If you’ve ever experienced choppy audio or video calls, slow website loading, or laggy gaming sessions, chances are you’ve dealt with either latency or jitter issues – or possibly both. These problems plague networks both large and small, from Fortune 500 companies to neighborhood coffee shops offering free WiFi.

Network discovery is the crucial first step for any IT team looking to manage a modern, dynamic network. As companies embrace flexible work options and adopt complex hybrid environments, taking stock of all connected devices is essential to maintain performance, ensure security, and enable users to stay productive from anywhere. This article will cover everything you need to know about network discovery, from its core purpose to how it works to the tools that make it happen.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a widely used network monitoring and management protocol. It allows you to keep track of the status and performance of the devices on your network, like routers, switches, servers, and printers. A key component of SNMP are the ports used for communication between the SNMP manager (the monitoring system) and SNMP agents (software on the monitored devices).

Organizations are rapidly adopting endpoint detection and response software to address the challenge and strengthen their overall network infrastructure security. Why? In large part because endpoints are used by the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain (humans!) and therefore create business risk. Endpoint devices typically have internet access, can reach sensitive internal data, and are primarily used by people who aren’t cybersecurity professionals.

Endpoints are a prime target for threat actors. In fact, 68% of the respondents to a Ponenmon study reported experiencing an endpoint attack that successfully compromised data or IT infrastructure. And, with IBM pegging the average cost of a data breach at $4.88 million USD, it’s clear that effective endpoint monitoring and security is a key objective for organizations of all sizes. As the stakes for endpoint security increase, so does the complexity.

If you want to know exactly what’s on your network and how it’s all connected in real time, then network observability is the answer. Network observability pulls data from sources across your network infrastructure to model a detailed view of your systems and how they interact. This lets you understand exactly what’s happening on your network at any given moment so you can optimize performance.

Managing IP addresses is essential in the operation and security of modern computer networks. However, the original IP addressing system based on address classes A, B, and C was extremely inefficient in allocating addresses. Many addresses were wasted, rapidly depleting the available IPv4 space. To address this pressing issue, Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) was introduced in 1993. So, if you’re wondering what is CIDR, read on to learn everything you need to know.

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a standard routing protocol that’s been used the world over for many years. Supported by practically every routing vendor, as well as the open source community, OSPF is one of the few protocols in the IT industry you can count on being available just about anywhere you might need it. Enterprise networks that outgrow a single site will often use OSPF to interconnect their campuses and wide area networks (WANs).

Bro, I ain’t got flow isn’t only heard at your local hip hop mic night. It’s a gripe from many network administrators who have inherited small environments, networks with lower-end gear, or who are in the trenches dealing with a time-sensitive issue and need to dig deep—now. NetFlow is a Layer 3 protocol that, over time, allows administrators to see how much traffic is being generated, by whom, and where that traffic is going.