Derek Talbott Blog

 Hello again!  This week we learned about cloud computing and why it is important in a company. This was a great topic because it is what I am writing my research paper about and it gave me more information that I could use in my paper. Cloud computing is a way of delivering computing services over the Internet. Instead of owning and managing physical servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and other IT resources on your premises, you can access these resources via the cloud. Some cloud computing services include IaaS(Infrastructure as a Service) like AWS and Microsoft Azure, PaaS(Platform as a Service) like Google Engine and Microsoft Azure App Services, and SaaS(Software as a Service) like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Benefits of cloud storage include the flexibility to adjust your resources to meet the changing needs of the company, accessibility of accessing services anywhere you have an internet connection, and the cost of paying for what you use wi...

   Hello again!  Welcome to week 8 of Computer Hardware & Software Management This week we learned about IPv6 and its uses, formatting, prefixes and suffixes, and the differences between IPv6 and IPv4. IPv6 offers so many more unique addresses than IPv4. While IPv4 offers around 4.3 billion addresses, IPv6 offers 360 undecillion addresses. That's a 1 followed by 66 zeros!!! While IPv4 is 32-bit, IPv6 is 128-bits. IPv4 is expressed in decimals 192.168.0.1, separated by dots, and IPv6 is expressed in hexadecimal separated by colons (2001:0db8:3333::5555:6666:7777:8888). IPv4 can be manually or dynamically assigned via DHCP while IPv6 is assigned automatically through stateless or SLAAC. Another big difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is the implementation of IPsec. IPsec is Internet Protocol Security. It secures communications by authenticating and encrypting each packet. It provides a framework for ensuring data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity, transmitt...

 Good Evening, Welcome back to my weekly blog where we talk about what is going on in this weeks course work. One thing that stuck out to me this week was SONET and SDH. Lets dig a little deeper on some similarities and differences between the two.  SONET - Synchronous Digital Hierarchy was standardized by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) defines a hierarchy of interfaces and frame formats for transmitting multiple digital bit steams over optical fiber.  SDH - Synchronous Digital Hierarchy was standardized by the ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector). It is largely compatible with SONET but has some technical differences.  SONET uses Optical Carrier (OC) levels to designate different transmission rates. The basic unit is the Synchronous Transport Signal (STS) which is like the European STM-1 (Synchronous Transport Module Level 1) in SDH. SDH uses Synchronous Transport Module (STM) levels to designate ...

Hello Again! Welcome to week 7 of my weekly blog. This week during class we learned about basic computer troubleshooting and more. One of the sections was about BSOD or Blue Screen of Death. It made me want to talk about this past weekend's huge IT outage with Microsoft and CrowdStrike. What was to be a routine update by a Cyber Security company called CrowdStick that caused many businesses, airports, and law enforcement worldwide, to have a BSOD. Although this wasn't classified as a cyber attack, the update was supposed to keep businesses safe from it. This was also called to be the BIGGEST outage in history. The fix to this was either manually installing the new software update or automatically applying it. While this caused quite a bit of pandemonium throughout the world, things were able to be rectified fairly quickly with only an hour or two of downtime. By the afternoon, a statement went out by the CEO of CrowdStrick stating that he apologized for the outage and that thin...

 Hello again!  Welcome to week 6 of Network Management and Infrastructure!  This week we learned a lot about IPv6 and the uses, formatting, prefixes and suffixes, and the differences between IPv6 and IPv4. IPv6 offers so many more unique addresses than IPv4. While IPv4 offers around 4.3 billion addresses, IPv6 offers 360 undecillion addresses. That's a 1 followed by 66 zeros!!! While IPv4 is 32-bit, IPv6 is 128-bits. IPv4 is expressed in decimals 192.168.0.1, separated by dots, and IPv6 is expressed in hexadecimal separated by colons (2001:0db8:3333::5555:6666:7777:8888). IPv4 can be manually or dynamically assigned via DHCP while IPv6 is assigned automatically through stateless or SLAAC. Another big difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is the implementation of IPsec. IPsec is Internet Protocol Security. It secures communications by authenticating and encrypting each packet. It provides a framework for ensuring data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity, transmitt...

 Hello again!  Welcome to week 6 of my blog. Today I want to talk about optimizing an operating system. Optimizing an operating system improves performance, efficiency, and responsiveness.  Improving speeds and responsiveness through resource management and startup optimization. Resource management involves efficiently managing resources like CPU, RAM, and disk space. This will ensure programs run smoothly without slowing down the entire system Enhancing stability and reliability by keeping the OS and drivers up to date with the latest patches and updates to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities helps improve stability. Troubleshooting helps by identifying and fixing issues like crashes, freezes, or errors that can affect the system's reliability. Improving security by configuring the security settings to protect against malware, viruses, and unauthorized access. UAC settings can be prompted for permission before allowing changes that can affect the system. Storage optimi...

 Welcome again! It is Week 5 and I want to talk about a section of the book that went over AAA, or Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting. These components work together to ensure that only authorized users and devices have access to resources on the network as well as their activities are logged and audited appropriately.  Authentication - verifies that the user or devices attempting to access the network is who or what they say they are. Some Authentication methods are:     Username and Password - just your basic username and password     Multi-factor authentication (MFA) - requires users to provide additional verification factors other than their password. SMS code, biometric scans, or hardware tokens.      Certificates - Digital certificates issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) to authenticate devices or users . Authorization - determines the actions and resources that authenticated users or devices are permitted to ac...

Hello again! Welcome to week 5.  This week I want to talk about installing and upgrading Windows. We will start with Installing. Installation steps: 1. System Requirements Check Before you begin, it's crucial to verify that your hardware meets the minimum requirements for the version of Windows you intend to install. This information is usually found on Microsoft's website. 2. Backup Your Data Installing Windows typically involves formatting your hard drive, which erases all data. Therefore, it's essential to back up your important files to an external drive or the cloud before proceeding. 3. Create Installation Media You'll need a bootable USB drive or DVD containing the Windows installation files. Microsoft provides the Media Creation Tool, which helps you create this installation media easily. 4. Boot from Installation Media Insert your bootable USB drive or DVD into your computer and restart it. You may need to change the boot order in your BIOS settings to prioriti...

Hello,      Welcome to week 4 of Derek's blog. This week we are going to talk about the differences between UDP and TCP. Along with the differences we are going to talk about what each one is and means. Let us begin      TCP is Transmission Control Protocol also known as the connection-based protocol. TCP also means it establishes a reliable and ordered communication stream between two devices. TCP ensures reliable data delivery by guaranteeing packet delivery correctly without errors. If there is an error, TCP will detect it and retransmit until the data is successfully received. It is mainly used for web browsing, FTP, and database access. Some typical port numbers for TCP include Port 20,21 FTP, Port 22 SSH, Port 53 DNS, Port 80 HTTP, and Port 443 HTTPS.      In contrast, UDP or User Diagram Protocol, a connectionless protocol, is designed for fast and efficient communication. UPD does not establish a connection before sending data. The pa...