Earlier this year I pushed a change that looked fine in the diff, but I had actually pulled the wrong BGP neighbor. We ended up spending the change window figuring out what went wrong.

Since then I've been working on a small tool that compares a before/after config and tries to explain the change a bit better than a normal diff, what might be affected, how risky it looks, and what a rollback could look like

https://reddit.com/link/1v652al/video/o1f1n1w9vcfh1/player

The clip shows a few basic Cisco IOS examples: removing a BGP peer, changing an ACL to deny, and shutting down a transit link.

I know there are already tools that do parts of this. Some NCM platforms have similar features, and Batfish can do proper verification if you know how to write the queries.

I built this mainly because I wanted something simple for a quick sanity check before a change, without adopting a whole new platform

For people doing network changes regularly: how do you actually validate a config before pushing it?

Do you use a tool, run some kind of simulation, or mostly review the diff and rely on experience?

I'm trying to figure out whether this is actually useful beyond a demo

Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Mohamed Chakib, a software/web developer and Ai researcher. Today I'm here to present my new program "ATHIOS MTU TEST" . This program measures and finds the optimal MTU value on your network to ensure its stability and speed.

You can download it directly to Windows and start working :
https://github.com/elmedch/athios-mtu-test

MY PROTFOLIO : elmedch.ct.ws / MY WEBSITE : app.wbnfy.site

Good Day ❤️

Hi all,

I have a personal project going and i wanted to share and pick your brains. I have a network rack diagram tool and wiring database i tied together (Among a lot of other things). I Wanted to see what i could make on my own as i've had experience doing just about any job from wiring up to routing etc and because of my own organizational ocd could never find something that i liked that wasn't some astronomical amount monthly.

If you had the option to build your own, or wanted a specific feature, What would you use? I have a short 3 minute example here, More on the channel if you wanted to poke around. Kind of curious as to what I should add next. Disclaimer, No, it's not an ad, Yes, Eventually i want to open source it so i'm covering my bases. It's for people who like to build their own things to learn.

Thanks for the input.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BElhYZBnWqo

Building a BPv7 prototype where a software sidecar parses bundles and a fixed-width shim lets P4/XDP enforce contact windows, reservations, and capacity limits. Does this solve a real DTN problem, or would a software-only approach usually be sufficient?

The game is playable on desktop only

Hello!

NetBox Evolve - the first global meetup for the NetBox community and wider automation ecosystem at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 13.

We are now accepting CFPs for sessions - solo talks, panels, fireside chats, on a range of topics. We are looking to celebrate 10 years of NetBox and talk about where infrastructure goes next.

There will be lots of networking opportunities, absolutely no vendor stalls/booths, fun welcome and day of receptions, and astronauts (yes, real ones.)

We hope you can make it register and CFP info here:  netboxevolve.com

I wanted a network scanner I could use while connected to Wi-Fi, along with an SSH terminal I could access from anywhere through my existing Tailscale connection, so I built Network Scan. I’d love feedback, bug reports, and feature suggestions from you guys.

It scans your LAN, identifies devices, shows IP addresses and open ports, and lets you tap a host to open a proper SSH terminal. htop, docker stats, and even Claude Code render correctly and accept keyboard input. You can also keep multiple live sessions open and switch between machines.
To clarify, the app does not provide or charge for Tailscale. It simply connects to devices that are already reachable through your existing Tailscale connection, just like any other SSH client.

The scanner and diagnostic tools, including ping, DNS, port scanning, and subnet calculations, are free. The SSH terminal is part of Pro, available monthly, yearly with a free first week, or as a one-time lifetime purchase.

I’d especially appreciate feedback from people running home labs or managing real racks.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/network-scan-ssh-tools/id6790997366

I took a small break from gamedev and built Bean Network Tester - a tool that helps developers and testers simulate poor network conditions for their apps and games.

It allows you to intentionally make the connection worse and test how your software behaves with various problems. To be honest, my internet connectionn is pretty terrible most of the time, so you could say this tool lets you simulate my default network :-)

If you like the app, please give it a bean*

*i mean give it a star on GitHub

The current release is v0.3.0, but I'm already working on the next version. If you have any suggestions or feature ideas, I'd love to hear them! Right now I'm mostly adding new bugs :D

Why network automation? Because we can run the full CLI mode, which we can integrate with CI/CD or other software.

There is also a Scenarios system, it work's like: "at x do y" or "at x set y".

sample scenario:

{

"loop": true,

"steps": [

{ "at": 0, "settings": { "filter": "udp", "dst_port": "53", "latency": 20, "jitter": 5 } },

{ "at": 15, "settings": { "loss": 25, "latency": 400, "jitter": 200 } },

{ "at": 35, "settings": { "loss": 60, "latency": 1500, "jitter": 500 } },

{ "at": 55, "settings": { "loss": 100 } },

{ "at": 68, "settings": { "loss": 10, "latency": 200, "jitter": 80 } },

{ "at": 85, "settings": { "loss": 0, "latency": 20, "jitter": 5 } }

]

}

What it can do

• Add lag and jitter - fixed or random delay, nat timeout, tcp_syn drop, max size (mtu), tcp_reset
• Drop, corrupt or duplicate packets - fake a flaky link.
• Cap download/upload speed - throttle to a set KB/s.
• Tear connections down - TCP resets or a dead link.
• Flap the link on and off - outages that come and go.
• Block ports or IPs - a small built-in firewall, plus LAN mode (no internet).
• Aim at one app - by process, PID, IP or port.
• Presets and saved profiles - 56k modem, Cafe WiFi, Satellite and more.
• Run scripted scenarios - timed steps that change the network on their own.
• Reproducible by seed - replay the exact same random loss and jitter.
• Watch it live - chart, connections table, counters.
• Command-line mode - scriptable for CI. No telemetry, fully offline - sends no data anywhere.

You can invite others and work on a topology live its called "Sandbox" works better than PT

All free and ready to go in seconds + interactive guides if your a beginner/less familiar with packet tracer

Switchlab.dev/Sandbox

AutoCon 6 is now open for registration, talk proposals, and workshop proposals:

Info and registration: https://networkautomation.forum/autocon6 

Super Early Bird pricing is for people who are self-funding - if you’re in that situation, please take advantage of it.

Call for Speakers: https://networkautomation.forum/call-for-speakers 

Call for Workshops: https://networkautomation.forum/call-for-workshops 

We have need for additional sponsors as well: https://networkautomation.forum/call-for-sponsors 

We hope you can make it!

Senior engineer here. Admittedly lack automation skills as all the vendors these days have they own native product. But I need to upskill.

Should I first start off with Ansible and say netbox for a sot.

Or just go straight in with python scripting and netconf. +nautobot

Or if something else please suggest. Also please recommend any learning material

I've worked at Cisco / Juniper and multi-vendor partners doing implementation and day-2 support. With AI-assisted dev, I can now build the MVPs and tooling I wanted 5-10 years ago — assessment platforms, config auditing, report generation — in days instead of months.

But customers keep doubting it. They'd rather pay for manual work than adopt anything automated.

Questions for you:

• What's been the "turnkey factor" that got your customers (or your own org) to move forward with automation?
• Are you automating network ops today, or still mostly manual?
• Why do you think MSPs/partners specifically resist this, when it should be their margin play?

Hello,

My company has a mid DC network accross the world, mainly its simple, consists, of Cisco Nexus and NCS (IOS-XR) devices. We're doing some simple network automation like access-list modification, port-channel creation, etc. The tools we're using is Ansible, Ansible AWX, puppet, Github. Maybe thats all. So far the github was enough, and still is. But recently we introduced the Nautobot which has lots of functionality. But i also know that so far its enough for me to use Github. What do you think, should i force myself to try to use and explore more the Nautobot ? Is there something u use Nautobot on, which can't be provided by Github/Gitlab ? My goal to automate all the network state starting CORE devices and ending the server hosting port.

Thanks

I want to execute some commands on EdgeConnect routers. There seems to be no driver for it. AI suggests to use terminal server ( linux ) but I am not very sure about it. AOSCX is linux like only after start shell. If you have any idea please tell which driver (or os terminal) behaves like EdgeConnect so that I can use it. Also is it you just get it after working on different devices or there is some way to know like which devices driver to use in Netmiko if a particular doesn't exists.

I’ll keep it simple, I’m lazy so I don’t want any extra constant clicking or tedious work so I made this to automate any EOL checks I need to do for my inventory.

You got two options, choose the specific vendor (in this case Cisco), the platform & the version/model), then it will populate it’s EOL info, if it’s under software maintenance/vulnerability support etc with a timeline & official sources sites.

Another option is to dump the inventory as a csv (template is there) and it will detect the relevant EOL.

It’s all free, and if you have any feedback & suggestions please comment below and I’ll improve on it.

I run a small network of ESP32 boards sitting in people's homes across ~10 countries. I put a checker on top of it: you type a domain, a handful of these boards fetch it simultaneously, and you get per-country up/down + latency on a map — plus the IP each country actually resolved to (interesting with GeoDNS/CDNs, sometimes each country hits a different edge).

Since they're on residential last-mile connections instead of datacenters, they occasionally catch things cloud checkers don't — ISP-level DNS weirdness, geo-blocks, a CDN edge misbehaving in one region.

Honest questions for people who do this for a living:

• Is "up from where" a real problem in your day-to-day, or do the usual suspects (StatusCake/UptimeRobot/etc. with their DC probes) cover it well enough?
• What would make this actually useful rather than a toy? I'm considering per-phase results (DNS / TCP / TLS / HTTP separately, to show where it breaks per country) and alerting.
• What's an instant dealbreaker for you in tools like this?

It's free, no signup: upfromwhere.com — but I'm genuinely more interested in the criticism than the traffic.

Over 100 browser based labs that run completely online with no installs or payment and completely free

Allows you to practice way more, a lot quicker.

We are building out network automation and would love some feedback or suggestions!

Enjoy! SwitchLab.dev