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Packets Down Range #15: Data Center builds, broadband funding continues, e-mail
Lots of things happening in the news this week. For the first time in a while, I have enough content for the Patreon edition. I am also starting a new thing. If you have a notable photo you would like featured in the “Photo of the week,” send them to me. The Patreon edition is now live, and items will be added shortly.
Data Center News
•Data Center Frontier talks about the eight Data Center trends for 2023.
•Microsoft to build a new Data Center in Des Moines.
•Does how a data center looks influence your decision to buy? Wes Swenson of Novva Data Centers says it does.
•Green, a Swiss Data Center operator, launches a new data center campus in Zurich.
•Vantage Data Centers to build a 430,000-square-foot Data Center in London. In addition to the development of its London campus, Vantage has completed the first phase (12MW) of a second 40MW facility at its growing Cardiff campus, located in Wales, the second largest data center market in the U.K. The new facility boasts one of the lowest power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratios across all of Vantage’s facilities thanks in part to its extremely energy efficient indirect evaporative free cooling system, which negates the need for compressors in the cooling cycle.
Backbone Provider News
•Lumen expands 400G footprint.
Cloud Front
•Otava is in the running for the 2022-2023 cloud awards.
•Office 365 outage last week caused by a router IP change. Following this incident, Microsoft says that it’s now blocking highly impactful commands from being executed and that it will also require all command execution to follow guidelines for safe configuration changes.
ISP News
•Texas gets $363 million in Federal Grants for high-speed internet. The funds, administered through the federal Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, will bring much-needed service to about 152,000 locations across the state. The BOOT program will begin accepting applications for broadband expansion projects in spring 2023.
•T-Mobile should stop using “fast” and “reliable when it comes to their Fixed Wireless. Rival Comcast has brought a complaint so take this with a grain of salt.
•Fixed Wireless companies fight to be included in the BEAD program. In recent months, representatives from the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) and member companies like Tarana Wireless have held meetings with staff at NTIA to discuss their concerns and provide evidence that fixed wireless over unlicensed spectrum is as reliable as other technologies approved for BEAD funds.
•UPN expands to Lawrence, Kansas.
•Challenges of Rural broadband.
•New Farm Bill aimed to help broadband access. This seems heavily lobbied and aimed toward helping the rural electric co-ops.
•In a Captain Obvious moment. AT&T has a lot of useless landlines. And guess what? It is expensive!
•In previous PDR’s I have talked about layoffs. AT&T and Verizon cut a combined 9,400 employees last quarter alone.
Tech Topics
•DNS Tunneling Threats The goal of this hunt is to review DNS logs to baseline common domains queried by endpoints in the environment as well as identify potentially infected endpoints by looking for evidence of DNS tunneling,rogue communication, or data exfiltration, over DNS channels, domain generation algorithm (DGA) domains, and traffic to risky top level domains (TLDs
•Cloudflare overtakes Apache and Nginx as the top web server.
•A couple of e-mail-related bits from ISIPP. Four states now have e-mail opt-in and privacy laws. Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah are among a growing number of states looking to crack down on e-mail privacy and data collection issues. Google ends its Verified Sender Pilot Program for political plans
•Are you going to Nanog87? I am. To catch a great topic, check out Exploring the Fundamentals of DNS by Eddy Winstead.
Photo of the Week
If you find this newsletter helpful and informative, please consider becoming a Patreon for just $3 a month. My goal is to have 300 new Patreons by the end of February. I also have Paypal if you would like to send a donation. If you have news about your company or things you may find relevant, Submit any news here.
Please consider becoming a sponsor by advertising or becoming a Patreon or donating any amount via Paypal for additional content. #packetsdownrange packetsdownrange.com.
Packets Down Range #15: Patreon Edition
This content is for Patreon subscribers of the j2 blog. Please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber for as little as $1 a month. This helps to provide higher quality content, more podcasts, and other goodies on this blog.
Unlock with PatreonPackets Down Range #14:Virgina Data Centers, more job cuts, Paypal breach
Amazon delivered my new 49″ curved monitor today. It reminds me how much I love tech and new gadgets. I wanted to thank each and every one of you who are Patreons. In December, I had the unfortunate time of hitting a dear in texas. Due to all of the airbags deploying, the car of my dreams was totaled. I am getting closer each day to my goal of replacing the vehicle. This would not be possible without your support. Anyway, on to the news.
Data Center News
•Virginia makes it easier for Data Centers to build in their state. CyrusOne buys land in northern Virginia.
•Can a data center heat homes? QTS and others are putting this theory to the test in the Netherlands.
Sponsor
ISP News
•Comcast outs Verizon as the fastest ISP...at least for now.
•At the same time Verizon has the best network quality, according to J.D. Power. For the 30th consecutive time, the latest J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Study, Volume 1, names Verizon as the most awarded brand for Wireless Network Quality. Verizon has now earned more than 185 J.D. Power Awards for Network Quality, which is more than any other U.S. network provider in the history of this study.
•unWired Broadband increases capacity in Laton, CA.
•Vistabeam acquires Raicom. Benkelman, NE – As part of its mission to bridge the digital divide, Vistabeam is pleased to announce that on December 1, 2022, it acquired Raicom, the fixed wireless division of BWTelcom.
•Sandvine talks about Internet traffic patterns and usage. The report, by Sandvine, says there was a 24% year-on-year increase in video traffic in H1 2022, alongside a 23% rise in overall Internet traffic, despite an end to pandemic-era lockdowns in many countries
•Kansas awards money to AT&T, Nex-Tech, and others.
Other Tech News
•Google Lays off more workers.
•RouterOS Version 7.7 is out
ªLooking to upgrade your phone soon? You may want to hold off a bit for the new models.
•Capital one lays off 1,100 Tech workers
•Paypal Breach. PayPal is sending out data breach notifications to thousands of users who had their accounts accessed through credential stuffing attacks that exposed some personal data. Credential stuffing are attacks where hackers attempt to access an account by trying out username and password pairs sourced from data leaks on various websites.
Photo of the Week
If you find this newsletter helpful and informative, please consider becoming a Patreon for just $3 a month. My goal is to have 300 new Patreons by the end of February. I also have Paypal if you would like to send a donation. If you have news about your company or things you may find relevant, Submit any news here.
Please consider becoming a sponsor by advertising or becoming a Patreon or donating any amount via Paypal for additional content. #packetsdownrange packetsdownrange.com.
Packets Down Range #13:Acquistions and other news
One of the most incredible things this week is the updates to the cloud flare speed test. Lots of things were analyzed, with a lot of questions on why. I will have a blog post separately about this.
Sponsor
ISP News
•WANRACK to acquire KwikCom. WANRack, LLC (“WANRack”), a national leader of custom fiber optic network deployments headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Iola, Kansas-based JMZ Corporation d/b/a KwiKom Communications (“KwiKom”). KwiKom builds and operates fiber optic and fixed wireless broadband networks that serve residential and business customers in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The two companies will continue operating under their respective brands following the acquisition.
•ImOn to acquire FiberComm. ImOn Communications, LLC (“ImOn”), a leading provider of fiber broadband services in Eastern Iowa since 2007, announces today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FiberComm, pending regulatory approvals. FiberComm has been providing high quality Internet and voice services to businesses in the Sioux City market for over 20 years.
•Secruity concerns for Electic company networks as they get into broadband.
Other Industry News
•CloudFlare launches a speedtest.
•UK article says net neutrality is failing everyone, basically.
ARIN has a route registry FAQ. If you participate in BGP you should be using an IRR.
•Blue Star Innovation invests in Sonar. Blue Star Innovation Partners (“BSIP”), a growth focused investment firm that partners with leading software and payments companies, announced today their investment in Sonar Software, a leading provider of BSS & OSS solutions for Internet Service Providers.
•US Cellular companies having issues replacing Huawei and ZTE equipment.
•A TOR user’s IP address was obtained by the FBI. This isn’t supposed to be possible.
•PTC23 is happening.
•States are asking users to help sort out broadband mapping and coverage. My home state of Indiana is one. Nevada is another.
Technical Tidbits
•Has TCP outlived its usefulness in the Data Center?
•The flaws of Speedtests. This an excellent article you should read if you are an ISP.
•Are you in the Defense space? Cambium networks GDS.
•BGP in 2022. One reason why APNIC Labs is interested in the behaviour of the routing system is that at its heart the routing system has no natural self-constraint.
If you find this newsletter helpful and informative, please consider becoming a Patreon for just $3 a month. My goal is to have 300 new Patreons by the end of February. I also have Paypal if you would like to send a donation. If you have news about your company or things you may find relevant, Submit any news here.
Please consider becoming a sponsor by advertising or becoming a Patreon or donating any amount via Paypal for additional content. #packetsdownrange packetsdownrange.com.
Packets Down Range #12: Arista, Nanog, Frontier
2023 is here and in full swing. One of the biggest things to remember years ago was to remember to write the new year when you dated checks. How times have changed. Those few checks that are written are automated these days. I know there are checkwriters out there, but that practice is slowly dwindling.
If you find this newsletter helpful and informative please consider becoming a Patreon for just $3 a month. My goal is to have 300 new Patreons by the end of February. I also have Paypal if you would like to send a donation. If you have news about your company or things you may find relevant Submit any news here.
Data Center & Cloud News
•Top 10 Data Center Stories of 2022 according to Datacenterfrontier.com
Interconnection News
•Everstream has an updated map of its network.
•Nanog 87 is coming to Atlanta.
ISP News
•England has Mandated all new homes must have gigabit Internet Available. Do you think this is overreach or on target?
•AT&T goes into cost-cutting mode. Pascal Desroches, CFO at AT&T, laid out the company’s financial strategy very clearly at yesterday’s Citi 2023 Communications, Media & Entertainment Conference. He said the playbook “is very boring but very important: drive earnings growth, pay an attractive dividend and strengthen our balance sheet.”
•Frontier sets record in Q4 2022. Frontier (NASDAQ: FYBR) reported that it added 75,000 fiber broadband customers in the fourth quarter of 2022, a new record for the company.
•Wisper Internet Celebrates 20 years.
•The FCC extends comments on the new broadband labels. After adopting rules for broadband labels late last year, the FCC is now extending the comment window on its further notice of proposed rulemaking for the labels until March 16, 2023.
Podcasts & Blogs
•Preseem S1 Episode 4 is now out.
•Network Break 412 from PacketPushers
Other Industry News
•We have mentioned WIFI7 in the past. EnGenius is talking more about its strategy.
•Arista has posted some validated configurations for their products. More manufacturers should do this in a similar manner.
•411 is being sunsetted for many. This is not surprising. Texting and data have surpassed phone calls for gaining information.
•Google Stadia is set to shut down on January 18th.
•FastnetMon has an article on BGP communities
A cool video on installing ducts and vaults.
Please consider becoming a sponsor by advertising or becoming a Patreon or donating any amount via Paypal for additional content. #packetsdownrange packetsdownrange.com
ISPs new years resolutions 2023 edition
If you are an ISP, you should do the following this year.
- Enable HTTPS on your website. I see many ISPs who do not have HTTPS enabled on your domains. The biggest reason to do this is so google will “crawl” your site.
- Apply for IP space from your local RIR. For North America, this is ARIN. It’s easier than you think and is still available.
- Have contact info on your website that is easy to get to.
- Mention your service areas in detail. I see too many companies not list the states they cover. If you cover a town called Washington, which one of the 88 “Washingtons” in the United States do you cover? Also, have text descriptions. Search engines are still a big deal.
- Automate your Social media and blog. Not everyone uses Facebook. Not everyone uses Twitter. Not everyone uses both. Some tools can instantly post updates to your social media from one platform. I use WordPress plugins on the blog to do this. An up-to-date web presence engages with potential customers and current customers.
- Update your contact info with critical resources. ARIN WHOIS comes to mind.
- Spin up your own DNS resolvers
- Rollout IPV6
- Cleanup your Monitoring
- Offer Voice, even if it’s just to businesses. This can open doors to broadband funding.
- Start collecting and categorizing data. Centralize log management, know who visits your website, what keywords they use, and network-related data are just a few things you should know.
- Create a centralized Management network to increase security and flexibility.
If you need help doing any of this, I have some time available on a consulting basis to help. Reach out to me here. I have a special going on for hours of time. These are extremely limited, though.
Packets Down Range #11:Retro NSA, Colorado, Nvidia
2022 has come and gone. Welcome, 2023! As, with any other year, not much news this time of year from the connectivity world. Submit any news here.
Data Center & Cloud News
•Some retro news on the country’s largest “spy center“. This article has some interesting tidbits on a data center the NSA constructed in 2013.
•Iron Mountain gives us a 360 video tour of their AZP-1 facility outside of Phoenix, Arizona.
•Google puts the pause button on their Becker, Minnesota Data Center along with other Data Center expansions.
•Looking for your fix of Data Center photos? Data Center Frontier is on Instagram. You can also check out my own Instagram feed, which often has networking-related photos.
•Nvidia is doing great in the Data Center Space. Intel Makes their own moves.
ISP News
•Sonar has a post on using their Billing software to fight inflation”. While this is skewed toward their software, it has some good points for ISPs.
•AltaFiber coming to Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
•Colorado passes a law that excludes local governments from entering the broadband market.
Artticle #2: The municipal broadband movement got a boost in Colorado as residents in 26 cities and towns and 17 counties voted to overturn a law that limited local communities from building a broadband business even in areas where incumbent telcos and cable operators have refused to upgrade facilities.
•KWIKOM expands Kansas footprint.
Podcasts & Blogs
•Tony Mattke over at RouterJockey has an article on AI and Machine learning in InfoSec.
•TheNetworkBerg has a video on ZeroTier
•Could AAPanel be an alternative to Virtualmin? Willie Howe has a video on aaPanel.
Other Industry News
•The workforce attitude toward working from anywhere is changing.
•HTTP thirty years later. At over thirty years old, HTTP is still the foundation of the web and one of the Internet’s most popular protocols—not just for browsing, watching videos and listening to music, but also for apps, machine-to-machine communication, and even as a basis for building other protocols, forming what some refer to as a “second waist” in the classic Internet hourglass diagram.
•Netflix’s new studio is a 300-acre previous Army Base in New Jersey.
•The FBI’s Infragard network has been hacked.
Please consider becoming a sponsor by advertising or becoming a Patreon or donating any amount via Paypal for additional content. #packetsdownrange packetsdownrange.com
