Chris Parker @ Network Fun-Times

have u checked that the baud rate flow control is correct ?

Lol - I enjoyed this closing paragraph on Ivan Pepelnjak's post on reaching off-subnet nodes in IP and CLNP, talking about historical "hacks" for IPv4 hosts to auto-discover routers on a LAN:

blog.ipspace.net/2025/03/comp...

Thank you mate! :)

It reminds me of that when I first passed my CCNA 18 years ago, in that I know I've passed - but the knowledge isn't truly locked in yet. It feels like a fierce gust of wind could blow all the facts right out of my brain, lol.

It'll be another year of study until I feel like I'm truly at N5 level.

Some happy news: I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) N5 exam :)

It's the beginners level cert. 800 words, 100 kanji (Chinese characters), 50 grammar points. Nothing difficult to most people - but 2nd languages do not come naturally to me, so it was a real challenge. I'm relieved!

I like that the keyboard in this picture replaces the W and I keys with additional letter As. This is a great efficiency, because A is a really common letter, whereas W and I are basically useless. I personally never use those weird garbage letters.

I wasn't able to attend this conference, but I'm excited to watch some of these videos. Lots of great topics on offer. Take a look:

Oh so ur a CCIEx2? Prove it - name five IPs. I'll wait

Yeah. Looks like one block, but really it's many smaller blocks. Some orgs even have multiple blocks that are totally different - just depends on what was available at the time.

Having said that, I bet your script could query WHOIS to find out precisely what blocks are owned.

Hi! I see that an org called Primus Telecommunications Canada owns those IPs. It's not one single block—it's built out of multiple other subnets. See attached pic. So, in terms of subnetting, there's no way to tell that the 21.0 block comes first. You have to do a whois to find the details.

A chart comparing the number of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to papal reigns. There were zero under Pius XII and 283,784 under Francis.

I see 1000028 IPv4 prefixes. This is 240 more prefixes than 6 hours ago and 970 more than a week ago. 61.78% of prefixes are /24.

It's a few years old, but I just discovered a super cool set of gacha (Japanese capsule toys) for a miniature rack of routers and switches.

A forum user called "Agg" has posted extensive photos. Well worth a look: forums.overclockers.com.au/threads/mini...

Packets that don't receive a reply to ping comnand aren't truly lost; they briefly enter a low-latency parallel dimension where time flows differently. Occasionally a stray "lost" packet will reappear days or even weeks later. This phenomenon is known as the "Lost Packet Dimension".

YouTube video by Cathode Ray Dude - CRD Five Phone Stories

I love every video Cathode Ray Dude makes. His most recent one is of great interest to network engineers. He tells the history of 80s and 90s internet connectivity, exploring ISDN, leased lines, and the advent of ADSL.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ympj...

RFC 9637: Expanding the IPv6 Documentation Space The document describes the reservation of an additional IPv6 address prefix for use in documentation. This update to RFC 3849 expands on the existing 2001:db8::/32 address block with the reservation o...

In addition to the famous 2001:db8::/32, Today I learned that there's now a second IPv6 prefix that is reserved for documentation: 3fff::/20.

Lol, I'm only seven months late to the party on this one!

datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc...

YouTube video by staybeam Ode to Internet - V.90 56k dialup modem handshake for orchestra

Oh my, this is brilliant - someone edited an orchestra to make it sound like they’re doing a live performance of a dial-up connection. If the comments are to be trusted, it's accurate! youtu.be/wuN-bW_zS0Q?...

When you study a new skill like network engineering, as you move onto the advanced pieces, you might find you forget the basics - because you're not thinking about them as much. This is normal. You're not stupid. You're not doomed to fail. There's a lot to remember, and it's all part of the journey.

they're all cowards &and i could easily defeat aNY of them in my dojo of death.

(apart from the strong ones, and probably also the medium-strength ones)

Started in Sept last year. Amazing to look back & see how far I've come. At the same time, I feel very overwhelmed at the awareness of the sheer quantity of stuff that I need to learn for even a basic-useful command of the language.

Got to keep reminding myself that it's a marathon, not a sprint.

I've been a fan of Japanese pop culture since 1995. Many half-hearted attempts along the way to learn the language. Recently started genuinely trying.

Currently at the expert beginner stage, lol. I know enough to be dangerous, but no way near enough to be useful. Approx 150 kanji, 800 words.

Oh damn, I was supposed to write more of those but then I got distracted! I'm happy that the few articles I did write were helpful though. Please tell the United Nations so they can give me awards/prizes etc.

How To Read A Junos Class-Of-Service Configuration Struggling to read Junos Class-of-Service config? This post is for you: it shows you where to start, what order to read each piece in, and what to look for. After this you'll have no problem working o...

I received a lovely email today from someone who discovered my blog post on Class of Service (aka QoS) in Junos, and said it helped them understand the config. Well, I'll definitely use that as a chance to share the post again! Hopefully it'll help you too:

www.networkfuntimes.com/how-to-read-...

N4N008: What Is a Default Gateway? Today’s topic is the default gateway, essential for routing traffic between networks. We explain its purpose, configuration, and the consequences of incorrect settings. Using home networks as an example, Ethan and Holly illustrate how default gateways ...

In this week's N Is For Networking (a podcast for new networkers), we discuss the default gateway. How does a host know when a destination is local & when it needs a gateway to forward traffic on instead? We keep the answer simple without dumbing it down.

YouTube video by KRAZAM Small Data

KRAZAM is back with another brilliant sketch. This time: artisanal data collectors. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDr6... It's joyous nonsense.

Once you're done, check out their sketch "IETF Celebrates The Standards". Easily one of my favourite things on this otherwise-cursed internet. Absurd genius.

DOOM® CAPTCHA Prove you're human by playing DOOM

Nobody Ikes CAPTCHAs so thanks to Guillermo Rauch, who created a Doom classic video game based one where once you kill 3 monsters you are human.

doom-captcha.vercel.app

The world wide web was a mistake.

REMEMBER Turn your computer off before midnight on

REMINDER:

I watched this video within moments of it finally going live. Genesis are easily my favourite band. I love all eras, but I love the Phil era the most. On the days when Duke isn't my favourite album, then it's Wind and Wuthering.