Personal Branding for Network Engineers
When you think of a smartphone, what brand comes to mind first?Apple? Samsung? Probably. How about a soda/soft drink? You will probably think of “Coke”. In the same way, when people think about you (in a professional point of view), what comes to their mind? This is what a Personal Branding is about – people’s perception of […]
Software Defined WAN: the Wide Area Network is getting a facelift
The Networking world is being bombarded by so many “new” technologies that it is difficult to keep up with them all, from Software Defined Networking (SDN) to Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and now Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN). At the center of all these technologies is a focus on software versus tightly-knit hardware/software combinations. In […]
Open Networking from theory to practice
In this article, we will be discussing Open Networking and try to dissect what the “open” in Open Networking really means. We will also be looking at different real-life products and solutions that fit the Open Networking model. Finally, we will look at a practical lab example of Open Networking. [thrive_leads id=’12612′] The “Open” in […]
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)
Introduction When I started out in my Networking career, Cisco’s firewall product was called the Cisco Private Internet eXchange (PIX). A few years after that, they rebranded it as the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and now Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) with FirePOWER Services. The point I’m trying to make is that in the field […]
Introduction to Cloud Computing
When you hear of “the cloud”, what comes to your mind? For many company executives when the cloud was becoming a popular thing, what came to mind was fear – fear of loss of data, fear of compromised data, fear of the unknown. As research shows, even though people still have these fears, more people […]
IPv6 Migration from IPv4: a Practical Guide (with bonus)
The Internet was initially designed to support end-to-end connectivity i.e. every device/host on the Internet should be able to “talk” to every other device directly like in a peer to peer model. As such, when the Internet was conceived and IPv4 was chosen (and IPv6 was not even an idea!) as the network protocol (official […]
How to Configure HSRP on a Cisco Router (with GNS3 lab)
Hot Standby Routing Protocol or HSRP, is a Cisco proprietary protocol that allows two or more routers to work together to represent a single IP address for a particular network. HSRP, as well as Virtual Route Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) are considered high-availability network services that allow for almost immediate fail over to a secondary interface […]
How to configure Remotely Triggered Black Hole routing to protect from DDOS attacks (with bonus)
Remotely triggered black hole routing is a technique that can be used to protect from DDoS attacks. It has the ability to drop undesirable traffic before it enters the protected network. This article explains how it works and how it can be configured to protect your network. [thrive_leads id=’12481′] What is a DDoS attack? In the […]
How to perform a Network Audit (with bonus template)
I was once involved in a project for a client with quite a large network spanning several locations and cities. The client wanted to know the real state of their network so as to improve the overall performance of the network. Basically, he needed a network audit. The scope of this project involved: Inventory: determining what kind […]
pfSense vs Cisco ASA: which firewall is better for your network?
In this article, we will be comparing two security products – pfSense and the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), to help you in choosing the right firewall for your network. We will take each product individually, looking at their pros and cons, and also discuss what scenario(s) they can be used and recommended. pfSense and […]