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Microsoft Cancels Plans to Move Its Internal Wireless Network to IPv6-Only

Microsoft has digressed from a previously announced plan to move its internal wireless guest network to IPv6-only. more

Thoughts on the Open Internet - Part 2: The Where and How of “Internet Fragmentation”

In defining what is meant by "Internet Fragmentation" it is useful to briefly describe what is meant by its opposite, an "Open and Coherent Internet". As we've explored in the previous section, "coherence" implies that each of the elements of the Internet are orchestrated to work together to produce a seamless Internet which does not expose the boundaries between discrete elements. more

Large-Scale Study by Security Researchers in China Sheds Light on the Scope of DNS Interception

During the 27th Usenix Security Symposium held in Baltimore, MD last week, a group of researchers from China revealed results obtained from a large-scale analysis DNS interceptions. more

IP Address Blocking

A network can fence its own IP addresses or block specific external ones from access. Administrators frequently block access to their own IP addresses to bar unwanted access to content. Individual IPs or blocks of IPs may also be blocked due to unwanted or malicious behavior. IP address blocking prevents a specific IP address or group of IP addresses from connecting with a server, computer, or application. more

The IETF’s Job Is Complete - Should It Now Scale Up, Down or Out?

My assertion is that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an institution whose remit is coming to a natural end. This is the result of spectacular success, not failure. However, continuing along the present path risks turning that success into a serious act of wrongdoing. This will leave a social and political legacy that will tarnish the collaborative technical achievements that have been accumulated thus far. more

Enterprise Networks Are Being Impacted by Unwanted and Unidentified Cryptomining Activity

Researchers at security service provider, Zscaler, are reporting that in the past six months they have blocked over 2.5 billion web-based cryptomining attempts within their cloud service. more

Analysis of 7.5 Trillion DNS Queries Reveals Public Resolvers Dominate the Internet

A recent report by NS1 provides a comprehensive look at global DNS traffic trends. It reveals that public resolvers dominate the internet, accounting for nearly 60% of recursive DNS usage. Telecom giants represent nearly 9%, with Google the clear front-runner at a little over 30%, followed by Amazon Web Services at 16%. more

Notes from NANOG 69

NANOG 69 was held in Washington DC in early February. Here are my notes from the meeting. It would not be Washington without a keynote opening talk about the broader political landscape, and NANOG certainly ticked this box with a talk on international politics and cyberspace. I did learn a new term, "kinetic warfare," though I'm not sure if I will ever have an opportunity to use it again! more

Cable & Wireless US$3B Deal to Acquire Columbus Exposes Vulnerabilities in Caribbean Telecom Sector

When Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) announced an agreement to acquire Columbus International, news of the deal sparked widespread concerns about the impact of reduced competition on consumer pricing, infrastructure investment and wider economic development in the Caribbean. If approved, the deal will make CWC the Caribbean's largest wholesale and retail broadband service provider. At the same time, it will return several Caribbean territories into monopoly or near-monopoly markets... more

North American Broadband Trends

The broadband sector, like the wireless sector, is one of the strongest growth areas of telecommunications. Unlike most OECD countries, where DSL tends to dominate, the majority of subscribers in the US fixed broadband market are cable subscribers. During 2010 the gap continued to widen as the cable companies accounted for 70% of new broadband subscribers compared to the telcos' 30%. Although new broadband networks such as FttH and WiMAX are being widely deployed, broadband competition in each region is still generally limited to one DSL and one cable operator. more

Our New Infrastructure

Today, there is demand for more broadband as people realize the importance of being connected to the Internet, whether to access websites, stream entertainment, attend school, attend family events, work remotely, and so much more. This demand has been driven by the success of today's Internet. It is now time to recognize the Internet as infrastructure. The Internet's best-effort approach has allowed us to share the abundant capacity latent in the existing facilities by converting all traffic into packets. more

DNS-Based DDoS: Diverse Options for Attackers

Denial of service attacks have been around since the Internet was commercialized and some of the largest attacks ever launched relied on DNS, making headlines. But every day a barrage of smaller DNS-based attacks take down targets and severely stress the DNS ecosystem. Although DNS servers are not usually the target of attacks they are often disrupted so attention from operation teams is required. There is no indication the problem is going away and attackers continue to innovate. more

IPv6: The Summer It Finally Happened

A decade old guessing game finally came to an end during these 2012 summer months. America was supposed to be hopelessly behind while Europe had not much to show after a decade of spending lavishly EU money on IPv6 related projects. China and Japan were thought to be light years ahead of everybody else. But in the end, it was the might of the American Content Industry that tipped the scales. more

Fine Grained Mail Filtering With IPv6

One of the hottest topics in the email biz these days (insofar as any topic is hot) is how we will deal with mail on IPv6 networks. On existing IPv4 networks, one of the most effective anti-spam techniques is DNSBLs, blackists (or blocklists) that list IP addresses that send only or mostly spam, or whose owners have stated that they shouldn't be sending mail at all. DNSBLs are among the cheapest of anti-spam techniques since they can be applied to incoming mail connections without having to receive or filter spam. more

Internet Hall of Fame Inductees Gather at GNTC to Discuss New Generation of Internet Infrastructure

Confronted with the rapid development of the Internet, the traditional network is facing severe challenges. Therefore, it is imperative to accelerate the construction of global network infrastructure and build a new generation of Internet infrastructure to adapt to the Internet of Everything and the intelligent society. From November 28 to 30, 2017, "GNTC 2017 Global Network Technology Conference" organized by BII Group and CFIEC, will see a grand opening in Beijing. more