Today's tech, explained before your first coffee.
A fresh brief on Microsoft, AI, cybersecurity and networking every morning at 6, plus plain-English tutorials and real fixes from a UK systems engineer.
Latest brief
A record-sized Patch Tuesday with an exploited Windows zero-day, new Exchange updates, GPT-6 in ChatGPT, new Claude models, and Cisco putting AI agents into meetings.
October Patch Tuesday is the biggest ever, with an exploited zero-day
Microsoft's October 2026 updates fix more than 1,400 vulnerabilities, with about 80 rated critical.
October security updates for on-premises Exchange Server are out
Microsoft's Exchange team has published the October 2026 security updates for on-premises Exchange Server.
GPT-6 arrives in ChatGPT with 'Intelligent UI'
OpenAI launched GPT-6 in ChatGPT on 7 October.
Claude Haiku 5.5 launches and Opus 5.5 fast mode goes live
Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5, its fast, low-cost model, on 7 October with a 1 million token context window.
Cisco puts AI agents into Webex meetings, and Google Meet onto Cisco room kit
At WebexOne on 7 October, Cisco announced Claude in Webex, plus AI agents that can be invited into spaces, meetings and calls to carry out multi-step work.
Cisco and NVIDIA plan faster optics for AI data centres
At the OCP Global Summit on 12 October, Cisco and NVIDIA said they will create an open specification for a new pluggable optic running at 400 Gb/s per lane.
Can you fix it?
A real-world support ticket. Pick the next step the way you would on the service desk. A new ticket every day.
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Fact of the day
Latest posts
Cybersecurity, Microsoft, AI, UniFi, backup and lessons from the service desk.
DHCP backups: what Windows does for you, and what it doesn't
Windows quietly backs up DHCP every hour. Here's why I still export it nightly, and the short script that does it.
Five rules for using AI safely in IT support
AI tools save time on tickets and scripts, but a few habits keep client data safe and stop bad commands reaching live systems.
Building a Windows domain at home on Windows 11 Home
No Hyper-V, no problem. How I built a Windows Server 2025 domain controller with DNS and DHCP using free VMware Workstation.
New tutorials
Step by step, with a "check it worked" at the end.
Set a static IP address on Windows Server
Give a server a fixed address so drive maps, printers and logins always find it. Click by click, plus the PowerShell way.
Add a reverse lookup zone to Windows DNS
Turn IP addresses back into names, so logs and troubleshooting tools show which machine is which.
Create a DHCP scope on Windows Server
Hand out addresses, gateway and DNS automatically from your own server, without clashing with the router.
Tech by numbers
The figures behind everyday IT.
2 to the power of 32. Not enough for every device, which is why NAT exists.
2 to the power of 128. Enough for every grain of sand, many times over.
TCP and UDP ports run from 0 to 65,535. DNS is 53, HTTPS is 443, RDP is 3389.
The default maximum time difference before domain sign-ins fail.
AI explained
The big shifts, without the hype.
AI agents that take actions
Assistants are moving from answering questions to doing multi-step jobs: reading a ticket, checking a system, drafting a fix and asking for approval.
AI built into Microsoft 365
Copilot-style assistants now sit inside Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, summarising threads, drafting replies and pulling answers from company files.
AI in security operations
Security tools use AI to group related alerts, explain suspicious sign-ins in plain English and suggest response steps.