CIT Continues Advanced Training on Airfiber AF24s

The Computer Information Technology class continues to receive advanced training on the Ubiquiti AF24 Airfiber.  The Ubiquiti AF24 Airfiber is a hi-power, linear 2X2 MIMO radio with enhanced receiver performance and reliability.  The AF24 has a breakthrough speed of 1.4+ Gbps real data throughput.

These devices are specifically designed for outdoor Point to Point bridging between buildings and provide hi-performance network backhauls.  These dual-independent 2×2 MIMO 24GHz hi-gain reflector antenna systems, can operate in FDD and HDD  modes providing speed and spectral efficiency in the 24GHz band.

Students learn how to configure advanced wireless devices for real world information technology and hands-on experience.

  

   

Justin, Josh and Theo’s results during a configuration of the AF24s.

Students also participate in a wireless shoot-off.   This contest challenges the students to design an antenna that will make an association between a standard access point and a laptop that will connect at extreme distances.  The contest will start the second week of April.

(L-R) Jay Matlock, Jonathan Laine, Scott Hess (designer of a parabolic dish with a helical transceiver), Tyler Clift and Kenny Cooper.

  Photo by D. Babian

  

Great details about building the Airfiber below (from 03:17 forward)

   

Photos above (D. Babian)

         

 

 

Photo Credit: (Wil McKamey)

How long will it take to crack your password?

Mickey found a great site that gives the approximate time it will take to break your password.  The site, howsecureismypassword.net gives the  approximate time and a background color that indicates how secure your password is.  There are other things to worry about.  One of the things people don’t realize is that the code in your website may reveal even the most complex passwords.  It is up to the webmaster of your site to keep you secure.

Do you know about decimal formats and websites?

Over the years, you have learned that you can go to a website by simply typing the name of the website.  Such as -

http://www.wordpress.com

Did you know if you ping it, it will return the webserver’s address and you can use it to surf the web?

http://76.74.254.120

You can use this to troubleshoot your ISP.  How?  If your internet appears to be down, simple ping one of you favorite sites and then put the IP address into a browser.  If you can get to the website by doing this, more than likely your ISP’s DNS is down.

Now, did you know you can convert it to a decimal format and go to the website by typing the decimal value?

HTTP://1279983224

As mysterious as this may seem, networking gets even more complex.  DNS entries determine the name resolution to IP address.   Webservers can be clustered and have different entries for the hundreds or even thousands of variations of naming conventions.

The network command NSLookup can be used to see these servers.   Example:  Go to a command prompt – type
NSLookup http://www.wordpress.com and you’ll see multiple servers.

C:\Users\raven>nslookup http://www.wordpress.com

Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: lb.wordpress.com
Addresses: 76.74.254.123
72.233.69.6
66.155.11.238
66.155.9.238
76.74.254.120
72.233.2.58
Aliases: http://www.wordpress.com

If you ever get a decimal format in an email header and you wish to report the address as spam or as an abusive email, you can decoded it here.

To convert an IP address to a decimal format, use this site.

Here’s another small lesson using NSLookup.  Did you know you can find the email server’s information for more troubleshooting?  How?

First type nslookup and hit enter, then set the type by typing set type=mx and enter again.  Next type the website address and hit enter.

C:\Users\itisme>nslookup
Default Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8

> set type=mx
> ttcshelbyville.edu
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
ttcshelbyville.edu MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.ttcshelbyvill.edu
>

 

For more information on set type, visit Microsoft’s TechNet Library.

Router Emulators

Need to practice setting up routers or adjust a router before adjusting your own?  Here’s a few links to different router emulators.

 

Linksys (Cisco) – Soon to be Belkin?

Netgear

Trendnet

D-Link

Five Ways To Better Hunt The Zebras In Your Network – Dark Reading

“For the cybercriminal lions out on the Internet, your company is full of zebras. Defenders should not just protect the herd, but pay attention to those who stray, experts argue” 

Five Ways To Better Hunt The Zebras In Your Network – Dark Reading.

Zyxel MWR102 tiny router/AP

Finally got my Zyxel Routers / APs in.  Promised pics earlier with our blog post earlier last week.  With a router/ap switch on the side and the ability to act as a router, ap or bridge, the routers came with two power supplies each, a CAT5 cable and a very powerful wireless signal.

 

Setting the optimal MTU inside of your router

How you find the optimal MTU settings is truly a matter of opinion.  Here is what we do…remember setting firewalls, routers and your computer will truly tweak out your connection.  Start on the outside and change your router or firewall first and then each computer (Use TCPOptimzer for computers).  Don’t forget access points and other devices.

• Find an ISP or a website you can ping.
• Ping the website from the command prompt (Windows) using the following command
• ping -f -l 1472 http://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com   (the -l is an “L” that is a lowercase and there is a space between each command and switch)
• Hit the enter key
• If you receive the message of fragmentation, reduce by 10 or 20 until you get responses.  Increase the number by 1 until you are 1 less away from getting a fragmentation message (midpoint – between high and low)
• Now add 28 to this number.  (Why? This is because you specified the ping packet size – and did not include the header which is 28bytes)
• This will give you your MaxMTU size.  (Enter this into your devices and into your OS)

Other Operating Systems

Linux users

ping -s 1472 www.yourwebsiteaddress.com

Apple users:

ping -D -s 1472 www.yourwebsiteaddress.com

Linux and Apple commands are case sensitive.

Here’s a quick example where I ran all the way down to 1400.  Therefore I would add 28bytes and the MaxMTU would be 1428.

C:\Users\x2370>ping -f -l 1450 http://www.somewhereoverthere  (use your ISP here)

Pinging http://www.somewhereoverthere [ IP Address] with 1450 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for  IP Address:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),

C:\Users\x2370>ping -f -l 1400 www.somewhereoverthere  (use your ISP here)

Pinging http://www.somewhereoverthere IP Address] with 1400 bytes of data:
Reply from IP Address: bytes=1400 time=161ms TTL=110
Reply from  IP Address: bytes=1400 time=80ms TTL=110
Reply from  IP Address: bytes=1400 time=60ms TTL=110
Reply from  IP Address: bytes=1400 time=124ms TTL=110

Ping statistics for  IP Address:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 161ms, Average = 106ms

Always test your internet before and after.  Use a true speed test such as Testmy.net

Testmy.net has been around since 1996 and uses real world speed test.  Testmy.net also is NOT owned by an ISP so there isn’t a chance of inflated scores or speeds.

Give it a try and use the Download and Upload link from the menu.

How long will it take a file to transfer on a network or to download?

Numion has several excellent tools in order to estimate how long it takes a file to transfer on a network or to be downloaded from the internet.   Of course these are estimates that are affected by overhead and other factors.

For example, if you have a 2.3 Gigabyte iso  that you want to download and you don’t have anything on your network that is using traffic , you can estimate 4 hours and 19+  mins on a T1 with a 20% overhead.

You can download the calculator page and use it offline (Noted on the site).

Other calculators include stopwatch to measure your website loading speed, server requirements, server capacity and others.

Realtek Ethernet Diagnostic Software

Although it is published on Realtek’s site, many endusers and IT techs miss this download.  The Realtek Ethernet Diagnostic Software is an excellent piece of software that allows for diagnostic troubleshooting of your network card.   Remember, download the latest driver for performance and reliability.

Found here  (Look for Windows Diagnostic Program), the software allows you to do the following:

• See the MAC address of your card
• IP Address
• Link Status
• Stats
  
• Cable tests
  
• Adjust Advanced Settings (Remember to turn off everything but Flow Control)
  
• Create Virtual LANs
  
• Diagnostics
  

Cannot connect to Cisco E1000

 

A good wireless home router, the Cisco E1000 sometimes cannot be managed by Internet Explorer, Chrome or other common browsers.  You can connect to it using Apple’s Safari.   You can download and use Safari for the connection.    Managing a router can be things such as MAC address filtering, Wireless Security or other settings including the upgrading firmware.   Firmware should be updated on routers for security, stability or connectivity including added features.

The common ip address for the router is 192.168.1.1.  Open Safari and type in http://192.168.1.1 or https://192.168.1.1.   You may receive a warning (certificate error).  Click on continue (you are logging into your router and not a website – this is safe).

Find your routers

How many devices do you pass through before surfing the web?

Detect Multiple Routers over at PCWinTech is an excellent program to find your routers.

In the scenario below, our home computers go through a wireless router and on to a router
(non-wireless) supplied by the ISP.  (Two Gateways)

 

In our home, I have multiple routers setup and as you can see on the pic below, I am going thru three wireless routers and then the ISPs router.   (Reconnected to another wireless router).

Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller performance issues

UPDATE-2013 driver now available!

If you have the Realteck PCIe GBE Family Controller adapter and are experiencing performance issues on your network, download the latest driver.  The driver (Version 7.65) is far superior to other Realteck PCIe GBE Family Controller drivers.   The driver is shown as 7.065 on the website.

Our performance issue involved ApplicationXtender an archive system that uses Microsoft SQL to scan documents.   This type of application is dependent on a reliable network and speed.

Old Driver
Average open time – 2 mins 30 secs (if the end user did not click the application, causing a hang)
Query time            -  45 secs to – query box
Query process time-  1 min 10 secs  - display document
New Driver
Average open time –  1-2 secs
Query time            -  1-2 secs to – query box
Query process time-  1-2 secs – display document

Navigate to http://www.realtek.com/downloads/ to obtain the latest driver.

Click on Communications Network ICs – Network Interface Controllers -
10/100/100M Gigabit Ethernet – PCI Express – Software (Select your OS – we are updating the Windows drivers)

   

   

The US sites at the time of this writing produced a popup window that began the navigation over on Realtek’s site.   The UK site produced the download.

The driver will be Driver_Win7_7065_11212012.zip.

You will notice that the 7.065 driver is really the 7.65 driver once it is installed (at the time of this writing).

 Old Driver

Go to the Advanced Tab and disable everything but Flow Control. 

Remember when working with network card drivers, you will lose connectivity during the installation of drivers.