Modulate Demodulate - The ModemCast

Tune in to this installment of Modulate Demodulate as Darren O'Connor joins Chris C., Nick, and Dave to discuss his side project—BGPStuff.net. This tool is a modern BGP looking glass built in Golang that anyone can use to gather a wealth of information on the BGP Routing table. Some of the things you can see are AS_Path, Origin AS, ROA, ASName, RPKI Invalids, DFZ RIB size, and more. In addition to a nice web interface, the latest version of BGPStuff introduces an updated RESTful API. Come check out our discussion of the architecture and technology behind BGPStuff.net!

On this first episode of the MODEM Non-Blocking series, Nick and Chris C. wax ineloquent about the latest networking gossip straight from the DFZ. Recently, the DoD started announcing a lot of IPv4 address space that had been previously unannounced. How much is a lot? We're talking 13 /8s of IPv4. Tune in to hear our un-scripted thoughts on what this might mean for your network, The Internet as a whole, and the deployment of IPv6.

On this episode of the MODEM Podcast, Nick and Chris C. bring on a special guest, Kevin Myers, to talk about the latest software updates from one of the underdogs of networking—MikroTik. MikroTik RouterOS v7 is the next version of MikroTik's routing software that promises to solve a lot of the longest-standing requests from users. Kevin and his consulting firm IP ArchiTechs have been hands-on users of MikroTik since the early days, so come and listen to us discuss multi-threaded BGP, IS-IS, RPKI, and maybe even a few war stories!

How hard is it to describe the difference between a tunnel and a VPN to a completely non-technical person? Come to find out, it is fairly difficult! Chris Young - one of our esteemed co-hosts - tweeted out a seemingly simple question: “Explain the difference between a tunnel and a VPN to a non/technical audience.”. Proposed answers were given, a variety of interpretations of "non-technical audience" were made. Hilarity ensued. which really begs the questions: what the heck ARE tunnels? What are VPNs? Think you know? So did we. Take a trip with us through our winding exploration as we dive into the abyss of the ocean of possibilities - all aboard the RV Calypso of encapsulation.

List of Tunneling mechanisms:

Encapsulation

Control Plane

Label Stacks

All in One

As the internet grows and changes, it has become increasingly important for organizations of a certain size to dive into external routing. As many that start this path soon find, there is a wealth of information about setting up peering, configuring BGP and the associated policy, and how to connect to an "Internet Provider". But what if your internet provider is not quite enough anymore? What happens if you need lower latency to a cloud provider? Or, to take it one step further, what can you do to further settlement free peering in your geographical area? 

That is there the Internet Exchange Point (IX) come in to fill the gap. On this episode of the MODEM Podcast, Chris C., Nick, and John talk to Mike Hammett of the Midwest IX about what an IX is, what it does, and how to build your own.  

IPSpace: Surviving in the default free zone webinar

The Brothers WISP Podcast

FRR is a well traveled and well established routing suite. It has a comprehensive and very complete stable of protocol support, which is ever expanding. In this episode, Chris Y., David, and Nick chat with Donald Sharp about some of the finer details of the newer protocol support including IPv6 FlowSpec, BGP BMP, and IS-IS-SR. We delve into the finer points of component integration, discuss the nuance of how tunneling interfaces work, take a walk down the edge of why IS-IS is less traveled (including some of the fun protocol details therein). We even give a pretty fun little jaunt into the origin story of FRR. 

Behavior Tree concepts are something that most network engineers probably do not spend a lot of thinking about on a day-to-day basis, but their usefulness and relative ease of understanding will be made clear by the guest of our inaugural podcast, Tomas Kirnak. Tomas is the CEO of a company called Unimus that leverages behavior tree concepts to make configuration backup and automation of network hardware very straightforward. In this episode, John, Chris C. and Nick tease apart the details of what it takes to make that process as pain free as possible - and oh, boy, it is some cool stuff.