NetEqualizer News: December 2015

December 19, 2015 — netequalizer

December 2015

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we update you on our 8.4 Release, talk about what our college customers are saying, feature Part 2 of our articles on RTR best practices, and ask once more for your ideas for the 2016 Roadmap. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

With the holiday season in full swing, I want to pause for a moment from my hectic schedule to thank you, our valued customers, for your loyalty in 2015. THANK YOU!thank_you

We here at APconnections truly appreciate your business. Thank you for helping us grow since 2003! I am lucky that I love what I do, and I really enjoy working with as many of you as I can. If you have any feedback, ideas, or questions for me, please reach out to me at art@apconnections.net. I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter!

twitterAnd remember we are now on Twitter! You can now follow us @NetEqualizer.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

8.4 Release Update
User Interface Enhancements

We have exciting news to share regarding our next software update – Release 8.4. Throughout 2015, we made big changes to our Real-Time Reporting (RTR) and implemented tons of useful features. In 2016, we’ll be focusing our efforts on the rest of the NetEqualizer User Interface. Here are just a few of the things you can expect:

1) Better Configuration Management
We’ve listened to your feedback and are adding in the ability to edit traffic limits and other rules without removing them, control the units (Bps, Kbps, Mbps, etc.) displayed throughout the NetEqualizer interfaces, and manage the configuration all in one place – just to name a few!

2) Secure Logout and HTTPS by default
These popular feature requests will now be standard on all units running the 8.4 Release. Users will now be able to log out from the user interface securely and all data will be sent over HTTPS to and from the NetEqualizer.

3) Manage Time and Date from the GUI
With the 8.4 Release, you’ll be able to manage all time and date features of the NetEqualizer from the user interface instead of the command line.

4) Named Pools
This is one of the most requested items and it will be a reality in the 8.4 Release. With this release, you will be able to name your Pools however you see fit.

Our time frame for General Acceptance of this release is March or April of 2016.

As with all software releases, the 8.4 Release will be free to all customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support (NSS).

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What Our College Customers Are Saying…

Last month, we featured Morrisville State College in New York, our newest Case Study. Since then, we have heard from several more colleges who wanted to offer their feedback.

Please contact us if you would like your quote added to our testimonials page, even if you are not in the higher education space! We love hearing from all our customers about how we’ve helped them control congestion on their networks.

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You can view all of the College & University Testimonials on our website. Here are our two most recent:

usna

United States Naval Academy

IT Administration – United States Naval Academy
“Faced with mounting costs of upgrades for maintenance on our existing bandwidth shaper, in 2014 we did a little research and decided to try the NetEqualizer. We are currently running 1 gigabit for the entire campus, including students and faculty. Our bandwidth utilization is maxed out for most of the day and into the evening. Without a solid bandwidth shaper in place, operations would come to crawl.

Since deploying the NetEqualizer in the Spring of 2015 we have pretty much forgotten about it (in a good way). The NetEqualizer allows us to run at full capacity without the hassles of making adjustments on a daily basis.

One of the best investments we have ever made.”

delaware_valley_univ

Delaware Valley University

Michael Davis – Executive Director of Technology Services
“Delaware Valley University shifted from a packet shaping tool to a NetEqualizer over a year ago, and it is one of the best infrastructure decisions we have made.

The NetEqualizer has allowed us to provide better service to our students without increasing bandwidth, and we hear fewer complaints than ever about bandwidth.

We are planning our next bandwidth increase, and the NetEqualizer is going to make this better than usual. Factoring in student satisfaction with the amount of time that we no longer have to spend tuning a packet shaping device has made us very happy customers.

The support and sales teams at NetEqualizer are also fantastic.”

How Can RTR Help You?
Check Out RTR Best Practices (Part 2)

RTR is great as a simple reporting tool, but it can also be much more! Below we share some helpful ways to utilize the different reports in RTR to better configure your NetEqualizer and understand your network. This is Part 2 of a two-part series – read about Part 1 last month!

1) Figure out who has used the most data over time
Usually on the NetEqualizer, we are talking about usage rates like Mbps, Kbps, etc. But, sometimes you might want to know who has downloaded or uploaded the most data over time (in MB, GB, etc.). Use Traffic History -> Top Talkers to find out!

toptalkers

2) Use the Start/Stop RTR page to view system status messages
The NetEqualizer has processes in place that will rotate old data and keep you from running out of memory. However, you can check to make sure things look good and RTR is running smoothly on the Start/Stop RTR page.

memory

3) Use the General Penalty Reports page to correlate data to the General Traffic History page
In last month’s newsletter, we showed a perfect example of what we’d expect a network to look like. Check out the graphs for Morrisville State College in their Case Study.

We always want to ensure that some Equalizing is occurring during busy times. If you don’t see many penalties during busy times, your HOGMIN value may be set too high.

Consult the User Guide for appropriate HOGMIN values for your network.

GeneralTrafficHistory-2

GeneralPenalty-1

If you are current on NetEqualizer Software and Support (NSS), and have a question about RTR or would like a walk through, click the button below!

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It Is Not Too Late… To Give Input Into The 2016 Roadmap

For those of you that have already responded, THANK YOU. Rest assured that we have collected your feedback and added it to our Feature Request List for 2016.

If you have not yet responded, there is still time to influence our fall/winter 2016 release.

If you have a great idea for us, please let us know!

No idea is too “out there” – we want to solve your crunchiest, toughest networking issues.

Email us your idea.

Best Of The Blog

Regulate DDoS Like Pollution

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

I just read another article on DDOS attacks and how companies are being extorted. As usual I am thinking way out of the box again.

Background on the mechanics of DDOS attack

The raw tools of a DDOS attacker are made possible by the billions of computing devices sitting around the world attached to the Internet. A DDOS attacker probes constantly for computers to hack, and then once they have access to several hundred or more in their control, they can point them to any business, sending a storm of data requests jamming Internet links from the outside. Think of a million people trying to cram into the door of your apartment all at once, you would be trapped inside…
Photo Of The Month
building
Where was this picture taken?
Tell us and you could win a $25 gift card! 

This picture was taken by a staff member during a recent customer site visit in the United States. The first four (4) people to email sales@apconnections.net with the name of this building will win a $25 gift card!

The answer for last month is: United States Naval Academy Chapel
Posted in Newsletters. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »

NetEqualizer News: November 2015

November 12, 2015 — netequalizer

November 2015

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we officially release the NE5000, help you out with RTR best practices, feature a live customer NetEqualizer installation and Case Study, and ask for your assistance in our 2016 planning. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

We are awaiting our first snow here in Colorado, with our first really cold night killing off the last of the garden this past week (22F/-5C). While the garden goes to sleep, we are laying plans for next year, both in the garden and with the NetEqualizer!art

There is still time to give us feedback for 2016. If you would like to contribute to the 2016 NetEqualizer Roadmap, we welcome your ideas. Call or email us with your suggestions. And, for those of you that have already responded, THANK YOU!

This month make it official – our NE5000 powerhouse solution is ready for primetime! If you are thinking of taking your NetEqualizer solution to the next level, read more below.

twitterAnd remember we are now on Twitter! You can now follow us @NetEqualizer.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know.

Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

NE5000: Official Release

We often get quizzical looks from customers when they see our price performance numbers. Now pushing 10 Gbps line speeds and the ability to shape 60,000 users, we have heard rumblings that some analysts don’t believe our product can perform at this price point. We just ignore them, as they are mostly in the pocket of our competitors anyway.

With a list price of $22,000 USD, our new NE5000 brings bandwidth control pricing back to Earth.

How do we do it?NE5000_data_sheet

Really, it’s just old-fashioned hard work! At the core of our NetEqualizer technology lies a team of computer scientists that spend their days optimizing the algorithms and techniques to ensure high reliability and performance.

We also go against the conventional wisdom of packet classification – that is our other advantage. Packet Classification is on the way out, and there is no ignoring it any longer.

If you have not had a chance to work with us before, we encourage you to check out our new high-end model and set up a WebEx with our technical team for a demo. Click the button below to contact us!

Here is a link to our NE5000 data sheet to get you started:

The NE5000 Data Sheet

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Real World RTR: Live at Morrisville State CollegeMorrisville Logo #3

When developing RTR and other NetEqualizer features, we are often using simulated data – real system testing occurs near the end of the cycle. During a recent Technical Refresh session with Rob Gaudreau of Morrisville State College, however, we got to see some exciting results from a live NetEqualizer that we wanted to share.

The first interesting graph is their General Traffic History:

GeneralTrafficHistory-1

This is a graph of bandwidth usage for the previous week. It’s great to see how predictable the traffic patterns are, and how useful RTR can be in seeing what occurred historically and how you can use that data to plan for the future.

The second interesting graph is their General Penalty History:

GeneralPenalty-1

This is a graph of the number of penalties that were occurring over the previous week – the same time period used to generate the General Traffic History graph. Notice how the penalty count directly correlates with the busy times.

Those penalties are the NetEqualizer hard at work, shaping the largest connections during congested hours of the day, and letting traffic through untouched during less busy times – all without IT administrator intervention.morrisville_case_study

Morrisville State College – Case Study
We enjoyed talking to Rob so much and hearing about his experience with NetEqualizer, that we decided to turn it into a full case study so that others could hear their story. Check it out, here:

Morrisville State College Case Study

Schedule your Technical Refresh Today!
Our Technical Refreshes have been a huge success! These walkthroughs have proven valuable to both new and experienced customers. We are always enhancing our technology and interfaces, so it’s easy to get to the point where features are new and unfamiliar.

If you are current on NetEqualizer Software and Support (NSS), and you are interested in a 30-minute WebEx to see the newest interfaces and learn more about RTR, click the link below!

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How Can RTR Help You? Check Out RTR Best Practices (Part 1)

RTR is great as a simple reporting tool, but it can also be much more! Below we share some helpful ways to utilize the different reports in RTR to better configure your NetEqualizer and understand your network. This is Part 1 of a two-part series – look for Part 2 next month!

1) Set up Traffic History IPs for Graphing
Use Traffic History->Manage Tracked IPs to add your internal IPs (or any other IP you care about) to the tracking system. The first step in getting the most out of RTR is telling it which IP addresses you want to track.

managetrackedips

2) Figure out your Top Users by Monitoring Real-Time Connections
Use Active Connections->View Active Connections and sort by the Wavg column to see your top bandwidth users. Use the C and DNS options below the external IP address to learn more about the connected host (C for Country Code and DNS for NS Lookup). Use the AR and T options below the internal IPs to view rules associated with the IP (AR) and its historical bandwidth usage (T).

unnamed (1)

3) See if P2P is an Issue on your Network
Use Active Connections->View Connection Counts to see the IP addresses of users with lots of concurrent connections.

This data can help you determine any P2P users on your network and can also help you establish a baseline for implementing system-wide connection count limits.

Look for outliers and then set a limit such that almost all of your users fall below it with normal network usage. You can also copy the IP of the user with the most connections, filter the Active Connections table for that user, and then view all the different external IP addresses they are connected to.

unnamed (2)

4) See What your Bandwidth Pools are Doing Right Now
Use the RTR Dashboard to view real-time pool data. Remember, all traffic falls under “Pool 0,” so even if you don’t use pools in your network, you can use this horizontal bar graph to see when your network is Equalizing (when it passes the red line).

realtimepool

If you are current on NetEqualizer Software and Support (NSS), and have a question about RTR or would like a walk through, click the button below!

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Help Us Set The 2016 NetEqualizer Roadmap

We have finalized our Winter Release (8.4), but there is still time to influence our 2016 Roadmap. We will start planning our Fall Release soon, and we would love to add your ideas to the release.

If you have a great idea for us, please let us know!

No idea is too “out there” – we want to solve your crunchiest, toughest networking issues. Click on the button below to email us your idea.

If you have already responded, rest assured that we have collected your feedback and added it to our Feature Request List.

Best Of The Blog

A Cure for Electronic Theft?

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

What if we created a new electronic currency, a-la Bitcoin, with a twist. Let’s start by taking an idea from the Federal Government, and put a watermark on our personal funds – something unique that signifies who legally possesses the currency. Cattle ranchers do this with a brand so nobody steals their cattle. This has worked pretty well for a few hundred years, right?

With our new personal watermark, suppose somebody breaks into our bank, and wires all your money to some idiot in Russia. In today’s world, the only way to find that money is to follow the trail, and that takes a huge effort from a banking forensics person, working with International governments. The money may travel so fast it may not be possible to recover. Now, suppose the funds had an electronic tag that could not be altered by a criminal. For example currency in your possession has a public private encryption key, and only you can authorize a change in possession…
Photo Of The Month
picture
Where was this picture taken?
Tell us and you could win a $25 gift card.
This picture was taken by a staff member during a recent college customer site visit at a cathedral. The first four people to email sales@apconnections.net with the name of the college where this cathedral is located get a $25 gift card!
Posted in Newsletters. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »

NetEqualizer News: June 2015

June 9, 2015 — netequalizer

June 2015

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we announce the 8.3 Release – Expanded RTR, introduce our End of Spring Sale, update you on our DDoS monitoring and prevention technology, and preview our upcoming seminars and conferences. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

Spring has been interesting in Colorado this year – artif you like to set records for the most rain in 20 years, that is! Luckily, one of my favorite TV channels is The Weather Channel, so I have been enjoying all the storms… With spring coming to an end soon, I look forward to warmer summer weather.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

8.3 Release is G/A

We are very excited to announce that our 8.3 Release – Expanded RTR is now generally available!

The beta tests for the 8.3 Release have gone very well, and we are ready to release the new reporting features to everyone! Here is a comment from one of our beta customers:

“One of the things that really got my attention on the new 8.3 Release was the ability to see, in real-time, the traffic on all my subnets on one screen. I simply created a pool for all the subnets in my network, and I can instantly see the saturation in the dynamic bar charts that update once a second. I know instantly which segments are saturated by glancing at my monitor screen.”

This release expands our current reporting features to include even more useful information, graphs, and tables. Here are just a few of the new additions you’ll find in the 8.3 Release:

1) Top Talkers Report – this has been one of the most requested graphs and was a popular feature of our previous reporting tool, ntop. You can use this feature to see which IP addresses have used the most bandwidth over time.

toptalkers

2) General Penalty Report – we are bringing this one back from the first version of RTR! You can see both IPs that are currently being penalized, as well as a historical count of penalties that have occurred over time.

penalties

3) Connection Count Report – NetEqualizer controls P2P traffic by using connection count limits on IP addresses. However, figuring out what limit to set for your network depends on how it’s used. You can use the new Connection Count Report to see how many connections individual IP addresses have, and thus set your connection limit to the appropriate level.

connectioncounts

You can read more about all of the features of the 8.3 Release here in the 8.3 Software Update. If you would like to upgrade to 8.3, just click on the button below to send a request to Support.

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These features are free to all customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

Spring for a Lease in our End of Spring Sale

Our Leasing Program continues to be a popular choice for customers that want to use a NetEqualizer with no long-term leasecommitment, and also want to spread out their costs over each month instead of incurring one upfront expense. If you have ever considered leasing a NetEqualizer, now is the time!

To celebrate two years of the NetEqualizer Leasing Program, all new NetEqualizer Leases started before August 31st, 2015 will get 50% off the 1st month fee.

This offer is subject to availability, and customers must qualify to participate in our Leasing Program.

We also are excited to announce that we have added fiber connectivity to our leasing program, in both the 1Gbps and 10Gbps levels. And, to provide more flexibility in financing for our larger customers, we are now offering an Enterprise-Level Lease, for customers with more than 10,000 end users.

If you are interested in learning more, you can read the details of our Leasing Program here, or contact us below.

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DDoS Update

The 8.3 Release also includes our recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Monitor at no extra charge! In addition, our new DDoS Firewall tool (DFW) can be purchased as an add-on module for an additional fee.

Here are some tips from our security experts for how to handle DDoS attacks, or stop them in the first place:
• Lock out unexpected geographies – Most businesses do not need global availability for their websites.
• If an attack occurs, look for fraud – Sometimes DDoS attacks can be smokescreens for other breaches.
• Route traffic through a system like CloudFlare – Their vast network can help thwart bandwidth overloads.
• Have a plan – Build DDoS into your Disaster Recovery Plan, and know who to call when an attack occurs.

The NetEqualizer can help you have a plan.

The new DDoS Monitor, which comes standard, shows you some basic metrics on the outside intrusion hit rate into your network. It can be used to spot anomalies which would indicate a likely DDoS attack in progress.

See our detailed blog article on the subject for how this technology works. Here is a screenshot of the DDoS Monitor dashboard:

ddos

If you decide you need something more proactive to mitigate a DDoS attack, we have a solution for you! For a one time charge of $3,500, which includes one hour of training and consulting, we install our DDoS Firewall (DFW) feature, which can be configured to block standard DDoS attacks.

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NetEqualizer Tech Seminars and Conferences

Our CTO, Art Reisman, will be on-site at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania during edACCESS Vendor Day, June 24th.edaccess

If you have ever been curious about the NetEqualizer, and want to learn more, stop by to talk to Art. We also look forward to visiting with customers as well, so please come by and say hello. You might even get some free NetEqualizer bling from Art!

If you cannot attend the edACCESS conference, but are in the area of South Central Pennsylvania, and would like to meet with Art, email him at:

art@apconnections.net

Art will be in the area for a few days after the conference as well.

How do you tell if edACCESS is right for you? Their mission is to provide support and networking for information technology staff at secondary schools and small colleges. Most edACCESS members come from schools with an FTE of under 1,000 students. So, if that sounds like you, consider attending the 2015 edACCESS Conference.

If you have never been to an edACCESS Conference, you might not know that they are purposely run small (100 attendees maximum) and that they use the peer conference mode.

Here is what they say on the edACCESS website:

“Each edACCESS conference is small, responsive, and participant-driven. Small, because edACCESS conferences are limited to one hundred attendees. Responsive, because half the conference is spent discussing topics chosen by attendees through a careful first-day process. Participant-driven, because we believe that, collectively, we are the experts.”

We hope to see you there!

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Best Of The Blog

The Facts and Myths of Network Latency

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

There are many good references that explain how some applications such as VoIP are sensitive to network latency, but there is also some confusion as to what latency actually is as well as perhaps some misinformation about the causes.

In the article below, we’ll separate the facts from the myths and also provide some practical analogies to help paint a clear picture of latency and what may be behind it…
Photo Of The Month
IMG_0997
Brighton Beach, UK
This picture was taken by one of our staff on Brighton Beach, UK during our recent Tech Seminar. Brighton Beach features Brighton Pier, which is a pleasure pier that opened in 1899. Here, the ride operators are shown taking a break from work.
Posted in Newsletters. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

NetEqualizer News: April 2015

April 8, 2015 — netequalizer

April 2015

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we update you on our upcoming NetEqualizer Tech Seminars and conferences, ask for your input on what are your most pressing IT problems, and preview more exciting features for our Spring Release (8.3). As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

Early April is the time of year in North America when some of the early arriving bird migrants start their journey north. artI saw a couple of common Grackles and an Eastern Phoebe this last week, as well as an Osprey – just to name a few. Spring is also the time of year when I get out on the road and start visiting customers. London and Pennsylvania are on the docket, with more to come.
art photo for NL

I really enjoy meeting with customers around the world and hearing their experiences. It’s how some of our best products and features have come to light. Whether it’s a small change to the NetEqualizer interface, or a problem that needs solving, we thrive off of these conversations. Read more about opportunities to meet with me and share your thoughts in this month’s newsletter.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

2015 Technical Seminars

neteq seminar logo with border
Spring 2015 – Coming to the UK on April 23rd

We are coming across the Pond this spring! If you are in or around the United Kingdom on April 23, 2015, come join our CTO, Art Reisman, for an informative and educational session hosted by Flex Information Technology Ltd.

Art will be at the Grove Technology Park in Wantage, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom OX12 9FF the afternoon of April 23rd. You can view the details and register for the event here.

Our Technical Seminars are great because they are not marketing sessions. They are run by our CTO and are technical briefings. The seminar includes discussion on bandwidth control and also a live demonstration of the NetEqualizer technology.

So, if you have always been curious about the NetEqualizer, and would like to learn more, stop by for an afternoon! Or if you are an existing customer, and would like to meet Art to pick his brain, join us in the UK!

Please contact Paul Horseman of Flex Information Technology Ltd with any questions:

paul@flex.co.uk
-or-
+44 (0)333 101 7313

Summer or Fall 2015 – Location TBD

We are currently starting to plan our Summer/Fall 2015 Tech Seminar. For this seminar, we are looking stateside. If you are in the United States and would like to be considered as a host site, let us know by contacting us at:

sales@apconnections.net
-or-
(303) 997-1300

What is Your Better Mouse Trap?

As always, we are looking to expand our product line in ways that are useful to our customers. Our DDoS Monitoring and DDoS Firewall are a perfect example of an urgent need that came up last month, with several customers being caught off guard by attacks. We responded with a timely interim release, by integrating some existing technology from our IPS device into the NetEqualizer.

We are also interested in new ideas that will help make the life of an IT administrator easier. We want to help you to solve your most pressing IT problems, so please take a moment and think of what your better mouse trap would be, and tell us!

Even if you don’t think it is possible, just throw it out there! Your ideas are invaluable in helping us to create the next generation networking solutions.

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Annual edACCESS Conference

edaccess

June 24, 2015

We are looking forward to visiting with a few our customers at the annual edACCESS Conference hosted by Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. We will stop by for Vendor Day on Wednesday, June 24th.

If you have never been to an edACCESS Conference, you might not know that they are purposely run small (100 attendees maximum) and that they use the peer conference model.

Here is what they say on the edACCESS website:

“Each edACCESS conference is small, responsive, and participant-driven. Small, because edACCESS conferences are limited to one hundred attendees. Responsive, because half the conference is spent discussing topics chosen by attendees through a careful first-day process. Participant-driven, because we believe that, collectively, we are the experts.”

If you cannot attend this conference, but are in the area of South Central Pennsylvania, please let us know and perhaps we can stop by as we will be on the East Coast for a few days after the conference.

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

contact_us_box-1

Expanded RTR: Spring Release (8.3) Update

Anticipated Release Date: May 2015

Wow! I got a chance to kick the tires on our 8.3 Release last week. My favorite new RTR report now gives you the ability to see real-time bar charts showing actual bandwidth usage on a per Pool basis (you can also see the Top IP or IP subnet users).

And the real icing on the cake was the red warning colors on the bar chart whenever a pool went into Equalizing, essentially a nice graphical indicator that the NetEqualizer is doing it’s job on your main screen. Here is a screenshot of this feature:

Pools

We’ve also added in a number of other exciting features! These include, but are not limited to:

1) Historical Penalty Reporting – see how many penalties were enforced at a given point in time on your NetEqualizer.

2) Connection Count Reporting – see connection counts by IP. Use this to find possible P2P issues on your network.

3) Export Data from RTR – export data from the RTR databases in CSV format to keep a history longer than 4 weeks or just analyze the data as you wish.

4) Active Penalties – see all connections that are currently being Equalized, as well as what type of penalty they are receiving.

For more details on Release 8.3 features, check out our March 2015 Newsletter.

The coding for Release 8.3 is now complete, and we are moving it into our testing process. We are currently anticipating a May 2015 release, and will announce it in the May 2015 Newsletter.

Once 8.3 reaches GA, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support (NSS). You will need to upgrade first to version 8.0+. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

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Best Of The Blog

The Technology Differences between a Web Filter and a Traffic Shaper

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

First, a couple of definitions, so we are all on the same page:

A Web Filter is basically a type of specialized firewall with a configurable list of URLs. Using a Web Filter, a Network Administrator can completely block specific web sites, or block complete categories of sites, such as pornography.

A Traffic Shaper is typically deployed to change the priority of certain kinds of traffic. It is used where blocking traffic completely is not required, or is not an acceptable practice. For example, the mission of a typical Traffic Shaper might be to allow users to get into their Facebook accounts, and to limit their bandwidth so as to not overshadow other more important activities. With a Traffic Shaper, the idea is to limit (shape) the total amount of data traffic for a given category.

From a technology standpoint, building a Web Filter is a much easier proposition than creating a Traffic Shaper. This is not to demean the value or effort that goes into creating a good Web Filter. When I say “easier,” I mean this from a core technology point of view. Building a good Web Filter product is not so much a technology challenge, but more of a data management issue.

A Web Filter worth its salt must be aware of potentially millions of various websites that are ever-changing. To manage these sites, a Web Filter product must be constantly getting updated. The product company supporting the Web Filter must search the Web, constantly indexing new web sites and their contents, and then passing this information into the Web Filter product. The work is ongoing, but not necessarily daunting in terms of technology prowess. The actual blocking of a Web site is simply a matter of comparing a requested URL against the list of forbidden web sites and blocking the request (dropping the packets)…
Photo Of The Month
IMG_0706
Tribute to Jack Miller
By Art Reisman
I had the honor to meet my neighbor Jack Miller and listen to his life stories over the past few years. Jack has the unique distinction of serving two WWII tours in North Africa. After the first tour, he was discharged to take care of his farm after the death of his mother, but then, through a clerical mix-up, he was shipped back, only this time he was taken POW by the Germans.I spent many summer evenings sitting on his front porch listening to his stories. My favorite one was set at a time when the Germans were in retreat, and his battalion was marching across Germany, extremely hungry and low on rations. He described walking past German farms with grazing cattle, and I asked him why they did not just take the cows and eat them. Without hesitation, Jack’s reply was “Why, those cows belonged to the German people.”

People like Jack were cut from a different mold.

We lost Jack at the age of 92 last November.

Rest in Peace, Jack.
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NetEqualizer News: March 2015

March 16, 2015 — netequalizer

March 2015

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we announce the NE5000 (our Next Generation NetEqualizer solution), highlight our recent 8.2 Release (DDoS Monitoring and IPv6 Shaping), preview our upcoming 8.3 Release (Expanded RTR), and update you on NetEqualizer Tech Seminars and conferences. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

As we move closer to spring, I am ready for a thaw. artHere in the U.S., most of the country has been locked in snow and ice this winter. We are all ready for warm weather! As I think about warmer days, I start thinking about growing new things, and am happy to announce that as we continue to grow our capabilities, we are also building out advanced hardware platforms. This month we announce our Next Generation NetEqualizer!

We also continue to grow our next release (8.3), in which we are building out additional reporting (RTR) capabilities. Our goal is to have all of the new features released by late spring. And finally, our 8.2 DDoS Monitor, Firewall, and IPv6 equalizing release is now Generally Available.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

Announcing the Next Generation NetEqualizer! The NE5000 is Now Available

The next generation NetEqualizer is here!

Introducing the NE5000 – our top-of-the-line powerhouse solution for larger organizations.

neteq

The NE5000 comes standard with bi-directional 10 Gbps fiber (40 Gbps fiber optional), and it can shape bandwidth for up to 50,000 concurrent users.

There are also a few exciting additions to the NE5000 not seen in previous models.

• First, we included built-in redundancy so that the device fails open.
• Second, we included built-in power redundancy as well so that the unit will never experience sudden outages.
• And third, we included a built-in management port to make network integration and management even easier.

Take a look at our price list for pricing information, or contact us if you have questions!

contact_us_box-1

8.2 Release is Now Generally Available!

Our 8.2 Release is now generally available! This release includes two primary new features:

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Monitoring

We are hearing that many of our customers need help with the onslaught of DDoS attacks on their networks. As the NetEqualizer is implemented near the network perimeter, and has visibility to all incoming and outgoing traffic, we are able to analyze traffic behavior and report on suspected DDoS attacks. Once identified as suspected DDoS, the NetEqualizer can then be used to block further traffic as needed.

IPv6 Bandwidth Shaping

For several years we have provided visibility to IPv6 traffic flowing through the NetEqualizer, to give you a view into how much IPv6 is on your network. We now feel that IPv6 has gained enough momentum to be a noticeable percentage on our customers’ networks. Therefore, as of 8.2 we are offering equalizing for IPv6 traffic. This will ensure that your full network gets the benefit of improved QoS during peak periods, for both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.

—

The 8.2 update is simple and easy to install. We recommend upgrading as soon as possible in order to be properly prepared should a DDoS attack happen to you.

You can read more about these features in our release notes here. Our User Guide has also been updated with more information about how these features work.

These features are free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 8.0+. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

contact_us_box-1

Update on 2015 Tech Seminars and Conferences

Throughout 2015, we’ll be using our Newsletter to update you on Tech Seminars that NetEqualizer is hosting, as well as conferences we’ll be attending. Stay tuned!

Here is what we currently have planned for the near future:

NetEqualizer Tech Seminar

We are currently exploring sites for a Tech Seminar in the UK during the summer or fall 2015. As of this newsletter, nothing is neteq seminar logo with borderfinalized. If you would like to host a tech seminar, we are also open to visiting a domestic site here in the U.S. or Canada, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

edACCESS Conference

edACCESS provides support and networking for information technology staff at secondary schools and small colleges. Most members come from schools with under 1,000 students.edaccess

We will be joining in the edACCESS conference at Mercersburg Academy on June 24, 2015 for Vendor Day! Feel free to stop by and pick up some NetEqualizer bling!

—

If you have questions on either the NetEqualizer Tech Seminar or the edACCESS conference, contact us!

contact_us_box-1

8.3 Release (Expanded RTR) Arriving in Late Spring

Over the last few months we’ve continued to invest heavily in expanding our Real-Time Reporting (RTR) to make it even more robust. In late spring of this year, our 8.3 Release will be generally available.

The 8.3 Release includes many features our customers have asked for in the past to help improve their reporting experience. Here are just a few of the exciting new features:

Real-Time Pool and VLAN Dashboard

The current version of RTR has a real-time dashboard which shows current bandwidth usage. In Release 8.3, however, we’ve enhanced the dashboard to include both real-time pool and real-time VLAN bar graphs showing current usage. You can also easily see when your pools and/or VLANs are Equalizing.

Pools

Summary IP Reports

One of the most popular features in ntop, our previous reports offering, was the Summary Hosts Report, which highlighted how much bandwidth a particular IP address had used over a certain time period. In Release 8.3, we’ve added our own summary IP reports into RTR! Summary IP Reports is even better, as it will enable you to run custom database queries against all of the stored historical data to find exactly what you need. We will also include a handful of sample summary reports for common queries.

summary

Historical Penalty Graphs

In Release 8.3, you’ll be able to see how the NetEqualizer has penalized traffic over time. RTR will now include graphs for tracking how many penalties are being enforced each minute. We’ll then store the data for up to four weeks. And, just like our other graphs, you’ll be able to export the data for retention if you so choose. This has been one of our most commonly requested features, and now it’s here!

penalties

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Once 8.3 reaches GA, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 8.0+ If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

contact_us_box-1

Best Of The Blog

10 Things to Consider when Choosing a Bandwidth Shaper

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

This article is intended as an objective guide for anyone trying to narrow down their options in the bandwidth controller market. Organizations today have a plethora of product options to choose from. To further complicate your choices, not only are there specialized bandwidth controllers, you’ll also find that most Firewall and Router products today contain some form of bandwidth shaping and QoS features.

What follows is an all-encompassing list of questions that will help you to quickly organize your priorities with regards to choosing a bandwidth shaper.

1) What is the Cost of Increasing your Bandwidth?

Although this question may be a bit obvious, it must be asked. We assume that anybody in the market for a bandwidth controller also has the option of increasing their bandwidth. The costs of purchasing and operating a bandwidth controller should ultimately be compared with the cost of increasing bandwidth on your network.

2) How much Savings should you expect from your Bandwidth Controller?

A good bandwidth controller in many situations can increase your carrying capacity by up to 50 percent. However, beware, some technologies designed to optimize your network can create labor overhead in maintenance hours. Labor costs with some solutions can far exceed the cost of adding bandwidth…
Photo Of The Month
snowshoe
Snowshoeing in Snowy Colorado
The snow this year broke records all over the U.S.! February was the snowiest February on record for Colorado. This is a picture of Boulder County Open Space, which is like a park, as everyone can use it for recreation. It is shared by a farmer to graze cows in the spring & summer. Here, one of our staff takes advantage of a snowy day to snowshoe.
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NetEqualizer News: November 2014

November 22, 2014 — netequalizer

November 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we discuss features for our 2015 NetEqualizer Releases, announce a last call for trading in old NE2000’s and Lite units, introduce our NetEqualizer Holiday Giving Campaign, and share a technical tip on how to export data from NetEqualizer’s Dynamic Real-Time Reporting (RTR). As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

The holiday season is almost underway in the United States. Before I get caught up in thefancy thank-you

whirlwind of activities that seems to happen at this time of year, I’d like to pause and give thanks for all the blessings in my life. As we end our 11th year, I continue to be thankful for all of our loyal customers.

THANK YOU for putting your faith and trust in APconnections, we truly appreciate your business!

APconnections also likes to give back to those in need. You can read all about our NetEqualizer Holiday Giving Campaign below.

2015 NetEqualizer Release Plans

We have started planning out our 2015 releases. We are aiming for two releases in 2015:

8.2 – Extended RTRpenalties

Our first release (8.2) will be in the late spring/early summer timeframe. We continue our commitment to robust real-time reporting (RTR) by adding reports to extend our capabilities. 8.2 – Extended RTR is currently planned to include Penalty Graphs, Bandwidth Use by IP Graphs, a Pools Dashboard, Data Export Menus, and an enhanced Active Connections Table.

8.x – Cloud Reporting

As announced in our October Newsletter, we plan to offer data storage in a cloud environment. Cloud Reporting will give you access to longer periods of data, to help with your troubleshooting, capacity planning, and trend analysis needs. Look for more information in the coming months as we start to architect our solution.

We listen to you, and have taken into account feedback provided by those of you that have upgraded to 8.1 in our release planning. As always, if you have feature requests or suggestions, please contact us!

Once 8.2 reaches GA, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 8.1. If you are not current with NSS, or have not upgraded to 8.1, contact us today!

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Last Call! Trade in Your Older NE2000 or Lite Unit

As we have announced previously in this Newsletter, we are discontinuing support for older NE2000s (any NE2000 purchased prior to August 2011) and the Lite series as of 12/31/2014.

We are moving our NE2000 and Lite license levels onto the NE3000 platform, which can support running our 64-bit software, and is better positioned for the future (more memory, more processing power, etc.).

If you have not already traded in your older NE2000 or Lite unit, we recommend that you do so at this time. As part of our Lifetime Buyer’s Guarantee, we offer a generous trade-in credit of 50% of the original unit price toward a new unit. While you will still be able to trade-in older NE2000’s and Lite units in the future, this is our Last Call because time is running out on Support (NSS) for these units.

Not sure if your NE2000 is an older unit? Call or email us and we will look it up for you.

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

NetEqualizer Holiday Giving Campaign

Join APconnections in giving back to worthy causes during this holiday season. For every new NetEqualizer that our customers purchase between now and 12/31/2014, APconnections will donate $25 to one of our selected charities.

It is that simple! Just buy the NetEqualizer that you were planning to get anyway in 2015, and you get to help us to do good for others, through the great work of these deserving charities!

To keep this simple, we have selected several charities, and will split the donation amongst them. Our charities for the NetEqualizer Holiday Giving Campaign are:

1) Toys for Tots: The mission for Toys for Tots is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.

tft

2) The Hunger Project: The Hunger Project is a global, non-profit, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.

29DRt83

3) Doctors Without Borders: Doctors Without Borders works in nearly 70 countries providing medical aid to those most in need regardless of their race, religion, or political affiliation.

logo

Technical Tip: How to Export Your Data

Did you know there is a hidden feature in Release 8.1? Even though the menu option is not visible, it is possible to export the data in your reporting databases to csv files. You can export data for the previous 24 hours or data for the previous 4 weeks. What you do with it is up to you! Import it into Excel for easy graphing, save it locally for longer-term reporting, export data for a specific time period to analyze bandwidth-related issues, and more!export

Please note that the data is returned with Unix timestamps and is in bytes/second. Data for the 24 hour database is sampled every minute and data for the 4 week database is sampled every hour. To export your data, simply change the parameter “page” in the url to “export-data”. So, your URL would be something like:

[neteqIP]/newgui/RTR/index.php?page=export-data

If you need assistance with data export and are current on NSS, contact us at:

support@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Please note that General Penalty Data is not available or exportable at this time.

Best Of The Blog

More Lies and Deceit From Your ISP

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

Back in 2007, I wrote an article for PC Magazine about all the shenanigans that ISPs use to throttle bandwidth. The article set a record for online comments for one day, and the editor was happy. I recall, at that time, I felt like a lone wolf trying to point out these practices. Finally some redemption, this morning, the FTC is flexing it’s muscle and is now taking on AT&T for false claims with respect to unlimited data…
Photo Of The Month
santa
Interactive Robotic Santa
One of our staff members’ recently stumbled upon an Internet-controllable robotic Santa in his neighborhood. The Santa is viewable via web cam and can speak text entered into the website. It can also play music and dance. Santa was relatively quiet until recently when the URL went viral and Santa was speaking non-stop! Email us for a link to check out the Santacam – but beware that Santa has a gift for gab and no content filter.
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NetEqualizer News: September 2014

September 21, 2014 — netequalizer

September 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we dedicate the newsletter to our new Enhanced Dynamic Real-Time Reporting (RTR), which is now generally available! As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

September is the start of the harvest season, and this year once again we are ready with a new release at harvest time. Along with my giant pumpkins (see picture below), we think you will agree that our 8.1 Release – Enhanced Dynamic Real-Time Reporting (RTR) is also a bountiful harvest. Our Enhanced Dynamic RTR is easy to use, but in case you need guidance, we have also updated our User Guide. art_canoe_picture

I am excited to say that our reporting now offers four weeks of historical data. I now feel that it rivals (and exceeds) what we offered via our 3rd party reporting tool, ntop. Thus, it is time to sunset ntop. So as of 8.1, you will no longer see ntop in our GUI.

Finally, if you would like a walk through on our new reporting, to help you get up-to-speed on all the features that we offer, call or email and ask for a “Tech Refresh” call with us.

We love it when we hear back from you – so let us know what you think of the new RTR! Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

8.1 Release is Generally Available!

8.1 adds exciting features to our Dynamic Real-Time Reports, including the ability to graphically view traffic at this moment and up to a four week period. We have also expanded your view to include the ability to graph by selected Pools, IP addresses, subnets, VLANs, along with your entire network. And, you can see all of this in the units that make the most sense for you (Mbps, MBps, Kbps, KBps). We have also added the NetEqualizer Log and Active Connections into our RTR Menu, to give you access to everything you need from one convenient place.

You can use 8.1 key features on your network to:

If this sounds interesting to you, and you would like to upgrade to 8.1, please contact our Support Team to get started! You can reach Support at:

support@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300 x102

Please note that as of this release we are officially deprecating ntop. The new RTR tool provides much of the core ntop functionality without all the processing overhead.

Also, some features discussed in previous newsletters such as Penalty Reporting will be released in a future offering, along with a more interactive Dashboard. Protocol Tracking is still available as an experimental offering. Please contact us at the email above if you are interested in enabling this feature.

These features are free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.5+. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

NetEqualizer 8.1 User Guide

Our User Guide has been updated to highlight the new reporting capabilities available in 8.1. Check it out here.

You can read all about Dynamic RTR under the Monitoring and Reporting section, starting on page 44. With the embedded screenshots, we think this guide is a nice way to see what the new reporting release offers.

If you have not checked out our User Guide in awhile, you can also take a look at other sections that cover advanced configuration, such as Redundancy & Failover and our Appendices.

Schedule a Tech Refresh Call

We want to make sure that you are getting the most out of your NetEqualizer, as we are sure you do too! For customers that have been using the NetEqualizer awhile, sometimes with staffing changes over the years, and our new software releases, your collective “NetEqualizer know-how” diminishes.

We would like to help you quickly get up-to-speed on all the features & functions of the NetEqualizer that are new to you, or you might have forgotten.

For customers current on NetEqualizer Software and Support (NSS), we would be happy to schedule up to a 1 hour NetEqualizer “Tech Refresh” call with you and your team.

We will set up a webex session to screen-share with you, and walk through the NetEqualizer technology, both old and new.

Contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

if you are interested in a “Tech Refresh.”

Best Of The Blog

Surviving iOS Updates

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

The birds outside my office window are restless. I can see the strain in the Comcast cable wires as they droop, heavy with the burden of additional bits, weighing them down like a freak ice storm. It is time, once again, for Apple to update every device in the Universe with their latest iOS update.

Assuming you are responsible for a Network with a limited Internet pipe, and you are staring down 100 or more users, about to hit the accept button for their update, what can you do to prevent your user network from being gridlocked…
Photo Of The Month
IMG_0399
Pumpkins!
Giant pumpkins like the one above are a Colorado staple in the fall. You see them all over town – on porches for decorations, carved into Jack-O’-Lanterns, or made into delicious pies.
Posted in Newsletters. Tags: . 1 Comment »

NetEqualizer News: July 2014

August 1, 2014 — netequalizer

July 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we give you an old school NetEqualizer tip, discuss our Hotel and Resorts offerings, and announce our FlyAway Contest winner. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

Every summer I try to camp at least once in a National Park. Living in Boulder, Colorado, I am closest to Rocky Mountain National Park, and so that is an easy destination. Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, I spent a night camping there.art_canoe_picture

I could not really get cell or Internet service in the park boundaries. However, I understand that our friends at Global Gossip are working to pull a link up to the busy shop and restaurant on top of trail ridge road at this time. The good news is many of the other National Parks out in the west are supported by Global Gossip and a NetEqualizer system to boost service in their lodging and services area.

This month we profile Sam Beskur of Global Gossip. Over the last 3 years, Global Gossip has rolled out NetEqualizers to campsites and resorts at many U.S. National Parks, including Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Death Valley and Mount Rushmore National Memorial and coming soon to Yosemite

Maybe next year Rocky Mountain National Park will have a NetEqualizer. Otherwise, I am in for a road trip!

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@netequalizer.com. I would love to hear from you!

Old School NetEqualizer Tip – Keeping Track of Total Usage Per Device by MAC Address

Because our 8.1 Release with the updated graphing and longer-term reporting is not quite ready for release, we won’t do another teaser on this release – we did that last month.

So in keeping with that promise, whatever you do, don’t click on these links below, because it will just make you envious of what is coming out next month…

1) General traffic through the device:

http://prntscr.com/3y0br9

2) Traffic reports for an IP address:

http://prntscr.com/40hvql

http://prntscr.com/40hvzz

So instead of showing off the report graphics for the new release (assuming you did not click any of those links), we have decided to go back in time, back to our open source days, and re-visit the days when I would release cool back door tricks for enhancing your NetEqualizer. This month we offer a script, for all our early adopters to enjoy!

Note: this script is for those who like to get their hands dirty. It is not officially supported under NSS.

For those of you that would like to keep track of total usage per visible device – you can now do that! My Total Usage by MAC address Script can be adapted to do this in your environment.Just save the script to a file, make it executable, and start it up. The script keeps track of total byte counts for all visible MAC addresses.

Once Release 8.1 reaches GA, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.5+. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Spotlight: HMSIO and Sam Beskur of Global Gossip

This month we profile Sam Beskur of Global Gossip, and our joint offering, which we first introduced last summer, the Hotel Management System Integrated Offering (HMSIO).

Global Gossip has been developing network and communication solutions since 1999 and currently manages and maintains over 300 wired and wireless access networks globally. Their locations span seven countries, and include remote and bandwidth challenged sites, such as the central Australian desert! Global Gossip has offices in Denver, Colorado; Sydney, Australia; and London, England.

Sam is Director and Senior Software Engineer at Global Gossip, which basically means that he can (and does) get involved in designing network architectures and implementation efforts. In addition, Sam heads up Global Gossip’s North American Operations. Sam has been with Global Gossip for over 10 years, with stints both in Australia (their home office) and the U.S.

Sam found NetEqualizer over 3 years ago. Once Sam saw how equalizing helped to resolve congestion issues at his initial site, he spearheaded rolling out NetEqualizers as part of their network architecture for all new implementations.

It has been a whirlwind since then – the NetEqualizer is at campsites and resorts at many U.S. National Parks, including Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Death Valley, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, and (coming soon!) to Yosemite.

Global Gossip has deep experience delivering guest Internet solutions including full property management system integration to some of the leading hospitality providers worldwide. They have established a strong partnership with Xanterra in the US, rolling out full Wireless Internet solutions to more than 2000 rooms and 4000 staff in the hotels and resorts within Yellowstone National Park, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon.

Last summer we partnered with Global Gossip to roll out our Hotel Management System Integrated Offering (HMSIO), which gives our lodging customers the opportunity to benefit from Global Gossip’s expertise.

If you would like to learn more about HMSIO, contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

NetEqualizer Summary Guide for Hotels and Resorts

Summer is high season to take a vacation, and relax at a nice hotel or fancy resort. So, we thought it was the perfect time to update our Hotels & Resorts Guide! If you are in the hospitality industry and are considering a NetEqualizer, you may want to review our updated guide.unnamed1unnamed

This short guide is focused on issues specific to the hospitality industry and explains how the NetEqualizer is used by our hotel and resort customers to address these common issues.

This is a quick way to learn about how the NetEqualizer might apply to your environment.

And if you would like to outsource your Internet offering to a network managed services provider, you may also want to check out our Hotel Management System Integrated Offering (HMSIO), which is offered jointly with Global Gossip, profiled above in this newsletter.

If you are a current hospitality industry customer, this guide and is a great read to optimize your NetEqualizer configuration. Take a look to see if there are features that you might not be using and want to take advantage of in your NetEqualizer installation.

We would be happy to help you with your configuration. If you are current on NetEqualizer Software and Support, contact:

support@apconnections.net

to get help optimizing your NetEqualizer.

And the FlyAway Contest Winner Is…

Every few months, we have a drawing to give away two round-trip domestic airline tickets from Frontier Airlines to one lucky person who’s recently tried out our online NetEqualizer demo.

The time has come to announce this round’s winner.40

And the winner is…

Mark Parry at Wifinity!

Congratulations, Mark!

Please contact us within 30 days (by August 22, 2014) at:

admin@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

to claim your prize!

Best Of The Blog

QoS over the Internet – Is it Possible? Five Must-Know Facts

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

I had an inquiry from a potential customer yesterday asking if we could monitor their QoS. I was a bit miffed as to what to tell them. At first, the question struck me as if they’d asked if we can monitor electrons on their power grid. In other words, it was a legitimate question in a sense, but of what use would it be to monitor QoS? I then asked him why he had implemented QoS in the first place. How did he know he needed it…
Photo Of The Month
 IMG_0438
Moose at Rocky Mountain National Park
During Art’s holiday trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, he spotted this moose running through his camp! He was able to snag a pretty good picture of these amazing animals.
Posted in Newsletters. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

NetEqualizer News: June 2014

June 23, 2014 — netequalizer

June 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we preview our exciting Release 8.1 (Enhanced RTR), highlight one of our resellers in South Africa (Cybersmart), and show off our updated Libraries Guide. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Zack…
Zack Sanders, Network Engineer – APconnections

 

On Memorial Day (May 26th this year), 50,000 people descend upon Boulder, Colorado to run the BolderBoulder 10K race. Anyone can run the race, and some walk it as well. However, to get your best times (a PR, or “personal record”), I find that I need to develop a training plan and start training about two months before the race. This is always a big commitment for me mentally and physically, but I find it pays off in the end. This year I ran in 53 minutes, beating my goal time by 1 minute.  303809_10100390274244183_885235222_n

As an engineer on our Dynamic Real-Time Reporting tool, I find that I use this same skill to plan & execute my development work. I am happy to say that our Release 8.1 (Enhanced RTR) is on track for a late summer/early fall roll-out. You will see some of the initial screenshots below. We are very excited with how it is turning out.We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at zack@netequalizer.com. I would love to hear from you!

Sneak Peek at Release 8.1 (Enhanced RTR)

We are very excited to announce Release 8.1 (Enhanced RTR) – coming in late summer/early fall of this year! This release is special because it includes a new version of our popular Dynamic Real-Time Reporting (RTR) tool. The original RTR provided some basic functionality and served as a test to discover what our customers truly needed in a reporting feature. You gave us feedback, and we listened!

The new RTR tool enhances the features and capabilities of the existing RTR in many ways. Here are just a few:

1) New and improved graphing: We’ve added things like timestamps to the graph’s x-axis, a smart down-sampler in order to quickly graph up to 4 weeks of data, and the ability to show both upload and download bandwidth usage on the same graph.

2) Improved menu design with new graphs: We’ve created a new user interface with more intuitive pages and the ability to graph more data. For example, with the new RTR tool, you can graph bandwidth usage for individual IP addresses, subnets, pools, and VLAN’s.

3) Penalty graphs over time: We have a new graph which shows the number of penalties over time – allowing you to correlate bandwidth trends with penalties.

Over the next two months, we’ll be stress and load testing this tool to ensure seamless integration with your network and NetEqualizer. Stay tuned to NetEqualizer News for updates on this release!

Once Release 8.1 reaches GA, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.5+. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Spotlight: Our South African Reseller, Cybersmart

Deep in the heart of Cape Town, South Africa resides the offices of Cybersmart – a company that supplies bandwidth circuits to cities and towns all over the country, ultimately serving tens of thousands of South African citizens. Some of these customers are wireless Internet service providers in remote regions, where bandwidth is still quite expensive.unnamed

Several years ago, they deployed a NetEqualizer on one of  their regional circuits, and at once became true believers in the elegance of the NetEqualizer philosophy and technology. Not only are they our customer, but they have also become our regional distributor in South Africa and neighboring countries – supporting and reselling equipment to regional ISPs and businesses. So, if you are ever in need of a bandwidth circuit, or a NetEqualizer in their region, please give them a call!

In April 2012, Managing Director Laurie Fialkov of Cybersmart issued a press release about its new uncapped ADSL product, which relied on the NetEqualizer as a backbone of its offering.

Portions of the press release are included here:
“…The solution which provides Cybersmart with what it needs is a product called NetEqualizer. We were so impressed that we asked for distribution rights for South Africa, which was granted to us,” said Fialkov.

“The way this product works, is it keeps track of the top TCP connections on a network. The NetEqualizer rates the connections based on how long the connection has been alive and how fast it is going. It will then slow the ‘top’ connections down so they are not unfairly using the bandwidth,” explains Fialkov. This solution means that business applications which use encryption are not arbitrarily slowed down (as is the case with many shaping solutions).

Fialkov added that the TCP rules will only be enforced during times when the network load is high. “If we are not under peak load then no connections are equalized at all,” said Fialkov.

Fialkov explained that, to be competitive, all ISPs need to oversell bandwidth to end-users – also known as contending bandwidth. What this means is that a certain number of users need to share the same bandwidth. “We are planning on overselling our uncapped product at 15:1 to 20:1, which we believe is a lot better than the current products in the market,” said Fialkov.

Fialkov then pointed out that automatic shaping via the NetEqualizer has ensured a good experience on uncapped accounts.

Cybersmart continues to use their NetEqualizer today, and has sold units across South Africa since mid-2012, based on their success implementing the NetEqualizer in their own business.

If you are in South Africa, and would like to learn more about the NetEqualizer, contact:

Laurie Fialkov at Cybersmart laurie@cybersmart.co.za

NetEqualizer Summary Guide for Libraries

This month we have updated our Libraries Guide. If you are a library and are considering a NetEqualizer, you may want to review our updated guide.unnamed

This short guide is focused on issues specific to Libraries and explains how the NetEqualizer is used by our library customers to address these common issues. This is a quick way to learn about how the NetEqualizer might apply to your environment.

And if you like real-life examples, you may also want to check out our Library Case Study with Washington County Cooperative Library Services. While the write-up is from 2012, the case study is still relevant today.

If you are a current library customer, this guide and case study are a great read to optimize your NetEqualizer configuration.

Take a look to see if there are features that you might not be using and want to take advantage of in your NetEqualizer installation. We would be happy to help you with your configuration.

If you are current on NSS, contact support@apconnections.net to get help optimizing your NetEqualizer.

Best Of The Blog

Is Your Bandwidth Controller Obsolete Technology?

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

Although not free yet, bandwidth contracts have been dropping in cost faster than a bad stock during a recession. With cheaper bandwidth costs, the question often arises on whether or not an enterprise can do without their trusty bandwidth controller.

Below, we have compiled a list of factors that will determine whether or not bandwidth controllers stick around for a while, or go the route of the analog modem, a relic of when people received their Internet From AOL and dial up…
Photo Of The Month
unnamed
Las Vegas Trail Running
Mountain trails are usually not the first thing to come to mind when one thinks about Las Vegas. Though the area is primarily known for gambling and world-class restaurants (among other things), the mountains surrounding the city offer an excellent escape from the concrete jungle and lights. This picture was recently taken on the summit of one of the small hills surrounding the Southern Highlands neighborhood south of The Strip. It was unclear why the flag exists on top.
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NetEqualizer News: April 2014

April 16, 2014 — netequalizer

April 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we preview our summer release (8.1), ask for your help in selecting a technical seminar location, discuss our popular leasing program, and show off our brief guides for how we can help in the education space (both K-12 and Higher Education). As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Steve…
Steve Wagor, Co-Founder – APconnections

Colorado offers some great sights, and I prefer to see them riding a Harley. Riding here and trying to push the first day and last day of what we call the “riding season” further apart can be IMG_0069challenging. Last weekend’s ride started in the 40’s and then when it headed into the mountains, the temperature dropped into the 30’s. This required going through a small snow storm for 15 miles or so, and then rain the last 7 miles. But, you don’t ride a motorcycle unless you are willing to put up with a little of what Mother Nature can dump on you!

With the temperatures rising in Colorado (giving me more opportunities to ride), things are also heating up at APconnections. We have some exciting things planned for NetEqualizer this summer and beyond. Stay tuned to the newsletter in the coming months for more details.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at stevew@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

Our Summer Release (8.1) is Heating Up!

The response to Dynamic Real-Time Reporting (RTR) has been very positive, so we are spending resources this spring extending and enhancing its capabilities. We are excited to announce several key enhancements to RTR.

First, we are ready to support your need for long-term data storage. To do this, we are implementing an easy-to-use data export process. You will be able to export reporting history to your reports data warehouse.  This will enable you to slice and dice months or years worth of data on an external server.

Second, we are expanding our ability to track and graph bandwidth use for your IP addresses. In addition to being able to track and graph by IP and your entire network, as you can today in 7.5, we are adding tracking and graphing by subnet, Pools, and VLANs. This addition will give you even more visibility to your traffic, with the added context and meaning specific to your network environment. Behind the scenes, we are enhancing our storage architecture to enable us to quickly drill-up and down all levels of IP data.

totaltraffic

The way we track penalties will be enhanced as well. You’ll be able to see in graphical format how a particular IP has been penalized over time.

This is all in an effort to replicate the most heavily used features of ntop into our own tool with the goal of replacing ntop with RTR by 2015.

Once our 8.1 reaches G/A (we are anticipating July/August 2014), these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.5. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Wanted: Summer 2014 Technical Seminar Location

We are looking for a host for our next Technical Seminar!

Our popular technical seminar brings our CTO, Art Reisman, directly to you. Art will explore the NetEqualizer technology in detail and can answer all of your technical questions. Art is a futurist and successful entrepreneur, and can delve into diverse topics such as business ownership and technology direction, along with bandwidth shaping and caching.

This is also a great opportunity to meet other NetEqualizer customers in your area. This half-day session is held as a casual, user-group format. This is not a marketing presentation; it was created by techies, for techies!

You would be a great candidate to host the Summer Technical Seminar if…neteq seminar logo with border

  • You would like to spend half a day with Art Reisman, our CTO.
  • You have a NetEqualizer that Art can log into during the seminar to review your setup.
  • You have a room to fit up to 20 attendees.
  • You can help to coordinate logistics (room, directions, etc.).

Possible locations are not limited to the United States and anyone across the world willing to have this half day event should not hesitate to contact us:logo-270x231

sandy@apconnections.netWashington University in St Louis

-or-

303-997-1300 x104gordon_college

Previous locations for the technical seminar include:
Washington University – St. Louis
Western Michigan
Gordon College
and more!

Think You Cannot Afford a NetEqualizer? Consider a Lease!

Last summer, we announced our new NetEqualizer Leasing Program, and since then, we have seen a great adoption rate. This program works best for those customers who need to align monthly expenditures with a monthly revenue steam – models commonly used by Business Centers and Internet Service Providers (for example). If you are a business owner in either of these verticals (or any other industry that could benefit), you should check out our Leasing Program to see if it meets your needs!

Please note that the NetEqualizer Leasing Program is currently only available to customers in the United States and Canada.

If you have questions about this program, contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

NetEqualizer in a Nutshell: Summary Guides for Educationunnamed

If you are a K-12 School, College, or University considering a NetEqualizer, you may want to review our updated guides:

K-12 Schools Guide
-or-
College & University Guide

These summary guides (3-4 pages) are focused on issues specific to schools and colleges, and explain how the NetEqualizer is used by our customers to address these common issues. This is a quick way to learn about how the NetEqualizer might apply to your environment.

If you are a current customer, these guides are a great read to optimize your NetEqualizer configuration. Take a look to see if there are features that you might not be using and want to take advantage of in your NetEqualizer installation. We would be happy to help you with your configuration. If you are current on NSS, contact:

support@apconnections.net

to get help optimizing your NetEqualizer.

Best Of The Blog

An Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Headwinds of Change

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

For anybody who has ever done something innovative, you’ll find most technology advances require some sort of change in behavior on the part of the target customer (consumer or business). The larger the organization, the less likely they are to embrace that change, and many times they are downright hostile toward change.

I attended an entrepreneur group last month where a company is going to market with a smart Window that changes reflectivity with outside temperature. The demand and value for this product clearly distinguish it as cost-savings winner, and yet, because of entrenched ideas about smart windows, it has been a 12-year battle of sacrifice and pain for founder Wil McCarthy to get his product to market…
Photo Of The Month

IMG_1022

Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo
Nestled in the hills behind Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, is a sculpture garden to rival any modern art museum in the world. It actually appears to be more of a sculpture graveyard, filled with architecture student projects erected over the years that have been abandoned. Nevertheless, it’s a mysterious location worth visiting if you are ever in the area.
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NetEqualizer News: March 2014

March 19, 2014 — netequalizer

March 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we discuss our summer release and 8.0 Beta progress, as well as announce our FlyAway Contest winner and revisit a classic NetEqualizer whitepaper. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

This past month I have had the pleasure of working with some of you installing our 8.0 Beta – Protocol art_canoe_pictureTracking – release on your NetEqualizers. It has been fun seeing protocol tracking in action, and I have been humbled by the positive feedback. Thanks to all of you for working with me on this project. I truly appreciate your willingness to be Beta host sites – thank you!

Speaking of the Beta, you can read more about our plan for protocol tracking below, along with our planned summer release! I am just getting used to the fact that it is almost spring, and here comes summer…

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

2014 Real-Time Reporting (RTR) Summer Release

Many of you have noticed and thanked us for our investment over the last year in reporting within the NetEqualizer toolset. In 2014, we have made it a goal to completely replace ntop reports within NetEqualizer with Dynamic RTR.

To do this, we have several key features that we are working on for a summer release:

1) Increase our traffic graphs time frame to display up to 1 week of data.
2) Change the time displayed to show time of day.
3) Enable you to automatically dump data to a separate server for longer periods of analysis.

In addition to these key features, we plan to beef up our Pools reporting, by adding Pool and VLAN traffic graphs. This will enable you to see the upload and download usage over time for your defined Pools and VLANs. We will also graph penalties over time (for a selected IP, Pool, or the network as a whole), so that you can see how often your network traffic is being equalized.

totaltraffic

We plan to convert all remaining “Current Activity” reports into RTR reports, including the NetEqualizer Log. Now you will be able to sort, search, and view the log in a much more usable manner.

Finally, our protocol tracking reports will officially be generally available (G/A) in our summer release. You can read more about this in the article below.

RTR_Protocol_Tracking_One_IP_Pie2

While ntop will remain on the GUI interface through 2014, we expect to remove it in early 2015. So if you have not already starting using RTR, please put it on your list to look at in 2014 or ask us for a demo.

Once our summer release reaches G/A, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.5. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Protocol Tracking: Update on 8.0 Beta

In our February Newsletter, we announced our Beta Release of Protocol Tracking reports.

Since then, we have installed the 8.0 Beta at multiple customer sites, and have received positive feedback. We now consider 8.0 to be stable, and it is working well. However, as we do not want to cause “release exhaustion”, we have decided to roll the protocol tracking into our summer release for our official G/A.

We know that it takes some time out of your schedule each time we offer a release, and we are deferring this to minimize disruption for our customers.

However, if you cannot wait until summer for protocol tracking, we are happy to offer the 8.0 code to anyone current on NSS running version 7.5+. Just email or call support to request 8.0.

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Comparison Paper: A Classic Revisited

If it has been some time since you have read our classic white paper, Equalizing Compared to Application Shaping, you are in for a treat!

We have just updated and revised it, to make it more readable and relevant to today’s networks.

This is a must read if you ever get asked, “What makes the NetEqualizer different and better than other devices?” Or, you can pass it along to your boss, colleagues, and others that might want to learn more about behavior-based shaping technology.

Take a look at the new whitepaper here.

And, if you have questions, feel free to contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

And the FlyAway Contest Winner Is…

Every few months, we have a drawing to give away two round-trip domestic airline tickets from Frontier Airlines to one lucky person who’s recently tried out our online NetEqualizer demo.40

The time has come to announce this round’s winner.

And the winner is…

Scott Coughlin at ValueOptions!

Congratulations, Scott!

Please contact us within 30 days (by April 18, 2014) at:

admin@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

to claim your prize!

Best Of The Blog

Federal Judge Orders Internet Name be Changed to CDSFBB (Content Delivery Service For Big Business)

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

Okay, so I fabricated that headline, it’s not true, but I hope it goes viral and sends a message that our public Internet is being threatened by business interests and activist judges.

I’ll concede our government does serve us well in some cases;  they have produced some things that could not be done without their oversight, for example:

1) The highway system

2) The FAA does a pretty good job keeping us safe

3) The Internet. At least up until some derelict court ruling that will allow ISPs to give preferential treatment to content providers for a payment (bribe), whatever you want to call it.

The ramifications of this ruling may bring an end to the Internet as we know it…
Photo Of The Month

Tom’s Thumb
Because we live near the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, hiking is in our blood. Given our natural interest in the activity, it’s also fun to hike in other parts of the country and the world. This picture was taken at the summit of Tom’s Thumb in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve near Phoenix, Arizona. Though not nearly as high as Colorado peaks, the trail was arduous and offered a great view at the top.
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NetEqualizer News: February 2014

February 18, 2014 — netequalizer

February 2014

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we preview our new Software Update 8.0 Beta (which includes Protocol Tracking reports), as well as our new Mogicho licensed movie content service for customers with our caching option, and lastly we remind you about our NetEqualizer trade-in policy. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

As we move into February, we have been glued to the TV watching the Olympic games – well, actually glued to “on demand” video replays on our iPads and laptops. We love that there are no commercials and that we can watch whenever we want! If you find yourself doing the same, you will not be surprised that more and more customers mention that video is a huge percentage of their Internet traffic.
art_canoe_picture
We recognize this trend, and are working on this in several areas. This month we talk about our new Protocol Tracking reports, which will help you to make sense of all the video on your network. Also, as I mentioned last month, I am working on partnerships with the movie industry. We call this offering “Mogicho”, and you can read more about it below. 2014 begins, we are excited to see what the year brings. In the United States, the economy is finally improving, at least when measured by job creation, stock market growth, and real estate sales. Hopefully, this trend continues, as we are ready for the Great Recession to be officially over! We hope that you are seeing an improving economy in your part of the world too.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

Software Update 8.0 Beta: Protocol Tracking Reports

We are excited to announce the 8.0 Beta Release for NetEqualizer where we introduce Protocol Tracking reports!

Protocol Tracking reports extend our Dynamic Real-Time Reporting (RTR) – Traffic Reporting capabilities. Through Protocol Tracking, we enable you track various Internet protocols (Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, iTunes, Pandora, etc.) and then view these protocols and bandwidth usage for an IP or your entire network in a pie or bar chart format.

s1

We built our RTR tool last year, and based on the feedback that we received, we have continued our investment in visibility and reporting in 2014. As many of you note that you need to better understand how much video is on your network, and what types of traffic are consuming your bandwidth, we felt that the time was right for Protocol Tracking reports.

RTR_Protocol_Tracking_One_IP_Pie2

When we introduced our NetGladiator IPS in mid-2012, we built it out with a powerful Layer 7 engine. We have now incorporated this engine into our NetEqualizer code base, so that we can offer you a way to report on protocols on your network. We see this as a complementary component that enhances our NetEqualizer shaping features, and we are excited to offer you this additional visibility into your network traffic.

How to Participate in the 8.0 Beta

The 8.0 Beta is subject to availability. If you are interested in the Beta, and meet the following requirements, please contact us to see if this is a good fit for your situation.

Beta requirements:

– must be current on NSS

– must be running NE3000 or NE4000

– must be on Software Update 7.5

– must be available to provide feedback on the 8.0 Beta features

Once 8.0 reaches GA, these features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.5. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Trade In Your Old NetEqualizer!

Many of you may not be aware that we offer a generous trade-in credit when it is time to retire your old NetEqualizer. We will give you 50%* of the original unit price plus 50% of any license upgrades towards a new unit.

We believe that this offer is unmatched in the industry. Why do we do this? Because we believe that bandwidth shaping should be affordable, and as part of that, we help you to protect your original investment.

How to know if you need a new NetEQ?

1) You can no longer run our current software. NE2000’s earlier than August 2011 cannot run 7.0+.

2) Your hardware warranty has long expired and your unit is over five years old. We offer four years of hardware warranty (NHW), which must be purchased each consecutive year from your original purchase. If you are outside of warranty, your unit is probably past its useful life.

3) You want the faster processors and more memory that new hardware can give you. Just like a PC or tablet, the hardware that we offer today is faster and has more memory than older boxes.

4) And the most important reason, because you want one!

And remember, while we will continue to offer license upgrades on our NE2000 series as needed, if you have a NE2000 purchased before August 2011, it will only be supported through 12/31/2014. If you have an older NE2000, please contact us sometime in 2014 to discuss your options.

If you have questions on trade-in units, feel free to contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

* This offer does not apply to POE or Lite units.

Coming Soon: Mogicho
A new movie offering that leverages our NetEqualizer Caching Option (NCO) infrastructure

In addition to our other projects, we are also progressing with our “Mogicho” offer to bring an amazing assortment of licensed movie content into our NCO caching server. We will be finalizing the license with the content providers next month, and we are excited to say it will be a nice value-add to any ISP needing to enhance their offer to their constituents. We think Mogicho will be especially of interest to ISPs with less than a 5Gbps Netflix streams2 (where Netflix currently is not interested in providing Netflix Open Connect (caching engine)).

Where will this be available?

Mogicho is a new distribution channel for unique online movie content, targeted at rural and remote users not served by Major Internet Providers (M-ISPs).

We are initially releasing Mogicho within the United States and Canada. There are millions of consumers in the United States and Canada who are served by second-tier Internet providers. These second-tier providers (2T-ISPs) include small town cable operators, small town phone companies, and independent rural WISPs.

How does Mogicho work?

Mogicho movie content is secured & stored locally on the NetEqualizer at the 2T-ISP NOC. Video is streamed through the 2T-ISP Access Points directly to customers. Video is available at higher speeds than today, as each customer is not competing with all customers for video to come through the M-ISP throttling point.

s3Looking for more announcements this spring on Mogicho, and if you have questions, contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

Best Of The Blog

Guest Article From a WISP Owner in the Trenches

By Rory Conaway – Triad Wireless

Editors Note: A great read if you are thinking of starting a WISP and need a little inspiration. Re-posted with permission from Rory Conaway, Triad Wireless. Rory is president and CEO of Triad Wireless, an engineering and design firm in Phoenix. Triad Wireless specializes in unique RF data and network designs for municipalities, public safety and educational campuses. E-mail comments to rory@triadwireless.net.

Tales from the Towers – Chapter 50: CRY ‘HAVOC!’, AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR

Interesting fellow that Shakespeare because not only did he write plays, he also acted in them. And although Tales from the Towers doesn’t hold a candle (pre-electric times, you can groan now) to Mr. William’s contributions to culture, I have a double life too. If you haven’t guessed it yet, writing articles really isn’t my full-time job (my wife is giving me the look that says I should find another hobby), I actually run a WISP, do installs, and handle tech support calls. After 10 years though, and many mistakes and successes, I’ve decided to rethink my network from the ground up as if I was starting tomorrow and share that.

The idea is to help lay out a simplified road map that will bring forth thousands of new WISPs into the market that can start breaking down the digital divide without taxpayer money and creating a new business. Since a thousand bee stings can take out the biggest animal, the more companies that jump into the industry, the better the chances of competing against the incumbents. It’s time to open the floodgates of small business entrepreneurs and begin the war for last mile bandwidth delivery everywhere. And although few outside Star Trek fans will recognize one of Shakespeare’s most famous sayings, they will recognize this modern variation, “Who let the dogs out”! Hopefully it’s the WISP industry…
Photo Of The Month

IMG_0948

Storm Chasing Convention
Given the fact that the winter weather has been so severe this year, Art decided to check in with Greg Forbes (The Weather Channel severe weather expert) at a local storm chaser convention. Here he is with him last weekend. Unfortunately, after talking with him, he can’t make any promises about good weather in the spring.
Posted in Newsletters. Tags: , , , , , . 1 Comment »

NetEqualizer News: December 2013

December 20, 2013 — netequalizer

December 2013

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we discuss new features planned for 2014, announce our FlyAway Contest winner, give you a heads-up on some options for your old NE2000 devices, and highlight NetGladiator enhancements. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

As the year comes to a close, we are wrapping up our 2013 goals and now starting to look ahead to 2014! I am excited about art_canoe_picturewhere I see 2014 taking APconnections and the NetEqualizer and NetGladiator. You will see our continued commitment to investing in our platforms, from our 2014 planned features for NetEqualizer, to our strengthening of the NetGladiator product, and finally our ongoing work to enhance the NCO caching module. Once you read about our plans, I think you will be excited too! We share them in this newsletter, so that you can start mapping out your plan for 2014 as well…

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

Planned NEW Features for 2014

The New Year is the perfect time to start thinking about new features for NetEqualizer! It is also a great time for you to start thinking about upgrading your device to the latest software.

2013 saw a lot of changes for NetEqualizer and for 2014 we plan on building on that base even more. In 2014, keep an eye out for some of these exciting new ideas:

1) Expanded caching – We’ve been enhancing our NetEqualizer Caching Option (NCO) for the the last several months and you should expect even more from this add-on feature in 2014.  We are testing out larger SSD drives, assessing whether Netflix can be cached, and looking for even more caching opportunities.

2) Heuristic-based identification – This is a really cool concept that we are currently developing. It is based on the idea that each user has their own unique “path” once they join the network. Knowing that path can help to identify users. The principles apply to both bandwidth optimization and security. Over the next year we’ll be implementing this idea and seeing what value it could add to both our NetEqualizer and NetGladiator product lines. See the next article, NetGladiator Continues to Grow, for more information.

3) Bigger, better, faster Reporting (RTR) – We have received very positive feedback on our initial RTR rollout, and our enhanced RTR Traffic Reports, which are currently in Beta.

We now feel it is time to expand RTR, with a goal to completely replace our ntop historical reporting by end of 2014.

We spent a lot of time in 2013 improving our user interface, and our commitment to making NetEqualizer easy to use will show in 2014 as well. Expect new features in our Dynamic Real-Time Reporting tool including, but not limited to:
– ntop-like historical data tracking
– Pool and VLAN drill-down reports
– Time of day configuration interface
– Penalty graphs over time
– and more!

These features will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running version 7.0+ (NCO features will require NCO). If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

NetGladiator Continues to Grow

Our investment in IPS continues!
We are starting to plan some new features for NetGladiator in 2014, including some exciting heuristic-based identification capability. Deep in the world of network authentication lies a hidden signature. The hidden signature of behavior – the websites you visit, the paths you take, the things you pause on. Just like your fingerprints, your signature when you enter a Network is unique. We’ll be implementing this idea of heuristic-based identification throughout the year – let us know what you think!

Also, we have talked to some of you in 2013 regarding your IPS needs. If you are looking for a simple, elegant, and affordable way to protect your web applications, you should think about the NetGladiator. You should also consider taking our Hacking Challenge to see if your web applications are safe and secure!netgladiator_logo Contact us at:

ips@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

to discuss your security needs.

Our Next Local Linux Talk

Our CTO, Art Reisman, will be speaking at another local linux user group in early January.

The Boulder Linux Users Group will host the event in downtown Boulder, CO on January 9, 2014 at 6pm. Boulder is one of the biggest technology hotbeds outside of Silicon Valley, and we think there will be a lot of interesting discussion and ideas that come out of this meeting.

If you are in the Boulder, CO area at the time, feel free to stop on by!

And the FlyAway Contest Winner is…

Every few months, we have a drawing to give away two round-trip domestic airline tickets from Frontier Airlines to one lucky person who’s recently tried out our online NetEqualizer demo.

The time has come to announce this round’s winner.frontier airlines

And the winner is…

Jeff Gay at Morrisville State College! 

Congratulations, Jeff!

Please contact us within 30 days (by January 17, 2014) at:

admin@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

to claim your prize!

Some Options for Your NE2000

Earlier this year, we announced that we are discontinuing our NE2000 series, and are moving the NE2000 license levels (20, 50, 100, and 150Mbps) onto the NE3000 platform. This change was made to get ready for our 7.0+ 64-bit releases, and also to take advantage of multi-core processing. We also felt that it was time to consolidate on the NE3000 platform.

We have talked to many of you regarding this change. However, if you have not already talked to us about trading in your NE2000, we offer a generous 50% trade-in credit of your original unit purchase price towards a new unit (1 trade-in credit per unit purchased please).NE2000 options differ depending on when your NE2000 was purchased. Some of the more recent NE2000’s (purchases from August 2011 and later) can run our 7.0+ software, and these customers will be able to get support AFTER 12/31/2014 on these units.  For units purchased prior to August 20011 that cannot run 7.0+, support will be offered through 12/13/2014.

Contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

-or-

303-997-1300

to discuss your options.

Best Of The Blog

Latest Notes on the Peer to Peer Front and DMCA Notices

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

Just getting back from our tech talk seminar today at Western Michigan University. The topic of DMCA requests came up in our discussions, and here are some of my notes on the subject.

Background: The DMCA, which is the enforcement arm of the motion picture copyright conglomerate, tracks down users with illegal content.

They seem to sometimes shoot first and ask questions later when sending out their notices more specific detail to follow.

Unconfirmed Rumor has it, that one very large University in the State of Michigan just tosses the requests in the garbage and does nothing with them, I have heard of other organizations taking this tact. They basically claim this problem for the DMCA is not the responsibility of the ISP.

I also am aware of a sovereign Caribbean country that also ignores them. I am not advocating this as a solution just an observation…
Photo Of The Month
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Happy Holidays!
Our CTO, Art Reisman, entered this truck in the Louisville, CO Holiday Parade. It was about 5 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) when it was in the parade. This is the 2nd year that Art has created a “Christmas Truck,” and he uses it to deliver cookies to neighbors as well during the Holiday Season.
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NetEqualizer News: November 2013

November 24, 2013 — netequalizer

November 2013

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we discuss takeaways from our recent Technical Seminar, update you on our 7.4 RTR Beta progress, and highlight recent enhancements to our NetEqualizer Caching Option. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

As we move into the end of 2013, we start once again to sum up the year and think about all we are thankful for. We would like to take this opportunity to THANK YOU all for being a part of our success! We truly enjoy working with each and every one of you, and appreciate your business!thank_you

As most of you know, 2013 was a big year for us – our 10th Anniversary. Looking back, it has gone so fast! Looking forward, we see a bright future with even more opportunity on a global scale. Speaking of global, we had a staff member this month travel to Malaysia to conduct two 1-day training sessions – a national university there, IIUM, has many campuses throughout Malaysia where they employ NetEqualizers. If you are interested in learning more about our training offerings, contact us anytime!

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

2013 Fall Technical Seminar Update

We recently held a half day seminar at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We would like to thank our host, Fawn Callen, for helping us get this event together, and for offering such as great space for the seminar!
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This was a great opportunity for folks to meet with Art in person, pick his brain on all things related to equalizing and caching, and also to share ideas with us on future features.

Here are some of the features that we walked away thinking about:

1) Historical penalty tracking over time – this would be graphical and would help you see an historical trend on how tight your bandwidth is.

2) Enhance the masking feature to allow for more subnets so that organizations can take advantage of ISP-offered bandwidth allotments for traffic such as video.

3) Heuristic-based identification of users based on usage patterns – track individuals not based on IP, necessarily, but based on how they use the Internet, what sites they visit, etc.

Let us know if these are important to you!
neteq seminar logo with border
Contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

Update on 7.4 RTR Beta

We have a great group of customers trying out our 7.4 RTR Beta Software Release – and the results have been very positive!

We are working on making the data logging and graphing more efficient for large networks as well as some other small changes that will help make RTR and NetEqualizer in general even better and more useful!

totaltraffic

We’ll be thoroughly testing our enhancements the rest of November and December and all of those will be incorporated into our official 7.5 Software Release on January 1st.

This Release will be free to customers with valid NetEqualizer Software and Support who are running 7.0+. If you are not current with NSS, contact us today!

sales@apconnections.net

NetEqualizer Caching Enhancements

As we have discussed in previous issues of NetEqualizer News, we’ve been working hard with the folks at Squid to create a more robust custom caching solution for NetEqualizer.

Our enhancements include:

1) An updated caching solution that includes fixes and the latest features from Squid. This is beyond what open source has, and has been greatly improved with help from our Squid development consultant.

2) We are in the process of debating whether or not to include Netflix in future implementations of our caching. In relation to the NetEqualizer, the cost for doing this could be a bit high. However, there is good news. Providers are starting to offer Netflix traffic at a greatly reduced rate to their clients. We’ve already built in features that will help these clients take advantage of this offering. You can read more about caching in the cloud and Netflix traffic in the Best Of The Blog section of this newsletter.

For more information on the NetEqualizer Caching Option, read our white paper!

Best Of The Blog

Caching in the Cloud is Here

By Art Reisman – CTO – APconnections

I just got a note from a customer, a University, that their ISP is offering them 200 megabit internet at fixed price. The kicker is, they can also have access to a 1 gigabit feed specifically for YouTube at no extra cost. The only explanation for this is that their upstream ISP has an extensive in-network YouTube cache. I am just kicking myself for not seeing this coming!

I was well-aware that many of the larger ISPs cached NetFlix and YouTube on a large scale, but this is the first I have heard of a bandwidth provider offering a special reduced rate for YouTube to a customer downstream. I am just mad at myself for not predicting this type of offer and hearing about it from a third party.

As for the NetEqualizer, we have already made adjustments in our licensing for this differential traffic to come through at no extra charge beyond your regular license level, in this case 200 megabits. So if for example, you have a 350 megabit license, but have access to a 1Gbps YouTube feed, you will pay for a 350 megabit license, not 1Gbps. We will not charge you for the overage while accessing YouTube…
Photo Of The Month
Petronas Towers – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
As we mentioned in the Newsletter opener, a staff member of ours recently journeyed to Malaysia to conduct training sessions for NetEqualizer in two locations – Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan. The experience was a memorable one – Malaysia is a beautiful country with fantastic food, culture, and people. The 1,483 foot Petronas Towers are a testament to their success.
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NetEqualizer News: October 2013

October 15, 2013 — netequalizer

October 2013

Greetings!

Enjoy another issue of NetEqualizer News! This month, we preview our new RTR features (now available in Beta), reveal the location of our next Technical Seminar, discuss enhancements to our caching option, and remind you to get your web applications secured. As always, feel free to pass this along to others who might be interested in NetEqualizer News.
A message from Art…
Art Reisman, CTO – APconnections

art_smallFall is officially here in Boulder, Colorado. In fact, we had our first hard frost (the overnight low was 29 degrees Fahrenheit) on October 4th, pretty much right on schedule, as our fifty year average is October 6th. As we told you in our last newsletter, we have been planning for a late October harvest for our next release. We are right on track to release Software Update 7.5 in late October and have a Beta version of the new features available NOW. If you would like to get a sneak peek at the new features, learn more below about how to get involved in our 7.4 RTR Beta Test.

We love it when we hear back from you – so if you have a story you would like to share with us of how we have helped you, let us know. Email me directly at art@apconnections.net. I would love to hear from you!

2013 Fall Technical Seminar
neteq seminar logo with border

We are happy to announce the date and time of our 2013 Fall Technical Seminar! Please join our CTO, Art Reisman, at our host site, Western Michigan University, on Tuesday, November 12th, 2013 for a half-day seminar in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

To learn more or register for this FREE technical seminar, sign up here.logo-270x231

Last month we asked for folks to let us know if they would be interested in hosting our next Technical Seminar. We had several people step forward (thank you all!), and from that group, have decided to hold our 2013 Fall Technical Seminar in Michigan.

We think Michigan will be a great place to visit in the fall, are are excited to see the NetEqualizer in action at Western Michigan, a longtime customer who has been using NetEqualizers since early 2008.

If you have any questions regarding the Technical Seminar, contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

We hope to see you there!

NetEqualizer Caching Investment

We have recently partnered with some of the Squid core development team to harden and make our caching the best it can be!

Recent testing with enhancements are showing even better hit ratios for YouTube and other media, resulting in a better caching system for our customers.

The NetEqualizer Caching Option (NCO) is available as an add-on to NetEqualizer systems at additional cost. Caching helps supplement the power of Equalizing by storing high-bandwidth streams locally for internal users.For more information on NCO, click here.If you are interested in adding caching to your system, contact us at:

sales@apconnections.net

Planning for 2014: Do You Need to Secure Your Web Applications?

As we near the end of 2013, many of you may be putting together your 2014 plans.netgladiator_logo If web application security is on your “must have” list for 2014, you might want to take a look at our sister product, the NetGladiator.

We used NetEqualizer’s guiding principles when we developed the NetGladiator: keep it affordable (starting at $3,500 USD), make sure it is easy to set up and maintain, and implement security rules that provide value and make sense without the overkill of most products.

If you would like to learn more, visit our website, take a look at our white paper, or contact us at:

ips@apconnections.net

Not sure if you should be thinking about web application security? Take our hacking challenge to see if your web apps are at risk!

RTR Release and Beta Testing!

We are very excited to announce the release of our new Real-Time Reporting (RTR) tool features!

Here are all the cool new reports/features that you will see in Software Update 7.4 (as well as our Beta version):

The first major enhancement you will see is the ability to look at graphs of all traffic going through the NetEqualizer.

This graph will show you your equalizing ratio and when traffic peaked above that threshold as well as minimum and maximum outputs in the given time frame. This will really help you see how often and when traffic is being Equalized from an historical perspective.

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The other new features revolve around being able to run reports on each IP in your Active Connections table.

Instead of a static table, you will now see links associated with each IP address.
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Click the desired IP address to bring up the reporting interface.

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From here, you can do a number of tasks:

1) Look at historical graphs of traffic to and from the given IP address.

ipgraph

2) Look up the country associated with the IP address.
3) Do an NS Lookup of the IP address to see what name server it is associated with.
4) Show all rules for an IP – this interface shows you what rules currently affect the given IP (hard limits, pools, connection limits, etc.).

allrules

We are currently in Beta on new RTR Features (7.4 Release with RTR Beta), and would like several more customer participants. If you are interested, please email us at:

sales@apconnections.net

so we can see if you are a good fit for the Beta version. We plan to release the new RTR functionality to all customers as Software Update 7.5 in late October.

If you are interested in participating, you need to be current on NSS, and either be on the 7.4 release currently or be willing to upgrade to it. Once on 7.4, we will give you a hot fix to install the new RTR capabilities.

For more information on Software Update 7.4 and our Beta release, click here.

Best Of The Blog

Using OpenDNS on Your Wireless Network to Prevent DMCA Infringements

By Sam Beskur – CTO – Global Gossip

Editor’s Note: APconnections and Global Gossip have partnered to offer a joint hotel service solution, HMSIO. Read our HMSIO service offering datasheet to learn more.

Traffic Filtering with OpenDNS

Abstract
AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) violations which include DMCA infringements on illegal downloads (P2P, Usenet or otherwise) have been hugely troublesome in many locations where we provide public access WiFi. Nearly all major carriers here in the US now have some form of notification system to alert customers when violation occur and the once that don’t send notifications are silently tracking this behavior…
Photo Of The Month

artdoingymca
“It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.” (what’s this?)
At APconnections, we like to maintain a good work-life balance – and that includes having fun at the office. While our CTO, Art Reisman, was off running at the gym, we played this little Halloween “trick” on him.
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