Archive for August, 2007

PowerShell + network monitor = powerful netman tool


August 29th, 2007

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Not sure how to subscribe to a RSS feed? Read Subscribing to blogs the easy way. Thanks for visiting!I am surprised that no network monitor manufacturer has jumped onto Windows PowerShell in a major way. Whilst tools like PowerGadgets use the full [...]

What’s Up Rises to Top in Bake-Off


August 28th, 2007

CRN Tech put network management solutions up against one another and gave Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold Premium v11 first-place for its robust features, strong troubleshooting capabilities and comprehensive reports. Engineers were particularly impressed with its feature set, price/performance and integration capabilities, giving it top marks across those three categories. SolarWinds LANSurveyor 10 came second, with AdRem [...]

ANN: August bank holiday opening times


August 24th, 2007

The end of August sees a bank holiday in the UK. We will not be available on Monday, 27th August for one day only! The online shop will be open for business, items will be shipped on Tuesday.
We are open as usual today, and will re-open on Tuesday morning as usual. Enjoy your break…looks like [...]

Tracking live network cables


August 24th, 2007

I’m often asked how to track live network cables. I have a confession: I don’t know how to do it! There, honesty is always the best policy!
More and more companies have systems that are in operation 24/7, that cannot in any circumstances be switched off. Sometimes the data centre cabling is poorly documented. So, how [...]

Packet visualization with Rumint


August 23rd, 2007

One of the tools recommended in Chris Sander’s Practical Packet Analysis book is called Rumint.
Rumint is a free, open source packet visualization tool available for Microsoft Windows (written in Visual Basic.)
Roomint’s author, Greg Conti, has a book to be published by No Starch Press called Security Data Visualization.
One problem I’ve run into with Rumint [...]

Summer holiday roundup


August 22nd, 2007

Summer is nearly over so I thought I’d share our summer holiday destinations with you. Please feel free to leave a comment saying where you went for your summer hols with an appropriate link to Wikipedia or whatever.
Denis managed a couple of weeks in Croatia, including the beautiful town of Dubrovnik.
Annie escaped for a week [...]

Mahalo Firefox integration broken


August 20th, 2007

Hey Mahalo, your Firefox integrated search is broken. Look at the images…Add Mahalo to Firefox integrated search & The Firefox error message
The error message is a bit misleading, because you can manually download the file opensearch_desc.xml.
The fact that the file is present suggests:

The Mahalo open search file is incorrect;
Firefox has a poor error message for [...]

CSV file editor options


August 17th, 2007

I need to create a CSV file using pipe (|) field separators and caret (~) field delimiters to feed some data into our e-commerce system. The format of the file is not under my control.
Excel is of no use whatsoever. Whilst I can use pipe field separators, I can’t use caret field delimiters. Excel [...]

Are operating systems important anymore?


August 15th, 2007

I was thinking about Jim Forbes post, and my reply to it. The more I think about it, the more the Windows vs OSX battle really is getting kinda irrelevant.
It’s just coming up for 11:30 in the morning and I have a confession to make. I have only used two applications so far this morning: [...]

TV retail annoyance


August 14th, 2007

This is a bit of a Godinesque post today…not really a tech thing. If you like thought provoking marketing stuff, you can do a lot worse than visit Seth Godin’s blog. Recommended!
I was browsing the TV selection of my local electrical retailer in York yesterday. All makes and sizes, from dirt cheap all the way [...]