Liberty Systems & Software

Background

I first came across HP's A5500 switches when i started looking at configuring VRRP and distributed trunking to provide routing redundancy for the core of a client's campus network using two ProCurve 5400 switches. I found that i could get a new pair of A5500s for around the same price as the software license upgrade on the 5400s (multicast routing, distributed trunking, and OSPF cost extra), and they came with a much broader range of features.

2011-09-20: Edited to add section about IPv6 options; minor cleanup; references added....

Last week i made some fairly significant changes on a client's production firewall/routing cluster during our maintenance window.  The next morning there were reports of file server drives not connecting correctly and inaccessible web sites.  Because all wireless-to-wired and Internet traffic goes through this cluster, the firewall changes were the obvious culprit.  Looking at the logs it turned out we had run out of space in the connection tracking table:

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I tweeted about the HP LaserJet P2035n a while back, and things have only gotten worse for me since.  To summarise: it has no SSL support for administration, its SNMP response is patchy (see graph below), and it isn't supported by JetAdmin.  This last point was underscored to me yesterday: i realised that the particular printer i've been monitoring is running an older firmware version (from 2008), so i went looking for an updated one.  I found it on HP's web site (eventually - that remains a rant for another day), downloaded it to my Je...

Edit, 2011-05-03: To all those poor souls who have been directed here by Google in their search for best practices on IPv4 and/or IPv6 subnet allocations (or worse, the HP A5500's NAT capabilities), please accept my sincere apologies.  This page is more about asking questions than providing answers....

One of my clients had some very interesting Internet traffic statistics last week.  We came in Thursday morning and found that overnight we had downloaded over 700 GB of data from our ISP (UQ SchoolsNet).

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Within two days of its creation, my wiki guide to hardening ProCurve switches for Internet use is the first non-HP result on the Google results for "procurve hardening".  One wonders how good an idea it is, since no one else must have done it before...  To me, it just proves what a stranglehold Cisco has on the networking market.

I've just been asked to deploy some HP ProCurve 1810G-8 switches (J9449A) into a network environment containing a large number of managed and unmanaged ProCurve switches. This network has an existing ProCurve Manager installation which controls all policies for existing managed ProCurve switches. Whilst on paper the switch looks pretty good, it is not really an appropriate product for medium-sized business networks....I've just been asked to deploy some HP ProCurve 1810G-8 switches (J9449A) into a network environment containing a large number of managed and unmanaged ProCurve switches.

Network world and SANS are reporting a new attack on wireless encryption, specifically, WPA with TKIP. The attack takes 60 seconds, and renders this combination almost as useless as WEP has been for some time. It's time to check your security settings, and if necessary, upgrade or replace your wireless routers.

Whirlpool has just released the results of its 2008 broadband survey. Essential reading for anyone who uses broadband, especially for those considering renewing their contracts.