The Open System Interconnect (OSI) network model, referred to by many as simply a stack, is in fact a well-designed, layered architecture for efficient intersystem and intrasystem communications. In ...

First, and foremost, the OSI stack is just a theoretical reference model. There is no actual OSI software. It has been around since about 1980, and it is based upon recommendations from the ITU-T and ...

Other tips in this series have examined the seven-layer OSI model from the perspective of security. Although security was not the No. 1 goal of the designers of the OSI model, the idea behind these ...

Peeling back the layers of IoT devices reveals most of them are nothing more than what are already on the Internet in the form of present-day M2M devices. In just six years, according to Cisco Systems ...

Getting started on designing a network is a task of formidable proportions, but all the more so if you are looking to build a secure IT network. Often, IT system administrators are not fully familiar ...

Morey Haber, Chief Security Advisor at BeyondTrust, is an identity and technical evangelist with over 25 years of IT industry experience. Recently, I was reminiscing with a colleague about unique ...

Knowledge of the structure of Internet Protocol (IP) packets is a fundamental part of understanding the Internet and how information moves from one point to another. The benefits of such knowledge ...

Whether it’s wired or wireless, most data communications today happens by way of packets of information travelling over one or more networks. But before these networks can work together, though, they ...

Not long after you begin to work in computing, the truth of Murphy’s Law — “What can go wrong, will” — becomes apparent. As you move on to networking, you realize the reality of Murphy’s Law of ...