THWACK [Mini] Mission: Free Flow Bonus Mission

[SolarWinds_Worldwide_LLC]

Any time you put bandwidth hogs and large amounts of flow traffic in the mix there’s a chance you could have an unexpected network disruption on your hands. Properly analyzing and understanding flow data is an integral part of maintaining a healthy network. This month’s bonus mission showcases three FREE flow monitoring tools that can help you distribute, test and configure your flow traffic.

Ready to fine tune your flow analysis? Start the mission!

JANUARY MINI MISSION

Use the mission’s resources to complete the tasks and answer the questions for a chance to win!

Correctly answer each question during the week and you'll be entered for a chance to win the weekly prize.

Correctly answer all 10 questions over the course of the month and you'll be entered for a chance to win the grand prize.

150 points are being awarded for each correctly answered question. There are 10 questions, which means you can earn a maximum of 1,500 points for this mission.

Want to join the mission, but not a member? Sign up FREE now!

PRIZES

Weekly Prizes & Drawing Dates:
January 28th, 2019: Fire TV Stick 4K

February 4th, 2019: Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Classic Trilogy Collector's Edition


Grand Prize:
February 4th, 2019: Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB Direct-Drive Professional Turntable

MISSION RULES

A new question will open every day (Monday - Friday) starting on January 21st, 2019. Once a question has opened, it will remain open until February 3rd, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Check the schedule below for exact open/close times.

MISSION SHORTCUTS

Complete the mission shortcut between January 21, 2019 and February 4, 2019 to earn an additional 1,000 THWACK® points & enter to win a Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers​

Hit us with your best shot! Provide us one screenshot that demonstrates how you are using your favorite flow tool. We really want to get an idea of the way our users are benefiting from their flow tool bundle, so be sure to send us the best picture possible of one of your tools from the bundle in action by following the below instructions:

1. Download the Free Tools Bundle and unzip the three tools included. Install one or more of them.
2. Take a screenshot from one of the three tools:
   • In the NetFlow Replicator tool, run the tool and expand the “Console” configuration at the bottom of the screen. Populate the Console configuration and take a screenshot.
   • In the NetFlow Generator tool, run the tool and configure the address and port of your NTA server. Uncheck “Node Simulation”, scroll down and add some endpoints. Select “Run Generator”, and take a screenshot of the “Running Status” screen.
   • In the NetFlow Configurator tool, run the tool and take a screenshot of the “Device Configuration” screen
3. Upload your screenshot for a chance to win!

DOWNLOAD FREE TRIAL  SUBMIT SCREENSHOT

Weekly Prizes	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Winners
Week 1: Complete questions 1-5 by January 27th 2019 to be entered to win: Fire TV Stick 4K
Week 2: Complete questions 6-10 by February 3rd 2019 to be entered to win: Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Classic Trilogy Collector's Edition
Correctly answer all 10 questions by February 3rd 2019 and get entered to win the Grand Prize! Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB Direct-Drive Professional Turntable

Monthly Mission Terms and Conditions: US, UK, and Canada | Germany | Australia

Mission Shortcut Terms and Conditions: US, UK, and Canada | Germany | Australia

[abaker]

Bonus mission yaaay loving the Star Wars prize

[acmtix]

Netflow has helped me solve so many bandwidth capacity queries and outages over the last year. I'm glad to have it. Combine it with NPM and SAM and i'm able to answer questions about an infrastructure that would take me days to find out if I didn't have it.

[smttysmth02gt]

I'm right there with you acmtix​.  It's been extremely useful both inhouse and on our customer networks.  We've also used other vendors than Cisco to gather flow data using NTA. 

[monitoringlife]

Not picking on you , but you need to update your link in the "Mission Shortcut" step one.

1.  Download the Free Tools Bundle and unzip the three tools included. Install one or more of them.

[marcoswithanoh]

Thanks! Hadn't even noticed.

[robertcbrowning]

neat prizes! I really like the turntable.

[Jfrazier]

I'd give up all my Thwack store points for one of those turntables.

[DanielleH]

My grandpa had one so I suggested it this month given the music theme. I used to listen to him playing tunes on it growing up. It's truly a fine piece of equipment.

[rschroeder]

Back in 1979 I was a budding audiophile with a Bang & Olufsen turntable that was far too expensive for my income.  I loved it, but was very aware of diamond needle irregular wear and degradation.  I could afford to replace its $80 needle with another one, while traditional phonograph needles were in the $6 range.  And the needle I wanted was $450!  Ugh--marketing really had a hold on me.

And i didn't even have the fancy one!

[melonizame]

OK I know I am coming off from a 4 day weekend, but no one had any issue with Question 1?  Oh man, maybe I should of called in.......

[Jfrazier]

I still have a working Technics turntable in storage.

I have an imported Dual turntable from Germany that came over with us back in the 60's.  It needs a little work to be back in top shape.

Then there is the stack of vinyl I've had since the 70's....

[stevenastem]

Nope, Ctrl+f did the trick nicely.

[asheppard970]

I remember, back in the early 80's, travelling to NYC to visit the the brother-in-law of a girl I was dating at the time, and he had a complete B&O system (turntable, amp, speakers), for which he paid, like, $2,000.  Just accounting for inflation, that's a titch over $5,000 in today's dollars.  But, hey, he was independently wealthy and was a huge audiophile, so in his eyes, it was justified.  While I don't have a tin ear, I'm not sure I could justify even a Bose, let alone a B&O, system today.  I have my Shure SE215s that I bought for less than $100 and I'm perfectly happy with them, both on-stage and off.

[asheppard970]

Actually, melonizame​, I did have an issue with question 1 but it was my fault because I didn't read the question and answers thoroughly.  Oh, well, more caffeine next time.  And marcoswithanoh​'s pop-up explanation told me exactly why I was wrong.

[rschroeder]

I admired / envied those with deeper pockets than mine for their audiophile equipment.  I sprung for a programmable Marantz SD 9000 tape deck and loved it!

At the same time I picked up an ADC paragraphic equalizer sound-shaper to tweak the Yamaha NS 690-II speakers that I later augmented with a pair of Bose 901 Series IV's.

As in everything, there's always someone who has bigger/better/fancier than you can afford.  After getting married I found my wife didn't share my love of high-end audio, and most of my gear wasn't replaced when it became outdated or failed.  But I sure had fun while it lasted!

Nowadays I spend my time upgrading electronics and toys in my boat--another never-ending way to spend time & money on a hobby I enjoy.

[melonizame]

OK I did the CTRL F this time and found the answer, but when I clicked on it, it was wrong and showed me the exact selection.  I hate entering the "find" test for the question but this is what I found and what I selected.  "The "Listener" is the IP address and port where NetFlow records will be received."  This is wrong?  Again I really think I should of called in today got two big red X's, one on the mini and one on main......

[df112]

Love the mini missions!  Thanks marcoswithanoh​!

[asheppard970]

Might double-check your selection, melonizame​...the wording for three of the answers is similar, but only one is exactly correct.  That's where I got tripped up this morning.

[oiram]

And that's what I got myself, out of First Communion Money, in 1977, and I was so happy with it... until I decided that I'm gonna pursue electroincs career and dismantled it into pieces

[marcoswithanoh]

This reminds me of the story my dad used to tell me about when he was in the Air Force. He was a HUGE audiophile and being overseas allowed him to collect some inexpensive gear which he setup back at his old home. Unfortunately a fire claimed all of it, but it's really nice to think about how much my dad really enjoyed music.

[marcoswithanoh]

Glad you're enjoying it! I'll make sure to pass this along to all parties involved in making this happen.

[marcoswithanoh]

How was everyone's experience with today's fill in the blank? The format was changed up to try and ease the experience.

[asheppard970]

The FITB today was fine...I just wish I had my BttF DeLorean Time Machine so I could go back and pay closer attention on question 1!

It's all good, Marcos, and thanks for all you do for us!

[melonizame]

Yea like I said, 4 day weekend really affected me, should of stayed home.....

[stevenastem]

It was perfect, thanks for listening!

[jasonstak2079]

Much better having a character count for the fill in the blank questions. Thanks for the change, it should help us 'once per minute' going forward.

[rschroeder]

NIce!  Were you able to reassemble the parts back into working hardware?  That's the second challenge, after discovering "How does it all come apart?"

I was lucky enough to have been given some very large console / living room radios and a broken washing machine and dryer for dissection.  Reassembly was never part of the plan, thank goodness!

[rschroeder]

Good memories of special people and their hobbies are precious doorways into the past.

[robertcbrowning]

I'd bought a "Reference Transcriptor". It was soooo 70s. Gold weights, belt drive, perspex lid. I still have it, but it's packed away in it's original box. Yes, I saved it so that it would be protected. Sad git, eh?

[rschroeder]

Those have significant value today, if eBay is any judge.   The right one in working condition with the original box & manual might be worth $1000 - $5000

[oiram]

Nope, I was not skilled enough to do it at the time, so I have ended up with stack of bits of it. But I have learnt good deal out of this excercise.

[rschroeder]

Worked perfectly for me--I made certain to enter the answer exactly as it was in hint, including upper/lower case characters.

[robertcbrowning]

wow. And I was thinking of getting rid of it. Thanks!

[ecklerwr1]

It's all good and a nice mini mission this month!

[ecklerwr1]

throw one of these on that turntable and you'd be good 2 go!

[ecklerwr1]

My dad had one of these quadrophonic amps back in the day:

[xbod]

Maybe I should do these in the morning.  Highlighted the wrong answer and as I was clicking submit, thought "wait, what am I doing?!?!  This isn't right!", but I did it anyway.

[Radioteacher]

This photo is from November.  Listening to ZZ TOP - Fandango on a 1980's Technics Direct Drive turntable. 

[Radioteacher]

Or this.....

I did not realize how much a great cartridge improves the sound. 

I listened to the same album with my old cartridge (with a new stylus) and the Ortofon 2M Red I bought two weeks ago...

The Who - Tommy - Were not gonna take it.  At one point in the song Roger whispers the title over and over and the Red won me over.

The old Pickering XV-15 sounded really good.  The Ortofon 2M Red sounded so good that I had to look around the room because Roger sounded like he was standing next to me.

RT

[marcoswithanoh]

I really wish I had picked up more vinyl when it was in limited run for the bands I listened to as a younger lad. Since vinyl wasn't really mainstream, a lot of the albums I wanted were released as special limited releases.

[rschroeder]

I knew Quad back in the '70's.  It's problem was it could only fully service one person's audio needs.  I'd walk around until I found the auditory central focus and then stand there with my eyes closed.  Until someone bumped me out of the focus so they could stand there.

I suppose it was also a challenge to properly place microphones for the correct recording of every instrument or singer.

[Radioteacher]

These mission questions are making me nervous because I really want to be in the running for the grand prize.  My turntables date from the 1970's and 1980's and need replacing. 

RT

[rschroeder]

I loved vinyl right up until it became dirty, scratched, or warped.  Or had to be flipped.  As a media it is too fragile for my needs, but I certainly listened to thousands of hours of it.

The convenience and durability and archivability of digital media won me over immediately.

The streaming of audio is bothersome for me--I'm unwilling to tolerate advertisements or recurring billing fees.  My kids take it for granted--they figure they'll always pay for a subscription to something like Pandora for the rest of their lives.

I'd simply like something that was paid for once and provided a full experience.  By "full" I mean:

• Provides access to every recorded bit of music, and is continually updated
• Provides the full chords and lyrics to the songs so I can perform them myself
• Allows me to record my own sessions (live or in studio) and manipulate them via MIDI controllers and more advanced toys

I don't ask for much . . .

[Jfrazier]

I still have all my original vinyl...haven't had the chance to listen to it in decades.

I need to drag out the turntable and put the spin on them....oh wait...doc says still limited to 10 lbs lifting. CRUD!!

5 more weeks to go....

[petergwilson]

Is Q4 a bit confused or is it a 'trick' question.  Just clarifying that they have asked the question about the correct product.

[smttysmth02gt]

So disappointed....another red x when I could've sworn I had it right. 

[asheppard970]

The streaming of audio is bothersome for me--I'm unwilling to tolerate advertisements or recurring billing fees.

That sounds like a good, old fashioned conundrum there, Rick!  Free=Ads, Paid=No ads (well, at least fewer of them) so do you just abstain, then, from the act altogether?

[asheppard970]

IDK, Smitty, today (1/24) was fairly straightforward from my view...was pretty clear what the Flow Tool Bundle (free) offers - what is aked in the question - as compared to the Network Bandwidth Analyzer pack, which is pay to play.  I haven't used or tried it (NBAP) yet but the ability to "Detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues" and "Find bandwidth hogs on a network and see which applications are using the most bandwidth", to me, would be worth the price of admission...if only we had the budget to buy the ticket.

[asheppard970]

Dizzy - Tommy Roe (1969) - YouTube

And that's about all I got to say about that...:-P

[petergwilson]

Nope, no trick to it.  I just can't read.