Blog

Wesley David discusses data deduplication and why all system admins should consider utilizing it. Duplicate data can lead to system inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in your system’s storage arrays. In this introductory post, Wesley covers what deduplication actually is, the different types of deduplication and helps you decide what would be the best option for you.

In today’s post, Michael Simmons talks about one of our least favorite Windows screens: The Blue Screen of Death. In part 1 (of 2), Simmons covers why these errors generally happen, what they tell us (specifically, the crash dump that they produce) and how you can begin to troubleshoot the hardware or software that is crashing the system.

If you’re in a position where you are responsible for managing or supporting several laptops, it’s likely that one task you have is ensuring their power settings are properly configured. Having to do this on multiple machines can be time consuming though. In this post, Jeff Hicks demonstrates the use of POWERCONFIG.EXE, a command line that comes with Windows 7 and streamlines the process.

A system can only run efficiently if it’s set up properly. In this post, Sean Wilkins discusses Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) neighborship issues and how to troubleshoot and solve these problems.

In this video post, Joe Rinehart of TrainSignal explores Border Gateway Protocol Troubleshooting techniques to four of the more common issues that can arise on your BGP. Joe covers neighbor relationship problems, route advertisement issues, routes missing from the table, and address summarization problems. A great post for anyone that is going to take the Cisco CCNP Route exam.

One of Windows simplest time-saving features, the “right-click” context menu, enables you to perform an array of tasks in the context of whatever Windows object you are working with. In this article, we show you how to add “Open PowerShell” to this context menu, enabling you to open PowerShell in the context of whatever folder or object you are working with.

Most IT pros are routinely managing computers remotely and for such tasks there are several tools, such as PowerShell. Sometimes these tools are a little more than we need to perform some of the simpler tasks. In this post, Jeff Hicks goes over some common tasks that are most efficiently carried out using CMD.EXE.

The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol is probably the most frequently utilized interior networking protocol and it’s because it works so well, but only when it’s working! In this post, Sean Wilkins covers 5 common OSPF neighborship issues and explains methods for troubleshooting and solving these issues.

In this video post, Jeff Hicks returns with 5 more PowerShell tasks to perform in Windows Server 2008, rounding out the top 10. In part 2, Jeff covers getting recent event log errors, resetting ACL’s, finding server uptime, getting service pack information and deleting old and unused files.

In this post we solve the minor but perhaps frustrating issue of having user accounts on the logon screen that are no longer needed or used. Deleting user accounts entirely may sometimes be overkill (what if the account is needed down the road). The better option is to simply remove the user account from the logon screen.

In this post we briefly discuss Cisco’s newest network monitoring software. Flexible NetFlow offers a richer and deeper insight into network traffic including visibility of all Layers from 2 through 7 as well as deep packet inspection.

Manually assigning IP addresses on large networks can be a hassle which is what makes the automation of DHCP wonderful as long as it is running and configured properly. In this post, Sean Wilkins discusses some common DHCP configuration issues and troubleshooting techniques to ensure your DHCP network runs smoothly.