iPhone Unlocked! Kudos to George Hotz

Kudos to George Hotz who, in case you haven't watched cable news the last couple of days, is the FIRST to unlock the iPhone and make it accessible to other GSM carriers. To me, what makes this story so interesting and compelling is not the unlocking of the iPhone itself, but, rather, George Hotz's truly admirable belief that information should be free.

I guess it's a good thing Tim Berners-Lee felt the same way as George!

Network Tip: Best Online Subnet Calculator - Part II

I am learning that, in technology, "best" is a most ephemeral adjective; more appropriate would be "best at the moment." And, indeed, "moment" can seemingly be of quite a short duration. Thus, it would be a disservice for me not to bring attention to another online subnet calculator I came across at, fittingly, subnet-calculator.com

Beyond the standard IP subnet calculator, subnet-calculator.com provides you with - are you sitting down? - a wildcard mask calculator and a CIDR calculator. Anyone who deals with access-lists and/or OSPF will relish having that wildcard mask calculator.

Yes, this is the best online subnet calculator I have come across - at the moment!

Tech on Tech Plusmo Widget

Anyone with a smartphone, and yes, even an iPhone, can now keep up with the latest on Tech on Tech. Indeed, someone was nice enough, I just discovered, to add this blog as a Plusmo Widget.

Just go to Plusmo and then Add a Widget; in the search bar enter "Tech on Tech"

Thank you!

Network Tip: Private Internet Addresses (RFC 1918)

If you have a home router, you probably are familiar with the 192.168.x.x network; this is one of the 3 reserved blocks of private addresses as specified under RFC 1918.

The reserved private address blocks are as follows:

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

Private addresses are non-routable (i.e. not used on the Internet) addresses.

Network Tip: Best Online Subnet Calculator

When working in networking, you will inevitably have to determine the addressing (or, often, re-addressing) of the devices with which you are working. While it is good to understand the basics of binary math, it is better to have handy a good (or, better, great) subnet calculator. Some time ago, I recommended the SolarWinds subnet calculator; now, I would like to recommend a web subnet calculator for those times when you don't have access to your SolarWinds calculator. If you head over to SubnetOnline, you will find a bevy of great resources, such as subnetting guides and, of course, subnetting calculators. SubnetOnline's subnet calculator is particularly helpful because it provides you with exactly the information you need when you enter in your host IP address: start and end host addresses, network and broadcast addresses, max. # of hosts and more!

If you need to subnet, bookmark this calculator; I have added it to my Links section as well.