Surprise! You have IPv6 connectivity!

I bet you didn’t think you had IPv6 connectivity yet (certainly in any University department). After all we’re still working through our plan to light up IPv6 services in the core. Well, news flash: if you’re running Windows 7 in … Continue reading

Posted in Backbone Network, IPv6 | 2 Comments

Relaxing the DNS CNAME rules (a little)

In the University we have a web tool which allows IT Staff to update parts of the DNS covering their own unit. It’s a simple tool which we hope one day to replace, but serves well enough for most cases … Continue reading

Posted in DNS, Productivity | Comments Off on Relaxing the DNS CNAME rules (a little)

Visitor Network Account Management (enhancements update)

Note: this post relates to a private service for University of Oxford IT Support Staff. Some time back I published a list of proposed updates to the Visitor Network account management web tool, and asked for feedback. Based on that … Continue reading

Posted in Services, Wireless | Comments Off on Visitor Network Account Management (enhancements update)

More Visio-fu thanks to Etherealmind guy

My recent post about Visio focussed on navigating around the user interface and knowing the content of its toolbox. If you want some great tips for network diagrams, and actually laying stuff out on the page so it’s clear, check … Continue reading

Posted in Documentation, Productivity | Comments Off on More Visio-fu thanks to Etherealmind guy

Update to our IPv6 Allocation Scheme

After gaining some experience in configuring IPv6 networks, and also receiving feedback from others, I’ve revised our IPv6 Allocation Scheme. This is the document which lays out how we intend to allocate networks to departments and colleges, and other services … Continue reading

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Visio 2007 Tips and Tricks

Recently I decided to up my Visio-fu, and also to settle on a set of standard templates and shapes for my network diagrams. A quick browse around Safari Books Online turned up three Visio tomes, so on a quiet weekend … Continue reading

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Visitor Network account lifetime

Several comments on my recent post about updates to the Visitor Network Account Management tool requested an increase of the maximum account lifetime. Whilst this is more of a policy change than a feature update to the tool, and hence … Continue reading

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Updates to the Visitor Network Account Management Tool

Note: this post relates to a private service for University of Oxford IT Support Staff. It’s been some time since the Visitor Network account management tool, which you use to create network access accounts for visitors to the University, has … Continue reading

Posted in General Maintenance, Services, Wireless | 1 Comment

Logging from iptables

We recently had a problem to troubleshoot on the wireless network, which was quickly resolved through simply having effective logging from iptables. In case you didn’t know, iptables has a LOG target which can direct messages to the local syslog … Continue reading

Posted in Best Practices, Firewall, Wireless | Comments Off on Logging from iptables

Wireless – what could possibly go wrong?!

I love this slide from a Troubleshooting Wireless Networks talk I attended last week. It says a lot about how difficult it is to tackle trouble tickets of the “client can’t connect to network” variety.

Posted in Cisco Networks, Wireless | Comments Off on Wireless – what could possibly go wrong?!