“My computer’s not working!” “I can’t connect to the internet!” “My emails aren’t sending!” You’re probably used to hearing common requests and complaints like these from end users. It’s our job to take these issues, troubleshoot them, bring them to root cause, and get the user back up and running as quickly as possible.

Having access to all kinds of digital resources, no matter where you are or what sort of network connection you have, is a necessity in today’s connected world. Businesses need to share data with other businesses, and travelers need to stay in touch at all times. VPN protocols make secure, stable digital connections possible. While applications hosted in the public cloud go a long way towards making location a non-issue, many resources are hosted privately for security and privacy.

Advanced technologies are reshaping how businesses operate, from facilitating remote work to enhancing employee productivity. By understanding today’s trends, businesses can better prepare for the future of work, optimize their operations, and stay competitive in an increasingly digital world.

Computer networks have become integral to our modern digital world. From browsing the web to sending emails and transferring files, network connectivity enables countless applications and services. However, this would not be possible without network protocols, which provide a common language for devices to exchange information reliably. This article will explore some of the most common network protocols that drive communication and connectivity in networks and the Internet.

Link aggregation is a way of bundling a bunch of individual (Ethernet) links together so they act as a single logical link. A fundamental for effective switch management, if you have a switch with a whole lot of Gigabit Ethernet ports, you can connect all of them to another device that also has a bunch of ports and balance the traffic among these links to improve performance.

If you’ve ever been in charge of IP address assignment, you’ve come across the terms classful and classless addressing. If you haven’t, the main difference between classful and classless addressing is in the subnet length: classful addressing uses fixed-length subnet masks, but classless uses variable length subnet masks (VLSM).

The TCP/IP protocol sometimes shows its age. It was invented in an era when networks were very slow and packet loss was high. So one of the main considerations in early protocol design was reliability. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) has built-in mechanisms for reliability that include validating a checksum on every packet, as well as detection and retransmission of dropped or out-of-order packets.

Is that a bird’s nest or is it spaghetti? Have you ever asked that question when looking into a IT wiring closet? At some point in your tenure as a network manager, you’ve likely been asked to inventory a network and create a network topology diagram.

For new networkers, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) can be an intimidating topic. Many old-timers speak of spanning-tree in ominous tones, recounting the time when a “spanning-tree loop” brought down the network. Some managers strictly forbid anyone from changing anything related to the spanning tree, fearing a resulting service interruption. Some of the fear surrounding spanning trees is likely based on bad experiences, but some are based on ignorance—at least partly.

Let me start by saying that spanning tree is a Good Thing. It saves you from loops, which will completely shut down a network. But it has to be configured properly to work properly. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a client call me, desperate with a terribly broken network, and I’ve responded, “Sounds like a spanning tree problem.” There are many ways things can go wrong with spanning tree. In this article, I’ve collected six of the recurring themes.