FtBP: End-to-End, B-to-A Part 8/8                   Last time we talked about how a network packet changes through a NAT device, and we finished off the transit of our network packet to Computer B. Today we will follow a network packet from Computer B back to Computer A. Here is the Diagram we will work with:                   ... [More]

FtBP: NAT and PAT Part 7/8                   Last time we talked about how a network packet transverses a VPN tunnel, today we will discuss how a NAT device works. Here is where we left off last time with our network packet:                 L2-[Source MAC: 04-04-04-04-04-04 | Destination MAC: 05-05-05-05-05-05]     ... [More]

FtBP: VPN Tunnels Part 6/8                   Last time we talked about how a firewall will handle a network packet, today we will discuss how a packet gets across a VPN Tunnel. Here is where we left off last time with our network packet:                 L2-[Source MAC: 04-04-04-04-04-04 | Destination MAC: 05-05-05-05-05-05]  &n... [More]

FtBP: Firewalls Part 5/8                   Last time we talked about how a router will direct a network packet, today we will discuss how a packet gets assessed by a network firewall in determining whether to forward the traffic, or squash it. Here is where we left off last time with our network packet:                   L2-[Sour... [More]

  FtBP: Prerequisites Part 1/8                   One understanding that I think has helped me a great deal in troubleshooting problems, and designing networks and services is the evolution of a network packet as it transverses different pieces of network hardware. Today I will try to cover at a high level, the packet creation process, switching to the local Vlan, packet routing, NATing and firewalls, a... [More]

Aren’t Restricted Groups great?  I love how they keep our groups safe.  Now, what are Primary Groups again?  Oh, that’s the Domain Users group, right?  What do Primary Groups have to do with Restricted Groups?  Here’s a scenario… You’re the domain admin for your organization and management just informed you that you need to grant temporary domain admin rights to an application owner to do his install.  You’re not thrilled with t... [More]

The protection and management of built-in administrative groups in Active Directory helps to provide us confidence and security in the stability and ownership of our domain and resources. These groups tend to become overrun with unintended or forgotten membership; requiring our diligent attention and constant effort to maintain. This is really what Restricted Groups are intended for but it rarely seems to be used in this manner. More often we see Restricted Groups being used to protect the loca... [More]