Life Update

I haven't been posting as much as I would like to, but I have been super busy. Some crazy events unfolded in my life which sucks, but there is some great news. I have quit my job at an MSP and I will get to start my new

Short - Cisco SD-WAN

Cisco SD-WAN is an enterprise grade WAN architecture overlay that enables digital and cloud transformation for enterprises. It integrates routing, security, centralized policy, and orchestration into large-scale networks. Here are some benefits of Cisco SD-WAN: Centralized network and policy management, seamless connectivity into the public cloud, optimization of SaaS applications,

Components on SD-ACCESS

Cisco Software-Defined Access is driving evolution for normal campus network designs. It is a software application that is used to automate wired and wireless campus networks. There are many benefits to deploying SD-Access, some of these being: simplified deployment and automation, network assurance, consistent wired and wireless security capabilities, etc.

Distance Vector vs Link State vs Hybrid / Advanced Distance Vector Routing Protocols.

The purpose of link-state and distance vector routing protocols is to help transmit traffic across a network as efficiently as possible. Think of this as something similar to going on a road trip. If you are going on a road trip, you probably would plan out the best route to

Certificate Authorities

A certificate authority is a trusted organization that issues digital certificates to websites, businesses, and also individuals. When a CA issues an SSL certificate, it verifies the website domain and the organization behind it. This helps validate the trust between users and the website, ensuring that sensitive data is able

CRC

Over the weekend I ended up taking both ENSLD and my Palo Alto NGFW engineer exam. I originally thought I would pass ENSLD and fail my Palo Alto certification, but it was the other way around. I realized during my testing for ENSLD there was some stuff I forgot because

DNS IN DEPTH

It has been a while since I have posted on here. It has been a crazy busy week and a half, and I have two big exams coming up on Friday. I am taking CCNP ENSLD for my third CCNP and the Palo Alto NGFW engineer exam. I am confident

SSL

SSL, also known as Secure Sockets Layer, is an encryption-based internet security protocol. The purpose of it is to ensure privacy, authentication, and data integrity in internet communication. This is the predecessor to TLS encryption, which is used today. So how does it work? SSL encrypts data that is transmitted

TCP VS UDP!

Back to the basics with this one. These are two core protocols in networking, they are used for sending data over the internet and other networks. TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and is used for reliable connections. UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol and it is used for fast

Studying Techniques

Studying is tedious, it can be boring at times, hard to focus, etc. It's easy to get distracted by Instagram reels, TikTok's, YouTube, and more. I wanted to give out my study techniques I use that personally work for me and I hope they can be

Enterprise Network Campus Design

I wanted to take a break from the multicast as I have been writing a lot about it lately and studying it. Today I want to dive into enterprise network campus design. I also want to mention that in future blogs I might start adding lab examples. Right now my

Auto-RP and BSR

Sparse mode requires an RP for a meeting point in the network for all multicast traffic. This can be manually configured, but that becomes tedious when dealing with many devices. This is where Auto-RP and BSR become useful. Auto-RP is a Cisco proprietary protocol, and it involves two roles: the

PIM

PIM Sparse Mode To start off, we have PIM Sparse Mode. In sparse mode, we don’t forward any multicast traffic unless someone actually requests it. So when a host wants multicast traffic, how does it know where to get it from? That’s where something called an RP (Rendezvous

Flavors of IGMP

As I stated in the last post, there are three versions of IGMP. These are V1, V2, and V3. So what are the differences? I will be explaining that, and I also want to just quickly go over what IGMP is. IGMP is when a host tells a router that

What is Multicast?

Multicast is a way we can send traffic. Just like unicast (one to one), broadcast (one source to everyone), and then we have multicast. Multicast is one to many, not everyone. This means we are able to send traffic to a group of receivers. Why would we ever want to

QoS Models

For a lot of people QoS is a very hard concept to grasp and understand. This is understandable as there is a lot that goes into it and a lot to learn. In this post I want to go over the different types of QoS Models. There are three main

IPV6 Migration Techniques

When I first learned about this topic when studying for ENSLD it was very hard for me to understand. I'm not sure why, it just hurt my head to learn about so I am going to explain it after doing research into all of these migration techniques and

What are the management options for Palo Alto firewalls?

There are a lot of ways you can manage and configure your Palo Alto firewalls. The 4 ways are: Web interface, CLI, Panorama, and XML API. This is a topic on the Palo Alto NGFW Engineer exam I will be taking next month. Here are how you can use them:

What is OMP?

OMP, overlay management protocol, is a TCP based protocol which is responsible for establishing and maintaining the SD-WAN control plane. It helps us exchange routing information, policy information, and also management information between vSmart controllers and the vEdge routers in your network. There is no need to enable this on

What is Cisco SD-WAN?

Cisco SD-WAN is a very popular product. The reason for this is because buying private wan connections like MPLS are expensive. People want a cheaper solution. This is where solutions like SD-WAN come into play. SD-WAN is able to save us money by using a combination of internet and private

Palo Alto Firewalls Admins

I've been studying for my PCNSA from Palo Alto and one topic that has been brought up in types of administrators. By default when you first set up a Palo Alto firewall there is only one default admin account. This is not a good practice especially when there

Deploy ISE onto Proxmox

I'm starting to dive into the world of ISE because I may potentially have a project involving deploy DNAC and ISE soon. To get better at this I wanted to actually use it and try it out. I don't have an ESXI license (Thanks Broadcom!) The

About me & Going forward

I am a 23 year old network engineer at an MSP. About a year and a half ago I discovered networking through college and was very interested in it. I started studying from Jeremy's IT lab course online and eventually got my CCNA right before I landed my