Pour something good. This one’s worth it. Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, has been running the internet since 1989. Your ISP uses it. Amazon uses it. Google uses it. The backbone of every packet that leaves your network and crosses into someone else’s depends on it. And there’s a decent chance you’ve been avoiding it […]
BGP: The Protocol That Runs the Internet (Whether You Like It or Not) Read More »
One of the most misunderstood technologies on the internet is the Domain Name System or DNS. It could be considered the red headed stepchild, sorry to all my red heads out there, but without it getting around the internet would not be fun. Think of having to memorize latitude and longitude coordinates to get to
How DNS Works: The Internet’s Secret Road Trip Guide Read More »
Reflecting on the flight home from #CiscoLive, people often ask what I do for a living and it was so much easier when I was a network architect, sales engineer or consulting manager. When I Explain what I do now as a technology evangelist is more difficult and I get puzzled looks. I tell them
My Cisco Live Confession: I Used To Hate Public Speaking Read More »
Now that the basics are out of the way, what are we going to build? Our manager has asked us to configure a spine and leaf fabric in the data center for a new service that is being deployed. The Logical connectivity of the fabric is: This is going to be hands-on keyboard configuring. Now,
What are we going to build? Read More »
I purposely saved the best topic for last, or maybe I am just that much of a glutton for punishment that we didn’t discuss this first. We are going to cover everyone’s favorite topic: Multicast! Before configuring our environment, we need a foundation or understanding of how multicast works. It is such a massive topic
In our last post, we talked about OSPF Basics. Today, we will look at what Virtual eXtensible Local Area Networks or VxLAN are. VxLAN is an overlay technology. It can transport Ethernet (Layer 2) over IP (Layer 3). Typically deployed in larger data centers to deal with scalability issues and problems associated with these large
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. I last learned about OSPF basics when studying for my ICND 2 exam in 2008. How do I know and or remember this? Well, 1, it was when I earned my CCNA, my first-ever associate Cisco certification. The more plausible answer is that I kept all my notes
For those who do not know, I am one of the co-founders of the Florida Network Users Group, a.k.a (FL)NUG, which is part of the greater (US)NUA organization. We like to call ourselves the “Michael” group since all three of us are named Michael. We have had the pleasure of knowing each other for some
(FL)NUG Meetup in Tampa Read More »
Since joining Forward Networks, I have had the opportunity to present our platform in several different lights. When I presented at Security Field Day 10 in November, I always dreamed of being a delegate. I jumped that and went straight to the presenter, and this hit home for me, especially knowing what Tech Field Day
Presenting at Networking Field Day 34 Read More »
Shortly after reaching my connecting airport from St. Augustine, I stared at Gate E7. Knowing this would be the longest flight of my life. Atlanta to Amsterdam: 8 hours in the air, “what’s Dutch for ‘I hate flying,” I wondered. Then, I crossed a whole ocean (uneventfully sleeping for most of it) and landed at
“Where Are the Trash Cans?”: 5 Takeaways from Cisco Live Europe Read More »