Bit Happens

What's new

Every update to the guides and tools, newest first.

November 1, 2026

Practice Lab, Study mode and two new guides

Practice Lab: a simulated Cisco switch in your browser with nine realistic port tickets, hints and a debrief.
Study mode: flashcards for every guide's glossary, exam objective tags for A+, Network+, Security+ and CCNA, and an objectives map at /study/.
Guided Troubleshooter on the Help Desk, Systems Admin and Security guides.
New guides: Endpoint Management (Intune, Autopilot, Entra join, ConfigMgr) and Voice & Collaboration (SIP, QoS, Teams Phone, 911).
Text size and reading-spacing menu, this What's new page, review dates on every guide, official sources in Ask the guides answers, and link previews for sharing.

Official sources on every guide

Every guide now ends with a Sources section, and each section lists the standards, government guidance and official documentation it was checked against.
The check found and fixed outdated details across the guides; each guide's own entry below lists them.

Faster, more private fonts

Fonts are now served from Bit Happens itself, so pages make no calls to other sites and work fully offline.

Network Ops Analyst Field Guide

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: OM4 reach for 100G SR4 is 100 m, packet capture export uses the location keyword.

Data Science | Analytics | AI

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Correction: DATETRUNC needs SQL Server 2022 or later; older versions shown.

Scripting & DevOps

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: HTTP 413 is now Content Too Large, actions/checkout@v6, exit code 137 means SIGKILL (often but not always out of memory), Terraform import blocks, Python named-group syntax.

Systems Admin

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: Group Policy refresh interval (90-120 minutes), WSUS marked deprecated.

IT Career & Certs

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Certifications updated: retired Microsoft exams (AI-102, AZ-500, AZ-800/801, MS-900, MS-102) replaced with current ones, CySA+ CS0-004, Security+ SY0-801 coming Nov 2026. LACP is IEEE 802.1AX. Home lab uses a .test domain instead of .local.

Healthcare IT

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Correction: HL7 processing ID T means Training (not test); the HL7 Parser now says so.

Cloud

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: subnet scope by provider, availability zone definition, current Conditional Access menu path.

Help Desk

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: run DISM before sfc, Get-PhysicalDisk replaces deprecated wmic, NIST password-expiry note, Outlook fixes marked classic Outlook only, Quick Assist code flow corrected.

Security

Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections from the source check: MITRE ATT&CK table updated to v20 (15 tactics), incident response notes NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3, HIPAA table separates Security Rule safeguards from the Breach Notification and Privacy Rules, password guidance cites SP 800-63B-4, CVSS calculator notes CVSS 4.0.

Voice & Collaboration

New guide: SIP, RTP and codecs, QoS for voice, call quality metrics, NAT and SBCs, 911 rules for multi-line systems, Microsoft Teams Phone, meeting rooms and contact centers.
Tools: SIP response code and Q.850 cause lookup, VoIP bandwidth calculator, SIP message and SDP analyzer, MOS / R-factor estimator.
Six playbooks: one-way audio, calls that drop at 30 seconds or 15 minutes, choppy audio, phone won't register, Teams Room offline, and a 911 test call.

Systems Admin

Guided Troubleshooter (Tools): step-by-step paths for a user who can't log on to the domain and Group Policy not applying, ending with the likely cause, fix steps and copyable ticket notes.
Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: Group Policy refresh interval (90-120 minutes), WSUS marked deprecated.

Endpoint Management

New guide: Endpoint Management, covering Intune, Windows Autopilot and Autopilot device preparation, Entra join and hybrid join, Configuration Manager co-management, BitLocker, FileVault, Windows LAPS, Apple and Android management.
Tools: dsregcmd /status analyzer, Intune error code lookup (hex or decimal), Win32 app command builder and an endpoint log locator.
Six playbooks: device won't enroll, Autopilot stuck at ESP, app not installing, compliance failing, BitLocker recovery and hybrid join pending.

Help Desk

Guided Troubleshooter (Tools): step-by-step paths for printer won't print, Outlook won't open or sync (classic and new Outlook), no internet, account locked out / can't sign in, slow PC and Teams audio or video, ending with the likely cause, fix steps and copyable ticket notes.
Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: run DISM before sfc, Get-PhysicalDisk replaces deprecated wmic, NIST password-expiry note, Outlook fixes marked classic Outlook only, Quick Assist code flow corrected.

Security

Guided Troubleshooter (Tools): a step-by-step path for a reported suspicious email, from "only received it" to "entered a password", ending with severity, actions and copyable ticket notes.
Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections from the source check: MITRE ATT&CK table updated to v20 (15 tactics), incident response notes NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3, HIPAA table separates Security Rule safeguards from the Breach Notification and Privacy Rules, password guidance cites SP 800-63B-4, CVSS calculator notes CVSS 4.0.

Network Ops Analyst Field Guide

New: the Practice Lab, a simulated Cisco switch in your browser with nine tickets to work from the command line. Linked from the Quick Workflow.
Sources added: a Sources section at the end of the guide and a Sources line under each section heading, linking the standards, government guidance and official documentation the content was checked against.
Corrections: OM4 reach for 100G SR4 is 100 m, packet capture export uses the location keyword.

Voice & Collaboration

Corrections from an independent review: Teams signaling ports (UDP 50,070-50,089, CS5) added to the QoS table and port reference, which phone systems the federal 911 MLTS rules cover, -Identity on the SBC PIDF-LO command.

Systems Admin

Correction: the Guided Troubleshooter now checks logon rights with gpresult /h or rsop.msc (gpresult /r doesn't show User Rights Assignment).

Endpoint Management

Corrections from an independent review: 0x80180018 is a licence problem (device limit is 0x80180013, now in the error lookup), MDM user scope moved to the Intune admin center (Automatic Enrollment), WIP user scope, co-management resource access workload retired, 0x80180014 meaning.

Help Desk

Corrections: Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Repair needs -Credential; 0x80180014 explained as a platform/OS restriction or an Autopilot device that needs unblocking.

Security

Note added: a BitLocker startup PIN blocks Intune silent encryption.

October 2026

Security hardening

Stricter content security policy, bot protection on the suggestion box, and a security.txt contact.

New on the home page

Ask the guides: questions answered from the guides, with links to the sections used.
Every tool on one page at /tools/, and Ctrl+Shift+K searches every guide.
Public usage totals, a practice ticket of the day, saved and recent tools, share links for tool input, and Print / PDF.

New look and colour schemes

Redesigned home page and guides, five colour schemes, and light/dark mode that follows your device.