Tech·Ed 2007 - Day 4: TLC Fun! (Recap)
Once more, I'm plagued by horrifically poor bandwidth on the hotel network.
After having dinner with Sean (aka Seanv6) at the Bahama Breeze, and dodging some hardcore downpours with lots of loud thunder and nearby lightening to boot, I returned to my humble temporary abode to check email, surf for interesting tidbits to kick-off my Thursday afternoon IPsec session with, and -- YIKES! -- discover 89 kbps download rates.
I normally travel with one of them Linksys Wireless-G Travel Routers, which provides a bit of wireless freedom even if the hotel doesn't offer such. Turns out that the hotel has both wired (including a "bank pen like attached CAT-5 cable -- see picture below) and wireless.
I went through every possible iteration of connectivity options, and actually discovered that my private WLAN yielded better transfer rates than being plugged in directly on the hotel's copper, or using their WLAN.
Amazing!
Sean shared similar frustration, and we both wondered why a conference town like Orlando doesn't have more than "two-cans with string" type network access to the "Internets".
This morning was a little bit better:
Anyhow.
Yesterday afternoon I delivered my "Enabling Policy-Driven Network Access" TLC Interactive Theater session (formerly known as Chalk Talks), to a great audience. The session was (more or less) a mini-breakout, and it appeared to be well received. We talked about a long list of built-in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista network security functionality that can help you embrace more policy-driven network access.
The topics included:
- Windows Firewall with Advanced Security (aka the new Windows Firewall)
- IPsec enhancements
- Server and Domain Isolation
- Secure Wireless LAN
- Network Access Protection
If you attended the session, but would like a copy of the presentation deck (which is not up on CommNet) please contact me.
We also had a little fun yesterday with the Virtual TechEd Security Track folks. Brian Seitz shot a video of (approx. 10 minutes) me and Rodrigo (our MVP) talking about Server and Domain Isolation on the show floor, and Rodrigo's experience deploying the solution at his university in Brazil.
Check it out:
You can see more cool stuff like this up on Brian's blog at: http://brianseitz.spaces.live.com.
For fans of my session from the Tuesday (SRV310 - Deploying High Performance and Scalable Networking with Windows Server 2008), here's an article that talks about the Tolly Group performance report that will be posted to MSCOM very shortly (I promise!) that John Fontana from Network World posted yesterday afternoon:
Microsoft-sponsored study says Vista improves TCP/IP performance
Okay, time to get sorted and over to The O.C.C.C.! I have one more session this afternoon SEC309 - Implementing the IPsec Simple Policy Update for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Here's the abstract:
Common IPsec-based scenarios, like Server and Domain Isolation, require the configuration of an IPsec policy that contains rules for protected and permitted traffic. For some enterprise deployments, the IPsec policy rules can require hundreds of IP filter definitions that must be maintained over time. The Simple Policy Update for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 changes the behavior of IPsec negotiation so that the IPsec policy rules can be simplified, in some cases drastically reducing the number of required IP filters and their ongoing maintenance. This session dives into what these changes are and how they can be applied to both existing and new deployments of Server and Domain Isolation.
Don't forget to stop by the show floor (aka the Yellow TLC) and say hello!
-- hama