Posts tagged Connectivity
NAT: the savior and destroyer of the Internet
Jan 3rd
Having helped a customer setup VPNs for private connectivity to several large (ie. Fortune 100) companies lately, I’ve really dreaded seeing how NAT has been abused to the extent that it is making private islands on the Internet and breaking everything from routing to DNS to any future protocol enhancements. More >
ipHouse and World IPv6 day!
Jun 7th
World IPv6 day is June 8th, 2011 and ipHouse is ready!
What is IPv6 you ask? Well, that topic won’t be discussed in this posting as it has been discussed all over the Internet already. You can test your readiness by going to http://test-ipv6.com/ and checking your results.
This post is about what services are running IPv6 dual-stack on the ipHouse network today.
Many of our services have been operating in a dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 configuration since the middle of last year but since most connectivity is still only IPv4, most people would never see nor notice the IPv6 network capabilities we have already built into our network. Our network itself has been IPv4/IPv6 dual stack for what seems like forever with quite a few customers connected with native IPv6 connectivity via DSL, T1, metro-ethernet, and colocation.
Do you hear what I hear?
May 6th
The FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made a statement today that makes me wonder what took them so long.
In 1997 I spent some time lobbying at the Minnesota Legislature and the Minnesota Public Utilities commission about the differences between a data connection and data communications. The differences may seem plainly obvious to those of us in the Internet / Cable / Telephone industries, but for those milling around on the hill, they can’t quite grasp the difference between a carrier pigeon and the message tied to it’s leg. This analogy was too esoteric for those who were approaching dementia so I changed the analogy to a letter carried by a postal service. They seemed to understand that governments should regulate the postal service, but not the contents of the letter. You tell me, which part of that analogy resembles a connection and which resembles information? Pretty obvious, huh?
The Pressure of “New Media.”
Apr 29th
As someone who has been *ahem* ‘asked’ to write on various topics, I can appreciate the pressure that new media puts on companies. Traditional media is predictable; pay money, gain access. Release statements quarterly, crafted with your company’s message. Coordinate your ads with your message and the image you hope to portray. Push out positive messages and suppress negative ones. It certainly takes time and effort, but you can reasonably expect your efforts to pay off.
New media is much more unpredictable, it’s hard to maintain a consistent image without fading into the ether. It’s harder,still to control information, good or bad, that can effect your company. While there is a high amount of passion with the participants of new media, this can lead to a low signal-to-noise ratio. You’re competing with a lot of people out there and if your stuff isn’t interesting, it’ll just be a ripple in the ocean.
Speed Testing Your Connection
Jan 27th
Yesterday Minnesota Public Radio did a story on mapping broadband service in Minnesota. Affordable, high-speed Internet connections are becoming a critical component for educational and economic development throughout Minnesota and the world. Both the Blandin Foundation and the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce are working hard to increase the availability of broadband throughout the state.
Because it isn’t cheap to bring broadband service to rural areas, knowing which areas are most in need is necessary to determine where to best spend limited resources. The Minnesota Commerce Department is working with Connect Minnesota to map Internet connection speeds throughout the state and is promoting the Connect Minnesota Speed Test as a way for consumers to check on the truthfulness of their ISPs. While this is a great goal, there are significant technical problems with the Connect Minnesota Speed Test.
