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Network diagrams are not only handy to have, but provide a vital look at the network topology for your team, your company, and your peace of mind. Let’s look at what a network diagram is, and why it’s so important. A network diagram is, simply put, a schematic or map of your existing network that illustrates the nodes and their connections. Network diagrams are very useful at mapping out your elements and device interactions, as well as illustrating different network topology types.

The importance of network documentation becomes very clear when you have to sit down and troubleshoot a network from top to bottom. Or when there’s a changing of the guard at your company. New management wants to see what you’re doing with your network. Or new IT staff need to be brought up to speed quickly.

As an IT professional, chances are you’ve come across the phrase Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away while hearing about protocols, network design, and implementation issues. How about Or Please Do Not Touch Steve’s Pet Alligator? If these ring a bell then you’re on the right track: These are smart memory aids linked to the seven layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model.

Network infrastructure mapping tools that help you maintain up-to-date maps can be the difference between quickly diagnosing a problem or wasting hours of your time. Similarly, network maps can help everyone in your organization better understand and optimize a network you inherit. In many cases, however, network maps contain stale information or don’t exist at all.

Have you ever used the term bandwidth? Probably. Have you ever used the term network throughput? Maybe. Have you used them interchangeably? Most likely. So let’s see where we get these mixed up. Namely, let’s look at the key differences between network throughput and bandwidth. And while we’re at it, let’s cover the fundamentals of throughput and how to measure it, so you can keep your network flowing efficiently and cleanly.

When the Domain Name System (DNS) was created in 1983 I imagine its creator Paul Mockapetris and his team had no idea that nearly 40 years later our interconnected world would be so reliant on the very simple, but critical, DNS network service. I have a love-hate relationship with DNS. I love all of the memes I see about how “It’s always DNS”, but I hate that it’s also true—I always forget to check that DNS is working correctly when troubleshooting network issues!

Drawing a good network diagram isn’t hard to make, but it can be distressingly rare. Even network engineers with years of experience often draw network diagrams that are jumbled and hard to understand. As a network administrator responsible for the network, it’s vitally important you have a detailed understanding of your network topology. Without this information, even basic troubleshooting can be unnecessarily difficult.

Drawing a good network diagram isn’t hard to make, but it can be distressingly rare. Even network engineers with years of experience often draw network diagrams that are jumbled and hard to understand.

Because the world continues to work from home this year, I’ve had to configure Cisco AnyConnect VPNs on ASA firewalls for clients a few times. Unfortunately, the documentation from Cisco is extremely confusing, and I’ve seen a lot of organizations that do it wrong (by which I mean insecurely). The process itself is quite simple, though, so let’s go through the steps you’ll need to configure Cisco AnyConnect for your VPN.

Every industry loves its terms and jargon. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “I’ve always said that one of my core competencies is getting the most bang for my buck out of the sweat equity I put in during my 9-to-5.” Sure, the sentence doesn’t really make any sense, but it sounds good enough when you say it. And that’s just the point jargon tends to make. The IT industry is no different.