#networking
151 episodes
#5905: Bare Linux Routing vs OPNsense: What Actually Wins?
You can build a router on plain Debian or Ubuntu. The question is whether you should — and what it costs you over ten years.
#5904: Multi-WAN Beyond Failover: OPNsense vs OpenWrt
You stacked your links, failover works — so why does a dropped WAN still kill every session? Load balancing, mwan3, and what bonding actually solves.
#5831: Managed vs Layer 3: Two Switch Axes, One Empty Box
Managed and Layer 3 aren't the same thing — they're orthogonal. One quadrant of the matrix is a product that basically doesn't exist.
#5766: SNMP: The 40-Year-Old Stopgap Running Your Rack
SNMP was designed as a temporary fix. Four decades later it's on every switch, UPS, and router you own. Here's how it actually works.
#5665: Fiber Through the Conduit: Bends, Dust, and Pull Socks
A failed Ethernet crimp caps a link at 100 megabit. Can the same conduit carry 10GBASE-SR fiber instead?
#5563: Your Fiber Is Dark: What You Can Actually Test
Your ONT is dark and there's no sync light to watch. Here's what a PON power meter can actually tell you before you call the ISP.
#5541: Re-terminating a Keystone Jack After a Bad Ethernet Run
A DIY Ethernet run came up at 80 Mbps on 2.5G fiber. Here's what went wrong and whether re-termination is a skill worth learning.
#5526: Can a Phone Bond Two Cellular Links?
Android can bond Wi-Fi and cellular — but two cellular data paths at once? That's where the hardware and the OS both say no.
#5378: SIP Speakers, Multicast, and the One-Way Page
How SIP one-way paging actually works — and why multicast turns 500 speakers into a single call.
#5281: Why Your Cheap Phone Plan Feels Broken
Same phone, same spot, same 5G bars — so why does a cheap carrier crawl? It's not the signal.
#4790: Why Your Internet Speed Is Really a Shared Cap
The speed on your bill isn't what you think. Here's how ISPs really meter your connection.
#4785: Bonding Wi-Fi and Cellular: Speedify's Catch for Tailscale Users
Speedify bonds Wi-Fi and cellular seamlessly — until it silently breaks your tailnet. Here's the fix.
#4784: Host vs Router: The Real USB Bonding Trade-Off
Can you skip the travel router and bond cellular + Wi-Fi directly on your Linux laptop? We test the hardware reality.
#4783: Bonding Layer Showdown: Speedify vs Self-Hosted
Packet-level bonding for travel routers: Speedify's black box vs. self-hosted control. Which wins for a technically capable user?
#4782: The Best Internet Bonding for Your Money
Speedify, Bondix, or DIY? A buyer's map for combining internet connections without the mystery box.
#4781: Bonding Internet Lines with OpenMPTCProuter
One developer, no funding, and the only open-source bonding router that actually works. Here's how.
#4780: Bonding Internet Connections with OpenMPTCProuter
How to bond multiple connections at the packet level using the only serious open-source option.
#4779: Bonding Hotel Wi-Fi: Travel Router eSIM Guide
eSIM travel routers, Speedify bonding, and whether you can rent a preconfigured bonding endpoint instead of building your own VPS.
#4778: SSH MCP and Tailscale: Docker Migration Guide
How to configure Tailscale for Docker containers when migrating from public IPs to tailnet addresses.
#4776: Wi-Fi Monitor Mode Hardware Guide
From $40 Alfa adapters to $3,000 spectrum analyzers — the hardware that listens to your network.
#4740: Why FTP Still Exists and SSH Won't Die
FTP from 1985 is still not deprecated. SSH from 1995 keeps evolving. What determines which protocols survive?
#4739: NFS Unmasked: Versions, Gotchas, and Hard Truths
NFS isn't one protocol—it's a succession of them. Here's what's really happening under the hood and where it breaks.
#4738: Running Your Own ISP: The Personal ASN Hobby
What it actually takes to get your own ASN, announce IP space, and become a one-person ISP.
#4737: Inside the Internet's Physical Junctions: IXPs and PoPs Explained
How the internet actually connects at physical locations, and why the biggest exchange points are non-profit associations.