Contents:
1) Multicast & Drive Imaging Workshop
2) Network Maintenance Sniffing Services
3) NDO Students Surveying Building Networks
4) Networking Basics Class on 6/29 in L532 DCL
5) VPN Evaluation Progress
6) Cisco 4006 Switch Upgrade Recommended
* * *
1. Multicast & Drive Imaging Workshop
A video of the NAS Workshop on Multicast and Drive Imaging
which took place on Friday, May 25, 2001 is now available at:
along with a number of references including the subscription
URL:
for the diski-l Disk Imaging Discussion Listserv that
was created to create a forum for more detailed discussion
of the issues that were addressed in the workshop.
A followup workshop is scheduled for 3:00 to 5:00pm, Friday, July 20, 2001 in 2240 DCL for imaging software users to meet and further discuss problems and solutions.
* * *
2. Network Maintenance Sniffing Services
The CCSO Network Maintenance group is available to assist in troubleshooting applications suspected of having a negative impact on the building or campus networks. Applications such as disk imaging utilities (Ghost, Image Cast) and applications that access other devices can subject your networks to excessive amounts of traffic.
We currently have a significant investment in protocol analyzing equipment including the newest Network Associates Sniffer Pro. This is a portable sniffer that can be taken to almost any site for analysis. We can also analyze trace files sent in by administrators that can be taken from a variety of other analyzers and saved in an .enc or .cap format.
JVSniff is a free mini sniffer for Win32 that can capture packets to .enc
format. Is is available from:
The Ethereal free network protocol analyzer for
Unix and Windows does not save to a compatible format, but may be
enough to solve common problems without Network Maintenance support.
See:
To request assistance please contact the Operations Center at 244-1000 or via email to net-trouble@uiuc.edu.
WildPackets Inc., the makers of EtherPeek, are interested in offering us a site license. Interested parties please contact Jay Geistlinger ghost@uiuc.edu.
* * *
3. NDO Students Surveying Building Networks
Attention Network Administrators:
The Network Design Office has several new student employees who will be accessing virtually all communications closets in all the campus buildings.
They will be updating the NDO's documentation drawings, surveying network hardware for CCSO's new inventory database, providing location and room dimensions to scale for Plant Engineering, placing a tag with switch name and IP address for multi-vlan switches, and mapping cable assignments for the telecommunications database.
It is essential for these students to document and provide this information to the various groups within CCSO that rely on the accuracy of such data.
Since the students must visit virutally every campus building, it would be time consuming and less productive for them to make advanced appointments with network administrators. They have been instructed to provide notification to the network administrator when they know they will be visiting the building.
Your cooperation and assitance is valuable in order to complete these tasks.
---------------
Tammy McMasters, Manager
CCSO Network Design
244-1600
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4. Networking Basics Class on 6/29 in L532 DCL.
The first NAS training session for Summer 2001 will be Networking Basics. The class will be held in room L532 DCL, on Friday, June 29th, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.
* * *
VPN equipment testing has been nearly completed. All major desktop platforms are supported with the software provided. Specifically, we have tested Windows 95/98/NT/2000, Macintosh running OS 8 & 9, Linux and Solaris. There are issues with multiuser systems that make VPN services complicated for a system that is not dedicated to a single user. Beta software for Mac OS X is due out in the near future. Software for PDAs running Palm OS or PocketPC devices is expected to be available from a third party next Fall, and will likely require an additional purchase on top of the CCSO VPN service fees.
The VPN clients should work with a cablemodem, but may not if a NAT device is used with the PC running the VPN software, or if the cable provider has blocked VPN services (as some are doing). Windows MSB style network browsing is supported, but Appletalk routing (Chooser) is not. CCSO is now very close to beginning the procurement process to provide a VPN solution for wireless security and UIUCnet access for UIUC users connecting via third party ISPs.
* * *
6. Recommended Cisco 4006 Switch Upgrade
We are now recommending that campus Cisco 4006 switches be upgraded to software release 5.5(8) due to bugs in the previous releases.
The Cisco release notes are available at:
The problem of greatest concern is the last listed in the resolved caveats in
5.5(7): "...switch ports in the same VLAN may lose connectivity with one
another."
The instructions posted at:
will work for this if you just change 5-5-6 to 5-5-8 in the filenames.
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