

The Fat Pipe - Most Popular Packet Pushers Pods
Packet Pushers
Our most popular pods in one fat feed! Too much technology would never be enough. Includes Heavy Networking, Network Break, Day Two DevOps, Packet Protector, and Network Automation Nerds. Plus new shows when they launch so you know about fresh awesomeness.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 26, 2025 • 57min
N4N032: OSPF Basics
By popular request (and now that we have some other background topics covered) we start our series on the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol. We kick off the series with OSPF basics including Link State Advertisements, Link State Database, and other related essentials. We’ll explore additional OSPF topics over subsequent episodes. This week’s... Read more »

Jun 25, 2025 • 34min
D2DO276: MCP: Capable, Insecure, and On Your Network Today
Dan Barr, a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at StackLock, dives into the intricacies of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source tool for AI integration. He discusses the evolution from basic chatbots to sophisticated AI agents and the importance of governance in these systems. Security challenges in deploying MCP servers are also highlighted, along with ToolHive's innovative solutions for managing credentials and authorizations. The conversation touches on how OAuth is transforming machine identities and the need for best practices in AI management.

Jun 24, 2025 • 52min
NB532: HPE Deploys AI Agents Into GreenLake; Wi-Fi 7 Drives Q1 Switch Sales
Take a Network Break! Our Red Alert is a remote code execution vulnerability in Roundcube. On the news front, HPE announces GreenLake Intelligence, which will bring agentic AI capabilities to the HPE portfolio, Pure Storage brings cloud-like operations for on-prem storage, and Juniper Networks adds predictive analytics to its data center ops platform. Weka rolls... Read more »

Jun 24, 2025 • 39min
PP068: Common Kubernetes Risks and What to Do About Them
Today’s Packet Protector digs into risks and threats you might encounter in a Kubernetes environment, what to do about them, and why sometimes a paved path (or boring technology) is the smartest option. My guest is Natalie Somersall, Principal Solutions Engineer for the Public Sector at Chainguard. We talk about risks including identity and access... Read more »

Jun 20, 2025 • 50min
HN786: From Intent-Based to Autonomous Ops With Cisco Crosswork and Provider Connectivity Assurance (Sponsored)
Service provider networks face a couple of difficult challenges: how to map service level agreements to actual network health and performance, and how to deliver service assurance to customers regardless of what happens on the network. On today’s sponsored Heavy Networking we talk with Cisco Systems about its approach to service assurance, how Cisco is... Read more »

Jun 20, 2025 • 43min
TNO033: Maximum Impact: Leverage Your Network to Advance Your Career (Sponsored)
At AutoCon 3 in Prague, Scott Robohn sat down with Ernest Lefner from sponsor Gluware to talk about lessons learned throughout his career: from his early days of pulling cable to becoming Chief Product Officer at Gluware and helping to found ONUG. Ernest talks about being a continuous technology learner, and also about the need... Read more »

Jun 19, 2025 • 39min
TL016: When It Comes To Product Design, Don’t Trust Your Gut
People consistently overestimate their ability to predict whether a new product or feature will be a success. Instead of blithely going forward with a project that takes up lots of resources and yields minimal results, today’s guest says we should get our ideas into contact with external reality as quickly as possible, and maybe do... Read more »

Jun 19, 2025 • 55min
N4N031: When Is It Time For a Routing Protocol?
If you need to route in your network, you can program static routes into all your routing-capable devices. And this can work. But at some point, you’re probably going to want to switch to a dynamic routing protocol. On today’s N Is For Networking, Ethan and Holly discuss the differences between static and dynamic routes,... Read more »

Jun 18, 2025 • 45min
NAN094: Automate and Iterate With the NetBox Labs Community
On today’s show, we’re joined NetBox Labs co-founders Mark Coleman and Kris Beevers. They recount how they founded NetBox Labs and discuss its growth and how it’s being used. We also delve into the NetBox Labs community and its importance for users. And of course, there’s the ever-present AI discussion. Mark and Kris also talk... Read more »

Jun 17, 2025 • 36min
PP067: Protecting Secrets With Vault and TruffleHog
Secrets trickle out through misconfigurations, poor tooling, and rushed Git commits. Today’s guest, John Howard, joins us on Packet Protector to walk through practical secrets management with Vault and TruffleHog to help make sure you don’t expose your privates. John discusses work he’s done to build an automated process in his organization for developers and... Read more »