Networking
Networking has always interested me because it combines design, troubleshooting, automation, and a little bit of controlled chaos. Moving a packet from Point A to Point B sounds simple until redundancy, security, multiple carriers, overlays, legacy systems, and real users become involved.
This section is my practical networking knowledge base. It covers the fundamentals, but it also goes beyond textbook definitions into the kinds of decisions that matter when operating homelabs, business networks, hosting infrastructure, and data-center environments.
Browse the Networking Knowledge Base
Foundations and Addressing
- Networking Foundations — models, addressing, ports, protocols, and essential tools
- IPv6 — address types, planning, deployment, and transition strategies
- DNS and DHCP — name resolution, address assignment, relays, and troubleshooting
- Subnet Calculator — calculate IPv4 networks, host ranges, masks, and IPv6 prefix sizes
Switching and Routing
- Switching and VLANs — access ports, trunks, segmentation, and inter-VLAN routing
- Routing Fundamentals — static routes, route selection, ECMP, and policy
- OSPF — areas, adjacencies, costs, route summarization, and troubleshooting
- BGP — peering, transit, policy, communities, and traffic engineering
- GRE Tunnels — encapsulation and routed overlays
Security and Connectivity
- Network Security — segmentation, ACLs, management-plane protection, and hardening
- VPNs and Tunneling — IPsec, WireGuard, OpenVPN, GRE, MTU, and routing considerations
- Wireless Networking — RF basics, channel planning, roaming, and Wi-Fi security
- Network Design — requirements, failure domains, redundancy, addressing, and documentation
Infrastructure and Service Providers
- Data Center Networking — spine-leaf, east-west traffic, overlays, and resilience
- ISP and Hosting Network Operations — transit, peering, RPKI, customer routing, and DDoS planning
- VyOS — installation, routing, NAT, firewalling, and lab use
- Building a Networking Homelab — hardware, virtualization, projects, and expansion
Operations and Troubleshooting
- Network Troubleshooting — a repeatable layer-by-layer workflow
- Monitoring and Observability — SNMP, logs, flow data, telemetry, and alert design
- Network Automation — backups, templates, APIs, validation, and change control
- Network Command Reference — useful Cisco, Linux, and VyOS commands
Projects and Tools
- Projects and Case Studies — practical examples and lessons learned
- Cisco Configuration Generator — build a starter IOS configuration
- Subnet Calculator — quick addressing calculations without sending data anywhere
- Packet-Capture Commands — tcpdump, Wireshark filters, and capture strategy
How I Approach Networking
I tend to approach networking from an operator’s perspective. A technically correct design is not enough if it cannot be monitored, documented, recovered, or safely changed at 2:00 a.m. The best networks are understandable, have clear failure domains, avoid unnecessary complexity, and make abnormal conditions visible before customers notice them.
The articles here will continue to grow as I document configurations, failures, migrations, and lessons from real infrastructure.