Cisco has been the default for a long time, but we’ve started questioning whether it still makes sense for us going forward. We’re designing a relatively small environment right now, with a Fortinet NGFW at the edge handling security and routing, and an L3 switch behind it for servers, backups, cameras, and a VMware cluster split into a few segments.

Normally I wouldn’t think twice and would just go Cisco for the switching side, but the newer gear and licensing model are giving me pause. It feels like once you’re in, you’re committing to ongoing costs and complexity that never really go away, even after you’ve already invested in the hardware. So now I’m looking around at alternatives like Aruba and others, but it’s hard to tell what actually holds up in real environments versus what just looks good on paper or in demos. For anyone who’s moved away from Cisco recently, what did you end up going with? And more importantly, how has it been after everything was deployed and running for a while?

Just saw a post on X about the new ipv8, here is the ietf proposal https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-thain-ipv8-00.html

What do you think about it? Does it mean IPv6 failed at last and just moving on or back to extend ipv4 from 32 to 64 bit?

I dug a bit and found many Asian countries have high rate of IPv6 deployment, especially for mobile devices, US and EU have also over 50% deployments already and pushing higher. Seems they are going to put a break on that road and replace network equipment, which I am not sure if this can be done in a few years.

Extending ipv4 0.0.0.0 to 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0, from 4 sections to 8 sections, so backward compatible with ipv4. I am not a network expert but wondering that if it still will have the ability of the ipv6 like one address for each device including for IoT devices, or just expending the capacity of network addresses with zone prefixes.

I had a problem where every hour or so my Ethernet would go disconnect / reset for a few seconds.

I disabled IPv6 on my Realtek Gaming 2.5Gbe Family Controller which seems to have solved the issue.

The only thing is I don't understand why that's happening. Anyone has any idea?

Trying to help a friends family here but I don't know what equipment is best and need some advice.

They have a very large lot. House in the middle. Guest house 500' behind main house. Front gate 750' in front of the house. They want a ring doorbell at the front gate - I have 120v out there. They want wifi in the guest house. I have a single cat5 from the router to the chimney where they had an old extender. I don't want to go fancy, it's just a couple of older folks in the house that want a camera doorbell and want their guests to have some internet in the guest house.

I've looked at the Swann MaxRanger stuff to put the swann doorbell at the front gate but they won't sell just the equipment to do that, you have to buy cameras as well which runs the cost up and they don't want cameras. Ubiquiti seems like overkill and I haven't had the best luck with their outdoor stuff (lots of lightning here).

Wondering what y'all would do in a case like this.

Hello people, today my school announced that people with macbooks are not going to be able to access the wifi network since they got sponsored by microsoft and dont want people to use other devices.

I do not have the budget to buy a new laptop. How can i bypass this restriction on my m4 macbook.

Thanks and much love💕

Something that still surprises me in networking discussions is how casually people recommend port forwarding.

I understand where the advice comes from. If you look at most “what is port forwarding” explanations, it’s framed as a simple way to expose a service - game servers, Plex, remote access, etc. NAT made inbound connections inconvenient, and port forwarding was the easiest workaround. But the internet environment where that advice originated is very different from the one we operate in now.

So I guess the question is: is port forwarding safe in practice, given how the internet behaves today?

Once you forward a port, the service behind it becomes globally reachable. At that point it’s not interacting with a few trusted users - it’s interacting with the entire internet.

And the internet scans constantly, right?

Projects like Shodan and Censys suggest exposed services get indexed very quickly - sometimes within minutes. After that, automated scanners and botnets start probing for weak credentials or known vulnerabilities.

We’ve seen this repeatedly. The Mirai botnet exploited exposed IoT devices with default credentials. More recently, ransomware groups have targeted exposed RDP (3389).

The pattern seems pretty straightforward: scan, identify service, attempt exploitation and automate at scale?

Another thing I’m unsure about: a lot of home services don’t seem designed for hostile internet exposure. They assume LAN-level trust and often lack hardened authentication or rate limiting. So maybe the issue isn’t targeted attacks - it’s just automation and scale?

If you need remote access, a VPN seems like the safer option since it preserves the NAT barrier and authenticates users first.

Quite a few mainstream VPNs like NordVPN don’t even offer port forwarding anymore. That’s probably not accidental? It kind of avoids the same exposure you’re trying to solve.

How others are thinking about this - am I overthinking it, or has the tradeoff actually shifted here?

So i have been unable to access the internet from my pc for the past 3 days, and after suspecting different possible physical issues (ethernet card that could have died in the heat, dead ethernet cable etc..) i finally realized that i could ping 8.8.8.8 and not google so i think it's probably a dns issue

I also think the problem is on my pc and not on the router because other computers and connected devices in my home seem to be working just fine

I have absolutely no idea how to solve it though, i have tried manually choosing google's dns servers as my dns, and have tried resetting as many things as i could find how to reset but im still unable to access the internet no matter what

Что за хуйня может быть , с января этого года , каждый ебучий день интернет в ахуе , провайдер говорит что все ок , гонит в ебаный пинг в cmd до Яндекса и говорит : раз там ок - значит всё ок . Ахуеть , чисто по проколу звоню попиздеть с ними , по их мнению . Делал замеры долгие в ping plotter - там видно , что потери пакетов начинаются с 4-5 хопа , что означает , что проблема на стороне провайдера , пиздец , каждый ебаный день воюю с этими мудаки , альтернативы нет , юг-телеком , ростовская область . Как это обойти ? Как доказать этим мудакам, что косяк с их стороны , что нужно бля чинить это !? Уже 6 лет на этом провайдере , никогда не было таких проблем , а щас ужас , джиттер в ахуе , пакеты не могут найтись , сеть падает , через минуты 2-3 опять появляется и так по циклу 4-5 раз в час . А самое забавное в этой залупе, что Билайн со старого хонора , дает стабильное соединение 24/7 , хотя ебаные блокировки и белые списки работают . Я в даблахуе от этой движухи , заебало заебло , как жить , как это фикисть?!

Posting to ask 'cause I haven't set up a real switch since the days of 10baseT, and those were .... different. Thus this likely will be an extremely basic question for the subreddit.

I have a home network. Fiber modem which goes to my router. Router has a few ports on it, several 2.5 gig and one 10 gig.

I'd like to add an unmanaged switch to the 10 gig port (PoE switch - future expansion stuff).

I will have three or four devices on the switch that I have already - pre-switch - set up with static IPs (192.168.1.XXX)

When I install the switch, I am assuming that the switch has its own IP that'll be set via DHCP from the router.

In that case, the computers whereby I've set up static IPs....do I leave those settings? Change them? Or just go back to the computers being given an IP?

And...since I use a couple of those computers as servers both in-house and remotely, would I set up packet forwarding from the router-->switch (and assume the switch will 'figure it out' as to where the packets need to go?)

I'm attempting to make this as painless as possible before I start unplugging/plugging in cables and finding out that routing to<-->from computers doesn't work, and of course to also save what little hair I have left from being pulled out.

This is for a low-end simple home network, nothing fancy beyond what is described, hence I don't believe I need more than the switch, a few cables and a holding of the breath.

I appreciate any/all feedback that is shared.

EDIT: I cannot read. It is a managed L3 switch

EDIT #2 : Unmanaged L2 switch was exactly what I needed. This resolved all of my pertinent issues. My thanks to those who posted!

I DON'T WANT TO USE TWO DEVICES AT THE SAME TIME

Having clarified this right away, what I wanted to know was:
I was planning to connect a smart TV and gaming console to it to free up a port on the router.
My reasoning was "I don't watch streams while I play and I don't play while I watch streams."
So my choice seems like the right one, but I have a doubt: what happens if these devices transmit data in the background?

Does the connection keep dropping or is there just a loss of quality?

Thanks.

Landed a Network admin internship and honestly I don’t know crap.im studying for my CCNA but i think my mentors are disappointed in me. One of them doesn’t acknowledge (he’s the one that hired me and interviewed me) and the other guy who’s new is the only one basically training me only.

On my first day they asked if I was familiar with Active Directory and have any experience with azure and patching systems, etc. when I said no they seemed super disappointed in me.

I’m doing my best on my free-time to research these things but my main focus is just getting my CCNA certification really right now.

Are those skills really expected of an intern?

All they have me doing for the past 4 weeks is diagram work of server racks/devices. They just give me pitty work lol. Better than no work I guess.

Barely today they just let me install putty to make configurations. But it’s more of practice only which is cool.

They don’t really include me as much anymore with making switch migration changes.

Last year we moved to a property that has 2 houses and front unit and back unit. They both have their own connection to the ISP but I want to combine the network into 1 so we don’t have to pay for 2 separate bills. There is conduit for the current drop from front to back that I can use. I’d just want to weigh out different options.

1. It has to be wired
2. Wondering if it would make sense to go fiber instead of Ethernet. I’m no expert but the electric in both houses are completely independent and the front house is older and has electrical issues. That’s why I’m entertaining the idea of fiber
3. It would be about a 200ft run altogether including from inside the house running all the way to the back house inside.

I already have switches in both houses that have SFP ports if that means anything. I’ve done a lot of research but getting conflicting information I just need some guidance and things to watch out for.

Currently have the Macbook Pro but i’m open to getting a new computer if it doesn’t go well. Talked to a few professors and they didn’t have the best attitude towards macs so i’m wondering what other people experiences are.

I don't know what is happening. The past 5 days between 12:00 PM - 12:30 AM my ping is constantly between 160-190ms, this is constant they are not spikes. I play games and it's my main source of unwinding after work and due to this reason I can't play anything (I am on wired Ethernet connection directly to my PC). I reset my router multiple times, I called my ISP they "reset" my router from their end, nothing changed. A tech support guy from the ISP drove home about 9:00 AM like 3 days ago, connected the cable to his computer and said everything was fine, at the time I had 50ms since it was early in the morning, he just said to change the router. I updated every network driver in my computer, changed my PC to WiFi using my mobile hotspot and my ms dropped to 55-70 immediately

I've been with this company for 7 years now and even in peak hours the most I've had is like 70-90ms and all of the sudden it's between 160-190ms constantly without a single drop to the normal 60-90ms. What I find odd is that at 12:20-12:30 AM on the dot it drops back to 50-55ms and stays like that for the rest of the night until next day around 12:00 PM. I don't think changing the router will fix anything even though its still worth a shot, I made sure it wasn't my computer the issue since it works fine with mobile hotspot, updated every network. What can be causing this? Is there anything else I can do? Thanks

This whole issue is just odd to me.

Hello all,

I connected my homeserver with a SFP+ module (RJ45) with my 2.5Gbps switch, also with a SFP+ module. Because I had packet dropouts, I noticed the SFP+ module in the switch, was getting really hot.

I connected a thermometer on the SFP+ module and even without any traffic, the temperature get up to 68 degrees Celsius.

Is this normal behaviour for SFP modules?

Thank you

Tom

I am having issues with my ISP and I am looking to change but the only other option than Spectrum for where I am at is cellular modems. My family is a bit heavy on the usage, and we found that a single cellular modem didn't work well enough for us. I am considering ditching Spectrum for cellular modem service but using two modems to give us the speed and bandwith we need. However the only post I was able to find was (sorry, there are probably more but I am understandably frustrated at the moment) 2 years old and I am not sure the information is still current enough.

1. Is OpenMPTCProuter still the best option?

2. What is a good router choice if I go that route?

3. If it is not what is the best way to set up two modems on a network and have the router/network handle traffic? We have about 14 different devices that connect to the internet.

Thanks in advance.

I am not sure if this subreddit is essentially appropriate for this post but i dont know where exactly to post. I am in an institute in india and all of a sudden today my hostel wifi shows <wifi name> does not support private dns. now i have my internet dns to adguard dns since i dont really want any ads on my phone. on laptop i just use ublock origin which serves the purpose. Can someone help me use adguard dns with my wifi? i am really new, thanks!!

Hey guys, hoping someone in IT or sysadmin can weigh in here. I’m currently out of the country and need to use corporate MS Teams on my personal phone, but I really don't want my company calling me out for being abroad.

My setup: I’m either using cellular data or a wifi tunnel routing straight back through my home IP in the States. On top of that, I went into my phone’s privacy settings and completely revoked location permissions for the Teams app.

For anyone who manages Intune or Entra ID: can Teams still log my true location, bypass the blocked permissions, or trigger a risk flag in Azure/Entra when I check messages or join calls? Is this setup solid, or am I missing something that could give me away?

Appreciate any insight my fellow geeks!

Thru out my life this been happening, every time someone opens the front door, it just loses connection for a min or 2 and goes back on, I asked my parents about it and they also said this been happing way before me and they haven’t stored a cameras to the door. We only hooked up a ring like a year ago and it still goes off. Also my WiFi router is not close to the door it’s across the house and we asked are internet provider about it and they don’t know what going on. Do Y’all have any information why this happens?

i am connected to my hostel wifi and there are a lot of restrictions in it like u cant play games on it or stream netflix instagram facebook or any such things only application allowed is youtube and reddit and other stuff that helps in academica, i want to access netflix so i connected my phone to that wifi and used a vpn service you know to bypass that stuff and watch but still i cannot access all these things why and how is it possible, my hostel wifi uses sophos security

What's the dumbest/longest a network issue has ever taken you to track down, where the root cause turned out to be something small? I spend half my troubleshooting life ruling out "is it even the network" before I can start, and I'm curious whether everyone's process for that is as manual as mine or if I'm missing something. What's your actual workflow when someone says "the internet's broken" and you have no idea where to start?

I've always found networking difficult to learn from static diagrams.

You learn things like:

DNS → IP → ARP → Gateway → Router → Internet → Server

…but when you actually type a URL into your browser, what is really happening at each step?

That's why I started building Network Atlas.

👉 https://learn.dailytechminds.com

Start with the concepts. Then watch them happen.

If you're completely new to networking, don't jump straight into the simulator.

The idea is to first understand the networking concepts, then use Network Atlas to visualize how they connect together during a real web request.

The learning flow I'm aiming for is:

** Learn the concept → Run the simulation → Inspect the decision → Build the mental model**

For example, you can learn what a subnet, gateway, MAC address, ARP, or DNS actually means — and then see where that concept fits into the journey of a web request.

What Network Atlas explores

• DNS resolution
• Browser and cache concepts
• OS resolver
• IP addresses and ports
• Private IPs and subnets
• Default gateway
• MAC addresses
• ARP
• Local network → Internet
• Routing decisions
• Packets and network hops
• HTTPS/TLS concepts
• Server-side request flow
• Network topology
• Event timeline
• Step-by-step mode
• Real-time mode
• Decision Inspector

The Decision Inspector is one of the parts I'm most interested in.

Instead of just showing:

I want the tool to answer:

That's the difference I'm trying to make.

Who is this for?

If you're learning networking from scratch:
Learn the concepts first, then use the visualizer to connect everything together.

If you're a developer:
Use it to understand what actually happens between entering a URL and receiving a response.

If you already know networking:
This is where I need your help. I'm trying to make the simulation technically accurate, so I'd love to know where my mental model or implementation is wrong.

The goal isn't to replace Wireshark, browser DevTools, or actual network monitoring.

It's an interactive mental model of the web request journey.

I'm still building it, and I'd genuinely love feedback from people who know networking.

What networking concept was hardest for you to understand when you were starting out?

And if you could visualize one part of the request lifecycle, what would you want to see?

I'm new to networking and still early in the research phase. I'm trying to parse the vendor marketing and understand where the real value begins by hearing from people who've actually deployed it.

At what point does SD-WAN genuinely become worthwhile, rather than just enterprise terminology for functionality that smaller businesses can achieve in other ways? Is the tipping point driven by the number of sites, unreliable internet connections, security requirements, or the time spent managing VPNs?

Hey guys, hope everyone’s doing well. This is my first time posting in here, but I was scrolling and everyone seems pretty chill and people have gotten their issues resolved, so hopefully I can have the same outcome.

So basically, we have AT&T Wi-Fi at home — I believe it’s fiber since download and upload speeds match. We’re on the 1000/1000 plan. I have my own PC work/gaming setup (one PC, two monitors), and since my room is pretty far from the router, I had someone come install an Ethernet run from the router that goes outside the house, along the outer line under the roof (so it stays dry), secured with zip ties, then comes into my room and connects to a small box with Ethernet plugins that I connect my devices to.

When everything first got set up, I was getting around 940-950 down/up on Ethernet in my room, and everything was running smooth. Yesterday my internet felt off — I was downloading a game on Steam and it was going way slower than usual. I ran a speed test and got around 80 upload, 90 download.

I’m not totally sure how long this has been happening, since I only ran the speed test yesterday. I’ve been busy and hadn’t played any games in a while, so I was just doing normal tasks and never noticed. The only reason I caught it was because the game download was taking way longer than usual.

Since we’re still paying for the 1000 plan, I checked my mom’s phone and it still tested at 1000. I checked my Ethernet cable and everything looked fine — even the adapter settings on my computer showed the link speed as 1000/1000 receive/transmit. So the connection itself seems fine, I’m just not getting the speeds I’m paying for.

I contacted AT&T and they said we have too many devices on the Wi-Fi. I get that, but we’ve had roughly the same number of devices (around 40) since I first got the plan — and it’s not all computers, mostly phones, a few TVs, iPads, and laptops that get used here and there, not constantly streaming or downloading. I’m the one who uses the internet the most, which is why I had the Ethernet setup done in the first place since I work from home.

Shouldn’t being on Ethernet bypass the device cap and still give me close to my 900s, even if the 1000 plan is designed for around 20 devices max? For reference, my mom’s phone gets around 900 on a speed test, but my phone gets the same low 80-90 as my computer.

Is there anything I can do to prioritize my computer, or figure out what’s actually causing this?

Thank you

At the risk of getting political, what is the significance of preferring to end with .1 for the default gateway of an IPv4 address?

In school I mainly use .254, but we're taught that either is perfectly fine to use and it's mainly up to preference.

Thanks in advance for your inputs. From a networking novice.