Welcome to CellStream’s Networking and Computing Tips resource center, where technology professionals, students, and enthusiasts can find practical guidance, troubleshooting techniques, and real-world solutions for today’s networking and computing challenges. Our goal is to help you work smarter, solve problems faster, and build a stronger foundation of technical knowledge.
Whether you’re configuring a network, optimizing system performance, learning a new technology, or troubleshooting a difficult issue, you’ll find valuable insights drawn from decades of industry experience. From Wireshark packet analysis and broadband technologies to Windows, Linux, cybersecurity, Wi-Fi, and Internet protocols, our tips are designed to be practical, actionable, and immediately useful.
• Step-by-step technical guides and how-to articles
• Networking troubleshooting techniques and best practices
• Wireshark tips, packet analysis workflows, and protocol insights
• Windows, Linux, and computing optimization recommendations
• Cybersecurity awareness and protection strategies
• Broadband, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, TCP/IP, and Internet technology guidance
• Productivity tips and tools for network engineers and IT professionals
• Improving network troubleshooting efficiency
• Optimizing computer and operating system performance
• Securing devices, accounts, and data
• Capturing and analyzing packets with Wireshark
• Understanding TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi technologies
• Using industry tools more effectively
We’re always looking for new ideas, questions, and topics to explore. If there’s a networking or computing subject you’d like us to cover, or if you need help solving a technical challenge, connect with us through our Discord community or contact us directly.
Please note that not all tips, procedures, and configuration examples apply to every operating system, network device, software version, or vendor platform. Always verify compatibility and test changes in a controlled environment before implementing them in production networks.
Post Views: 3,017 Let’s start with some simple definitions of these protocols and how they work together. In Voice over IP (VoIP) to PSTN (telephone) network integration, MGCP and C15 can work together as part of a layered signaling architecture that bridges IP-based call control with traditional PSTN switching systems. Here’s how they fit and
Troubleshooting C15 and MGCP Protocols for VoIP Read More »
Post Views: 11,546 Capturing network traffic with VLAN tags on a Windows computer can be tricky due to how network adapters and capture software handle VLAN-tagged frames. By default, Windows often strips VLAN tags before passing packets to capture applications like Wireshark. However, there are ways to configure your setup to properly capture VLAN information.
Capturing Packet Traffic with VLAN Tags on Windows Read More »
Post Views: 2,691 What is btop? btop (aka btop++) is a modern and visually appealing resource monitoring tool for Linux and other operating systems. It is part of the bpytop family, created by the same developer, and is written in C++ for performance and efficiency. Like htop, btop provides detailed information about system resources, including
A Better Linux Resource Monitor Read More »
Post Views: 19,111 Here is a list of interesting/useful network/IP commands for Windows. Most of these commands must be run from the CMD app. To do this Open Command Prompt: In the search bar, type cmd and press Enter, or press Win + R to open the Run dialog. Administrative Privileges: In some cases you
Network/IP Commands for Windows Users Read More »
Post Views: 7,531 The nslookup command is a built-in network administration tool available on Windows, macOS, and many Linux distributions. It is used to query DNS servers to retrieve information about domain names, IP addresses, and DNS records. Basic Syntax: nslookup [hostname] [DNS server] Components: Common Use Cases: Example Output: Query a Domain: nslookup example.com
What is the ‘nslookup’ command, and how can I use it? Read More »
Post Views: 13,920 The dig command, short for “Domain Information Groper,” in Linux or MacOS is a command-line tool used to query Domain Name System (DNS) servers. The command is a lot like nslookup, but at the same time it is different. If you are a Windows user, you have to use nslookup. For a
What is the ‘dig’ command, and how can I use it? Read More »
Post Views: 3,378 For all my troubleshooting network friends, I have compiled a list below of the top software-based network troubleshooting tools that you need to have and know. It you want to add hardware to your toolkit – have a look at our “Go Bag“ If you want to know more about the commands
Top 12 Network Troubleshooting Tools Read More »
Post Views: 9,134 So often in Wireshark videos and classes we spend a lot of time on TCP behavior. But what I am about to discuss is hardly ever brought up. The answer to version is simple right? Version 4. OK, kind of right, but overlooking too much. The truth is that there are multiple
Which Version of TCP are you using? Read More »
Post Views: 5,140 Retransmissions of frames in WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) can become problematic for several reasons, primarily due to the nature of the wireless medium. While retransmissions are a necessary part of ensuring data integrity in unreliable networks, they can cause inefficiencies and degrade network performance. I will get to the details below,
Recognizing WLAN Retransmissions is a Critical Skill Read More »
Post Views: 14,636 As most of my readers, students, and clients know, I absolutely love Wireshark. I am deeply infatuated with Wireshark’s Profiles, more properly called configuration profiles. So much so that many years ago now, I set up the first Wireshark Profiles Repository. Hundreds of thousands of downloads have resulted, and I hope I
Automatically Switch Configuration Profiles in Wireshark Read More »
Post Views: 2,456 It’s always tough to do these Top 10 posts. I mean, depending on your job, where you access the network, what it is you are trying to do, you may have some favorite tcpdump commands that I don’t show here. That said, lets take a look at some great TCPdump commands. By
Top 10 TCPdump commands Read More »
Post Views: 2,622 That’s right folks. I have been searching and searching. I actually gave up for a while as the only thing available was PCIe based adapters. Well that all changed with a search today and this showed up: Here is the link. This will go through my Amazon Associate link – if you
A Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band USB Adapter now available on Amazon Read More »
Post Views: 14,880 A CLEAR WORD OF CAUTION – ONLY USE THIS TOOL WHERE YOU HAVE PERMISSION. THIS ARTICLE IS OFFERRED FOR LEARNING PURPOSES ONLY. Hping3 is a network tool designed for packet crafting and analysis, similar to Scapy but with a more command-line-oriented interface. It is often used for testing and troubleshooting network infrastructure,
What is, and how can you use hping3? Read More »
Post Views: 3,423 Configuring a firewall rule in Ubuntu typically involves using iptables or nftables. I have written a separate article on iptables here. What if we wanted to make life a little less involved. The answer is ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall), which is a user-friendly front-end for managing iptables firewall rules. Here’s how you can
A Simple Linux Firewall – ufw Read More »
Post Views: 4,106 iptables is a command-line utility in Linux that allows you to configure the rules of the packet filtering and NAT (Network Address Translation) framework, known as netfilter, within the Linux kernel. It is a key tool for managing network traffic and implementing a firewall on Linux systems. Here’s an overview of what
How to Configure iptables in Linux Read More »
