Backbone-News

Although this is not strictly a news item, I thought it would still be of interest to a lot of you. There are many websites out there which allow you to crack/decrypt Cisco 7 passwords/hashes. The algorithm used by Cisco isn’t particularly complicated, and it is a well known fact that it is easy to decrypt them, which comes in handy in many situations.

Doing the same for Juniper $9$ passwords is a different story. Not many tools allow you to decrypt those. Well, actually, that isn’t the case anymore:

Head-over to password-decrypt.com for an easy way to decrypt Cisco AND Juniper passwords!

Juniper Networks announced today the general availability of the EX 3200 and EX 4200 Ethernet switches. The new high performance Ethernet Switch platform had been announced in January.

Juniper EX 3200:
- fixed-configuration simple, cost-effective and standalone Ethernet platform
- 24- and 48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T chassis
- Optional four-port GbE and two-port 10GbE uplink modules with pluggable optics
- Full and partial Power over Ethernet (PoE) options available
- field-replaceable power supply and fan tray

Juniper EX 4200:
- Virtual Chassis technology
- 24- and 48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T chassis
- Optional four-port GbE and two-port 10GbE uplink modules with pluggable optics
- Full and partial Power over Ethernet (PoE) options available
- up to 10 EX 4200 series switches can be interconnected over a 128 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) backplane
- redundant, hot-swappable internal power supplies and field-replaceable, multi-blower fan trays

The list price for the EX 3200 series starts at USD $4,000 while the list price of the EX 4200 series starts at USD $6,000.

The EX 8200 series remains on schedule for availability in the second half of 2008.

The rumours which were spreading since a few days have been confirmed today: Juniper has hired David W. Yen. In a press release, Juniper provides details about the role Yen will have at Juniper. As Executive VP, Emerging Technologies, Yen will assemble a talented engineering team and lead the company’s emerging technology initiatives. Before joining Juniper, Yen served as executive vice president of the Microelectronics group at Sun overseeing the company’s developments in network, cryptography and high-performance computing. On the bad side, Yen has been linked to some of the delay of some UltraSPARC projects and also wasn’t very successful in improving Sun’s role in the storage business during hsi time as head of that division.

At Juniper, Yen will be a member of the executive management team, reporting directly to Scott Kriens (Chairman and CEO).

Juniper announced today the release of JUNOS 9.0. As indicated previously, the new major release integrates the ScreenOS security features, and as allows using those features on the J-Series routers.
Jon Oltsik, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group said: “Running a single-source operating system across a high-performance network infrastructure enables faster innovation by providing network administrators with the confidence to quickly turn on new network features without compromising network performance, stability and security. A common operating system across the enterprise network infrastructure can further reduce administrative, training and management costs, which translates into lower cost of ownership.”
JUNOS 9.0 adds the following features to the J-series services routers:

• Industry-leading high-performance firewall capabilities based on Juniper’s field proven ScreenOS, including zones, policies, and application-layer gateway support to secure both critical information and the network from external threats and denial-of-service attacks;
• Simplified configuration for IPSec VPN supporting secure connectivity over a variety of public networks, allowing flexibility in network design and the ability to optimize for cost or performance; and
• Chassis clustering that enables stateful device and services failover with an active/backup control plane and active/active data plane, all within a single system view, delivering continuity by maintaining high availability and systems-level resiliency for networks.

JUNOS 9.0 software is also available for the T-series and M-series routers, the MX-series Ethernet services router, and the EX-series Ethernet switches.

Read the full press release.

Shortly after having announced that nLayer chose the MX960 platform to extend/upgrade their network, Juniper adds another high profile Service Provider which has chosen the MX960 router. Carphone Warehouse (CPW) is providing connectivity to more then 1.5 million households in the UK, the largest part through AOL UK which CPW acquired last year.

CPW is using the MX960 as part of their NGN (Next Generation Network) in the UK which extends to 70% of UK households already.

Read more in the press-release.