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: 301 Let’s say you are a CO Tech/Engineer or an enterprise network engineer that works with Voice over IP (VoIP). Let’s further say that there are issues with one or more users so you have done a bunch of packet captures, perhaps even used Wireshark’s Ring Buffer capability, and now you want to […]
Extracting VoIP Packets from Multiple Captures Read More »
Post Views: 488 Learning how to manually control Wi-Fi channels in Linux is a foundational skill for wireless troubleshooting and packet analysis. Proper channel selection is critical because Wi-Fi troubleshooting is highly dependent on capturing the correct RF environment at the correct moment in time. When combined with Wireshark, Linux monitor mode provides one of
How to Set a WLAN Frequency or Channel in Linux for Wireshark Packet Capture Read More »
Post Views: 4,727 Epiphany number 3,812!! After years and years of wondering what on earth is going on at Microsoft that they have done no feature changes of significance to PowerPoint, and frustration whenever I change the Notes Master, that I must go to every slide, one by one, and right click on the notes
Apply Master to ALL Notes Pages in MS PowerPoint Read More »
Post Views: 884 If you have upgraded Wireshark to the latest version 4.6.5 and later, you will note a big change to the “welcome” screen, or home screen of Wireshark. It now looks like this: The two “boxes” on the right are new and bold. The tips and tricks is great for new Wireshark users,
A New Wireshark Welcome Screen Read More »
Post Views: 456 Net neutrality is typically framed as a policy debate (see my background Net Neutrality post here), but its real implications are observable in packet-level behavior. For network engineers and broadband technicians, the question is not abstract: can you see evidence of blocking, throttling, or prioritization in a packet capture? To read more
Net Neutrality at the Packet Level Read More »
Post Views: 440 The following is a step by step lab exercise to examine ABR – Adaptive Bit Rate used in modern video content delivery. I won’t explain ABR here – you can read about ABR and what it is, and how it works here in a recent post. We will analyze a synthetic but
A Synthetic ABR Lab Exercise Read More »
Post Views: 860 Check out these great references as well: Our custom profiles repository for Wireshark Our Udemy course on Wireshark Our Udemy course on Wireless Packet capture In our previous post I showed you how to use Wireshark’s Ring Buffer feature. I think we can all agree how great that feature is. In this
Combining Wireshark Ring Buffers with Capture Filters for Performance Read More »
Post Views: 1,852 Check out these great references: Our custom profiles repository for Wireshark Our Udemy course on Wireshark Our Udemy course on Wireless Packet capture Wireshark’s Ring Buffer feature is a capture mechanism feature that automatically rotates packet capture files based on size or time limits, overwriting the oldest files when a defined limit
Wireshark Ring Buffer Capture Feature Read More »
Post Views: 2,275 Check out these additional IPv6 Resources Our IPv6 overview course at Udemy Our IPv6 Custom Profiles for Wireshark Our IPv6 classes at the Online School OK folks, based on some feedback from Reddit, I decided to update this post from 2013. Modern Linux distributions have largely deprecated the legacy net-tools suite (which
IPv6 Linux Command Line Examples Read More »
Post Views: 1,395 A broadband technician working with fiber optics must understand both the theory and the hands-on operational realities of fiber networks. The following areas represent the core knowledge required to install, maintain, and troubleshoot fiber effectively in access and distribution networks. 1. Fiber Fundamentals Technicians must understand how fiber carries data as light,
Fiber Optics Primer for Technicians Read More »
Post Views: 6,038 Below is a clean, technician-focused list of the Windows PowerShell commands used for Wi-Fi and WLAN troubleshooting, organized by function. This aligns well with broadband-tech workflows, capture analysis, and WLAN Operations fundamentals. 1. Let’s Start with Discovering Wi-Fi Interfaces & Drivers Get Wi-Fi NICs & Driver Info Driver Version / Capabilities 2.
Windows PowerShell Commands for Wi-Fi and WLANs Read More »
Post Views: 6,606 Here’s a solid toolbox of Windows PowerShell commands used for network troubleshooting, with quick notes on what each one is good for. I’ll try to group them by task so they are a little easier to remember. 1. Basic Connectivity & “Ping-Style” Tests Test-Connection PowerShell’s ping (ICMP echo) equivalent. Test-NetConnection More advanced
PowerShell Commands Used for Network Troubleshooting Read More »
Post Views: 1,577 I provide this information for reference when examining TLS in Wireshark. The TLS 1.2 protocol ladder (also called the TLS handshake ladder) describes the step-by-step sequence of message exchanges between a client and server as they negotiate a secure, encrypted connection. Think of it as a “ladder” where each side alternates rungs
The TLS 1.2 Protocol Ladder Read More »
Post Views: 5,754 Using a loopback adapter (also called a local loopback interface) for packet capture in Wireshark allows you to capture traffic that stays within your own computer — for example, packets exchanged between local applications via localhost or 127.0.0.1. Normally, this traffic never reaches a physical network interface, so a loopback capture is
What is the Adapter for loopback traffic capture in Wireshark? Read More »
Post Views: 2,845 Many technicians and network engineering staff, as well as IT staff, often need to “tap” into the Ethernet to capture and troubleshoot network traffic. A full-duplex tap (also called a network tap) is a hardware device placed inline on an Ethernet link that allows network engineers to capture all traffic traveling in
Ethernet Taps to Capture Network Traffic Read More »
