Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking

Follow Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

An unabashedly nerdy swan dive into networking technology. Weekly episodes feature industry experts, real-life network engineers and vendors sharing useful information to keep your professional knowledge sharp.

Packet Pushers Interactive


    • May 30, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • weekly NEW EPISODES
    • 54m AVG DURATION
    • 583 EPISODES

    4.9 from 321 ratings Listeners of Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking that love the show mention: packet pushers, greg and ethan, networking industry, marko, best networking podcast, podcast for network, routers, cisco, vendors, technologies, engineers, pp, water cooler, podcast covering, admin, certification, like the fact, networks, driving to work, geeks.


    Ivy Insights

    The Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking podcast is an incredibly insightful and informative show that delves deep into the world of networking technology. Hosted by Greg Ferro and Ethan Banks, this podcast features conversations with experts in the field who provide practical applications and real-world examples of emerging technologies. Whether you're a network engineer, software engineer, or just someone interested in staying on top of technological advancements, this podcast offers valuable knowledge and perspectives.

    One of the best aspects of The Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking podcast is the range of topics covered. The hosts and guests discuss both widely deployed technologies and those still on the startup scene, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of what's currently available as well as what may be coming in the future. The conversations are detailed, thorough, and filled with insights that are useful for professionals at all levels of expertise in the networking field. Additionally, the hosts bring humor and relatability to their discussions, making the content engaging and enjoyable to listen to.

    There aren't many negative aspects to mention about this podcast. However, some listeners might find that certain topics or technical discussions are too advanced or specialized for their level of understanding. While this is understandable given the nature of the show, it could potentially alienate some less experienced or casual listeners who are seeking broader insights into networking technology.

    In conclusion, The Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in networking technology. With its mix of informative discussions, knowledgeable guests, and engaging delivery style, this podcast provides valuable insights into current trends and future developments in the field. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out in your career, this podcast offers something for everyone interested in staying ahead in the rapidly evolving world of networking technology.



    Search for episodes from Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking

    HN783: BGP Routing Policy for Enterprise Networkers: Unpacking IRR and RPSL

    Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2025 54:30


    If you participate in the public Internet by announcing your own netblocks, you should be familiar with Internet Routing Registries (IRRs) and the Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL). These are tools that help you be a good network citizen. In a world of BGP hijacks and other problems, these tools matter more than ever. We... Read more »

    HN782: Netris Meets Your Network Automation Challenges in AI Data Centers (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2025 58:33


    Netris is tackling the issue of automating multi-tenancy in an AI data center. Netris has your answer to this challenge, and it's a solution certified to work with NVIDIA. We're going to get into the nuts and bolts of Netris network automation with Alex Saroyan, CEO and co-founder of Netris. Along the way, we will... Read more »

    HN781: CCIE Service Provider Free Workbook & Track Update

    Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2025 59:13


    While studying for the CCIE Service Provider certification, Andrew Ohanian assembled a workbook to help him prepare. It’s packed with lab exercises, and Andrew has turned it into a free Web resource that anyone can access. On today’s Heavy Networking, we talk with Andrew about what’s in the guide, the state of the CCIE SP,... Read more »

    HN780: The Whys and Hows of Automated Network Testing

    Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2025 63:53


    On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with Dan Wade about testing the network, inspired by Dan’s talk at AutoCon 2: “Step 0: Test the Network.” We discuss why testing is a good idea, and then explore four types of network testing, including unit tests and integration tests. We dig into Yang, RESTCONF, NETCONF and gNMI... Read more »

    HN779: Do We Really Need the Modern Networking Stack?

    Play Episode Listen Later May 2, 2025 55:15


    On today's Heavy Networking, a roundtable panel considers whether a modern network needs to be built around underlays and overlays. This isn't just Ethan yelling at clouds. This is a legitimate question pondering the real-world value of an overlay/underlay approach. Is overlay everywhere overkill, or is that the architecture we need to deliver a safe,... Read more »

    HN778: Understanding Model Context Protocol (MCP) with Selector (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2025 50:47


    Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a very new protocol that provides a standard way to link AI models to a variety of data sources and tools. As the industry heads toward agentic AI–in which an AI agent interacts with disparate applications, data sources, and other agents to achieve a task–MCP provides the protocol glue. On... Read more »

    HN777: Overlay All the Things?

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2025 52:01


    Today’s Heavy Networking is all about overlay technologies, their history, development, and current state, both from engineer and vendor perspectives. We discuss why the industry turns to overlays to solve problems, and look at overlay and segmentation approaches including VXLAN, SRv6, and EVPN. We also drill into the idea that EVPN could become the standard... Read more »

    HN776: Security Platforms: Balancing Efficacy, Ops, and Emerging Threats (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2025 49:33


    Network security has evolved from stateful perimeter firewalls with maybe some IDS/IPS to a complex stack delivered as numerous unique tools, which often don’t talk to one another and may need to be operated by specialists. In this environment it’s hard to unify a security policy, troubleshoot problems, manage and operate tools, and respond effectively... Read more »

    HN775: How To Train Your Very Own AI-Enabled Slackbot

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2025 63:59


    On today's Heavy Networking, we'll discuss building a Slackbot wired to an AI and trained on your own organization's knowledge. The potential use cases for network operations are fascinating, and today's guest, Kyler Middleton is here to explain the finer details on how to do it and point us to free resources created so that... Read more »

    HN774: Who Put These OT Risks In My IT Ops? Fortinet Has Answers (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2025 46:53


    IT and infosec professionals are used to operating and protecting mission-critical infrastructure; servers, databases, load balancers, and so on. But what about valves that control the flow of gas or oil in a refinery? Temperature and vibration sensors that monitor industrial manufacturing processes? If you're thinking “That's not my problem” think again. There's a whole... Read more »

    HN773: Optimizing Ethernet for AI – An Update On the Ultra Ethernet Consortium

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2025 82:39


    The Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) is an industry body that aims to optimize Ethernet for AI and HPC use cases. On today’s Heavy Networking we get an overview of the UEC and an update on its efforts. We’re joined by J Metz and Rip Sohan, both heavily involved with the UEC. We discuss the consortium’s... Read more »

    HN772: Measuring Users' Digital Experience with Catchpoint Internet Performance Monitoring (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2025 48:22


    Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) is all about understanding a user's application experience, and pinpointing problems if the experience is bad. Under the DEM umbrella, you’ll find Internet Performance Monitoring, or IPM. That’s our topic in today’s episode with sponsor Catchpoint. With more and more applications hosted in the cloud and more employees working remotely, organizations... Read more »

    HN771: Is The CCIE Still Worth It In 2025?

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2025 55:52


    The CCIE remains the gold standard for networking certifications. But these days there are lots of other avenues for developing your skills and advancing your networking career, including network automation, cloud networking, and yes, even AI. So is the CCIE still worth it? We chew on this topic with Eman Conde. Eman has been known... Read more »

    HN770: Deploying A Global Network in Minutes With Megaport (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2025 35:53


    In our conversation today with CTO Cameron Daniel of Megaport, we discuss their global WAN architecture, PoPs, use cases, the Megaport Cloud Router, and more. Megaport is our sponsor today. It’s accurate to describe Megaport as providing Network-as-a-Service. Megaport’s automated connectivity solutions enable rapid provisioning of circuits, contrasting sharply with traditional telcos. The discussion also... Read more »

    HN769: CI/CD Pipelines and Network Automation

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2025 57:40


    Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is a framework that developers use to help them manage and integrate frequent code changes. As network automation evolves, should network engineers adopt CI/CD? Guest Tony Bourke joins us to talk about CI/CD pipelines: what they are, how they’re used, and how they can support network automation efforts. We... Read more »

    HN768: Ctrl+Alt+Delivered App Routing Reinvented with Palo Alto Networks SD-WAN (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2025 44:53


    Connecting your branch to your wide area network used to be simple enough. Call your carrier, get a circuit ordered, wait a long time, then turn it up. A little routing, and there you were. Cloud blew that model apart. Now when we connect branches to our corporate networks, we have to consider not only... Read more »

    HN767: Effective Networking on the Cheap

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 7, 2025 69:58


    Unless you’re building out AI infrastructure at a hyperscaler, you probably don’t have unlimited dollars. On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with guest Frank Seesink about how to build and operate networks effectively when money’s tight. We look at free and open source tools, talk about the trade-offs that come with free software, and how... Read more »

    HN 766: Ensuring QoE for Agentic AI With Broadcom VeloRAIN (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2025 55:06


    On today's show, we're discussing the complexities of network design for AI computing at the edge. We're not talking about AIOps, although that might come up in this conversation. Instead, we're focusing on how to effectively cope with the network traffic patterns happening on your network as a result of AI computing workloads. Our subject... Read more »

    HN765: Telecom In the Bahamas: Lessons In Resiliency

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2025 52:45


    Many of us have had network design discussions relating to natural disasters. What if a fire comes through? Or a flood? For most of us, those discussions don't feel overly worthy of our attention. Yes, we should think about it. Yes, we should plan for it. If we're really serious, we'll even dust off the... Read more »

    HN764: Should You Pursue a Technical Leadership Role?

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2025 64:59


    Do you think you have what it takes to be a manager? Should you go for it? Laura Santamaria, host of the Technically Leadership podcast, joins Ethan Banks to discuss those questions. They talk about the motivations for moving into a management role, the challenges of managing people, and the need to understand the business... Read more »

    HN763: You Too Can Say ‘Yes' to Packet Analysis

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 55:42


    Packet capture and packet analysis is incredibly useful for problem-solving and troubleshooting. Analyzing packets is also a difficult skill to master. With the incredible array of network troubleshooting tools at our disposal, including emerging networking models for artificial intelligence, do we still need to fuss around with Wireshark in 2025? Our guest Chris Greer says... Read more »

    HN762: A Network Automation Roadmap

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2024 57:43


    Once you get past a handful of Python scripts, network automation can be…daunting. If you want to make network automation process-driven, repeatable, reliable, and something that doesn’t just rely on your scripts and the knowledge inside your head, there’s an entire landscape that opens up before you. Have you thought about network discovery? How about... Read more »

    HN761: Who Are You Building Automation For? An AutoCon2 Roundtable

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2024 62:27


    Today's Heavy Networking comes to you from the AutoCon2 tech event being held in Westminster, Colorado. This episode was recorded in conference room on site at AutoCon2 in November, 2024. The format? Roundtable. Four network automators have raised their hand and brought topics they want to discuss. Those topics include: Crafting tools to “listen” to... Read more »

    HN760: Mitigate Iot/OT Vulnerabilities with Guided Virtual Patching (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2024 42:55


    Today on Heavy Networking, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we explore how virtual patching can be used to protect IoT and OT devices. Virtual patching leverages intrusion detection and intrusion detection, combined with threat research, to block exploits targeting IoT and OT devices. Why would you use virtual patching? When it comes to IoT and... Read more »

    HN 759: Deploying the BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP) at ISP Scale

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2024 56:32


    The BGP Monitoring Protocol, or BMP, is an IETF standard. With BMP you can send BGP prefixes and updates from a router to a collector before any policy filters are applied. Once collected, you can analyze this routing data without any impact on the router itself. On today’s Heavy Networking, we talk with Bart Dorlandt,... Read more »

    HN758: How Selector Built an AI Language Model for Networking (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 15, 2024 55:54


    On today's episode, artificial intelligence with sponsor Selector.AI. If you're curious and maybe still skeptical about the value AI brings to network operations, listen to this episode. Selector is on the forefront of AIOps for networking, building models that are customized and specifically targeted at networks. What Selector is doing is NOT simply the low-hanging... Read more »

    HN757: Building a DIY SD-WAN to Serve (Very) Remote Customers

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2024 49:29


    On today's episode, we chat with wireless ISP engineer Elijah Zeida. Elijah had an interesting connectivity challenge to solve for a remote mountain town that relies on a wireless connection for Internet access, and not much budget to solve it with. But he got it done by building his own SD-WAN using Mikrotik boxes and... Read more »

    HN756: Alkira Enhances Its Multi-Cloud Networking With ZTNA and Security (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2024 47:04


    Alkira provides a Multi-Cloud Networking Service (MCNS) that lets you connect public cloud and on-prem locations using a cloud-delivered, as-a-service approach. But Alkira offers more than just multi-cloud connectivity. On today’s sponsored episode of Heavy Networking, we dig into Alkira’s full set of offerings, which include networking, visibility, governance, and security controls such as firewalls... Read more »

    HN755: Optimizing Ethernet to Meet AI Infrastructure Demands

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2024 69:49


    Ethernet competes with InfiniBand as a network fabric for AI workloads such as model training. One issue is that AI jobs don't tolerate latency, drops, and retransmits. In other words, AI workloads do best with a lossless network. And while Ethernet has kept up with increasing demands to support greater bandwidth and throughput, it was... Read more »

    HN754: Secure AI by Design with Palo Alto Networks (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 18, 2024 52:37


    AI is finding its way into more and more consumer and business applications. In particular, the widespread use of Generative AI raises a serious question: how secure is it? In this sponsored Heavy Networking episode we discuss security risks of AI tools and ways to mitigate those risks. Our guest is guest Rich Campagna, Senior... Read more »

    HN753: Getting to Know Cisco's Network Service Orchestrator (NSO)

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 14, 2024 68:37


    On today's episode, guest James Henderson joins the Packet Pushers to discuss Cisco’s Network Service Orchestrator (NSO). NSO’s role in network automation, its declarative management approach, and the challenges it presents are some of the things James shares with the hosts. They also cover operational requirements, deployment challenges, and performance considerations, in addition to discussing... Read more »

    HN752: How Digital Twins Enable Smarter Network Ops, Troubleshooting (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2024 57:49


    Our topic today is digital twins. Sponsor Forward Networks offers software that creates a “mathematically accurate” copy of your network, be it on prem or in the cloud. We talk about what “mathematically accurate” actually means, and how a digital twin can support network operations including change control, network automation, visibility, and troubleshooting. We also... Read more »

    HN751: Top Tips for Building A CCIE-EI Lab

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2024 52:52


    The Packet Pushers and guest Mason Reimert discuss strategies he’s using to prepare for the Cisco CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure lab exam. Mason shares practical tips for hands-on labbing for both established and emerging technologies like SD-WAN and SD-Access, resource management, virtualization tools, and automation. He also highlights the importance of understanding APIs, data formats, and... Read more »

    HN750: Under the Hood Of Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access Browser (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 20, 2024 64:45


    On today's Heavy Networking, we discuss enterprise browsers with sponsor Palo Alto Networks. Most end users do the majority of their work in the browser these days. At the same time, more threats are coming in via the Web and Web-based apps. Palo Alto Networks recently launched its Prisma Access browser, a Chromium-based browser designed... Read more »

    HN749: Expand Your Network Labs With Containerlab and Clabernetes

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2024 52:04


    On today's episode, we cover open source Clabernetes, a tool that allows you to run Containerlab on Kubernetes. Containerlab provides a CLI for orchestrating and managing container-based networking labs. It starts the containers, builds a virtual wiring between them to create lab topologies of your choice and manages the lab's lifecycle.  We discuss the answer... Read more »

    HN748: How AI and HPC Are Changing Data Center Networks

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2024 67:50


    On today's episode of Heavy Networking, Rob Sherwood joins us to discuss the impact that High Performance Computing (HPC)and artificial intelligence computing are having on data center network design. It's not just a story about leaf/spine architecture. That's the boring part. There's also power and cooling issues, massive bandwidth requirements, and changes in how we... Read more »

    HN747: Automate The Easy Things

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2024 57:47


    Our Heavy Networking guest today is Hans Driessens, and we sat down at AutoCon1 to talk through some of his network automation projects. Hans shares his journey from a service engineer to a consultant specializing in network automation. We discuss the evolution of programming languages, the importance of foundational programming skills, and the practicalities of... Read more »

    HN746: Going Deep on OSPF Route Filtering

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2024 48:20


    On today's episode we delve into OSPF filtering. That is, how to filter routes from a device's routing table in an OSPF environment. This is a tricky business, because OSPF requires an identical database on every device in an OSPF area. That means you can't stop announcing a route from one OSPF router because you... Read more »

    HN745: Using Abstractions in Automation

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2024 59:14


    Today's episode of Heavy Networking comes to you from AutoCon1 in Amsterdam, recorded live on premises. In today's network automation discussion, we cover abstraction layers with guest Jaakko Rautanen. Practically speaking, what are abstractions, and how do they help make your network automation project successful? We'll also discuss some of our guest's automation projects, how... Read more »

    HN744: How BackBox Helps You Mitigate CVEs for Network Devices (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2024 44:10


    Today we explore a network automation use case for configuration compliance in the face of never-ending common vulnerabilities and exposures, or CVEs. If you can automate that compliance, you have a shot at keeping pace with the bots and attackers attempting to exploit those CVEs and breaching your network. Our guest is Rekha Shenoy, CEO... Read more »

    HN743: Leveraging AI for Network Automation at Scale (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2024 49:01


    AI is making its way into network automation. Maybe the thought of a hallucinating ChatGPT getting its six-fingered hands on your network makes you want to run the other way. But the story of AI for IT operations is more nuanced than the hot takes we get about the confidently dumb results that Large Language... Read more »

    HN742: Designing a Real-World Hybrid Cloud Network

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2024 55:21


    On today's show we talk about designing a network to support hybrid cloud deployments. That is, building and operating a network to interconnect the Big Three US public clouds (GCP, AWS, and Azure) as well as on-prem infrastructure to support a variety of applications and workloads. The network design had to meet several requirements, including... Read more »

    HN741: History of Networking: How Bridging Saved Ethernet

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2024 47:59


    Ready to take a trip back to the 1980's and learn some networking history? We talk with Alan Kirby, who was there forty years ago when the first Ethernet bridge was created at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He explains the story of why and how it came to be. We discuss how Ethernet compared to... Read more »

    HN740: IETF's Network Management Operations (NMOP) Working Group

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2024 47:36


    When you think of IETF, you probably just think of defining protocols, but its new NMOP working group is all about helping network operators identify issues and deploy solutions, including those that pop up around automation. Mahesh Jethanandani is an NMOP leader and joins the show today to tell us what they are working on... Read more »

    HN739: High Stakes Network Observability for High Frequency Trading

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2024 50:13


    High Frequency Trading in finance demands the utmost quality and speed from a network, making flawless observability a must. Our guest today is Radu Ionco from Jump Trading, and he tells us about how they built their own custom network observability platform, even creating a monitoring system for the monitoring system. We talk through streaming... Read more »

    HN738: Reducing Complexity With Fortinet's Unified SASE (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2024 49:52


    Fortinet's Unified SASE provides consistent security controls and policies both for traditional campuses and the hybrid workforce.. Nirav Shah joins us to explain how Fortinet is positioned to do this: a foundational software developed for 20 years, a network of over 140 POPs, a security lab with over 1,000 researchers, continuous ZTNA verification proxies, and... Read more »

    HN737: Greg Ferro: The Exit Interview

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2024 66:20


    Greg Ferro, co-founder of Packet Pushers, is signing off. After years of frustrating health issues, he's decided to fully step back from podcasting and industry analysis to take care of himself. After 14 years, today is his last appearance on Heavy Networking. In this parting episode, Greg shares his final dose of incisive insights and... Read more »

    HN736: Understanding VMware by Broadcom (Sponsored)

    Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2024 62:24


    Today on Heavy Networking, sponsored by Broadcom, we talk about VMware's transition under Broadcom's ownership. The acquisition has led to big changes that rolled out very quickly, including how VMware sells products and services – subscription only licensing, bundles of products, a hard stop on sales of existing licenses, overhaul of license issuance, and more.... Read more »

    HN735: Managing OT Networks

    Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2024 55:31


    The variety and number of OT devices continue to grow at such a pace that network engineers really need to think through how to manage them as part of their broader network. Dan Massameno joins the show to talk about how he's collaborating with his facilities department and using SD-Access to manage the OT virtual... Read more »

    HN734: Russ White Hour Part 2: Snowflakes and Network Automation

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2024 49:18


    Welcome to the second part of our interview with friend of the podcast, Russ White. We start our conversation with a listener question about VXLAN/EVPN which acts as a springboard for what Russ really thinks about network engineering these days. He defends network snowflakes, championing their power in business use cases. He questions the merit... Read more »

    HN733: Russ White Hour: IS-IS vs OSPF and a Deep Dive into Ethernet Adapters

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2024 47:52


    We turn the nerd meter up to eleven on today's episode with longtime friend of the show, Russ White. First we dive into how an Ethernet adapter knows when a link is lost, where Russ teaches us all about loss of carrier and OAM. He also gives us a tutorial on how the rest of... Read more »

    Claim Packet Pushers - Heavy Networking

    In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

    Claim Cancel