Packet Pushers - Full Podcast Feed

Our IPv6 Basics series continues with link-local addresses. Link-local addresses are unicast addresses used for addressing on a single link. The intent of link-local addresses is to let devices that may not have a router or global unicast address allocation mechanism still be able to communicate on a network segment. On today’s show we dig... Read more »

Let’s dig into tunnels. While some network engineers may want to quibble, a tunnel is when you put one packet inside of another packet to carry it across a network (frames also come into the picture, so hold off on your follow-ups for now). On today’s N Is For Networking, Ethan and Holly explore this... Read more »

How do you measure developer performance and productivity? On today’s Day Two DevOps, we look at different methods with guest Laura Tacho, the CTO at DX. We explore industry benchmarks such as the DORA report, SPACE, and DevEx. Laura also introduces us to Core 4, a project she’s been working on that provides a new... Read more »

Stratoshark is a new tool from the Wireshark Foundation that analyzes system calls on a host. Network, security, and application teams can use Stratoshark to diagnose performance issues and investigate behavior that may indicate malware or other compromises of the host. On today’s Packet Protector we talk with Gerald Combs of the Wireshark Foundation about... Read more »

Today on Heavy Wireless we welcome Francois Verges, who designed a database tool to help Wi-Fi engineers easily find client device capabilities. It provides quick access to key specs like data rates, Wi-Fi versions, and vendor documentation. It’s designed to be a go-to option when looking for Wi-Fi client specifications. We discuss why he developed... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with follow-up from a listener on the best way to listen to our podcast that helps the most. The answer? Any listen on any platform helps. Even better is to tell a friend! We discuss two critical security issues. First, CISA adds active exploits against known SonicWall vulnerabilities to... Read more »

SharkFest is the twice-yearly conference where Wireshark users and trainers gather to learn, share, and improve their packet and protocol analysis skills. The US version of SharkFest’25 is June 14 -19 in Richmond, VA. Gerald Combs of the Wireshark Foundation is here to tell us about why this live event needs to be on your... Read more »

On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with Dan Wade about testing the network, inspired by Dan’s talk at AutoCon 2: “Step 0: Test the Network.” We discuss why testing is a good idea, and then explore four types of network testing, including unit tests and integration tests. We dig into Yang, RESTCONF, NETCONF and gNMI... Read more »

Network monitoring, Internet monitoring, and observability are all key components of NetOps. We speak with sponsor Catchpoint to understand how Catchpoint can help network operators proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact customers. We discuss past and current network monitoring strategies and the challenges that operators face with both on-prem and cloud monitoring, along... Read more »

On this episode of Technically Leadership, we’re joined by Aleksandra Lemańska to learn about the Process Communication Model (PCM), a framework for enhancing communication. Alex calls PCM an algorithm for people, and it can be useful for improving interactions with engineers and technical folks operating in high-stress environments. We talk about how PCM works, understanding... Read more »

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) assigns an IP address to a host that joins a network, along with other information necessary for the host to communicate. DHCP also has more to it, so this week’s episode is meant to be a solid introduction to this essential network protocol. We first discuss what it is... Read more »

Today’s guest is Jeff Doyle, an expert in the networking industry with over 30 years of experience as a consultant, instructor, architect, author, and speaker. Eric chats with Jeff about his background and how he got into networking (spoiler: it was not a computer science degree!). The conversation explores Jeff’s current work and delves into... Read more »

New breach reports show threat actor dwell times are dropping significantly. It’s a positive development, but there is a caveat. We discuss this caveat and other findings from the 2025 editions of the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report and the Google M-Trends Report. We also get highlights from the 2025 RSA Conference, and JJ gets... Read more »

It’s all well and good to develop a technology strategy, articulate and document the strategy, and agree (supposedly) on that strategy. But what do you do when one or more of the tech teams act in apparent opposition to the strategy? John and Johna discuss why this happens and what questions you need to ask... Read more »

Take a Network Break! This week we catch up on the Airborne vulnerabilities affecting Apple’s AirPlay protocol and SDK, and get an update on active exploits against an SAP NetWeaver vulnerability–a patch is available, so get fixing if you haven’t already. Palo Alto Networks launches the AIRS platform to address AI threats in the enterprise,... Read more »

On today’s Heavy Networking, a roundtable panel considers whether a modern network needs to be built around underlays and overlays. This isn’t just Ethan yelling at clouds. This is a legitimate question pondering the real-world value of an overlay/underlay approach. Is overlay everywhere overkill, or is that the architecture we need to deliver a safe,... Read more »

Doug Madory has been called “The Man Who Can See the Internet.” Doug has developed a reputation for identifying significant developments in the global layout of the internet. He joins us today to discuss his role in analyzing internet data to identify trends and insights. He shares his journey from a data QA position to... Read more »

Today we talk with Tommy Jensen, a Senior Technical PM Strategist at Microsoft, about IPv6 support in Windows. Tommy shares what he hears from enterprises that are moving toward IPv6-mostly, strategies for dealing with older applications and devices that expect IPv4, and how the customer conversations he’s having about IPv6 now are more engaged and... Read more »

This week we continue with DNS. In our last episode we covered the basics; today we expand our scope to cover topics such as security for DNS, reverse DNS, and DNS record types. For dessert this week, a serving of Raspberry Pi and Happy Eyeballs. Episode Links: DNS: Turning Names into Numbers – N Is... Read more »

The shine has been coming off public cloud for awhile. Cloud costs remain high, complexity is growing, and public cloud interoperability is difficult. And while there’s talk about moving back to private cloud, that migration presents its own costs and complexities. To help us navigate the challenge that is cloud in 2025, we welcome Mark... Read more »