Packet Pushers

Where Too Much Technology Would Be Barely Enough

Packet Pushers Heavy Networking - The Deep Dive into Data Networking Technology

An unabashedly nerdy swan dive into networking technology. Weekly episodes feature industry experts, real-life network engineers and vendors sharing useful information to keep your professional knowledge sharp. Published weekly and roughly an hour long, we interview a wide range of guests from the tech community, standards bodies, academia, vendors and more.

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Heavy Networking 694: A Network Engineering Roundtable

This week on Heavy Networking we’ve assembled a roundtable of network engineers to talk about…stuff. Each guest has brought a topic to discuss with the table, so we’ve got lots of subjects and lots of experiences and opinions. In particular we explore SPB, career advice, getting network automation off the ground, and the joys and perils of self-hosting.

Heavy Networking 693: Securing Workforce Transformation With Cloud SWG (Sponsored)

On today’s sponsored Heavy Networking we dig into cloud-delivered Secure Web Gateways (SWGs), which help guard end users against Web-based threats and enforce corporate Web access policies. As employees split time between home, office, and who knows where else, and as more applications move online, cloud-based SWGs help connect and protect workers. Our sponsor is Palo Alto Networks.

Heavy Networking 691: Why OOB Infrastructure Is Critical For IT Ops & Automation With ZPE Systems (Sponsored)

On today’s Heavy Networking podcast, we look at how sponsor ZPE Systems is rethinking Out-Of-Band management for automated, NetOps-driven infrastructure. This includes tasks like device staging, deployments, upgrades, and more. And you don’t just have to take ZPE’s word for it; we also talk to a customer who’s using the products to run a retail business with a lean networking team that supports more than fifty sites.

Heavy Networking 690: LACP Is Not Link Aggregation – With Tony Bourke

On today’s Heavy Networking we talk LACP and link aggregation. While bonding two or more links together to act as a single virtual link has been done for decades, LACP and link aggregation aren’t the same thing, and the distinction matters. Our guest to get into the differences is network instructor Tony Bourke.

Heavy Networking 689: Prepping For Certification Exams With Mary Fasang

Certifications are a part of life in IT. On today’s Heavy Networking we explore preparation strategies with guest Mary Fasang. Her certs run the gamut from CompTIA to MCSE to the CCNP, as well as the PMP and ITIL certs. How should you prepare for a cert in 2023 when there’s so much content, so many training options, as well as home labbing available? How do you handle failure? Which certs have been the hardest? What study materials have proved helpful? Mary shares her strategies.

HN687 Juniper CORA Coherent Optics Enabling IPoDWDM

Its about reducing the cost and complexity of DWDM coherent optical networks. Connecting the DWDM network directly to your router removes the DWDM edge equipment which simplifies operation, reduce cost,space & power while improving provisioning time. How is Juniper entering this market and what do you need to know ?

Heavy Networking 686: Juniper Cloud-Native Contrail Networking CN2 (Sponsored)

Today we’re going deep on software-defined networking for containers and OpenStack with sponsor Juniper Networks. Juniper has revamped its approach to secure networking for telcos and telco cloud-delivered services with Juniper’s Cloud-Native Contrail Networking or CN2 software. CN2 lets you automate the creation of network connections for containers and for virtual machines while also providing routing, security, segmentation and isolation of workloads. Our guest and guide into the guts of Cloud-Native Contrail Networking, hereafter referred to as CN2, is Nick Davey. Nick is Director of Product Management for SDN and Telco Cloud technologies.

Heavy Networking 684: What To Do With Your E-Waste?

By some estimates, 50 to 70 million tons of e-waste is generated every year, and that number is growing. When sent to landfills to be buried or burned, e-waste can leach toxic chemicals into soil and air. On today’s Heavy Networking, we’ll look at options for responsible disposal of IT gear, including repurposing it on site, reselling or donating it, and working with e-cycling companies.

Heavy Networking 682: Automating Upgrades And Ensuring Compliance With BackBox (Sponsored)

If you’ve shied away from network automation because you’re a network engineer not a coder, fear not. There are network automation approaches that can help you get needful work done and don’t require a computer science degree. On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with sponsor BackBox about its practical approach to network automation and dive into use cases including network OS backups and compliance.

Heavy Networking 681: Under The Hood Of Formula 1 Networking

Modern F1 racing is bathed in data. Real-time vehicle telemetry. In-car video feeds. More video from camera crews and drones. Live streaming. All of this and more needs a network. On today’s Heavy Networking we speak with Formula 1’s David Ramsden, Senior Network Engineer; and Lee Wright, Head of IT Operations, to get the inside track on building the networks that support F1 races.

Heavy Networking 679: Mountaintop Networking And Long-Haul Wireless

Today’s Heavy Networking explores the challenges Wireless ISPs (WISPs) face when bringing services to locations without a lot of fiber in the ground. Those challenges include lining up radio antennas, maintaining mountaintop gear, wild horses, network and routing designs, and more. Our guest is Bradley Thompson, Senior Network Engineer at SkyFiber Internet.

Heavy Networking 677: US Networking User Association – Meetups For Network Engineers

You ever want a group of fellow networking nerds to hang with once in a while? The US Networking User Association might be exactly what you’re looking for. With local networking user groups popping up in various places all over the US and soon other countries, the USNUA is fostering community and knowledge sharing for networkers everywhere. On today’s Heavy Networking we speak with Jason Gintert and Chris Kane, two of the folks behind the USNUA organization, to discuss what the USNUA is, and how you can work with them to get a NUG started in your area.

Heavy Networking 676: Implementing ZTNA And SASE With Fortinet (Sponsored)

Fortinet is a security vendor most of you have heard of. But if all you think of when you hear the name “Fortinet” is firewalls, well yeah, but you should think more broadly. On today’s sponsored Heavy Networking we’re going after the work-from-anywhere challenge with Fortinet’s Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) tech, all of which is baked into FortiOS. If you’re running a FortiGate, you’ve got these capabilities already.

Heavy Networking 673: Multicast DNS Gone Wild On Your WLAN

You know all those Apple and other IoT devices connected to your wireless network? Lots of them run apps that discover services on your network via multicast DNS (mDNS). All of that mDNS traffic can have a significant impact on your WLAN’s performance. On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with guest Bryan Ward who has actually measured the impact of mDNS on a production wireless network to see what would happen if he let mDNS traffic run wild.

Heavy Networking 672: Overcoming Your Imposter Syndrome

Lots of folks suffer from impostor syndrome. Tech is complex–how could you know what you’re doing? And yet, many of us are responsible for incredibly complex IT systems. Fake it ‘til you make it, right? To handle the cognitive dissonance of impostor syndrome, we overcompensate. In doing so, we pay a personal price. Today’s Heavy Networking guest is Matt Vitale. He’s here to share what he’s learned about coping with and overcoming imposter syndrome.

Heavy Networking 671: Is ChatGPT Coming For Your Job?

On today’s Heavy Networking we sub in a podcast from our Heavy Strategy channel. Greg Ferro from the Packet Pushers and Johna Till Johnson, CEO of Nemertes Research, discuss the impacts of ChatGPT and AI on the technology workspace, including whether human workers can partner with these tools to increase productivity and improve technology experiences. They don’t have answers, but they do have unanswered questions.

Heavy Networking 670: The Challenges And Satisfactions Of Building And Running A Mastodon Instance

On today’s Heavy Networking I talk with two people who have built and are running Hachyderm, a Mastodon instance which orients itself towards technical-minded folks. What started as a cool project in the basement suddenly grew to tens of thousands of users. I talk with Hachyderm’s founders on how they scaled, problems they encountered, how they solved problems, and how they grappled with technical and human challenges.