Trouble with Tribbles …..errr NAT - The Forwarding Plane | The Forwarding Plane - Jul 1, 2018 […] Buraglio / July 16, 2018 / No Comments As a follow up to my last post, I wanted to dive a little deeper into the world of address translation and to suss out some of the […]

I’ve been very vocal about the misinterpretation of NAT for many, many years. Since it’s inception, NAT has been slowly perverted into what many now believe to be a security mechanism. While I do see a reasonable use of IP masquerading in a larger security strategy, this is not the original intent (or implementation) of NAT. What mosts network engineers call “NAT” is actually one to many network port address translation - or taking one public address and “hiding” a number of private (likely RFC1918) addresses “behind” it, using ports to translate traffic and keeping the state of those connections.

Field Area Networking - Tech Field Day - May 0, 2018 […] Field Area Networking […]

It’s no secret that RF technologies and what like to call “specialty networking” are two of my favorite things in the networking space. Put them together and it is like chocolate and peanut butter! Now, some may not consider Field Area Networking (FAN) to be “unconventional”, but it certainly falls well outside of the space of what is typically traditional enterprise networking. That said, Cisco’s FAN briefing at Network Field Day 17 really got me excited and thinking about the alternatives for the IoT space.

Build vs. buy is an often lamented and always hotly debated question in all aspects of IT, however, if one is able to truly look at all angles the answer is typically straightforward and can be rooted in one simple strategy: don’t reinvent the wheel. Don’t reinvent the wheel Too many times we as an industry don’t do our homework - we are all guilty of it - and we reinvent a wheel.

Strategy Series: How do you view outside of your network? - Tech Field Day - Feb 1, 2018 […] Strategy Series: How do you view outside of your network? […]

In the tradition of my NIX4NetEng series I’m going to dive deep into the world of strategy, and specifically into the strategy of how we look at and operate our networks, the data they generate and the analytics that are available (and often overlooked) in how networks are managed both long term and day-to-day. So, in the spirit of visibility, lets think about how typical networks are monitored. My guess is that you either already know, or will soon realize that visibility and testing across disparate networks is hard.

What is your netflow strategy? - Tech Field Day - Dec 2, 2017 […] What is your netflow strategy? […] [Robert Cowart]( “robacj@gmail.com”) - Dec 4, 2017 Nick, thanks for the mention of ElastiFlow. Back when I created it I knew from my past experience that there was a lot of value in flow data. However, I must admit to being surprised with how popular the solution has become. Your criticism of the lacking documentation is fair, and will be addressed in the near future.

You have one, right? Even if your entire strategy is “collect some flow data”, there is absolutely NO reason not to have a netflow implementation, and frankly, it will save you time and money over time if you make the effort to do it. I love network data and analytics and I have waxed poetic about how important they are at every opportunity. There are a myriad of options for analytics and flow data.

Nick Buraglio - Dec 1, 2017 Matt is a sharp guy who has been ahead of the game for a while. Glad I’m on the same page as him =) Link Propagation 101 - Packet Pushers - - Dec 5, 2017 […] Speculation on the obvious: stuff changes, why freak out? – The Forwarding Plane […] [Ethan Banks]( “ethan.banks@packetpushers.net”) - Dec 1, 2017 So much this. For an exclamation point on it, throw in Matt Oswalt’s, “Your Cheese Moved A Long Time Ago.