We feature technical articles across the entire IT spectrum - Networking, security, operating systems, cloud, and programming.

Create a Multiline Cell Based CSV File Within Python

Within this short tutorial we will show you the steps required to create a csv file that includes multi-line cells within Python. In order to create a mutliline cell within Excel (2010/2013) the following is required: newlines are represented with a carriage return/newline, the string should be wrapped in quotes. One of the great things … Read more

Juniper SRX – High Availability (Active / Passive Simple)

The Juniper SRX offers 4 types of High Availability (HA) deployment, Active/Passive Simple Active/Passive Full Mesh Active/Active Deployment Active/Passive Transparent Mode Within this article we will look at Active/Passive Simple upon a SRX 240 series device. Summary Active/Passive is the most common type of HA deployment and consists of 2 firewall members. Whilst one node … Read more

Optimize Throughput of a VPN across a WAN-based Link

How can I optimize the throughput of a VPN across a WAN based link ? I was recently asked this question the other day by a client, after seeing the results (in which the transfer speeds were nearly tripled) I thought it would make an interesting article. Background My client had a VPN (Site to … Read more

What is the difference between a Soft and Hard SA timeout ?

The are 2 main types of SA (Security Association) lifetimes ; soft and hard. Soft lifetime – The soft lifetime defines the number of seconds until the IKE process is informed that the SA is about to expire. This is to provide enough time for the creation of a new SA before the hard lifetime … Read more

Connect to a serial device using a USB-to-Serial Convertor in Linux

For years, I had ran my Prolific USB to Serial cable from my Windows 32bit laptop without any issues. Unfortunately, life when running Windows is never easy. After upgrading Windows 7 to 64bit I tried to install the drivers from CNET downloads. This was a HUGE mistake. Even though the CNET downloader told me it … Read more

Django – How do I create a custom login page ?

Within this article we will look at how to permit only authenticated users to a view via the use of a custom login form. SETTINGS First of all a few changes need to be made to the settings.py file. Such as + ‘django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware’ to MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES + ‘django.contrib.auth’ and ‘django.contrib.contenttypes’to INSTALLED_APPS Once done update your database by … Read more

Incapsula: Protect & Secure Your Website in 10 Minutes

What is Incapsula ? Incapsula is a cloud based service that provides the ability to add further security and also improve the performance of any website in a matter of minutes via a few simple DNS changes.   How does it work ? Incapsula works by routing traffic via its global CDN network prior to … Read more

Python – Decorators

A decorator provides a simplified way to pass one callable object to another (i.e a class or function). The main benefit of decorators is that it allows you to clearly state where and what objects are being passed to each other. Typically this can be achieved by the following. Without Decorators As you can see, … Read more

Python – What does ‘if __name__ == “__main__”‘ mean ?

Within a Python program you may see the following syntax, if __name__ == “__main__”:    …(your code)… What does this mean ? When a Python program is run directly it runs within the __main__ namespace. However when a python script is imported as a module it runs within its own namespace. This statement checks the namespace … Read more