Take a Network Break! Our Red Alert covers critical vulnerabilities found in OpenClaw, the open-source AI assistant. On the news front, we discuss the status of Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and examine the Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute‘s (ETRI) development of an intelligent, service-programmable mobile core network, a key enabling technology for the 6G era.... Read more »
Scott sits down with Wi-Fi engineer Eva Santos to explore the realities of modern wireless operations. Eva shares insights on navigating site surveys, the differences between Wi-Fi bands, and the challenges of troubleshooting inconsistent client performance. The conversation also explores the evolving standards of Wi-Fi 6, 7, and 8, the role of security protocols like... Read more »
AI has complicated network automation. It has created questions: If AI generates code for me, do I need to learn Python? Should I be writing a script to gather network information if I can dispatch an AI agent to gather that information for me instead? What new skills can I skip obtaining if AI stands... Read more »
Chris Lapp is an Emmy award-winning network engineer, focused on AI, media, and entertainment. Chris is also known as “The Guy”, the one you call when the problem is sitting between broadcast networking and media and the stakes are high. Join us as Kevin and Alexis sit down with Chris to find out how he... Read more »
In this sponsored episode by Cisco we explore how agentic AI is transforming network operations and what it means for your career. Robert Barton, an AI Distinguished Engineer at Cisco Systems, joins Ethan and Holly to help us snap the artificial intelligence puzzle piece into your networking picture. Together they break down the AI trifecta:... Read more »
The Pope issued a recent encyclical on AI, urging developers to safeguard human agency in the age of artificial intelligence. Eyvonne and William explore this encyclical, moving beyond the headlines to the core message regarding human dignity. They examine how the document provides a values-based framework for evaluating technology and the need for a balanced... Read more »
Early in 2026, Drew Conry-Murray authored the first Packet Pushers Salary Survey, offering a transparent look into compensation in the network engineering industry. Drew joins Eric to discuss the results of the survey, the challenges of interpreting global data, how to use this data to advocate for your market value, and more! AdSpot Sponsor: Meter... Read more »
VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) have been arriving “real soon now” for the past couple of decades. Will the advent of vendors’ AI spyware (as Google is introducing through Chrome) be the accelerant that finally makes it happen? John and Johna discuss why the challenges in this brave new AI-enabled... Read more »
MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) encrypts Ethernet frames hop-by-hop at Layer 2 — before traffic even hits IP — making it one of the strongest protections you can put on wire. It’s been in the standards for years, hardware support is widespread, and yet most organizations aren’t running it. JJ and Drew dig into why: the hardware... Read more »
Take a Network Break! Our Red Alert covers critical vulnerabilities in Ivanti Sentry, including OS command injection and authentication bypass, for which patches are now available. On the news front, we dig into Arista’s new 1.6Tbps rack-scale portfolio for AI infrastructure and Nokia’s Deepfield Genome Shield, designed to proactively stop DDoS from residential proxy botnets. We... Read more »
Your network is an interconnected system. A change you make on one device has consequences beyond that device. Therefore, to do your job well, you must think about the network as a whole. That’s the big idea behind a blog post written by guest Jason Gintert. He joins Ethan and Drew to talk about how... Read more »
You can learn a lot about IPv6 from books, videos, and podcasts (such as this one), but it’s hard to beat hands-on experience. John Osmon joins our hosts to discuss how to set up your own IPv6 environment. They cover what John has done, including low-cost home lab options, how it’s impacted his thinking, and... Read more »
As a network engineer, you’ll end up with a lot of weird problems to solve. Many times, the problems will not be with the network at all, and it’ll be up to you to figure it all out. But how? Ethan and Holly discuss techniques for effective troubleshooting. Those techniques include how to gather accurate... Read more »
As AI matures, it becomes increasingly important to know how it’s performing and what it actually costs. Ned and Kyler are joined by Anuj Tyagi, Senior Site Reliability Engineer for RingCentral, to discuss the critical shift toward AI observability. AI observability is not just about costs; Anuj breaks down why observability has to include agent... Read more »
The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is a postmortem of a year’s worth of cyber incidents and breaches, and a snapshot of how well organizations are responding to actual threats. Drew and JJ share highlights from the 2026 installment, including: For the first time, vulnerability exploits top the list for initial access What a... Read more »
The upper 6 gigahertz band is fracturing among national lines after a verdict from regulatory bodies in the UK and the EU. While the US enjoys full Wi-Fi access along the entire 1200 megahertz, the EU has decided to reserve most of the upper band for mobile services, and the UK is testing a split... Read more »
Take a Network Break! Our Red Alert covers a critical Android vulnerability that could lead to local privilege escalation to root. On the news front, we dig into Cloud Control, Cisco’s ambitious AI ops platform that spans its networking, security, compute, observability, and collaboration portfolios. We also talk about Cisco Live Protect, which provides pre-patch... Read more »
If you think Tailscale is just a VPN for the home lab, think again. On today’s sponsored episode Ethan and Drew are joined by Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun. Avery explains how the company has evolved into an enterprise-grade connectivity and security platform. He also dives into Tailscale Aperture, their new AI gateway designed to bring... Read more »
Scott is joined by Brett Lykins, a Senior Systems Development Engineer at Amazon. Brett works with software-defined infrastructure built around SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud). Together they dig into what it’s actually like to use, maintain, and operate a network this way. They also discuss not just the architecture, but the day-to-day... Read more »
Today’s guest takes us behind the scenes of modern concert venues, which rely on wired and wireless IP networking. Michael Keith Lewis is a front-of-house engineer, tour manager, audio creator, and co-founder of Truck Packer. Michael shares his career path from starting in a church, quitting a salaried job to tour with his favorite band,... Read more »