N4N064: A Gentle Introduction to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

Mastering core network protocols through the Wireshark Certified Analyst (WCA) certification provides practical troubleshooting skills that can elevate IT and security careers. Holly and Ethan are joined by Wireshark expert and educator Chris Greer to break down the WCA certification. Chris shares study tips, lab resources, and details about the exam format and prep courses.... Read more »

If you’re working on your CCNA you’re learning a lot of CLI, configuration tasks, and so on. But if AI can handle that for you, how much CLI do you really need to know? On today’s sponsored episode, Sergio Freitas, an Engineering Director at Cisco, joins Ethan and Holly to explain how AI agents are... Read more »

Networking vendor Meter has recently launched their brand new Networking Grants program, putting money on the table to help you in your learning journey. In this sponsored episode, Matt Heim, Head of Partner Enablement at Meter, joins Ethan and Holly to explain why Meter created the program, how it works, who is eligible, and how... Read more »

Thanks to a listener request, today’s episode talks about how to optimize your home network for gaming. Ethan and Holly discuss key factors such as latency, connection type, and bandwidth congestion as well as how wired connections, server selection, and active queue management can directly impact responsiveness. Episode Links: Watch this episode on YouTube

Ethan and Holly are back to walk us through Access Lists. Access Lists regularly appear in networking device configurations and aren’t just for security. Ethan and Holly break down what an access list is, how an access-list is processed, the various ways we might use an access list, and more. AdSpot Sponsor: Meter Most IT... Read more »

Thank you for sending in even more follow ups! On today’s show, Holly and Ethan respond to listener comments and corrections on Multicast, MPLS, NAC, Twisted Pair Cabling, and more. A big thank you to everyone who sent in responses. If you’d like to leave a comment about this comments episode, you can do so... Read more »

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the routing protocol of the global internet, is finding uses in all sorts of places in 2026 beyond internet routing.  It’s a huge topic. Large books have been written about BGP and its related technologies, so Ethan and Holly are here with a gentle introduction to BGP. They break down what... Read more »

Ethan and Holly tackle the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). They explain how this protocol helps network engineers map network topologies and validate wiring. They also discuss how LLDP devices use frames to send information, mandatory and optional type length values (TLVs), and why security on edge ports remains critical. Episode Links: Watch this episode... Read more »

In the third installment of the Wi-Fi networks series, Ethan Banks and Holly Podbielak discuss the basics of wireless security, the standards related to roaming between access points, and how to analyze access points to figure out which AP brand will best meet your organization’s needs. AdSpot Sponsor: Meter Most IT teams are managing networks... Read more »

This week, Ethan and Holly continue their conversation around Wi-Fi. They go deeper into the benefits of Wi-Fi 7, look at what’s coming in Wi-Fi 8, and cover the differences among Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), and Multi-Link Operation (MLO). AdSpot Sponsor: Megaport If you’re supporting cloud projects, managing growing... Read more »