The Everything Feed - All Packet Pushers Pods

The best strategy in the world won’t succeed if a team falters operationally. But what is operational excellence, and what does it take to acquire it? Cal Poly faculty member (and former Intel strategist) John Miranda shares his thinking with our Heavy Strategy listeners. He discusses concepts like the theory of constraints, root-cause analysis, and... Read more »

In the cybercrime industry, initial access brokers specialize in break-ins. They pick digital locks and slide open electronic windows, and then sell that access to other threat actors who specialize in ransomware, exfiltration, and other crimes. SocGholish is a widely used tool in the access broker toolkit. Typically disguised as a legitimate software update, SocGholish... Read more »

They warn about critical authentication and unpatched vulnerabilities that need immediate attention. They cover legal fallout from IoT antenna patents and modular SASE service options. Cloud updates like private application gateways and risky AI agent permissions get discussed. Space topics include drone strikes affecting cloud regions, orbital collision disputes between major satellite operators, and a quirky mission-control tech fix.

Ethan Banks sits down with Ryan Hamel at the 96th North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG96). Ryan, a network automation developer for the Zayo Group, talks about why boring network design is actually a good thing. He and Ethan explore why simplicity and standardization are key to long-term success. They also emphasize the importance of... Read more »

They dig into why SLAAC is essential for CLAT in IPv6-mostly deployments and how it enables IPv6 operation for legacy apps. They compare IPv6-mostly, v6-only, and dual stack approaches. They discuss enterprise friction with SLAAC, tracking and accountability options, standards work for SLAAC-to-DHCPv6 registration, and operational workarounds like 802.1x and zero trust.

Lenny Giuliano, Sr. Distinguished Systems Engineer and multicast expert, gives concise historical and technical context for multicast networking. He explains IGMP/MLD behavior on LANs, multicast MAC addressing quirks, IPv4 vs IPv6 differences, ASM vs SSM, BEER stateless-core encapsulation, AMT tunneling, and why multicast might resurge for live, high-bandwidth content.

Ned and Kyler discuss the state of platform engineering, DevEx, and how AI is affecting choices in those domains with guest Annem Shah. They discuss how AI can help bridge the gap between initial setup and continuous operations by providing feedback and interpreting complex error messages. They also break down how AI can assist in... Read more »

Joby Rudolph, Senior Distinguished Engineer focused on agent and platform design, and Surya Nimmagadda, Chief Data Scientist specializing in network observability and ML, join to discuss the data behind AI for networks. They talk about agentic tools reshaping workflows. They dig into transparency versus proprietary data, cross-domain observability, customer-specific modeling, noise filtering, and human oversight for AI-driven networking.

Keith Parsons is joined by Bradley Wegner, the creator of the Build Your Own AP deep dive at WLPC. Brad discusses his class, which focuses on hands-on hardware experience of constructing an AP. He talks about balancing hardware costs with capabilities, sourcing the components, and the software and firmware involved. He also shares his vision... Read more »

Firewall policies are the heart of network security, but over time they can become a tangled mess. Rules might be outdated, or conflicting, or fail to address new applications, services, and risks. Add in remote locations and public cloud deployments, and you’ve got a serious headache for security and network teams. On today’s sponsored show... Read more »