredo

Now we need to edit the conf file to change the Teredo server:

sudo vi /etc/miredo.conf

ServerAddress teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com

Restart the service:

sudo /etc/init.d/miredo restart

As you can see by typing in 'ifconfig' you see there's a Teredo interface and it has a public IPv6 address from the Teredo server:

teredo    Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
inet6 addr: fe80::ffff:ffff:ffff/64 Scope:Link
inet6 addr: 2001:0:5ef5:73bc:14e4:2389:abe7:8169/32 Scope:Global
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1280  Metric:1
RX packets:95 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:97 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:91890 (91.8 KB)  TX bytes:17118 (17.1 KB)

Let's try a ping and see what happens:

ping6 ipv6.google.com

PING ipv6.google.com(2a00:1450:8006::63) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 2a00:1450:8006::63: icmp_seq=4 ttl=57 time=274 ms
64 bytes from 2a00:1450:8006::63: icmp_seq=3 ttl=57 time=1293 ms
64 bytes from 2a00:1450:8006::63: icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=2292 ms

As you can see we are able to ping the IPv6 address from Google, that's all...you now have full IPv6 connectivity!

I've always been a fan of Nokia phones, Symbian is far from perfect but it does the job...there are plenty of applications to download and it works fine for me. When I heard Nokia was going to release a Linux-based phone I knew one thing...I had to get it!

The idea of being able to run Linux applications on a phone is awesome, just open some terminal screens and do whatever you like, start VPN's, use SSH to connect to remote servers, use nmap to scan networks and so on...

I'm also fond of the whole open-source idea, I like to decide for myself what I want to download/install instead of having for example the Apple Iphone. Apple decides for you what you are allowed to download/buy from the App store...it's user friendly and you are almost sure of high quality apps, but i'd like to choose for myself. If I wouldn't have bought this phone i'd probably get an Android.

I've been using the N900 for a couple of months now so I felt it would be a good idea to write a little review with the advantages/disadvantages and the applications i'm using.

Advantages:

• It's Linux! Whatever application you run on your servers/pc you can run on the phone.
• Good multitasking, you can run lots of applications and it's fast.
• Qwerty keyboard, for typing e-mail/sms this is pretty nice.
• SMS Application...I love it, but i got used to sending short messages with just an "OK" or "NP" and so on...I thought I had a unlimited sms plan with my provider, but ended up knowing it's just a fair use policy with a 1000 sms limit...I sent 2000 in a month ! (And felt like a teenage girl with too much spare time)...now i'm staying within the 1000 limit ;)
• Touchscreen works just fine, I was used to using T9 but it's good.
• The repositories offer you lots of applications, games, and most of them are for free.
• Root access on your phone.

Disadvantages:

• When you decide  to use the "devel" repository you gotta be careful what you are installing, there's alot of apps that make your phone do funny things.
• You got 32GB of memory for storage...and only 227MB "rootfs" which alot of applications are using, I had problems where I ran out of memory and couldn't upgrade my firmware.
• Sometimes you need to use the command line for troubleshooting apps, I love it but it's not really user friendly.
• It's a phone for technical people, you can't expect users to use the command line for solving some things.
• When I use the e-mail app to sync all my e-mail accounts, it only syncs the mail and not the calendar...I need to start the "mail for exchange" app to do this, kinda annoying.

Applications i'm using:

1. PokerTH: Nothing beats a quick game of poker, you can set the gamespeed very high so playing vs computer is fast.
2. Zoutube: Good app to play youtube video's, you can also download them.
3. Witter: The best Twitter application I found for the N900, you can tweet, retweet, direct message, etc.
4. Gainroot: Of course you want root access, this does the job.
5. Gpodder: If you like podcasts you want this, if you never tried podcasts then you should. I love listening to podcasts about networking, security, cisco, microsoft etc.
6. Dr. noksnes: It's cool to run Super Nintendo games on the N900, Mario Kart anyone?

Finally the moment has arrived...GNS3Vault is online!

Some of you might be familiar with the GNS3 software, but for those who are new to it:

GNS3 is software (free) which you can download and run on your PC. You can use it to run real Cisco IOS on your computer, so you don't need real hardware anymore. It's not a simulator but an emulator! On a modern computer you can run 10-15 routers without any problems, so it's possible to build some complex networks.

The cool thing about GNS3 is that you are able to save your networks, so you can continue later or share them with others.

GNS3Vault is the website where you can download all kind of different Cisco labs (for FREE!). You can download a lab you like and start configuring right away, there's labs for all kind of protocols...OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, IPv6 and many more!

So what are you waiting for? Check out http://www.gns3vault.com and start configuring right away!

Thelast 10 days I spent my time at a CCIE Routing & Switching bootcamp in Brusseles, organised by Arpnet.

The program was as following:

Week1: 5 days to focus on all the individual protocols, and in particular all the "core" topics like OSPF, BGP, SWITCHING, FRAME-RELAY, QOS.

Week2: Only do "full" labs just like the real exam, the goal was to do 1 lab per day.

Normally I like to study in my own time at home so I can exactly spend my time at the subjects I feel are necessary, so I was really wondering if I would like the bootcamp experience. Normally the CCIE is not something you can achieve in 2 weeks but you need months of preparation :)

The first week was very good, I had the feeling I had a good understanding of all the "core" topics before the bootcamp but there were plenty of tips & tricks I didn't know about before...after a short explaination of for example OSPF we spent the rest of the day doing OSPF labs...this was really usefull because you get to see everything "in action" and you get practical experience. The other days we did BGP, Frame-Relay and MPLS for example.

When i'm studying at home it's really easy to let my mind wander around and do other things like reading e-mail, browsing around the web and before you know...i'm already spending 30 minutes on Youtube watching crap ;) At the bootcamp I was more motivated to focus all my attention on my Routers & Switches. There are other students with the same goal in my mind and it's nice to work together to tackle all the different tasks, it's more motivating then studying alone...so I liked this!

The second week was even more fun because we did all the "full labs" where you have to combine all the different protocols (for example OSPF, different network types and Frame-Relay). Because everyone is working on the same lab it's fun to work your way through the material..and make sure you keep up with the others, I felt very motivated to work my way through the different labs.

After 4 days of labs we did a single day of troubleshooting because this is also on the exam nowadays...you get a couple of 'tickets' that need to be troubleshooted and you are not allowed to use show running-config and you only get to access a few devices on the network. This way you are forced to use show/debug commands and this was very useful!

Looking back at 10 days of bootcamp I came to the conclusion that this was a very good experience for me and I enjoyed it alot...I have the feeling I learned alot and i've been studying so much I actually dreamed about configuring OSPF and BGP a couple of times ;) The traditional Belgian bourgondic food was also very good during lunch! ;)

Thanks to Arpnet for organizing this bootcamp and in particular our CCIE Instructor Farid Meziani! :)

If you work with Cisco or Linux you are probably used to working with a terminal window. When you have several terminal windows on your desktop this might become a bit annoying when they are all scattered around the screen. Putty connection manager solves this problem!

By using Putty Connection Manager you can use tabs to keep your terminal windows under control. You can split windows horizontally or vertical and customize it exactly the way you like...very nice!

You can download putty connection manager from this website:

Putty Connection Manager