The Everything Feed - All Packet Pushers Pods

Every employer knows to conduct background checks. However, conducting background checks on IT professionals requires an extra layer of verification, given the privileged access they typically have to IT systems and tools. Moreover, in this AI era, background checks need to be deeper and more effective than before–in the past we didn’t need to verify... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with follow-ups on secure browsers and data centers in space, and then sound the red alert about an RCE vulnerability in NLTK. On the news front, Palo Alto Networks acquires a startup that monitors endpoints for malicious packages, browser extensions, scripts, and other threats, Lumen debuts a multi-cloud gateway... Read more »

Traditional routing protocols like OSPF simply choose the “shortest” path. If the shortest path is full of traffic and there are alternate paths carrying nothing, OSPF can’t help you. Path Computation Element (PCE) along with Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) is a way to construct forwarding paths through the network based on factors that distributed... Read more »

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 »

Ed, Nick, and Tom discuss the need for Network Address Translation v6 to v6 (NAT66). While Network Prefix Translation (NPTv6) exists, its limitations make it insufficient for real-world business needs. They also highlight that without a standardized NAT66, the market is forcing vendors to implement their own, hindering widespread IPv6 adoption. Episode Links: IPv6-to-IPv6 Network... Read more »

Kat Traxler, Principal Security Researcher at Vectra AI, returns to the podcast to discuss her AI-powered vulnerability research workflow. She explains how she uses two different AI models to act as the “blackboard” while she applies her expertise to triage AI-generated ideas to increase her productivity. She also asks a concerning question: As AI automates... Read more »

Adrian Granados joins Keith Parsons to discuss new iOS tools available for the WLAN Pi. These new tools extend a professional’s ability to run Wi-Fi scanning and analysis apps such a Wi-Fi Explorer Pi and Airtool Pi on iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads. Along with the small, portable WLAN Pi itself, these apps... Read more »

With the rise of cloud services and SaaS, the browser has become a primary productivity tool. It’s also a primary vector for malware, phishing, identity theft, data leaks, and other risks. On today’s sponsored episode with Palo Alto Networks, we dive into browser security. We discuss risks to the browser and how they differ from... Read more »

Where are all the network engineers? OK, obviously, there are network engineers out there, like the thousands of you listening to this podcast. But there’s an impression that the current generation is aging out of the profession while fewer young people are taking on network engineering as a career. At the same time, networks are... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with listener follow-up on data centers in space, and sound the Red Alert about a sandbox failure in Claude Code and a rash of Microsoft zero-days. On the news front, Cisco announces a 102.4Tbps switch ASIC in its Silicon One line of homegrown chips, and adds AI agent monitoring... Read more »

Scott talks with Mark Gebert from Verizon about something that sits at the heart of every reliable enterprise network: testing. Automation is moving fast in the telco world, but automation without testing is just an accident waiting to happen. They unpack what makes enterprise service provisioning so complex—multi-vendor networks, optical and IP gear, security functions,... Read more »

Our topic today is building and running network workflows. If your network workflows live in a spreadsheet, a SharePoint document, or in your head, you really need a workflow manager. A workflow manager brings scalability, repeatability, and consistency to your network operations team. In this sponsored episode, we discuss Cisco Crosswork Workflow Manager. Our guests... Read more »

Kevin and Alexis sit down with Melissa Brooks, a Senior Cloud Engineer at Aritzia, to discuss how she went from being a “terrible waitress” to going back to school for a diploma in network security. They explore how she used a strategic, “reverse engineered” approach to goal setting to land on a career in tech.... Read more »

We’ve spent a decade figuring out how to (more or less) securely authenticate humans. Now AI agents are crashing the party, and identity just got a whole lot more complicated. Today we sit down with Dan Moore, Senior Director of CIAM Strategy and Identity Standards at FusionAuth, to explore the collision course between artificial intelligence... Read more »

Today we are joined by Matt Remke, who has spent years in the trenches of network automation projects as a consultant. Matt offers a unique, non-engineer perspective on scaling network automation in real-world, complex environments for some of the world’s largest companies. Matt shares what worked, what backfired, and the hard-earned lessons he has gained... Read more »

Everything old is new again in today’s Packet Protector news roundup, as a decade-old Telnet exploit resurfaces, and Microsoft unfolds its roadmap to phase out the ancient NTLM protocol. In other news, Google takes down a sprawling residential proxy network, the popular Notepad++ app takes steps to recover from a serious compromise, and a Polish... Read more »

The recent U.S. Executive Order 14365, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, is the administration’s latest attempt to prevent the enforcement of most of the AI laws passed in individual US states. Because it is only an executive order (EO), it cannot directly nullify, supersede, forestall, or put a pause on state-level laws.... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with a trio of follow-ups, including a correction regarding Mplify certifications, Cisco proposing new OSI layers, and free-space optics. Our Red Alert sounds off about a remote code execution vulnerability in the Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile agent. On the news front, Broadcom announces new silicon for wireless APs for... Read more »

What should network engineers know about software development? What should software developers know about networking? Ethan and Drew sit down with Chris Rapier and Nick Buraglio to discuss why crossing these silos can improve outcomes for everyone. They break down why being a little curious about the infrastructure can help software developers write better code,... Read more »

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 »

Are you struggling to get IPv6 working, whether in a lab or even a pilot deployment? Ed, Nick, and Tom walk through the essentials of IPv6 troubleshooting, revealing the non-negotiable differences between IPv4 and IPv6 that can trip up even experienced network engineers. They break down why blocking all ICMP, like in v4, will instantly... Read more »

Ned and Kyler sit down with Tikhon Jelvis to discuss Haskell and other niche programming languages. They explore how this decades-old language isn’t just surviving, but thriving. They also break down how Haskell can provide distinct advantages over traditional programming, especially for complex domain modeling and concurrent applications. Episode Links: Copilot Language Haskell Project Haskell... Read more »

Operation Technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are where the digital world meets the physical world. These systems, which are critical to the operation of nuclear power plants, manufacturing sites, municipal power and water plants, and more, are under increasing attack. On today’s Packet Protector we return to the OT/ICS realm to talk about... Read more »

Every Wi-fi or network professional occasionally struggles with understanding what their endpoints are experiencing. Keith sits down with Bill Bushong, creator of NetViews, a macOS application originally called PingStalker. In this conversation they discuss why he built NetViews, the technical details on how it works, its network monitoring capabilities, and how Wi-Fi professionals can use... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We’ve got Red Alerts for HPE Juniper Session Smart Routers and SolarWinds. In this week’s news, Microsoft debuts its second-generation AI inferencing chip, Mplify rolls out a new Carrier Ethernet certification for supporting AI workloads, and AWS upgrades its network firewall to spot GenAI application traffic and filter Web categories. Google... Read more »

Let’s talk about AI for NetOps: It’s not just coming, it’s here. There are tools to use, skills to acquire, and we want to talk about what’s needed for highly certified network engineers to skill up in AI. What certification opportunities or paths exist? What developments do we think we’re going to see here? And... Read more »

AI is everywhere in networking right now, but most of it feels like hype. In this sponsored episode, we go deeper than buzzwords with Steven Butler from Nokia to explore what it takes to make AI Ops real, reliable, and trustworthy in production environments. If you want AI to deliver value, you need the fundamentals... Read more »

Ifeanyi Otuonye was a decorated track and field athlete at Kansas State and even competed professionally. Then he made the leap to a Technical Account Manager role at Amazon Web Services. Alexis and Kevin sit down with Ifeanyi to discuss the difficulties of that career change. Ifeanyi explains why he chose cloud engineering, what he... Read more »

Eric sits down with two graduates from the CU Boulder Networking Engineering Master’s Program to discuss what they learned during their time in the program and how that translated into real world opportunities and experiences. They also offer some invaluable career advice from the “seven plus one” formula and the value of asking “dumb questions.”... Read more »

In this episode, we sit down with Adam Zimman, author and VC advisor, to explore the world of progressive delivery and why shipping software is only the beginning. Adam shares his fascinating journey through tech—from his early days as a fire juggler to leadership roles at EMC, VMware, GitHub, and LaunchDarkly – and how those... Read more »

Keith sits down with old friend Jussi Kiviniemi, CEO of Hamina, to unveil their new product: The Hamina Clip. Together they discuss this new wireless survey device, including its portable design, its price point, and its ability to help you perform surveys and create heat maps without a floor plan. They also compare it to... Read more »

OAuth is a widely used authorization (not authentication) protocol that lets a resource owner grant access to a resource using access tokens. These tokens define access attributes, including scope and length of time. OAuth can be used to grant access to human and non-human entities (for example, AI agents). OAuth is increasingly being abused by... Read more »

Are there some things that can come off your strategic planning radar for IT and cybersecurity in 2026? If you ask AI, you’ll get some surprising answers. Johna and John take a critical look at this AI-generated list to see which ones may or may not be “solved enough” to fall off the strategic planning... Read more »

Today on the podcast, data protection. There’s always been a tension between the need for companies to share data, whether among coworkers, partners, or customers; and the need to protect data, whether it’s for security, privacy, compliance, and so on. That tension existed before AI, but the rise of third-party and external AI tools has... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with a Red Alert in Oracle’s WebLogic Server Proxy Plugin for Apache or IIS, which has a severity score of 10. In the news, Fortinet warns that attackers have found a new exploit path against previously-patched vulnerabilities, Microsoft 365 services suffered an outage, and ServiceNow inks a deal with... Read more »

What is the real-world impact of AI on network operations? Drew and Ethan have a chat with Carlos Pignataro, Founder & Principal at Blue Fern Consulting, to cut through the AI hype machine. Carlos offers a thoughtful, balanced take on where the industry is headed, and where it’s missing the mark. Together they discuss Intent-Based... Read more »

Thinking of setting up an IPv6 lab this year? Our hosts dive into a major update on building and testing modern IPv6 networks, focusing on the game-changing “IPv6-mostly” architecture. They break down the essential components you need to get this working, including DHCP Option 108 and the nitty gritty of client support. In this episode,... Read more »

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 »

Ned and Kyler sit down with industry analyst Jon Collins for a fun and free-ranging discussion that covers everything from the changing landscape of software engineering to the importance of good architecture (physical and digital). They tackle the pros and cons of “Vibe Coding” as well as the “Augmentation Gap”, the idea that AI tools... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, Eric sits down with Lee Peterson, VP of Product Management for Secure WAN, at Cisco. Together they discuss how Cisco Unified Branch is helping organizations scale, automate, and secure their distributed environments. They also define the Branch Network, discuss the major challenges facing network teams, and walk through Cisco’s vision of... Read more »

Is AI just a fad or is it fundamentally changing Wi-Fi operations? Keith sits down with Robert Boardman to discuss the reality of AI-augmented Wi-Fi engineering. Robert describes AI as a tool, and explains how it can be useful for automating monotonous tasks and proactive troubleshooting. They also explore the human factor and how experience... Read more »

The start of a new year is a good time to assess what’s important. We’ve gathered some Packet Protector listeners to talk about their security priorities for 2026 in a roundtable discussion with hosts JJ and Drew. We talk about key risks for 2026, whether those risks have changed since last year, use cases for... Read more »

Take a Network Break! This week we start with follow-up from a perhaps not-so-red Red Alert, and then cover two very-red Red Alerts. On the news front, Ruckus Wireless gets a new parent company, and sources say Extreme Networks may be interested in bringing Ruckus into its fold. AT&T rolls out an IoT management offering,... Read more »

Ethernet is everywhere. Today we talk with one of the people responsible for this protocol’s ubiquity. Doug Boom is a veteran of the Ethernet development world. His code has helped landers reach Mars, submarines sail the deep seas, airplanes get to their gates, cars drive around town, and more. Doug walks us through the origins... Read more »

Are you an AI skeptic or an enthusiast? Ethan and Drew sit down with Igor Tarasenko, Senior Director of Product Software Architecture and Engineering at Equinix, to break down the reality of AI in the network. In this sponsored episode, Tarasenko discusses why APIs are the new CLI, the critical need for observability in AI,... Read more »

Is it possible for IT professionals to remain technical when moving into roles that expand influence, scale, and reach? Matt Starling, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Ekahau and co-founder of the WiFi Ninjas podcast, joins Alexis and Kevin to share how your career can evolve beyond on-call operations without losing the technical core. His... Read more »

Eric Chou is joined by Dr. Levi Perigo, Scholar in Residence and Professor of Network Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. They discuss Levi’s non-traditional career path from being in the network automation industry for 20 years before shifting to academia and co-founding QuivAR. Levi also dives into the success of the CU Boulder... Read more »

The industry has pivoted from scripting to automation to orchestration – and now to systems that can reason. Today we explore what AI agents mean for infrastructure with Chris Wade, Co-Founder and CTO of Itential. We also dive into the brownfield reality, the potential for vendor-specific LLMs trained on proprietary knowledge, and advice for the... Read more »

Everything old is new again in this Packet Protector news roundup, from end-of-life D-Link routers facing active exploits (and no patch coming) to a five-year-old Fortinet vulnerability being freshly targeted by threat actors (despite a patch having been available for five years). We also dig into a clever, multi-stage attack against hotel operators that could... Read more »

Leaders may shy away from thinking about insider threats because it means assuming the worst about colleagues and friends. But technology executives do need to confront this problem because insider attacks are prevalent—a recent study claims that in 2024, 83% of organizations experienced at least one—and on the rise. Moreover, AI and deepfakes vastly enhance... Read more »