The most popular shows from the Packet Pushers Podcast Network in one feed. 1-The Weekly Show (network engineering). 2-Priority Queue (even more network engineering). 3-Datanauts (the full IT stack including cloud). 4-Network Break (IT news and analysis from the week). 5-Briefings In Brief (intere…
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Listeners of Packet Pushers - Fat Pipe that love the show mention: networking, tony, excellent, listening, great, network break.
The Packet Pushers - Fat Pipe podcast is my favorite and main podcast at the moment. It covers a wide range of topics in Networking, allowing me to stay up to date with all the latest innovations and developments. I have been listening since 2011 and have witnessed the show not only maintain its high standard but also improve over time. Greg and Ethan have done an amazing job in maintaining their independence and providing valuable insights in their own unique way.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is that it provides a wealth of technical knowledge without getting bogged down by sales and marketing hype. The hosts keep the discussions focused on the details that most network content tends to gloss over. This makes it an excellent resource for networking professionals who are looking for in-depth technical information.
Another great aspect of this podcast is the variety of topics covered. From traditional route/switch and wireless to data center technologies, there is something for everyone in the networking field. The hosts bring on experts from various backgrounds, providing different perspectives and insights into these topics. This diversity keeps the content fresh and interesting.
As for drawbacks, one could argue that the technical nature of this podcast may not be suitable for beginners or those with limited networking knowledge. However, I believe that even for less experienced individuals, listening to this podcast can be a valuable learning experience as long as they are willing to put in some effort to understand the technical concepts being discussed.
In conclusion, The Packet Pushers - Fat Pipe podcast is an excellent resource for anyone working in networking or interested in staying up to date with the latest developments in this field. With its technical depth, independence, and variety of topics covered, it offers a unique listening experience that is hard to find elsewhere. Bravo to Ethan, Greg, and Tony for creating such an invaluable wealth of knowledge!
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Sif Baksh joins Eric Chou to share his professional experience and resources to help engineers get their arms around using AI in network automation. They discuss practical advantages of AI over standard Python scripts and the risks and benefits of vibe coding for prototyping. Sif also breaks down the P.E.N.E. framework, a structure for writing... Read more »
Starting an investigation—be it for troubleshooting, problem diagnosis, threat hunting, incident response, and so on—is fairly straightforward. There’s a question or thesis you’re pursuing, you have logs and data sources to check, and you have tools to deploy. But if you don’t find anything, does that mean there was nothing to find? Are you sure... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with listener followup and a red alert affecting ScadaBR, an open source SCADA controller. On the news front, Forward adds predictive testing to its network digital twin software, Qumulo and Cisco team up to offer cloud-bursting for file storage, and NetBrain adds new skills and other updates to its... Read more »
Drew and Ethan sit down with Tony Bourke to determine whether TradCore or EVPN VXLAN is right for your network. Tony is a seasoned instructor in automation, network design, and more. They explore the key factors for choosing a design, including scale and redundancy, operational complexity, and workload mobility. AdSpot Sponsor: Auvik Sponsor Auvik Network... Read more »
In the previous episode of N is for Networking, Jennifer “JJ” Jabbusch gave us a thorough overview of Network Access Control (NAC) for wired networks. This week we’re going wireless! JJ walks us through the major differences between wired and wireless NAC, how 802.1X is more seamless in Wi-Fi deployments, the unpredictability of web portals,... Read more »
Hosts Ned and Kyler compare notes on everything they've been doing with AI, including the successes they’ve enjoyed and headaches they've suffered building and implementing AI agents. They talk about how AI has sped up their workflows, how managing multiple AI agents is akin to raising toddlers, the necessity of using deterministic scripts for increased... Read more »
HPE has announced new features in its Juniper Mist portfolio. On today’s sponsored Packet Protector, we dig into those features, including a dry run option that lets organizations test and refine Network Access Control (NAC) policies before pushing them out, a policy validation feature that can identify shadow NAC rules, and a microsegmentation capability aimed... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We sound the alarm about a critical vulnerability in an on-prem Azure stack. On the news side, AI NetOps startup Selector adds public cloud observability to its portfolio, Versa Networks adds zero trust capabilities to its AI assistant, and IBM gets a billion-dollar investment to build a foundry to fabricate quantum... Read more »
Scott sits down with Avi Freedman, CEO and co-founder of Kentik, to discuss if AI has advanced enough to automate human-centric NetOps. Together they caution against vendor hype regarding closed-loop network automation despite the progress AI has made. Avi also shares his personal experiences in the industry and the hard won lessons he learned along... Read more »
Selector is extending its AI-driven network observability capabilities into public clouds. On today’s sponsored episode, we dig into how Selector gathers and analyzes public cloud network telemetry, how it integrates cloud and on-prem network data to provide end-to-end visibility, how it integrates with third-party Application Performance Monitoring (APM) systems to correlate network and application performance,... Read more »
Today's guest is Eyvonne Sharp, a Google Cloud technical leader, Network Collective co-founder, co-host of The Cloud Gambit podcast, and former network architect at a Fortune 100. Eyvonne shares stories from her impressive career, offers advice to her younger self, and how to appreciate those “magic” moments in your career when a project fires on... Read more »
Eric Chou and guest host Drew Conry-Murray sit down with deep space networking specialist Scott Spicer. Following the Artemis 2 mission, they discuss the challenges of long-delay space communications and the essential technologies making it possible such as the Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION), Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN), and Contact Graph Routing (CGR). AdSpot Sponsor: Meter Meter... Read more »
JJ and Drew unpack an overstuffed suitcase of infosec stories in today’s News Roundup. Microsoft’s Edge password manager stores credentials in plaintext and Microsoft says “Yup”, the Linux kernel takes a one-two punch from Dirty Frag and Fragnesia, and a new industry coalition takes critical infrastructure protection private. A Taiwanese radio enthusiast allegedly brings high-speed... Read more »
Take a Network Break! In this week’s Red Alert we suggest an audit of your Azure environment after Microsoft says it patched four critical vulnerabilities. On the news front, Nvidia has brought the Multipath Reliable Connection (MCR) protocol to the Open Compute Project, AT&T rolls out quantum-resistant SD-WAN services, and HPE introduces new Wi-Fi automation... Read more »
Today's episode covers buffers, the space between ingress and egress where a packet might have to live for a fraction of a second if the egress port is tied up transmitting other packets. This topic came courtesy of John Howard who joins Drew and Ethan as a co-host to discuss buffers with guest Rob Sherwood. How... Read more »
Today's topic is Network Access Control (NAC) for a wired network. To help walk us through it all is Jennifer “JJ” Jabbusch, a network security architect, public speaker, book author, and co-host of the Packet Protector podcast. JJ and our hosts break down the terms and protocols behind NAC, and explain why the architecture was... Read more »
Ned and Kyler are joined by Dr. Cat Hicks to discuss her new book “The Psychology of Software Teams.” They talk about software development from a psychological perspective, including how negative stereotypes of developers can lead to them being treated simply as “brains in jars” in toxic environments. They also point out the pitfalls of... Read more »
Network teams are being asked to move faster than ever as automation and AI-driven workflows increase the volume and frequency of network changes. In this episode, sponsored by Cisco, we explore how modern network operating systems make zero-downtime, zero-stress updates possible, even at machine speed. We'll break down three key capabilities: Atomic Config Replace (ACR),... Read more »
ThreatLocker takes an opinionated approach to Zero Trust. The company, our sponsor for today’s episode, starts with application control. It uses endpoint software that runs on PCs and servers to allow or deny applications to run. It can also monitor and control the behavior of allowed applications. ThreatLocker has extended its platform to include network... Read more »
Take a Network Break! There’s a Red Alert for Apache Polaris with four CVEs that could enable unauthorized read/write access. On the news front, Lumen is spending $475 million in cash for Alkira to extend its NaaS offering across public clouds. Extreme Networks announces Wi-Fi 7 APs and new features in its Platform ONE management... Read more »
Scott Robohn is joined by networking legend Jeff Doyle to help us understand SONiC: Software for Open Networking in the Cloud. SONiC is an open-source network operating system and has been adopted by hyperscalers to run some of the world’s largest data centers. But SONiC can also be used by enterprises and service providers. Jeff... Read more »
A Mastercard survey reveals that 46% of small and medium businesses have experienced a cyberattack, and nearly 20% of those that suffered an attack were then forced to file for bankruptcy or close their business. Ethan and Drew along with guest Shivam Srivastava discuss a new offering from today's sponsor, Palo Alto Networks: Prisma Browser... Read more »
Alexis and Kevin sit down with Linda Haviv, an AI/ML Engineer and founder of Coding Crystals. Linda is known for making AI infrastructure accessible, and for a career path that went from philosophy student to professional singer to self-taught developer to AI engineer. Together they discuss the difference between AI infrastructure and AI engineering, the... Read more »
Eric Chou talks with Adrian Iliesiu aka NetGru, a seasoned CCIE veteran and community leader known for his work to simplify network automation and make it accessible to network engineers. He focuses on helping network teams navigate the transition into AI and vibe coding while maintaining their core technical skills. Adrian shares insights and practical... Read more »
In theory, a zero trust initiative seems straightforward: you just need the right tools and maybe some whiteboard sessions to work out the architecture. In practice, our guests note that zero trust “unfolds inside organizations filled with legacy systems, political friction, budget constraints, and competing priorities.” Without accounting for those complications, a zero trust project... Read more »
Take a Network Break! It’s a busy show this week. We start with follow-up on Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, router bans, and end-of-engineering/end-of-support date changes for Fortinet’s FortiOSv7.4. Our Red Alert warns of 13 critical CVEs in the Linux kernel (all of which can be addressed by updating to version 7). On the news front, Cisco... Read more »
Dijkstra's algorithm is the foundation of shortest path calculations for link state routing protocols. But researchers have developed a new algorithm that improves on this decades-old approach. Today’s Heavy Networking welcomes Dr. Bruce Davie to discuss the potential of this new algorithm to unseat Dijkstra. After thoughtful consideration, and consultation with others, his opinion is... Read more »
Today's episode is part one of a three part series to break down Network Access Control (NAC). Ethan and Holly start simple by explaining what NAC is at a high level and all of the jargon and acronyms that come with it. They also cover where and when network access control is applied, whether NAC... Read more »
Kyler and Ned are joined by Enrico Teotti, an independent consultant with over 25 years of experience. Enrico has worked with clients on real-world AI implementations, and he’s here talk about what he’s learned, including using AI to query databases, and for debugging and performance analysis. They also touch on the importance of using AI... Read more »
A cryptographically relevant quantum computer is, at some point, going to emerge that can crack modern encryption. But we don’t know when, so it's tempting to set this problem aside. On today's sponsored episode, we talk about why ignoring Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) isn't an effective strategy. Sponsor Cisco is here to make the case for... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with follow up on Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and Linux 7.0. On the news side, Cisco announces a prototype quantum switch that promises to support multiple quantum encoding modalities, Cato Networks adds an enterprise browser to its security offerings, and Mozilla validates the bug-finding powers of Anthropic’s Mythos model. Anthropic... Read more »
Scott Robohn sits down with Andy Smith, a distinguished engineer with Arrcus Networks, where he and his team work to advance networking with modern software and new architectures. He’s also a lecturer at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Andy shares his networking journey, talks about how networks and... Read more »
On today's sponsored Heavy Networking, we get off the AI hype train to talk about how different artificial intelligence techniques usefully impact network operations—and where they aren’t a fit. The various forms of AI represent a set of tools that, like any tool, have use cases, capabilities, and limitations. Our guest is Avi Freedman, CEO... Read more »
Ray Cline has been in the tech trenches since he was twelve years old, helping his Dad run a bulletin board service. Today he runs an MSP called Libertas Consulting and leads a nonprofit called TEKnowledge Worldwide (TKW) that has donated over a million dollars in network infrastructure to communities in need. Join us for... Read more »
Eric Chou is joined by Ashwin Joshi, a Senior Solutions Engineer at Keysight Technologies, to discuss the rapidly increasing demands that AI places on modern networks. They break down the differences between networking for AI and AI for networking. They also talk about how network engineers can adopt AI to help them do their jobs,... Read more »
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