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Network Fundamentals: Top Picks

Network Fundamentals

The Importance of a Network Analyzer – Packet S...

Network Analyzers, also known as Packet Sniffers, are amongst the most popular network tools found inside any Network Engineer’s toolkit. A Network...
Network Fundamentals

Need for Speed – The Data Tsunami & Advancement...

A long-long time ago (not long ago in earth time) 100 Mbps was THE technology. 100 Mbps uplinks bundled with ether-channel was the ultimate uplink ...
Network Fundamentals

Measuring Network Performance: Test Network Thr...

Measuring network performance has always been a difficult and unclear task, mainly because most engineers and administrators are unsure which appro...
Network Fundamentals

Firewall Topologies

In this section we are going to talk about the different ways a firewall can be set up. Depending on your needs, you can have a very simple firewal...

Featured Subcategories:

Netflow Articles:

Netflow

Complete Guide to Netflow: How Netflow & its Co...

This article will cover the basics of Netflow, including its use cases, Netflow supported devices, Netflow history, and variants. We’ll also dive i...
Netflow

NetFlow Analyzer: Free Download, Step-by-Step I...

In our previous article we explained how a Netflow Analyzer can help you gain visibility into your user traffic, application traffic and data flows...
Netflow

Netflow vs SNMP. Two Different Approaches to Ne...

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and Netflow are both popular protocols with admins, prized for their ability to give visibility over the ...
Netflow

Netflow: Monitor Bandwidth & Network Utilizatio...

Monitoring network traffic & bandwidth usage via Netflow is mandatory for any type and size network. Gaining visibility into user traffic, appl...

Network Protocols:

TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis

UDP Protocol - Header

This article covers the UDP protocol. We examine the structure of the UDP header, the protocols that use UDP as a transport plus a lot more. Some ...
TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis

TCP Header Anaylsis - Section 2: TCP Sequence &...

This page will closely examine the Sequence and Acknowledgement numbers. The very purpose of their existence is related directly to the fact that t...
Subnetting

IP Subnetting - Part 1: The Basic Concepts

When we subnet a network, we basically split it into smaller networks. For example, when a set of IP Addresses is given to a company, e.g 254 they ...
Subnetting

IP Subnetting - Part 4: Routing Between Subnets

Routing and Communication between subnets is the main topic here. This article analyses communications between subnets. We provide examples on diff...
Supernetting & CIDR

Supernetting In-Depth Analysis - Learn to Ident...

Our previous article served as an introduction to Supernetting, also known as Route Summarization. We covered the concept of Supernetting, how it w...
TCP - UDP Protocol Analysis

TCP Header Anaylsis - Section 3: TCP Header Len...

The third field under close examination is the TCP Header length. There really isn't that much to say about the Header length other than to explain...
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 ar...
Subnetting

IP Subnetting - Part 3: Subnet Mask Bits & Anal...

So we have covered to some depth the subnetting topic, but there is still much to learn ! We are going to explain here the available subnet masks a...

STP/ICMP Protocols:

ICMP Protocol

ICMP Protocol - Part 7: Time Exceeded Message A...

The ICMP - Time Exceeded message is one which is usually created by gateways or routers. In order to fully understand this ICMP message, you must b...
ICMP Protocol

ICMP Protocol - Part 4: Destination Unreachable...

The 'ICMP Destination unreachable' message is quite interesting, because it doesn't actually contain one message, but infact six! This means that t...
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Spanning Tree Protocol – Part 2: Rapid STP Port...

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 b...
ICMP Protocol

ICMP Protocol - Part 2: Echo / Echo Reply (Ping...

As mentioned in the previous page, an Echo is simply what we networking engineers call a 'ping'. The Echo Reply is, as most would guess,  the ...

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VLAN Networks

VTP Introduction & Modes

The invention of VLANs was very much welcomed by all engineers and administrators, allowing them to extend, redesign and segment their existing network ...
VLAN Networks

Dynamic VLANs

Dynamic VLANs were introduced to grant the flexibility and complexity(!) that Static VLANs did not provide. Dynamic VLANs are quite rare because of thei...
VLAN Networks

VLANs - IEEE 802.1q Trunk Link Protocol Analysis

While the VLAN Tagging article briefly covered the IEEE 802.1q protocol this article will continue building upon it by further analyzing the IEEE 802.1q...
VLAN Networks

InterVLAN Routing - Routing between VLAN Networks

This article deals with the popular topic of InterVLAN routing, which is used to allow routing & communication between VLAN networks. Our article an...

Routing

OSPF - Part 4: OSPF Neighbor States – OSPF Neighbor ...

This is the third article of our OSPF series which analyzes the different OSPF States routers go through during the OSPF discovery and neighbor forming ...
Routing

Distance Vector Routing Protocols

Distance Vector routing protocols use frequent broadcasts (255.255.255.255 or FF:FF:FF:FF) of their entire routing table every 30 sec. on all their inte...
Routing

OSPF - Part 1: Introduction, OSPF Packet Structure, ...

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a popular routing protocol developed for Internet Protocol (IP) networks by the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) worki...
Routing

Hybrid Routing Protocols - Advantages and Disadvanta...

Hybrid routing protocols are a combination of distance-vector and link-state routing protocols, and are used to provide a more efficient and scala...

Network Address Translation - NAT

Network Address Translation (NAT) Overload - Part 1

NAT Overload is the most common NAT method used throughout all networks that connect to the Internet. This is because of the way it functions and the li...
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. ...
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 us...
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...