Why Network Engineers Should Learn Ethernet Cable Termination and Basic Cabling Skills

There is something to be said for knowing when to call a specialist, but there is also something to be said for knowing how to do the job yourself. In networking, it is easy to spend your entire career working from a console while somebody else handles the cables, connectors, patch panels, and physical installation. I have always believed there is a useful balance between the two. I'm certainly not suggesting that every network engineer should start climbing towers or pulling hundreds of feet of cable through a construction site. There are jobs where you absolutely want the right people, equipment, training, and safety procedures. But if you understand Ethernet cabling, cable termination, and basic network installation, you become a better troubleshooter because you understand what is happening beyond the switch port.

Diagnosing Application Delays vs. Errors: A Wireshark Filtering Guide Using an iperf Case Study

When troubleshooting application performance complaints, the author explains that the first diagnostic step is figuring out whether the root cause is a delay or an error. A delay is straightforward to spot — a noticeable gap between a request and its reply — while an error is more nuanced, since it can stem from either the application or the network and may end up delaying or corrupting packets in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

Wireshark I/O Graphs and Filters: Turning Packet Captures Into Useful Data

One of the things I really like about Wireshark is that it doesn't stop at showing you a giant list of packets and then basically saying, "Good luck." When you are troubleshooting a network problem, sometimes staring at thousands—or millions—of packets isn't particularly helpful. This is where Wireshark I/O Graphs become useful. Instead of looking at individual packets, you can turn the traffic in your capture into a visual representation of what is happening over time. You can graph packets, bytes, bits, and several calculated values, making it much easier to spot traffic spikes, drops, bursts, and other patterns.

Managing the Politics of Network Troubleshooting: Communication, SPOCs, and Post-Incident Reviews

 With your experience and knowledge of technology and your ability to navigate the politics of work, you may find yourself as the main technical resource for troubleshooting. At this point in your career, you may be empowered to pull a troubleshooting team together to resolve a major issue.

There’s no surprise that you have to manage EVERYONE impacted by the issue which may include technical teams, management, clients and everyone that has a vested interest in the current situation.

Troubleshooting NTP With Wireshark

Many of my regular customers refer to me as the ‘Network Janitor’ because I seem to gravitate to ‘cleaning up’ networks.

In some cases, yes physically cleaning up and organizing datacenters, wiring closets, etc – kind a network version of a personal organizer. In most cases though I clean up the network from the packet perspective.

For years I have been preaching concepts such as ‘The pc bootup and login baseline’ as well as “The VLAN or subnet broadcast analysis”. In both cases, I look for unnecessary traffic to make things run smoother and more efficiently.

In my throughput class I explain how quickly things get messy using basic math. For example, assume you have a 7% broadcast rate on switch where everybody has a 1 Gbps connection.