Show overview
N Is For Networking has been publishing since 2024, and across the 2 years since has built a catalogue of 64 episodes. That works out to roughly 55 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 49 min and 1h 2m — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Technology show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 2 weeks ago, with 18 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2025, with 38 episodes published. Published by Packet Pushers.
From the publisher
N Is For Networking deconstructs the concepts, jargon and acronyms of the data networking industry. Join grumpy old network engineer Ethan Banks with networking newcomer Holly Metlitzky for these episodes that will help you place context around networking terminology.
Latest Episodes
View all 64 episodesN4N063: Link Layer Discovery Protocol
N4N062: Your First Wi-FI Network, Part 3
N4N061: Your First Wi-Fi Network Part 2
N4N060: Your First Wi-Fi Network Part 1
N4N059: Twisted Pair Cabling
N4N058: Future-Proofing Your Career for the AI Era (Sponsored)
N4N057: The Art of Troubleshooting
N4N056: A Wireless NAC Walkthrough
N4N055: A Wired NAC Walkthrough
N4N054: Network Access Control (NAC) Basics
N4N053: Well Actually 03 – Multicast, Routing Protocols, RFC 1918
Ep 52N4N052: Multicast Part 2
Lenny Giuliano, Sr. Distinguished Systems Engineer at HPE Juniper Networks, joins Holly and Ethan for another round of multicast. Part two helps fill in details not covered in episode 50. They cover how multicast traffic also affects Ethernet frame addressing, and the key differences between IPv4 and IPv6 multicast. They also explain new hybrid multicast... Read more »
Ep 51N4N051: MPLS Fundamentals
Today’s topic is Multiprotocol Label Switching or MPLS, a foundational technology that powers service provider networks and enterprise WANs all over the world. To help us break it down, we’ve invited James Bensley, a Network Tech Lead who’s spent fifteen years with MPLS. James explains what spurred the creation of MPLS and how it works... Read more »
Ep 50N4N050: Multicast Fundamentals
Today’s learning adventure is an overview of multicast. Ethan and Holly have invited a guest to share his multicast expertise: Lenny Giuliano, Sr. Distinguished Systems Engineer at HPE Juniper Networks. Lenny guides them through multicast principles and shares examples of where and how it’s used in live networks. He also explains how the OSPF routing... Read more »
Ep 49N4N049: Understanding Firewalls
Today, Ethan and Holly provide an overview of firewalls. While cybersecurity is a separate discipline from network engineering, much of what happens in cybersecurity is interesting at the packet level, so there’s a good deal of overlap. It’s likely that as a network engineer, you’ll be managing, or at least dealing with, firewalls in your... Read more »
Ep 48N4N048: QoS Fundamentals
Quality of Service (QoS) is a huge topic with a punishingly large group of acronyms. Join Ethan and Holly as they help you build a mental framework of what QoS is and what it solves. Not only do they break down essential acronyms, they also discuss QoS fundamentals, define the major groups of QoS tools,... Read more »
Ep 47N4N047: Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)
Go beyond the basics to understand the mechanics that keep your default gateway from becoming a single point of failure. Ethan and Holly demystify Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), which helps provide network redundancy. They break down everything from the VRRP election protocol to the protocol’s unique communication methods. They also look back at previous... Read more »
Ep 46N4N046: In-Band vs. Out-of-Band Management
Ethan and Holly discuss the major differences between In-band and Out-of-band (OOB) management and the pros and cons of both. They explore how to implement a proper OOB network and critical use cases where OOB is required. They also explain the differences and roles of the data plane, the control plane, and the management plane.... Read more »
Ep 45N4N045: Audience Follow Up & 2026 Preview
If you’re curious as to what Ethan and Holly have in store for 2026, they give you a sneak peak on today’s episode. Hint: Some of these topics might include letters like B, G, P, Q, o, S, A and I. They also take time in this episode to answer listener questions, ranging from how... Read more »
Ep 44N4N044: Redundancy Vs. High Availability Part 2 – HA Networking Isn’t Free
In Part 1 of Redundancy vs. High Availability, we said that sometimes high availability and redundancy are considered to be the same thing, but we disagree. Holly and Ethan do agree that high availability can be considered a network design goal, and that redundancy is just one technique that can be used to help make... Read more »