As someone in a “Software Engineer” role, this is too real to me, every time I get tasked with writing any sort of code dealing with networking-related things. Which right now, is my entire...
It has been my experience that easily 75% of people working networking jobs are operating in a state of absolute terror, trying to keep their head above water with problems they don't really understand at all.
As someone in a “Software Engineer” role, this is too real to me, every time I get tasked with writing any sort of code dealing with networking-related things. Which right now, is my entire current task. I am not having a good time.
Great read (saw it earlier on HN). I've never had any reason to investigate traceroute, it worked well enough for what little I've needed it for, so this was fun to learn about. TLDR: Traceroute...
Great read (saw it earlier on HN). I've never had any reason to investigate traceroute, it worked well enough for what little I've needed it for, so this was fun to learn about.
TLDR: Traceroute is essentially a hack. It's not a protocol, isn't included in any RFC and doesn't itself have an RFC (though there is an unimplemented RFC that lays out a completely different, and better, traceroute scheme). Instead it co-opts another network feature, one whose implementation is optional.
If you've ever wondered why there are almost always hops that don't respond during a traceroute, while hops farther down the chain do, this is why. They are simply ignoring it because the RFC doesn't require that they don't.
Interesting read. I have network as a giant blind spot in my tech skill set but this tracks with the extremely small amount of work on it I’ve seen. Even outside of that field so much of this is...
Interesting read. I have network as a giant blind spot in my tech skill set but this tracks with the extremely small amount of work on it I’ve seen.
Even outside of that field so much of this is relatable, especially the consumer grade tech support who’s only real goal is to get you to give up
I only have used traceroute within my own boundary and even then maybe once or twice. Great article on network engineering though, it is so hard to explain some of these issues to people without...
I only have used traceroute within my own boundary and even then maybe once or twice. Great article on network engineering though, it is so hard to explain some of these issues to people without knowledge on how the equipment works.
Most competent network engineers know this, and traceroute can be a useful tool to those people, but it's shocking how many people both within and outside of the networking field in IT don't...
Most competent network engineers know this, and traceroute can be a useful tool to those people, but it's shocking how many people both within and outside of the networking field in IT don't really know how networks operate on a fundamental level. It's one of those things that seem simple at first glance, but any time you take a magnifying glass to literally any concept in networking, you realize it's so much more massively complex than you could ever imagine.
As someone in a “Software Engineer” role, this is too real to me, every time I get tasked with writing any sort of code dealing with networking-related things. Which right now, is my entire current task. I am not having a good time.
Great read (saw it earlier on HN). I've never had any reason to investigate traceroute, it worked well enough for what little I've needed it for, so this was fun to learn about.
TLDR: Traceroute is essentially a hack. It's not a protocol, isn't included in any RFC and doesn't itself have an RFC (though there is an unimplemented RFC that lays out a completely different, and better, traceroute scheme). Instead it co-opts another network feature, one whose implementation is optional.
If you've ever wondered why there are almost always hops that don't respond during a traceroute, while hops farther down the chain do, this is why. They are simply ignoring it because the RFC doesn't require that they don't.
Interesting read. I have network as a giant blind spot in my tech skill set but this tracks with the extremely small amount of work on it I’ve seen.
Even outside of that field so much of this is relatable, especially the consumer grade tech support who’s only real goal is to get you to give up
I only have used traceroute within my own boundary and even then maybe once or twice. Great article on network engineering though, it is so hard to explain some of these issues to people without knowledge on how the equipment works.
Most competent network engineers know this, and traceroute can be a useful tool to those people, but it's shocking how many people both within and outside of the networking field in IT don't really know how networks operate on a fundamental level. It's one of those things that seem simple at first glance, but any time you take a magnifying glass to literally any concept in networking, you realize it's so much more massively complex than you could ever imagine.