Pondering DNS Placement

I recently received an email asking about DNS server placement.  In part the email reads, “why whould a computer from the internet need to reach a “public” DNS server inside a private DMZ as if it were a web server? Are there occasions when a machine would need to reach accross the internet and resolve a private IP address? It seems backwards and highly unsecure, especially where... [Read more]

yUBUNTU? iBUNTU!

Linux servers are great.  It’s not really a point of debate.  The performance, the versatility, the stability… the list goes on.  But Linux server greatness isn’t what I sat down to write about today. Using Linux as a desktop OS, more specifically, using Linux as a replacement for Windows, has been a multi-year struggle for me.  Microsoft Windows is like any other addiction, I... [Read more]

64-Bit Vista … Buh-Bye!

As Yoda might say, “Done am I with Vista 64-bit.  Sucks it does.  Mmmm, yes.  Sucks.” Driver support is a catastrophe.  After all this time and with 64-bit rapidly becoming the norm I’m not sure how this is possible …but it is. 64-bit apps are few and far between.  80-90% of apps run in emulation mode (WoW64).  This constrains them to their native 32-bit processing. ... [Read more]

RFC 5453 - Can I Make it More Concise?

RFC 5453 is one of the shortest RFC’s I have ever read. RFC 5453, the most recent RFC dealing with IPv6 (a statement that will be true for about the next 10 minutes), addresses a real, albeit fairly unlikely, scenario.  The 64-bit interface identifier of a node’s global unicast address is randomly derived (via one of many possible mechanisms).  There is a possibility that a node can randomly... [Read more]

Nobody Fills My Spam Queue Like Cisco

I get a lot of emails from Cisco every week.  A whole lot.  They aren’t spam, really.  It’s just that the frequency with which they arrive in my mailbox makes me think of them as such.  Here is how the subject line of each and every message reads: End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the <Insert Latest Product Being Kicked to the Curb Here> For example: Nobody plows through... [Read more]