Network Fundamentals: Top Picks
Network Fundamentals
Network Data Transmission
Network data transmission refers to the process of sending and receiving information between two or more devices connected to a network. It is a crit…
Network Fundamentals
DoS & DDoS Attacks
A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a website, server or network by flooding it with traffic…
Network Fundamentals
Measuring Network Performance: Test Network Throu…
Measuring network performance has always been a difficult and unclear task, mainly because most engineers and administrators are unsure which approac…
Network Fundamentals
Multicast - Understand How IP Multicast Works
Multicast is a communication method used in computer networking where data is sent from a single sender to a group of destination devices. In this m…
Featured Subcategories:
Netflow Articles:
Netflow
Netflow vs SNMP. Two Different Approaches to Netw…
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and Netflow are both popular protocols with admins, prized for their ability to give visibility over the ne…
Netflow
Netflow: Monitor Bandwidth & Network Utilization…
Monitoring network traffic & bandwidth usage via Netflow is mandatory for any type and size network. Gaining visibility into user traffic, applic…
Netflow
Complete Guide to Netflow: How Netflow & its Comp…
This article will cover the basics of Netflow, including its use cases, Netflow supported devices, Netflow history, and variants. We’ll also dive int…
Netflow
NetFlow Analyzer: Free Download, Step-by-Step Ins…
In our previous article we explained how a Netflow Analyzer can help you gain visibility into your user traffic, application traffic and data flows w…
Network Protocols:
Subnetting
IP Subnetting - Part 5: Subnetting Guidelines
There is always that day when you are called upon to provide a solution to a network problem. The number of problems that can occur in a network are…
Domain Name System (DNS)
The DNS Protocol - Part 3: DNS Query Message Form…
This section will deal with the analysis of the DNS packets by examining how DNS messages are formatted and the options and variables they contain. T…
IP Protocol
IP Protocol - Part 1: Binary & The Internet Proto…
To understand the Internet Protocol, we need to learn and understand Binary. It is very important to know and understand Binary because part of the I…
TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis
TCP Header Anaylsis - Section 1: TCP Source & Des…
This section contains one of the most well-known fields in the TCP header, the Source and Destination port numbers. These fields are used to specify…
TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis
Transmission Control Protocol - Part 3: The TCP H…
This article shows the TCP Header and Segment. We explain where the TCP Header and Segment are located in an Ethernet frame and also briefly view the…
Supernetting & CIDR
The Supernetting / CIDR Chart
This articles build upon our previous pages covering what is Supernetting (Route Summarization) & How Supernets Work and Supernetting In-De…
TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis
TCP Header Anaylsis - Section 7: TCP Data Payload…
Finally, the last page of our incredible TCP Analysis. As most of you would expect, this section is dedicated to the DATA section that follows the TC…
TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis
TCP Header Anaylsis - Section 5: TCP Window Size…
Our fifth section contains some very interesting fields that are used by the TCP transport protocol. We see how TCP helps control how much data is tr…
STP/ICMP Protocols:

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
Spanning Tree Protocol – Part 3: Bridge ID, Prior…
In this article we will examine the Spanning Tree Bridge ID structure, explain why it has increments of 4096, how VLAN information is embedded (for P…

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
Spanning Tree Protocol – Part 2: Rapid STP Port C…
Spanning Tree Protocol, Rapid STP port costs and port states are an essential part of the STP algorithm that affect how STP decides to forward or blo…
ICMP Protocol
ICMP Protocol - Part 1: Introduction
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), is a very popular protocol and actually part of an Internet Protocol (IP) implementation. Because IP wa…

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
Spanning Tree Protocol – Part 1: Understand STP P…
One of the most used terms in network is LAN (Local Area Network). It’s a form of network that we encounter in our daily lives, at home, at work, stu…
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VLAN Networks
VTP Protocol - In-Depth Analysis
The previous article introduced the VTP protocol, we examined how it can be used within a network, to help manage VLANs and ease the administrative overhe…

VLAN Networks
The VLAN Concept - Introduction to VLANs
We hear about them everywhere, vendors around the world are constantly trying to push them into every type of network and as a result, the Local Area Netw…

VLAN Networks
VLAN Tagging - Understanding VLANs Ethernet Frames
We mentioned that Trunk Links are designed to pass frames (packets) from all VLANs, allowing us to connect multiple switches together and independently co…

VLAN Networks
Comparing Traditional Flat & VLAN Networks
Designing and building a network is not a simple job. VLANs are no exception to this rule, in fact they require a more sophisticated approach because of t…

Routing
OSPF - Part 1: Introduction, OSPF Packet Structure, OS…
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a popular routing protocol developed for Internet Protocol (IP) networks by the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) working…

Routing
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol - EIGRP
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), similar to IGRP, is a Cisco proprietary routing protocol that is used to exchange routing information…

Routing
OSPF - Part 5: Analysis of OSPF Link State Update (LSU…
This article explains how OSPF uses Link State Advertisement (LSA) to exchange information about the network topology between routers. When a router recei…

Routing
Interior Gateway Protocol - IGRP
IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) is a Cisco proprietary distance-vector routing protocol used in enterprise networks to exchange routing informati…
Network Address Translation - NAT
The Network Address Translation Table
After that simple and informative introduction to the NAT concept, it's time to find out more about how it works and this is where the NAT table comes in…
Network Address Translation - NAT
Dynamic NAT - Part 1
Dynamic NAT is the second NAT mode we're going to talk about. Dynamic NAT, like Static NAT, is not that common in smaller networks but you'll find it used…
Network Address Translation - NAT
Network Address Translation (NAT) Concepts
Before we dive into the deep waters of NAT, we need to make sure we understand exactly what NAT does. So let me give you the background of NAT, why it's h…
Network Address Translation - NAT
Static NAT - Part 1
Static NAT (also called inbound mapping) is the first mode we're going to talk about and also happens to be the most uncommon between smaller networks.
S…