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Alex Ankers

@spoofnet.bsky.social

130 followers 400 following 61 posts

Network Expert Engineer at a Big Blue Bank Founder of https://reloadin.net Newsletter

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Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · 8h

The only thing more weekly than Reload in 10 is another vendor CVE announcement 🩹...

#networking:

🪄 Magic 168.63.129.16 Azure IP
🫷 Shrink the VPC in AWS
🆓 Accelerate DDI Migration
😎 Secrets to keep up
🌈 Back to basics on Optical
😱 Why Over-Engineering happens

reloadin.net/p/todomd-age...

TODO.md + AGENTS.md = Out of Office on

You look like you need some serious Markdowntime

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · 6d

I think you'll find that guy who's Dad was in Spandau Ballet said it's the most reliable UK Network, which I think we must all agree, that much is true. Uh-ohh. Uh-ohhh

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · 15d

"He's a double-d, i-n-g... eBPF bear"...🐻

#networks:

🇵🇪 pwru to eBPF filter packets
📡 Dual-5 GHz Radios on Wi-Fi
⚖️ Anycast IPs with Azure Global Load Balancer
💥 How fragile the DNS root is
👍 32 free Cisco CE Credits
🛰️ Packets in Space
🦯 Host a website on a Vape stick

reloadin.net/p/paddington...

Paddington eBPF filters from pwru

No, that isn't a typo

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Sep 14

This week in #networks:

📍 Wi-Fi 6 GHz improves high density
🐍 Journey to CCIE Network Automation
💥 Avoid Azure Private Subnet IPageddon
🛣️ Broadband with <0.1 dBm/km
🎥 Replay historical BGP Events
🤖 Compare MCP vs RAG for AI work
🚗 How Apple’s CarPlay actually works

reloadin.net/p/co-hi-co-l...

Co-Hi, Co-Lo, Co-Co

Do-Re-Mi never looked so Fa

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Sep 3

Unix Epoch? Sure, but Network Engineers really fear 1 March 1993... 😳

#networking:

🦸 Avoid the Hero Trap in Networks
🦾 Automate a Network Lab with MCP
🧙 Peer into Google's future AI Network
😊 13 Software Engineering Laws
🧑‍🔬 LLM Course
✉️ You can't validate an email

reloadin.net/p/epochalyps...

Epochalypse now... later?

No time like the present

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Aug 25

Same A Record (or AAAA if you're rocking IPv6) to the same 1x VPS, and let the vhosts magic do it's thing and work out which directory/web server the user wanted from HTTP GET request

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Aug 25

In Reload in 10's 100th Episode 🎉:

🚕 Uber test-drive the benefits of SD-WAN
📖 Arista CloudVision in 40 pages
⛓️‍💥 Roleplay with BGP in RFC9234
🥞 Dual-stack your DNS NS for IPv6
⏰ Your parents advice is outdated
🐙 Production MCP Servers at scale
👾 Meganaut 1000 DC Speed Run

reloadin.net/p/episode-100

The one where we're too lazy to do a proper title

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Aug 19

There's 2.4 reasons you should only use 5 or 6 GHz in your Wi-Fi:

#networking:

🧐 Cisco Live network and NOC
🤔 2.4 GHz in the Enterprise
👀 CDN coup in Italy
🤪 No need for a CCIE...
😏 Malware in DNS TXT records
🤖 Rethink CLI interfaces for AI
🪑 Make stand-ups useful

reloadin.net/p/24-wi-fis-...

2.4 Wi-Fi's and counting

Flick the switch or scratch the 6 GHz itch?

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Aug 9

Interviewing a Network Engineer? Ditch the CCIE questions - get them to setup Quake III in LAN mode to actually work 😰.

#networking:

🚰 Flow Control in networks
🔥 NAT on OCI Firewall
💊 BFD help
🤑 59 free Cisco CE Credits
🧐 Spot Base64 instantly
🧑‍💻 Don’t review Vibe Code

reloadin.net/p/qosake-rac...

QoSake: Rack Rail Gun

Where's the BFD when you need it?

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Aug 4

Remember the "You've got mail!" noise? Soz, afkbbl

#networking:

👵 DCI back in AOL’s day
✅ Solve TCP issues with eBPF
🌟 GCP Cloud Network exam gold
🤼 somo as an alternative to netstat
📉 Await the AI Crash
🐧 History of BIRD routing
🥧 WLAN Pi Go for Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi 7

reloadin.net/p/youve-got-...

You've got mail

The DCI is 25 years old with AOL

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jul 27

Normally flat lines on a graph are bad...

#networking:

🎻 MCP Servers for Junos and NetBox
📉 Perfect 95% flat line on a link
🤿 Dive into Ansible AWX
🤔 FE80::1 is valid IPv6
🫣 tcpulse to stress the WAN
🧐 Compression culture is stupid
🏃 Fear about OpenAI Agents

Read: reloadin.net/p/flatlining...

Flatlining the Network Graph

When 95th percentile is the lower bounds

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jul 20

This is "grass vs grass" all over again, but I'll go - it definitely rhymes with a 🔑

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jul 20

Cisco Wireless - Pronounced (?):
- Mer-ah-key (as in "car key")
- Mer-a-ki (as in "lackey")

#networking:

🥷 Be a BGP master
🏎️ 2 Gig via Pi 5 on Wi-Fi 7
📚 H100 AI DC guide
🤖 Deep water for Internet Cables
⛑️ Kiro replaces VSCode
📝 Vibe Coding is Tech
👍 NLX is UX

Read: reloadin.net/p/pi-fi-7-is...

Pi-Fi 7 is 2 Gbps

But needs a solid 20 minutes to cool at the window

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jul 14

Will draw a winner out the proverbial hat this week...

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jul 14

Network Slicing + Two Pizza Teams = Double-stuffed RJ45 Ports

#networking:

🌐 AWS NAT Gateway interactive blog
🗺️ D2 to visualise networks
🎓 k8s for Network Engineers
🤔 Is Cisco NDFC really ACI?
🐍 BGP on ceEOS with Python
🤘 fck-nat for AWS VPCs
💀 Knowledge work is dying

reloadin.net/p/two-pizza-...

Two Pizza Team Tuesdays

We're only paying on Two-for-Tuesday deal days

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jul 6

Only on App'y Days could IPv6 Fonz use his historic catchphrase: AAAA(y)

#networking:

📖 Win O’Reilly Arista book
🛜 How EVM impacts Wi-Fi signal
🌐 Use Internet without IPv4
☁️ Hands-on with NetDevOps in AWS
💰 How much to spend on o11y
🖥️ The Network is the Computer

reloadin.net/p/the-fonz-g...

The Fonz goes IPv6

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 30

Who Wants To Be A Network Engineer - Where "Phone a Friend" depends on whether you QoS'd the SIP Trunk

#networks:

🤪 Traffic meter ASN filters
💰 Business Case for IPv6
🚗 Move 400 TB long
🎓 From Doing to Knowing
🤘 Notepad.exe gets updated
📊 NVIDIA overtakes Cisco sales

reloadin.net/p/who-wants-...

Who Wants To Be A Network Engineer

Ask the Computer is stuck waiting on DHCP

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 30

This is great just needs more legacy types like X2, XFP and GBIC

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 28

Network Engineer interested in Arista? Fancy a free copy of a great book for barely any work?

Just subscribe to the Reload in 10 Network Engineer Newsletter at reloadin.net and tag a fellow Pipe Plumber in the comments below and maybe you can hide from the AI slop in a solid read 👇

O'Reilly Arista Warrior book

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 22

Props to @tracketpacer.bsky.social for VqLAN, new one on me...

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 22

Nowadays, DDoS attacks feel more like Ethernet speeds - next 10, 25, then... 😰

#networking:

🆓 IPv6 curriculum for free
🚛 netlab 2.0.0 brings SRv6
☎️ VqLAN is not VXLAN
🤖 Become the AI Network Engineer
⛪️ Inside the Stargate Data Centre
🥊 MCP vs API
🤘 Leave with Intention

reloadin.net/p/happai-meal

We'll take 6 QoS'kn Nuggets and the Cage Bolt Remover toy

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 15

Neighbor write erase?

#networking:

🏡 IPTTH ISP Transit to your house
👋 Goodbye, ACI?
🏴‍☠️ All the Cisco Live BRK slides
☁️ Azure Network Security Workbooks
🎓 Understand AI + LLMs as a Network Engineer
🚦 Traffic engineering for AI Fabrics
🤘 Avoid in your Performance Review

reloadin.net/p/cant-spell...

Can't spell Network without CLI

Take the CLI from these display set | match "cold"|"dead"|"hands"

Reposted by Alex Ankers

Marko Bajlovic @marko.tech · Jun 4

Just in case you haven't heard of Awesome Lists on Github github.com/sindresorhus... - highly curated community based lists of the best stuff

GitHub - sindresorhus/awesome: 😎 Awesome lists about all kinds of interesting topics

😎 Awesome lists about all kinds of interesting topics - sindresorhus/awesome

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 8

Hate On Call? This one cool trick stops Incident Managers dead in th-AI-r tracks... 💀

#networking:

🗳️ 2025 State of Network Automation
☁️ Build IPv6 in AWS
🔌 RP vs PoE for inline power
⚡️ First 100 Tbps Switch
🌍 Function calling LLMs in life
☎️ Breaking up with On-Call

reloadin.net/p/ai-has-joi...

AI has joined the Call

But at least you didn't get out of bed at 3 AM again

Alex Ankers @spoofnet.bsky.social · Jun 1

TCP-over-Airmiles you say?

#networking:

🔀 Migrate a Cisco WLC with NSoT
☁️ ExpressRoute, FastPath and UDRs
🎓 DevNet Expert journey in 7-parts 📚
✈️ PySkyWiFi using Airmiles as TCP
🧙 ASICs for Network Engineers
🥂 Fibre smashes 400 Tbps
🐿️ NUTS Network Unit Testing

reloadin.net/p/go-nuts-fo...

Go NUTS for NATs

Bring that Cat5 to get this squirrel out of here already