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Week 5

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This week I would like to discuss the hosts file that used to be the directory for the entire internet.   Back when the internet was just a baby, the ‘hosts’ file was a file placed on every computer that was connected to the internet that had a list of IP addresses and friendly names for all other computers also connected to the internet. Every day at 2 AM, this list would be updated with any new computers that had been added. Of course, this system quickly became unsustainable and had to be replaced with a new system which later became known as DNS. Interestingly, this hosts file still exists on all computers today, and still works just as it always had, albeit you (or your system administrator) are now the people in charge of maintaining the list. One use for the hosts file that I have found recently is the Remote Desktop Connection app used within Pro versions of Windows. I’m not sure when the setting became a thing, but on the ‘Advanced’ tab on the connection dialog box is ...
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Week 4

NAT (Network Address Translation) and PAT (Port Address Translation) are two vital technologies we were essentially forced into adopting to overcome the shortcomings of IPv4 addresses. When IPv4 came out, it used a 32-bit system of numbers to represent a unique device id, sort of like a house address which gave us about 4.3 billion addresses to work with. However, when the internet started gaining popularity, everyone and their mother started claiming IP addresses left and right and created an issue where we would quickly be running out of addresses. To combat this, NAT and PAT were developed which allow one IP external Address to be used by several (potentially tens of thousands) internal private devices at once. PAT works in combination with NAT by assigning a port number to any traffic leaving the LAN and keeping note of it. NAT then changes the private internal IP address to the single public address assigned by the ISP and appends the port information from PAT to the IP packet...
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Week 3

Hello again everyone! One of the topics we discussed this week was the many different versions of Ethernet and how they can be transmitted from device to device. I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss my humble fiber ethernet transmission setup. As I mentioned in week 1, I have a small networking setup where I use a 10 gig SFP+ switch from Unifi to provide 10 gig switching for all the computers in the rack. I also recently purchased two fiber SFP+ modules for that switch that I use to send a 10 gig link up to my room to another 2.5G switch that has a 10 gig SFP+ port in it for uplink. Of course that connection is VERY overkill for any of my networking needs, but interestingly, the 10 gig SFP+ module wasn’t that much more expensive than the 1 gig, so I figured I may as well get it and I could use it elsewhere later if I needed. Here you can see the rack in my room with the LC fiber connection from port 5 to the SFP+ tranceiver in the switch.  The other visible MPO co...
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