NetFlow at White Hat Security Day

Posted in NetFlow, NetFlow Analyzer on May 6th, 2010 by mike@plixer.com
netflow-at-white-hat-security-day

I’m in the Rochester NY airport headed back to Boston MA.  I spent the day at the White Hat Security Day conference hosted by Mercury Networks.

What I thought was going to be a small conference ended up being attended by several hundred people.  Read more »

Michael Patterson
Scrutinizer Product Manager
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Interface Names via NetFlow

Posted in NetFlow, NetFlow Analyzer on February 15th, 2010 by mike@plixer.com
interface-names-via-netflow

Just about all NetFlow Analyzers get the interfaces names of the routers and switches using SNMP. Another reason why SNMP vs. NetFlow is really a no contest. Anyway, we can get the names of interfaces using NetFlow via something called NetFlow option templates.

Read more »

Michael Patterson
Scrutinizer Product Manager
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NetFlow: Who are the Bandwidth Hogs?

Posted in NetFlow on December 23rd, 2009 by mike@plixer.com
netflow-who-are-the-bandwidth-hogs

Many NetFlow Reporting applications claim to tell you who the top 10 bandwidth hogs are by displaying the top 10 or so hosts for a time period based on total amount of traffic sent or received.  Yes, this is helpful but it can paint a distorted picture when it comes to network traffic analysis.  What about Flow Volume? Read more »

Michael Patterson
Scrutinizer Product Manager
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Random thoughts about H.P. acquiring 3Com – Gimme the Netstream!

Posted in IT News, NetFlow, sFlow on November 13th, 2009 by nathanh
random-thoughts-about-h-p-acquiring-3com-gimme-the-netstream

Just the other day, Brad Reese from Network World wrote a nice blog reflecting on the recent announcement of H.P. acquiring 3Com.

With a huge announcement like this, naturally there are a lot of reactions and opinions. This kind of move may impact a lot of people and their current network strategies.

But coming from a NetFlow, sFlow and Netstream vendor perspective, I think this could be good news.

Read more »

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Best Practices when enabling Ingress and or Egress NetFlow

Posted in NetFlow, NetFlow Analyzer, Network Traffic Analysis on November 7th, 2009 by mike@plixer.com
best-practices-when-enabling-ingress-and-or-egress-netflow

A user of a NetFlow reporting tool shouldn’t concern him or herself with whether or not the router or switch is exporting ingress, egress or both on a specific interface. Proper design of the NetFlow Analysis program should take this into account for the end user. Many NetFlow Analyzers exaggerate traffic if both ingress and egress is enabled. This can cause duplication of data and ultimately lead to trends that exaggerate the truth! Read more »

Michael Patterson
Scrutinizer Product Manager
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