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Wireshark is a software application for protocol and network traffic analysis, also known as a network sniffer. The application can be downloaded for free at https://www.wireshark.org/#download. I downloaded Wireshark from the url and selected the macOS 10.6 .dmg file. I was able to successfully mount the download image and run the package installer which kept all the default settings with the following installed in my system: /Applications/Wireshark.app. The main Wireshark application. /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist. A launch daemon that adjusts permissions on the system’s packet capture devices (/dev/bpf*) when the system starts up. /Library/Application Support/Wireshark/ChmodBPF A copy of the launch daemon property list, and the script that the launch daemon runs. /usr/local/bin. A wrapper script and symbolic links which will let you run Wireshark and its associated utilities from the command line. You can access them directly or by adding /usr/local/bin to your PATH if it’s not already in your PATH. (Source: Wireshark Read Me First.rtf) ...

So it’s that time of year again where I decided to enroll in another Cybersecurity class at UMUC. I will be posting snippets from the class over the next few weeks. This week TCP Congestion Control was one of the topics I was looking at and so this post will serve as a high level overview. TCP Congestion Control is the process of monitoring and controlling network traffic in order to avoid congestion, which could lead to potential loss of packets and / or poor transmission rates. It determines the available capacity on the network and in turn is equipped with the information needed to know the number of packets that can be safely transmitted. Congestion control maintain a state variable for each connection called a congestion window, which is used to determine limits on the amount of data that can be sent at any given time. The size of the limits defined in this window change accordingly based on congestion levels via the process of the additive increase/multiplicative decrease (AIMD) algorithm. AIMD essentially lowers the limits of the congestion window when there is less congestion and raises them when congestion levels have increased. ...

WordPress is a great content management system because it allows users to launch a new self-hosted blog or website within half an hour. Launching a site is easy but you’ll not make money with it if the site doesn’t get decent traffic from search engines. To make sure that the site is SEO friendly, you must write good quality content, buy a good hosting plan, and purchase a premium theme. ...

SEO is not a child’s play. One wrong setting can impact search engine rankings dramatically. Although WordPress is a decade old CMS and powers millions of sites, it is still suffering from various SEO issues. To fix the problem, the must install one of the 100s of SEO plugins available in the WordPress repository. You should not install plugins which have poor ratings and promise plenty of features. I did the same mistake in the past and I still regret it. In the year 2013, my site lost 90 to 95% organic traffic because of a bad WordPress SEO plugin. Today, the best SEO plugins provide plenty of useful features. They let users optimize their site for higher local search rankings, add breadcrumbs to the website, add XML sitemaps, etc. Moreover, they work great. ...

A log file generated by a web/database server is one of the most important files. It contains useful information on visitors, errors, warnings, etc. Some people think log files as server resource killer. Hence, they disable them in Apache, DB or NGINX configuration file. One more reason why people disable or ignore server logs is because the content of logs is difficult to understand. Hence, most noob webmasters use a log file analyzer program to check server logs. ...

The black background of the text editor soothes my eyes. The text color is great and the interface of the Atom editor is awesome. If you don’t like the default Look and Feels, you are free to change it as per your preference or download a new Atom theme. My favorite color is black so I don’t find it necessary to change the theme. The atom editor gets updates on a regular basis. Since I’ve started using the editor, GitHub has rolled out many updates. Each update makes the editor better. I’m interested only in code. Hence, I haven’t checked the full features of Atom editor. For me, Atom is the best tool for web development. ...

The Acquia Certified Developer exam Drupal 8 just launched a couple of months ago. I was interested in studying for this exam as I have been working in Drupal 8 for the last six months and future projects look most likely to be Drupal 8 based. I had looked at the various Acquia certification tracks in the past, however I was never fully committed to the Drupal 7 track so I was happy when Acquia announced first the Foundations and then later the Certified Developer exams. I took the Foundations exam first and found that while I was weaker in my front-end Drupal 8 skills, I managed to pass. Later when I sat for the Certified Developer exam I realized there was a bit of cross over in terms of the questions, in fact I think a few of them were taken directly from the foundations exam. I would recommend anyone considering the Certified Developer exam to first take Foundations as it will give you a good idea of the type of questions to expect. ...

Blogspot and blogger are the two faces of the same coin. Blogger was known as Blogspot but when Google bought it, people started calling the site Blogger. Google hasn’t destroyed Blogspot. Sites that are hosted on it are identified by the following domain name: site_name.blogspot.com Is BlogSpot safe? As Google owns Blogger, it is a much safer website than a self-hosted WP blog. If you enable two-factor authentication, it will be impossible for a hacker to take over your site because blogger asks users to enter their Gmail password to log into their profile. All websites powered by Google are secure. Have you ever heard that Gmail or Google got hacked? ...

Google penalizes spammy EMD sites, but do you know that Exact match domain names can outrank an authority site for a specific keyword? If you don’t know this, you are probably a newbie or an immature SEO professional. Here are the three important things that you should know as a Sear Engine Optimization professional. EMD domains rank I can give 10 good examples that exact match domain names rank high for the keywords. Google starts ranking EMD sites only after a certain time period. The sites using EMD have 100s of polished articles with an average content length of 500 words. ...

Freelance writing and blogging are two of the most preferred options for making money online by working from home. If you are planning to begin your career as an FW or a blogger, go through the below pros/cons of these two career options. Pros of Freelance Writing Better reputation: If authority sites like Huffington post, BGR, TechCrunch are publishing your articles, 1000s of people might know you. You are likely to have a good fan following. ...