Week 8 Posting - BSIT220-T301 - Physical Firewalls

This might be obvious to many, but I discovered it when researching this week's assignments. I didn't know that there were physical firewalls. I'm sure I read about them earlier, but things go over my head when I am not paying attention to irrelevant things. I learned that they have physical devices between the routers that can filter out threats as they come to the device. It is an excellent layer of protection for devices, and having a device like this for all businesses makes complete sense. Security is about redundancies, and having a firewall before a firewall is another one of those things that should be obvious. 

Week 7 Posting - BSIT220-T301 - Didn't Know This About My Router

 I had yet to learn that my current router came with built-in security, and it even lets you see the potential threats it protected your devices from. I just got the router because I live in a house full of gamers, and it was recommended for its speed and reliability. So, learning earlier while researching for the written assignment and checking out everything my router does, I was blown away to see all of the different threats the router has defending our home network from. Not only that, but it can also be used to set up a VPN and add an existing VPN so that it protects the entire network and not just one device. I am curious to know if these are the default features of every router now; I am just happy that they exist in the one I am using. 

Week 6 Posting - BSIT220-T301 - So Many Addresses

 When doing research into IPv6 and finding out how it alone solved the issue of running out of IP addresses, I began to wonder if it would even be possible to run out of IP addresses using IPv6. Due to the number of addresses available from IPv6, it would not be possible to hit that limit any time soon. However, reaching that limit is still possible due to the finite amount. One thing I found funny while researching this is that the amount of possible IP addresses from IPv6 is more than one hundred times the number of atoms on the surface of the Earth. So, it would be likely to run out since there is not an infinite number of IP addresses. Given what we know today, it might be endless due to the near-zero chance it will ever reach that limit.

Week 5 Posting - BSIT220-T301 - Network TAPs

When doing research for the written assignment, I ran into network TAPs. Still new in the IT game, I wanted to understand better what they were and how they are the alternative to port mirroring. I discovered many network TAPs, like Aggregation TAPs and regeneration TAPs. Still, the two most commonly used for network traffic monitoring are passive and active TAPs.

One major problem shared between the network TAPs and port mirroring is the packet drops that can occur when creating a copy of the data and sending it to the monitoring device. Different applications can help with packet loss, but it is still something inherent to these types of devices.

I would love to see one in action so I can see in person how they can actually assist in security because it's one thing to read about them and watch videos online. Still, seeing it firsthand and being shown how and what to look out for would make a huge difference.