Windows Hosts File
The Windows Hosts file allows you to map IP addresses to host names, it is another method used in domain name resolution! For instance, the hosts file may become handy when your DNS servers are unavailable or data within these servers is incorrect. Also, it can help when new DNS records have not yet replicated to all DNS servers or when you need to test a copy of your website on a backup host. Although, you can use an IP address to directly contact a host, there are instances such as when connecting to web sites sharing a single IP address, where this is not possible.
Categories: Management Tags: DNS, DNS record, hosts, hosts file, IP address, name resolution, nslookup
Configuring WFAS Rules
The best to way to understand WFAS (Windows Firewall with Advanced Security) is by setting up a test rule as we are going to see in this article. We will configure a firewall rule that accepts only authenticated RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) connections from hosts on a specific or same subnet:
Categories: Security Tags: connections, firewall rules, inbound, IP, IP address, protocol, RDP, subnet, TCP, WFAS, windows firewall
Creating Firewall Rules using WFAS
Windows Firewall and WFAS work together on Windows 7 computers. WFAS allows you to configure inbound and outbound firewall rules based on ports, programs, and services. In addition, it allows you to set a rule scope and authentication. In this article we will see the main configuration elements you need to know when creating firewall rules using the WFAS.
Categories: Security Tags: connection security rules, Firewall, firewall rules, inbound, interface, IP, IP address, outbound, rule scope, traffic, WFAS, windows firewall
Configuring IPv6
As with IPv4 configurations, with IPv6 you can either set an automated address configuration through DHCPv6 or configure an address manually. The Netsh command gives you the ability to set all parameters but in this article we will focus on configuring the interface using the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) GUI from the Network and Sharing Center.
Categories: Networking Tags: advfirewall, Firewall, GUI, ICMPv6, IP address, netsh, TCP/IP
Understanding IPv6
IPv6 uses 128 bits as opposed to 32 bits of an IPv4 address and this results in a new address space of 2pow128 that is, over 4 billion of available addresses. IPv6 allows for multiple levels of subnetting. The enormous address space created by the 128 bit format give us the option of allocating more than one IPv6 address to a host, with each address serving a specific purpose. In IPv6 we find addresses that are equivalent to IPv4 types and others that are unique to IPv6.
Categories: Networking Tags: global, IP address, IPv4, IPv6, multicast, unicast
IPv6 Advantages
As you might be aware that we are running out of IPv4 Public addresses and that’s coming soon! Check some stats here - However, this does not mean the end of the IPv4 Internet as most service providers may still have quite a number of addresses while they can reclaim back unused ones. However, moving on to IPv6 has big advantages and this article deals briefly with the advantages that IPv6 has over IPv4.
Categories: Networking Tags: header, IP address, IPsec, IPv4, IPv6, ND, Neighbor Discover, QoS
IPv6 Compatibility Addresses
IPv6 provides a set of compatibility addresses that help users migrate from IPv4 to IPv6 and these are IPv4-compatible, IPv4-mapped, 6to4 and Teredo addresses.
IPv4-Compatible Address
An IPv4-compatible address consists of an initial colon-hexadecimal notation and an ending dotted decimal notation as we find in IPv4. For example, 0:0:0:0:0:0:w.x.y.z or ::w.x.y.z, the last four octets represent an IPv4 address. IPv4-compatible addresses are used by hosts that are communicating with IPv6 over an IPv4 infrastructure. When an IPv4-compatible address is used as an IPv6 destination, the IPv6 traffic is automatically encapsulated with an IPv4 header.
Categories: Networking Tags: 6to4, compatible, IP, IP address, IPv4, IPv6, mapped, teredo
