NetEqualizer August Newsletter: New Contest, More Backdoor Adjustments, Skype Controversy
In the August Edition:
1) New Contest - Router/Gateway NetEqualizer?
2) Update on Mac Re-direction in the GUI
3) Backdoor Tools (continued)
4) Front Page! CTO Speaks to Skype Controversy
NEW CONTEST - GATEWAY/ROUTER NETEQUALIZER ??
THANKSGIVING FLY AWAY
APConnections announces the new Gateway/Router NetEqualizer Contest. This is a potential new product for us. You'll help us decide and for your efforts we'll thank you by entering your name in a contest to win a round trip airline ticket to anywhere in the U.S.
The contest deadline is 5pm MST, Friday, November 3, so the winner can go "home" for Thanksgiving.
Simply answer the following questions to be entered to win.:
1. Should we bundle the NetEqualizer with a router/gateway?
2. What types of interfaces should we terminate: T-1, DSL, or other?
3. What are the minimum set of router features necessary, DHCP, NAT, Multihoming?
4. How much time and money would this bundling save your business?
Send your answers to admin@apconnections.net, put "Contest" in the subject line.
Our last contest was a success. NetEqualizer user Mike Zook won the round trip ticket. Congratulations, Mike!
Update on Mac Re-direction in the GUI
We apologize for delays in the final version of this feature. We had a couple of glitches in our beta testing, and are reluctant to release anything that may jeopardize the stability of the product. We expect completion in the next two weeks.
GARTNER IN THE HOUSE
Gartner analysts will be reviewing APConnections in the coming days. Gartner serves 10,000 organizations, including chief information officers and other senior IT executives in corporations and government agencies, as well as technology companies and the investment community. The Company consists of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events.
INSIDER TIPS FOR THE POWER USER Backdoor Tools , Counting Connections
(continued from the July edition)
First, a little background on what we mean when using the term connection.
A connection, in NetEqualizer terms, is any user on your network communicating with a site off your network. So, if for example, a user had a chat session going, and also was running a streaming audio, they would have at least two distinct connections.
A connection is only considered a connection by the NetEqualizer if it detects activity within ten seconds. Note, that this is different from what some routers track and report. Often times their standard is no activity for up to a minute or more. But for bandwidth control purposes, anything that has not sent a packet in ten seconds is considered no longer active in our model.
Many of our installations use the Global Connection Limit feature to prevent worms and keep peer-to-peer traffic in check. Peer-to-Peer products such as Kazaa, E-mule, Bittorrent, etc., have a unique characteristic of opening up 100's or perhaps 1000's of connections in order to download one simple file. The reason for all the connections is to improve speed for the peer-to-peer user. Often times a popular file has 100 sources with each source only providing a very slow download speed, so the more connections, the faster the information is transferred.
The latest generation of peer-to-peer clients seeks out as many sources as possible and downloads different sections of the desired file at one time. The overall effect is reduced time to download the file. The down side of this activity is that these 100's of connections take a huge toll on wireless Access Points and routers in terms of overhead, not to mention the bandwidth utilization. So our global connection limiting feature has become an essential part of our NetEqualizer solution.
We often get asked if we can count the connections for a particular user. We have not put a menu feature in the GUI for this yet, but we do have utility (Perl script) that can be run from the shell or GUI from all of our systems. Below are the instructions for the connection counting utility.
From the command line you run the following script:
/art/count
- or if you prefer to kick it off from the GUI:
under Misc->Run Linux Command
Type in:
/art/count
And the results will appear on the screen. Each IP address will show as output along with how many times it appears in the connection table.
So, for example, a connection table with the following IP entries
would show the IP address 3.3.3.3 with a count of "2" in the first column and no entry for it in the second column
The distinction between the columns is arbitrary. One corresponds to IN traffic and the other OUT traffic, however, the definition changes if you switch your input and output cables.
Good luck. Send us any questions and we'll post the answers in the next newsletter.
FRONT PAGE ! CTO TAPPED FOR ANALYSIS OF SKYPE BLOCKING
There was more controversy on the Skype blocking question and our CTO jumped into the fray. His article was featured on the front of PC Magazine, as well as picked up by other news services.
The article is called "Analysis: Reverse-Engineering Skype Is Doubtful". It discusses the rumor that a Chinese company recently cracked the Skype encryption codes and will be introducing a product. Art takes a position and walks the reader through his reasoning.
We are proud of our new sponsorship for the on-line Magazine www.networkoptimizationnews.com Please check out their site when you get a chance. It is chock full of interesting content and industry briefs.
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For information about APconnections' family of products and software updates - visit our website at: www.netequalizer.com or contact our support staff at: support@APconnections.net
