Take a Network Break! Guest co-host John Burke joins Drew Conry-Murray for this week’s analysis of tech news. They discuss a string of serious vulnerabilities in Wavlink Wi-Fi routers, Fortinet taking a one-two security punch, and CISA director Jen Easterly calling out US hardware and software companies for being “inherently insecure.” Microsoft and Google put... Read more »

Do you think you have what it takes to be a manager? Should you go for it? Laura Santamaria, host of the Technically Leadership podcast, joins Ethan Banks to discuss those questions. They talk about the motivations for moving into a management role, the challenges of managing people, and the need to understand the business... Read more »

On today’s episode, we’re explaining high-speed Ethernet lanes at the request of listener Matthew. We cover lanes, channels, and their physical representation in networking – think actual cables. We explain both 40Gb and 100Gb technologies and compare them to Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). We also have a discussion on standards and practical implications for... Read more »

How do you master Python? One bite at a time. On today’s show we talk with Bob Belderbos, co-founder of PyBites, a community and learning platform for Python. Bob shares his philosophy for learning Python in small bites with practical exercises, hands-on learning, and daily coding for improvement. We discuss the importance of small wins,... Read more »

Transport Layer Security (TLS) relies on certificates to authenticate Web sites and enable encryption. On today’s Packet Protector we look at mechanisms that domain owners can take to ensure the validity of their digital certificates. More specifically, we cover Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) and Certificate Transparency (CT). Our guest is Ed Harmoush. Ed is a... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with serious CVEs for Perl and Ivanti. On the news front, the FCC wants to license spectrum to raise money to help US telcos rip out Chinese network equipment–even though there’s no evidence Chinese equipment led to telco intrusions by Chinese attackers. Verizon boasts of 5.5Gbps download speeds on... Read more »

Packet capture and packet analysis is incredibly useful for problem-solving and troubleshooting. Analyzing packets is also a difficult skill to master. With the incredible array of network troubleshooting tools at our disposal, including emerging networking models for artificial intelligence, do we still need to fuss around with Wireshark in 2025? Our guest Chris Greer says... Read more »

Cloud networking is still networking, but there are differences. In this special collaboration episode between the Total Network Operations and Cloud Gambit podcasts, Scott Robohn, Eyvonne Sharp, and William Collins dive into the contrasts between traditional and cloud networking, and how network engineers raised on hardware and the CLI can flourish in cloudy environments. In... Read more »

Today’s topic is the default gateway, essential for routing traffic between networks. We explain its purpose, configuration, and the consequences of incorrect settings. Using home networks as an example, Ethan and Holly illustrate how default gateways enable devices to communicate with external networks. The discussion also covers routing tables, subnet masks, and the differences between... Read more »

Measuring network speed seems straightforward: send some traffic between two endpoints and see how long it took. But what path did the traffic take? Were wired or wireless networks involved? What intermediary devices stood between your two endpoints? Was there interference? Congestion? Are device limitations affecting your results? The fact is, there’s more to measurement... Read more »