ProCurve networking from the inside with Dobias van Ingen

» MPLS per User?

These days everybody is thinking about Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) as the core networking technology for their enterprise local area network (LAN). Reason why organizations are thinking about MPLS is segmentation of groups of users, business units etc. My opinion about MPLS is that it’s difficult and very expensive protocol to manage. Within an enterprise LAN administration must be simple to reduce operation costs. A protocol like MPLS is complex to manage and troubleshoot. Another disadvantage is the price for the MPLS equipment. If segmentation is the requirement for these organizations HP ProCurve has the optimal solution ‘MPLS per user’.

Hewlett Packard, HP, ProCurve, Network, Networking, Tools, Tips, MPLS, Identity management, Architecture

» Playing with STP Protection

Most of you will know that the spanning tree protocol is a layer2 protocol which was never designed with maximum security in mind. Over the years, this has resulted in various security configuration options to make sure the end-user edge ports can only perform edge-roles/functions and can't control the entire STP topology anymore.

To facilitate the test process, this small script (written by Peter Debruyne) can help you to demonstrate the advantage of the bpdu-protection and root-guard features.

Hewlett Packard, HP, ProCurve, Network, Networking, Tools, Tips, Spanning Tree, BPDU Protection, Root Guard, STP, Test, Script

» Microsoft Windows 2008 Network Policy Server

The days for network engineers are changing. Five years ago networking was only focusing on switches and routers. These days a lot of software applications make use or have a big impact on networking infrastructure. Therefore I think it’s important to stay up to date with these technologies. Everybody in this industry knows that Microsoft is soon launching it’s new Windows 2008 server platform. Part of the Windows 2008 server is the Network Policy Server. Network Policy Server will replace the current Internet Authentication Server(IAS). From a networking perspective we use the IAS server for e.g. to authenticate PC’s that are using 802.1x. Within the new Windows 2008 Server platform we have to configure this on the Network Policy Server.

Hewlett Packard  HP ProCurve Network Networking Microsoft Windows Network Access Protection Network Policy Server Windows 2008 Server 

» The beginning of a new ProCurve community.

Welcome to the first blog lines in the ProCurve Networking blog.

It is important to start out with the intended purpose of this blog: