OS X:Using Web Kit for HTTP, Website Analysis and Network Testing

Safari (or Webkit) has a neat debugging feature built in. It is available in both OS X and Windows versions. When testing performance of websites through application inspection on firewalls or load balancer it can be a useful tool to get visibility. Read more

Using the Wrong Date Formatting and the Global Problem - ISO8601

When working in a global company, a major problem is the way that some countries use the wrong date formatting. Say hello to ISO8601, standard for date formats. Read more

IP Addressing for HA Links for ASA/FWSM/ACE Etc- Poll

What IP addressing do you use for the sync / failover / HA links between your highly available devices ? Read more

How to Make a Network Cable - wikiHow

Found this guide, which is well done. Everyone who works in networking should make a cable at least once to understand. It builds tolerance of the cabling guys.

How to Make a Network Cable - wikiHow

Cisco Security Manager - Shortcut to Restarting Services

If you work with CiscoWorks, you often need to restart services for changes to take effect. This tip shows how to chain the stop and the start together on Microsoft Windows. Read more

CSM, IDSM, ADSM Performance Problems or Memory Errors ? Increase Java Memory.

I have been getting out of memory errors in Java when running CSM and ASDM clients on MS Windows platforms. Here are some tips for improving Java performance, and letting you run more than one Java program / applet at the same time. Read more

Network Tools, Craftsmen and Why My Mac Is a Good Hammer

My brother is intensely interested in tools, especially handtools for woodworking. He likes to go to markets and buy old tools, it seems a strange type of hobby so I finally asked him why ?

It turns out that many of these hammers, chisels, and planes were actually HANDMADE by those tradesmen from 50 or more years ago, often when they are apprentices. And many hammers and chisels were customised by that person to fit their exact way of working, short handles, long heads, cutting blades at odd angles.

It strikes me I am part of time honoured tradition by making my own tools. My laptop is my own hand made hammer and chisel set, and I choose MAC as the raw material.

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Custom Sizing Your MMC RDP Console

Following on from yesterdays post I was looking at some of the options and realised that you actually set the size of you RDP console.Since I use a Mac Book Pro with a wide screen the standard resolution are not very helpful, and I like to have fixed size windows, changing them to use the available width is a good thing™
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Multiple RDP Consoles - Who Knew ?

I have been working with Windows folks for a long time, and I have not seen this tool used before. As a networking guy maybe I missed it.

I often deploy a number of Windows servers to monitor and manage networks (typically with open source and Ciscoworks). I recently discovered the MMC Snap-in for Remote Desktops which makes my life simpler by letting you switch between many consoles at once on a Windows desktop. This is a quick overview on how to configure this for yourself.

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Flush DNS Cache on MAC OS X

Mac OS X - Clearing or flushing the DNS Cache

Once you go to a Web site, or do any DNS lookup, the IP gets cached for quite a while. This becomes a royal pain if you’re a systems administrator who is in the middle of migrating domains from one server to another. Executing the following clears the cache, restarts the caching daemon, and fetches fresh DNS records. And there was much rejoicing…

For Leopard


sudo dscacheutil -flushcache


For Tiger

lookupd -flushcache

(On Windows you do ipconfig /flushdns)