WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.459 I have another here. Look at this, man. Wow, 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:07.259 that's nice. But I remember I added some Juniper 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:11.779 devices here. OSPF, different areas. EIGRP. I 00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:14.179 used to do redistribution between routing protocols. 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.640 This is the internet. Different sites. This is 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:20.339 the two different sites. I need to send multicast 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:24.140 traffic between them. I even did, yeah, AnyConnect 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:27.320 from this computer here. Oh, wow. Remote access 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:31.530 tunnel. AnyConnect to this ASA. At York University 00:00:31.530 --> 00:00:34.950 in Toronto, where I studied, the astrophysics 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:38.630 program had a specialization in space and communication 00:00:38.630 --> 00:00:41.750 science. And what are your thoughts on CCIE, 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:47.990 the CCIE cert? CCIE is a very, very... This here 00:00:47.990 --> 00:00:51.289 is a large lab that has been put together that 00:00:51.289 --> 00:00:54.689 someone can go in and recreate on their own, 00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:58.119 deciding to follow. the topology and the various 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:00.960 things that you're asked to do. So the university 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:02.740 degree, it's very important at the beginning 00:01:02.740 --> 00:01:05.420 because that's kind of what gets you your foot 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:08.340 in the door. As time goes on, the value of that 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:12.200 university degree goes down. Things like certifications 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:16.280 and experience go up. And in this case, I was 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:20.260 the only network engineer at the municipality. 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:23.079 So I had the whole network to myself. If there 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:26.290 comes the need. to move to those technologies 00:01:26.290 --> 00:01:29.549 are you in favor of that or you're like no i'm 00:01:29.549 --> 00:01:32.010 more on the side of doing the things traditionally 00:01:32.010 --> 00:01:34.909 i'm not going to be automating stuff this is 00:01:34.909 --> 00:01:38.769 a small lab that i created i needed to do uh 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:43.230 multicast right from site to site so i did it 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:47.829 using a gre tunnel him So I had a lot of fun, 00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:50.489 actually. Now, a lot of people are saying that, 00:01:50.489 --> 00:01:54.269 you know, the network engineer is slowly becoming 00:01:54.269 --> 00:01:56.290 obsolete because you have all of this automation. 00:01:56.810 --> 00:02:00.489 And, you know, you're going to be more of a software 00:02:00.489 --> 00:02:03.909 engineer rather than a network engineer because 00:02:03.909 --> 00:02:07.349 everything can be done in software now. But is 00:02:07.349 --> 00:02:10.909 configuring network equipment via the CLI still 00:02:10.909 --> 00:02:15.580 what is usually done in companies or? How do 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:18.800 you handle it normally? And what are your thoughts 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:23.639 on Microtik? If you're listening to this as a 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:26.020 podcast, remember that it was originally recorded 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:28.340 as a video. If you're not following along, you 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:30.319 can go to my YouTube channel. My username is 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.539 Linkarzu. And if you want to support me to keep 00:02:32.539 --> 00:02:35.060 this podcast going, you can donate in Ko -fi. 00:02:35.219 --> 00:02:36.659 I'm going to leave a link in the description. 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:39.099 All right. So let's get started with this chapter 00:02:39.099 --> 00:02:42.830 then. All right. So. The other day, I needed 00:02:42.830 --> 00:02:46.650 to refresh some networking topics. I needed to 00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:51.629 remember about BGP. I needed to remember about 00:02:51.629 --> 00:02:56.129 MPLS, routing protocols, a lot of stuff. So I 00:02:56.129 --> 00:03:00.229 went on YouTube and I found a channel, which 00:03:00.229 --> 00:03:03.430 is the guest that I have today. Lazarus, how 00:03:03.430 --> 00:03:06.210 are you doing today, Lazarus? I'm doing well. 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:09.849 Nice to be with you. Okay. Thanks for your time. 00:03:10.009 --> 00:03:12.699 Thanks for... you being here i know you have 00:03:12.699 --> 00:03:15.460 a company i know you're busy so really appreciate 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:20.439 it so like i was saying i was going through youtube 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.719 and i found your channel and i see that you talk 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:28.759 about networking i did watch your mpls bgp and 00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:31.939 other videos that you have right the playlists 00:03:31.939 --> 00:03:34.620 that you have there we're gonna get to know your 00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:38.199 channel more in a little while but Before we 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:40.560 get there, you mind sharing a little bit more 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:46.740 about you, like who Lazarus is? Sure. My name 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:49.599 is Lazarus Agapedis. I am a telecom and networking 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:53.599 engineer. I love telecom and networking. I'm 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.919 very passionate about it. And I guess that passion 00:03:56.919 --> 00:03:59.479 is something that has kind of overflowed into 00:03:59.479 --> 00:04:01.639 the creation of this YouTube channel, which is 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:05.460 how you found me. My primary job isn't teaching. 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:09.620 I run a small telecom and networking consulting 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:16.660 firm with both local and customers that are both 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:21.360 local and abroad. But I've recently started with 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:24.220 this YouTube channel because all of the various 00:04:24.220 --> 00:04:26.040 skill sets and knowledge that I've accumulated, 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:30.540 I figured I want to share it because I love sharing 00:04:30.540 --> 00:04:34.100 it and it's something I'm passionate about. And 00:04:34.100 --> 00:04:37.360 I want to share it in a way that I wish I was 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:41.000 taught when I was learning. Oh, yep. I did notice 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.939 that. And I was wondering, like, who this guy 00:04:44.939 --> 00:04:49.199 is? Where has this guy been? I wanted to watch 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:54.439 videos about spanning tree and other networking 00:04:54.439 --> 00:04:56.879 topics. You didn't have them. And I was like, 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.259 OK, I'll have to go and watch someone else. But, 00:04:59.300 --> 00:05:01.339 yep. Where are you from? Where are you based? 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:05.819 Well, I was born and raised in Canada. I studied 00:05:05.819 --> 00:05:08.220 there. I worked there for a year. And then I 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:12.519 met my wife, who is from Crete in Greece. And 00:05:12.519 --> 00:05:15.199 I decided to move to Greece, and I did. I am 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:18.079 of Greek descent, so I knew the language. Okay. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:23.240 And I've been in here for almost 25 years. But 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:25.040 I do have, like I said before, I do have both 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.899 local customers as well as customers that are 00:05:27.899 --> 00:05:32.899 abroad. Okay. Just so people that is watching 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:38.019 this video, there's multiple ways people take 00:05:38.019 --> 00:05:42.199 in life, right? I decided to go the wrong way 00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:46.240 at the beginning of my life. Why did you choose 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:49.180 the right path? You know, like, because you have 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:52.879 a company. What inspired you to take this path 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:56.000 and how did it all start? If you want to share 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:00.370 that with us. Sure. I wouldn't say that I took 00:06:00.370 --> 00:06:04.069 the right path. I would say that I took the wrong 00:06:04.069 --> 00:06:07.230 path quite a few times and I learned from that. 00:06:07.410 --> 00:06:10.209 And that was part of the right path. So in a 00:06:10.209 --> 00:06:12.850 sense, you can say that sometimes the wrong path 00:06:12.850 --> 00:06:17.180 is part of the right path. When I was growing 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:21.060 up, I was really interested in space, astrophysics. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:25.699 I would always read up on, go to the library 00:06:25.699 --> 00:06:30.240 then. We didn't have that much connectivity with 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:34.399 the internet. And I would read up on astronomy 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:38.500 and space probes and things. And I would always 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:41.519 follow along on TV because I was really interested 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:45.329 in this. I started studying, when I went to university, 00:06:45.550 --> 00:06:50.069 I studied astrophysics. But I was fortunate because 00:06:50.069 --> 00:06:53.670 at the university, York University in Toronto, 00:06:53.709 --> 00:06:57.069 where I studied, the astrophysics program had 00:06:57.069 --> 00:07:00.449 a specialization in space and communication science. 00:07:01.110 --> 00:07:05.759 And it was really those courses that... I loved 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:07.639 the most, the ones that had to do with communication, 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:12.000 with wireless signaling, signal processing, electromagnetic 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.720 radiation, even spacecraft systems design. I 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.100 really, really loved those. Those really inspired 00:07:19.100 --> 00:07:22.120 me. So by the end of my bachelor's degree, I 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:24.120 decided I didn't want to continue with physics. 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:29.240 And I went on to do telecommunications management, 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:33.139 a postgraduate at Sheridan College, also in Toronto. 00:07:34.509 --> 00:07:38.910 And I fell in love with it. The course was 50 00:07:38.910 --> 00:07:43.189 -50 between business approach and technology. 00:07:43.870 --> 00:07:46.529 And these two things really do go hand in hand. 00:07:46.629 --> 00:07:49.990 You have to understand both in order to be able 00:07:49.990 --> 00:07:55.129 to go forward. It's somewhat limiting if you 00:07:55.129 --> 00:07:57.870 just deal with the technology or if you just 00:07:57.870 --> 00:08:00.629 deal with the business side. If you have both... 00:08:01.149 --> 00:08:05.769 It frees you up to move forward more effectively. 00:08:06.550 --> 00:08:09.810 So after I finished that, I started working at 00:08:09.810 --> 00:08:12.589 Sprint Canada. This was way back in the last 00:08:12.589 --> 00:08:17.790 millennium, 1999. Sprint Canada doesn't exist 00:08:17.790 --> 00:08:21.829 anymore. Neither does Sprint in the US. But I 00:08:21.829 --> 00:08:24.550 was in the voice traffic engineering department. 00:08:26.670 --> 00:08:29.959 And that was really interesting. I was there 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:32.879 for a year. It was an excellent start for me. 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:36.559 And then was the point where I met my wife. I 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:41.139 came to Greece and I started going kind of in 00:08:41.139 --> 00:08:44.360 a new direction, not so much with voice, but 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:47.539 more with data. I got a job at the University 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:50.860 of Crete at the Networking and Communication 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:53.620 Center, which is where I started working more 00:08:53.620 --> 00:08:57.399 with networking, with Cisco. specifically and 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:00.059 especially Cisco products. I started working 00:09:00.059 --> 00:09:04.960 with Cisco's voice over IP deployment, which 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:09.559 was the call manager version 4 .3, which is quite 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:14.000 old, if that means anything to anyone. And that 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.940 was where I really started expanding on my networking 00:09:16.940 --> 00:09:22.330 area. And it was really nice that I was at the 00:09:22.330 --> 00:09:24.870 university because the university is a large 00:09:24.870 --> 00:09:29.070 organization. So I got to play with a big network, 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:35.429 which is not – you don't easily get to have such 00:09:35.429 --> 00:09:39.590 experience. So that really – I was able to take 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:43.110 off with that, being able to play with such a 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:48.090 large network. But I found that – I found that 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:51.350 I started getting restless after a few years. 00:09:51.610 --> 00:09:56.409 I felt I wasn't moving forward very much anymore. 00:09:56.789 --> 00:10:00.950 So I took a job at the municipality here in the 00:10:00.950 --> 00:10:03.909 city of Heraklion, which is another large organization 00:10:03.909 --> 00:10:07.809 which has a big network. And in this case, I 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:12.159 was the only network engineer. at the municipality. 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:15.200 So I had the whole network to myself, unlike 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:17.440 the university where I was working with others. 00:10:17.580 --> 00:10:21.220 So the network was my own. And at that time, 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:24.399 there was a new fiber optic network that was 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.659 a municipal fiber optic network that was being 00:10:26.659 --> 00:10:29.379 put in that interconnected the multiple buildings 00:10:29.379 --> 00:10:33.980 of the municipality. So I'm now in charge of 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.919 an organization with a thousand users. I had 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:41.899 their IP telephony system. I had their fiber 00:10:41.899 --> 00:10:45.759 optic network that I was managing. I had their 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.720 wireless network, which was at the time the largest 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.179 municipal wireless network in the country. And 00:10:52.179 --> 00:10:55.840 that really expanded my horizons because I got 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:00.720 a chance to deal with a lot of technology. But 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:03.720 at the same time... And I'm kind of going on 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:06.299 a monologue here. I apologize. I'm getting excited 00:11:06.299 --> 00:11:10.460 by what I'm sharing. At the same time that my 00:11:10.460 --> 00:11:14.820 supervisor played a very important role in my 00:11:14.820 --> 00:11:20.320 progress, he allowed me to take part in the city's 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:33.169 smart city initiatives. a smart city initiative 00:11:33.169 --> 00:11:36.549 that we had put together for the city. So that 00:11:36.549 --> 00:11:40.409 also allowed me to connect with people and take 00:11:40.409 --> 00:11:49.370 part in broader and larger networks. So my passion, 00:11:49.409 --> 00:11:52.870 I guess, played a good role in that because that's 00:11:52.870 --> 00:11:57.470 kind of the driving force behind. learning new 00:11:57.470 --> 00:11:59.629 things, behind getting to know people, behind 00:11:59.629 --> 00:12:04.350 networking with other cities in Europe. So that 00:12:04.350 --> 00:12:07.909 was a really great experience. But again, I felt 00:12:07.909 --> 00:12:10.389 at some point I was outgrowing the position. 00:12:10.610 --> 00:12:14.889 And that's when in 2017, I founded Telecom Tech, 00:12:15.070 --> 00:12:20.389 which is, like I said, a consulting firm. But 00:12:20.389 --> 00:12:23.330 I still have, you know, the municipality as a... 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:26.700 And I've expanded to other municipalities as 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:31.379 well. But I started expanding to customers that 00:12:31.379 --> 00:12:33.919 were abroad over, you know, with freelancing 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:38.820 sites. I was able to work with some very interesting 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:43.399 people throughout the world. And that was very, 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:46.799 very inspiring. And I guess at some point I figured, 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:50.480 okay, I've accumulated, you know, knowledge, 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:54.370 skill sets. in a wide area of telecom and networking. 00:12:54.649 --> 00:12:57.230 And I wanted to start sharing that. And I wanted 00:12:57.230 --> 00:13:02.789 to start allowing that knowledge to bring back 00:13:02.789 --> 00:13:08.330 some benefit. So I started sharing it using YouTube. 00:13:08.610 --> 00:13:12.649 And like I said, sharing this knowledge with 00:13:12.649 --> 00:13:14.950 people in a way that I wish I was taught when 00:13:14.950 --> 00:13:19.929 I was learning is very important to me. And it's 00:13:19.929 --> 00:13:24.960 enjoyable. So I guess that's just a not so brief 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:31.460 summary of my path over the past couple of decades. 00:13:31.820 --> 00:13:35.080 So I noticed that you were always after something 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.240 else, after something new. Like, why didn't you 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:41.100 stay at the position at the municipality, right? 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:43.639 Like, were you looking for new challenges? You 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:46.440 felt that it was not enough anymore? Because 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:50.480 people find a stable job, they stay there for 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:53.519 life. Right. So why did you decide to move to 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:59.799 something else? Because it didn't give me the 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:03.500 satisfaction that it did initially. I think the 00:14:03.500 --> 00:14:08.879 satisfaction came from growing, came from learning, 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.559 came from, you know, experiencing new things. 00:14:15.139 --> 00:14:21.720 From 2007 until 2017, you know, 10 years. I grew 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:26.139 to a point where the specific job position didn't 00:14:26.139 --> 00:14:29.399 have anything new to offer me. So I think that 00:14:29.399 --> 00:14:33.299 I just felt right. I don't think I can describe 00:14:33.299 --> 00:14:38.879 it better than that. Yep. We have all gone through 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:42.039 that. When you get used to the job, it's like 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:46.600 you do it in an automated sort of way. And there's 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:50.389 nothing new, challenging that excites you. People 00:14:50.389 --> 00:14:54.649 tend to, I don't know, find new paths, I guess. 00:14:54.750 --> 00:14:58.070 Do you want to add anything else to your professional 00:14:58.070 --> 00:15:01.450 experience in networking? I think you covered 00:15:01.450 --> 00:15:04.330 a lot there. That's like the next topic. Anything 00:15:04.330 --> 00:15:13.259 else you want to add? Well, in general. I don't 00:15:13.259 --> 00:15:16.360 focus on one thing. I guess my primary focus 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:19.679 is generally networking. And that's why on the 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.860 YouTube channel, you'll see MPLS, VXLAN, BGP. 00:15:22.899 --> 00:15:25.419 And I will get to Spanning Tree that you mentioned 00:15:25.419 --> 00:15:30.720 before. So stay tuned for that. But I've also 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:36.620 done training in 5G networks as well. in collaboration 00:15:36.620 --> 00:15:40.220 with Skillsoft, which is a large training company 00:15:40.220 --> 00:15:48.200 in the States and Canada. So I guess my expertise 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:55.000 is quite broad in telecom and networking. And 00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:00.460 the amazing thing is that you get to a point 00:16:00.460 --> 00:16:04.690 where your skill set is enough to allow you to 00:16:04.690 --> 00:16:10.490 learn new things. So, you know, it's one thing 00:16:10.490 --> 00:16:15.929 to be able to say, okay, I deal with IPv4, IPv6, 00:16:15.970 --> 00:16:18.830 and so on. I didn't really know much about 5G, 00:16:18.870 --> 00:16:23.149 but when I was... approached to create a course 00:16:23.149 --> 00:16:26.690 or content for 5G, I did the research and I was 00:16:26.690 --> 00:16:30.590 able to learn because I was able to have the 00:16:30.590 --> 00:16:33.429 background and the foundation necessary to be 00:16:33.429 --> 00:16:37.029 able to learn. So part of the experience, the 00:16:37.029 --> 00:16:41.129 gaining of experience, has to do also with learning 00:16:41.129 --> 00:16:44.210 to learn. Learning to learn these new things 00:16:44.210 --> 00:16:50.440 in the area of telecom and networking. Okay. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:53.500 Okay. So we have your YouTube channel here, Telecom 00:16:53.500 --> 00:16:58.200 Tech. You have 7 ,000 subscribers already. When 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:01.039 did you start with your channel? Around how long 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:08.359 ago? Well, in my first official video, although 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:11.759 it does say there that I joined in June of 2023, 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:15.960 my first official video came out in September 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:19.559 of that year. So it's been a year and a half. 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:25.000 Okay. And what videos do we expect to find here? 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:30.299 I know that I did find OSPF, BGP, MPLS related 00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:33.900 stuff. What else should people expect to find 00:17:33.900 --> 00:17:37.799 in your channel? Well, at this point in time, 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:43.019 I have playlists for BGP, MPLS, VXLAN. I've currently 00:17:43.019 --> 00:17:49.690 started a new playlist on OSPF. So you'll find 00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:54.269 a series on that. I have done a few videos that 00:17:54.269 --> 00:17:57.829 are a little bit older on VoiceOver IP, subnetting, 00:17:57.829 --> 00:18:01.769 IPv4 subnetting. I talk a little bit about IPv6. 00:18:02.910 --> 00:18:07.990 But those were videos that kind of explored what 00:18:07.990 --> 00:18:12.210 kind of topics people were interested in. But 00:18:12.210 --> 00:18:15.960 I found that... The ones that have playlists 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:19.259 like MPLS, VXLAN, and OSPF are the more popular 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:27.779 ones. I am planning on focusing on additional 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:34.740 series and playlists that are CCNP focused. I 00:18:34.740 --> 00:18:38.660 don't want to create videos or playlists that 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:42.450 are specific to a particular... a course or blueprint 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:47.630 because those change. So I'm focusing more on 00:18:47.630 --> 00:18:51.029 things that will still be valid 5, 10, 15 years 00:18:51.029 --> 00:18:53.470 from now. And that might sound like a long time, 00:18:53.569 --> 00:18:56.369 but BGP, for example, has been around since 1998. 00:18:57.069 --> 00:19:03.029 Yep. You're right. Okay. And what else? Well, 00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:06.690 what's the catch with YouTube? Like why YouTube? 00:19:06.789 --> 00:19:09.210 Because I did see the content and it's pretty 00:19:09.210 --> 00:19:13.660 great. And I'm like, What's the catch, basically? 00:19:13.720 --> 00:19:17.240 That's my question. Why are you doing this? So 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:23.380 I want to move away from network design and architecture 00:19:23.380 --> 00:19:27.119 for clients, and I want to move more towards 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:30.420 teaching and training. So I figured YouTube would 00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:33.619 be a good starting point for me to gain experience 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:37.319 in how to create videos because I had no experience 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:40.480 in this area. I also want to use YouTube as a 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:43.200 funnel. In order to lead people to my website, 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:47.099 which is telecomtech .io. For now, on this site, 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:50.740 I have information about myself. I have information 00:19:50.740 --> 00:19:53.000 about the YouTube channel. I have some blogs 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.799 on topics that are described in the YouTube channel 00:19:55.799 --> 00:20:00.339 as well. But soon, I'm going to start offering 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:05.079 in -depth courses with labs and downloadable 00:20:05.079 --> 00:20:09.400 PDFs, configuration files. Quizzes and so on 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:11.880 in various areas, and I'm currently preparing 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:16.539 the BGP course which is essentially Following 00:20:16.539 --> 00:20:19.359 a similar path to what the YouTube channel is 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:22.619 to what the YouTube channel is sharing But I'm 00:20:22.619 --> 00:20:28.240 going much more in depth with live labs And content 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.819 that people can download and can create on their 00:20:30.819 --> 00:20:33.400 own Is this going to be related, like you said, 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:35.819 to a specific vendor? Like, is this going to 00:20:35.819 --> 00:20:39.839 be Cisco, Juniper related or more general? It's 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.400 going to be Cisco related. I will be using Cisco 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:50.380 devices. But in general, the idea is that it 00:20:50.380 --> 00:20:54.000 can be applicable to other vendors as well. Cisco 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:58.000 in general has this philosophy. All of their 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:05.519 content in general is... is about 40 % about 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:08.920 the equipment and 60 % about the technology. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:13.920 So by going through Cisco courses like CCNP, 00:21:14.019 --> 00:21:17.099 CCNA, and so on, you don't only learn about Cisco. 00:21:17.259 --> 00:21:19.619 You also learn about the technologies themselves. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:22.740 But I am focusing on Cisco because that's the 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:26.279 vendor which I am most familiar with and I'm 00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:30.000 comfortable with. And I guess it's the vendor 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.079 that I started off with at the beginning, and 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:35.900 that's kind of my first love in a sense. Now, 00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:38.619 other than the courses that are coming up, I 00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:44.799 already have available the... a telecom and networking 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:48.319 professionals career roadmap, which you can download. 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:53.440 And it's essentially a 27 page document that 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:57.559 has information, insights, strategies, and so 00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:01.619 on concerning how. you can move forward in your 00:22:01.619 --> 00:22:05.900 telecom and networking career. You can register 00:22:05.900 --> 00:22:08.319 and download the document. It's completely free. 00:22:08.539 --> 00:22:11.000 And in it, I also describe some of the things 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:16.140 I've shared with you now about my path and about 00:22:16.140 --> 00:22:21.259 the various events that took place that led me 00:22:21.259 --> 00:22:23.480 to where I am now and where I see myself in the 00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:26.880 future as well. I noticed that it's pretty simple 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.019 to follow along in your videos. And it's really 00:22:30.019 --> 00:22:34.079 complex topics like MPLS, BGP. It's not something 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:38.059 simple to teach. Do you have experience teaching? 00:22:38.259 --> 00:22:41.200 Have you taught professionally in the past or 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:49.019 something? Well, I haven't been taught to teach, 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:51.500 if that's what you mean. For example, I haven't 00:22:51.500 --> 00:22:55.589 taken courses on how to... convey this information. 00:22:56.130 --> 00:22:59.569 It's just from my own experience. I started out 00:22:59.569 --> 00:23:02.509 really when I was at the university, when the 00:23:02.509 --> 00:23:07.730 university wanted to create a Cisco Academy. 00:23:08.710 --> 00:23:12.970 So I was sent for a month to do training on CCNA, 00:23:13.109 --> 00:23:16.210 and that's when I first got my first CCNA as 00:23:16.210 --> 00:23:21.289 an instructor. The Cisco Academy didn't end up 00:23:21.289 --> 00:23:23.670 happening at the university, but I was happy 00:23:23.670 --> 00:23:26.269 because I got my certification and I started 00:23:26.269 --> 00:23:28.529 teaching on my own people who were interested 00:23:28.529 --> 00:23:32.250 in that. And I found that I was good at it and 00:23:32.250 --> 00:23:34.569 others were telling me that I was good at it 00:23:34.569 --> 00:23:37.630 and I would be able to share these complex topics 00:23:37.630 --> 00:23:39.809 and break them down so that people would be able 00:23:39.809 --> 00:23:43.930 to understand them. So because I enjoyed it as 00:23:43.930 --> 00:23:47.049 well, I started sharing. all of these things 00:23:47.049 --> 00:23:53.569 with courses. And since then, when I started 00:23:53.569 --> 00:23:59.730 several years ago with TelecomTech as a company, 00:24:00.069 --> 00:24:06.029 I got connected with a guy named Rene Molinar, 00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:10.410 who has network lessons. He is in the Netherlands. 00:24:10.849 --> 00:24:15.680 He is... Cisco networking guru not only Cisco 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:19.619 but other quite quite a few areas as well And 00:24:19.619 --> 00:24:22.960 I started working with him just as a forum moderator. 00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:27.160 I was one of two or three moderators that were 00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:31.220 on his site Over the years the other moderators 00:24:31.220 --> 00:24:34.039 left. I started taking on more and more responsibilities 00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:41.039 and As you can probably see here My activity 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:47.960 on the forum, I have 9 ,600 posts in about eight 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:54.859 years. So you can see this was probably another 00:24:54.859 --> 00:24:59.359 one of those big... steps forward. I did mention 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:01.799 about the university that was a big network. 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:03.759 I was able to learn a lot. The municipality, 00:25:04.019 --> 00:25:06.180 a big network, and it was all mine and I was 00:25:06.180 --> 00:25:08.779 able to learn a lot. This is another big stepping 00:25:08.779 --> 00:25:13.640 stone in my journey that really helped me because 00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:18.559 I had to respond to all of these forum posts 00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:21.000 concerning a whole bunch of different technologies. 00:25:21.299 --> 00:25:25.480 So I learned a lot by researching them and responding. 00:25:27.080 --> 00:25:30.400 And over the years, I've been working more in 00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:35.420 depth with Rene creating various labs as well. 00:25:35.539 --> 00:25:38.859 You can see he has a lot of different courses 00:25:38.859 --> 00:25:44.559 that he prepares them in a different format from 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:48.319 what I do. He prepares them as lessons. So if 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:52.599 we go into OSPF and we take a look at introduction 00:25:52.599 --> 00:25:56.569 to OSPF, it's a lesson. that talks about various 00:25:56.569 --> 00:26:02.750 things about this particular technology and protocol. 00:26:03.490 --> 00:26:05.950 And then people ask questions, and I respond, 00:26:06.150 --> 00:26:08.170 and that's been something that's really helped 00:26:08.170 --> 00:26:11.829 me a lot. Yes, what I wanted to say before as 00:26:11.829 --> 00:26:15.230 well was that other than the forum and the lessons 00:26:15.230 --> 00:26:21.230 we've put together with Rene, some labs as well. 00:26:21.609 --> 00:26:25.650 This here is a large lab that has been put together 00:26:25.650 --> 00:26:29.849 that someone can go in and recreate on their 00:26:29.849 --> 00:26:35.369 own, deciding to follow the topology and the 00:26:35.369 --> 00:26:38.670 various things that you're asked to do. So you 00:26:38.670 --> 00:26:40.549 can do it on your own. If you get stuck, you 00:26:40.549 --> 00:26:43.410 can follow along in the tasks that are listed 00:26:43.410 --> 00:26:47.339 here. And it really helps out to... to learn 00:26:47.339 --> 00:26:50.680 these fundamental technologies. So I think that 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:54.960 this, along with my other teaching experience 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:58.119 that I mentioned, is one of the major things 00:26:58.119 --> 00:27:00.480 that has helped me to be able to explain things 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:04.539 simply. Other than that, I've also been involved 00:27:04.539 --> 00:27:08.480 with, I think I mentioned it before, with Skillsoft, 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:13.559 which is a training company. I have created several 00:27:13.559 --> 00:27:21.119 5G courses as well. So this, for example, is 00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:25.039 a Skillsoft course that I've put together and 00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:27.799 it talks about what you'll learn. And is that 00:27:27.799 --> 00:27:32.660 a video course? It is a video course. And as 00:27:32.660 --> 00:27:35.579 you can see here, you have the various, they're 00:27:35.579 --> 00:27:38.380 small little nuggets. The first two videos are 00:27:38.380 --> 00:27:40.819 free for you to check out or you can, if you 00:27:40.819 --> 00:27:44.990 purchase. The course you can follow along. But 00:27:44.990 --> 00:27:49.109 this is content that I've prepared for Skillsoft 00:27:49.109 --> 00:27:53.170 and then they take it and run with it. There 00:27:53.170 --> 00:27:55.769 are over 20 courses that I've created for 5G 00:27:55.769 --> 00:28:00.309 for Skillsoft. Oh, interesting. Okay. Now, do 00:28:00.309 --> 00:28:03.829 you offer other services? You mentioned that 00:28:03.829 --> 00:28:06.130 you work with different municipalities, right? 00:28:06.210 --> 00:28:10.049 So you also teach, you teach in different platforms. 00:28:10.829 --> 00:28:15.349 Do you offer different services? As a company, 00:28:15.509 --> 00:28:18.650 I guess there are two major, other than teaching, 00:28:18.890 --> 00:28:22.509 there are two major areas that we work with. 00:28:22.650 --> 00:28:26.549 On the one hand, we have the local customers, 00:28:26.650 --> 00:28:30.089 which are municipalities. We now have five municipalities 00:28:30.089 --> 00:28:33.710 on the island of Crete where we support either 00:28:33.710 --> 00:28:36.930 their networks or their Wi -Fi network or both, 00:28:37.130 --> 00:28:46.230 their telephony. that work with these local customers. 00:28:47.470 --> 00:28:50.430 And then I have the overseas customers, which 00:28:50.430 --> 00:28:56.109 I've shared already about Rene and the work I 00:28:56.109 --> 00:29:01.089 do with him. But I'm also involved in copywriting. 00:29:01.250 --> 00:29:06.009 I write up both ghostwriting as well as writing 00:29:06.009 --> 00:29:11.940 under my own name, various... blogs about telecom 00:29:11.940 --> 00:29:14.119 technology. The topics that I've talked about 00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:20.539 include BGP, they include voice over IP, 5G, 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:23.819 as well as various other areas. But that too 00:29:23.819 --> 00:29:29.759 is one of my major activities. And I guess that 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:32.880 kind of falls into training and teaching and 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.480 sharing information in a way that's easy to understand. 00:29:36.740 --> 00:29:41.339 Okay. Okay. Thanks. Now, there's something that 00:29:41.339 --> 00:29:44.180 I wanted to ask you that is, I don't know, something 00:29:44.180 --> 00:29:48.400 that I have in the top of my mind all the time. 00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:52.880 What are your thoughts on the role of the traditional 00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:56.819 network engineer? Because nowadays, everything 00:29:56.819 --> 00:30:00.480 is more automated. You hear about Terraform, 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:06.220 you hear about Ansible everywhere. So what are 00:30:06.220 --> 00:30:08.720 your thoughts there on that traditional role? 00:30:09.099 --> 00:30:12.299 You know, like Cisco, you SSH into the router, 00:30:12.500 --> 00:30:15.640 you configure it, you know, command by command. 00:30:15.980 --> 00:30:18.579 What do you think is going to happen to the network 00:30:18.579 --> 00:30:24.400 engineer? It's interesting because I started 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:28.960 out before all of this automation came in. So 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:34.819 I was a very CLI type guy, as most people of 00:30:34.819 --> 00:30:41.460 my generation, my age. So I had to pivot. I had 00:30:41.460 --> 00:30:44.440 to diversify. I had to learn new skills as I 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:47.640 was going down. Now, a lot of people are saying 00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:51.420 that, you know, the network engineer is slowly 00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:53.339 becoming obsolete because you have all of this 00:30:53.339 --> 00:30:56.259 automation. And, you know, you're going to be 00:30:56.259 --> 00:31:00.240 more of a software engineer rather than a network 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:02.720 engineer because everything can be done in software 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:08.390 now. I'm convinced that unless you have a solid 00:31:08.390 --> 00:31:13.130 understanding of networking and protocols, you 00:31:13.130 --> 00:31:16.150 won't be able to sufficiently use these tools. 00:31:16.369 --> 00:31:20.049 If you don't know the underlying fundamentals 00:31:20.049 --> 00:31:26.509 of IP, IPv6, TCP, routing protocols and so on, 00:31:26.589 --> 00:31:30.269 you still will not be able to use all of these 00:31:30.269 --> 00:31:35.619 automation tools. Python, Ansible, and generally 00:31:35.619 --> 00:31:39.160 network automation, you won't be able to use 00:31:39.160 --> 00:31:43.200 them to their full potential. Someone who doesn't 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:44.960 have very much experience in networking might 00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:47.299 be able to do a few things with automation now, 00:31:47.480 --> 00:31:50.240 but if you don't understand the fundamentals 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:53.319 behind all of it, you'll never be able to fully 00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:56.460 understand and implement it in the best possible 00:31:56.460 --> 00:32:02.089 way. Okay. Do you think there's still a lot of 00:32:02.089 --> 00:32:05.529 room for people that want to get started in traditional 00:32:05.529 --> 00:32:09.690 networking? Should they start with, you know, 00:32:09.690 --> 00:32:14.029 all of this Cisco and CLI related stuff? Or what's 00:32:14.029 --> 00:32:21.250 your advice there? If you're interested in networking, 00:32:22.309 --> 00:32:26.009 you should start with CLI. You should start with 00:32:26.009 --> 00:32:28.589 the command line. You should start by configuring 00:32:28.589 --> 00:32:33.230 STP line by line, device by device, configuring 00:32:33.230 --> 00:32:38.109 routing interface by interface. Otherwise, you 00:32:38.109 --> 00:32:41.589 won't understand the logic behind the protocol. 00:32:42.089 --> 00:32:46.910 Eventually, in a production network, you might 00:32:46.910 --> 00:32:51.480 never or very rarely go in and use the CLI. That 00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:54.059 doesn't mean that you shouldn't know how it works. 00:32:54.200 --> 00:32:58.119 And that's why most of the courses that are given 00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:00.480 out there, by Cisco and others as well, and even 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:05.160 my videos, they focus on the command line interface. 00:33:05.259 --> 00:33:08.119 They focus on the understanding of the functionality 00:33:08.119 --> 00:33:11.059 of the protocols. And if you don't use the CLA, 00:33:11.099 --> 00:33:15.740 if you don't take a look and see... all of those 00:33:15.740 --> 00:33:19.359 show commands and understand all of those things, 00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:20.839 you won't be able to understand the protocol. 00:33:21.019 --> 00:33:26.000 And then you won't be that useful in the network 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:30.140 design and so on. Now, you might be able to deploy 00:33:30.140 --> 00:33:32.319 a network, but you'll have a lot of trouble in 00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:34.900 troubleshooting it. You'll have a lot of trouble 00:33:34.900 --> 00:33:38.240 in understanding why it works the way it works. 00:33:39.140 --> 00:33:42.160 And I think that's an important aspect of... 00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.579 Being good, being a good telecom and networking 00:33:45.579 --> 00:33:49.579 engineer. Otherwise, you're just, you know, you're 00:33:49.579 --> 00:33:51.960 just an amateur. Otherwise, if you don't know 00:33:51.960 --> 00:33:55.460 the fundamentals behind all of it. Yep. And is 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:58.980 configuring network equipment via the CLI still 00:33:58.980 --> 00:34:03.640 what is usually done in companies? Or how do 00:34:03.640 --> 00:34:07.940 you handle it normally? It depends on the philosophy 00:34:07.940 --> 00:34:11.159 of the company. I think it also depends on what 00:34:11.159 --> 00:34:15.199 part of the world you're in. From my experience, 00:34:15.460 --> 00:34:19.320 my clients, at least here in Greece, they're 00:34:19.320 --> 00:34:27.000 not big fans of spending money to automate. They're 00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:32.050 happy to keep the things the way they are. And 00:34:32.050 --> 00:34:34.150 I think it's just a matter of philosophy or the 00:34:34.150 --> 00:34:38.130 way things work. In other countries, you'll find 00:34:38.130 --> 00:34:40.889 that people are more willing to spend the money 00:34:40.889 --> 00:34:46.170 to automate because in the long run, you do save 00:34:46.170 --> 00:34:51.090 money because you need fewer people to support 00:34:51.090 --> 00:34:54.750 them and you can free up people's time to do 00:34:54.750 --> 00:34:57.940 other things as well. But it's really a matter 00:34:57.940 --> 00:35:00.280 of philosophy. I found from my experience locally, 00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.880 you know, the CLI is fine. People don't want 00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:07.900 to spend the money to create the automation or 00:35:07.900 --> 00:35:12.579 develop the automation. Elsewhere overseas, again, 00:35:13.019 --> 00:35:15.659 from my experience, the philosophy is different 00:35:15.659 --> 00:35:18.699 and people will spend the time. So I guess it 00:35:18.699 --> 00:35:23.719 really depends on who your customers are. Yeah. 00:35:24.090 --> 00:35:26.909 I did notice that at my previous company, everything 00:35:26.909 --> 00:35:34.670 was CLI managed a few years ago. But it's moving 00:35:34.670 --> 00:35:38.230 away from that to maintaining configurations 00:35:38.230 --> 00:35:42.570 and all that stuff in GitHub and stuff like that. 00:35:42.710 --> 00:35:46.230 So it depends. But that's the company that I 00:35:46.230 --> 00:35:50.230 was on before, which is a big company. Locally, 00:35:50.309 --> 00:35:53.329 like you said, here where I live. People is that 00:35:53.329 --> 00:35:57.150 it's not going to automate things yet. Not as 00:35:57.150 --> 00:35:59.550 of yet. I don't know how long it's going to take, 00:35:59.570 --> 00:36:03.769 but where I'm at, we're behind a few years. And 00:36:03.769 --> 00:36:05.869 I don't think that's going to happen anytime 00:36:05.869 --> 00:36:09.110 soon. Because like you said, it requires money, 00:36:09.289 --> 00:36:11.510 right? You need to have people that can do it. 00:36:11.730 --> 00:36:15.889 And they just don't want to invest in that, I 00:36:15.889 --> 00:36:20.809 guess, as of yet. And I guess one of the skill 00:36:20.809 --> 00:36:24.690 sets that we as networking engineers need is 00:36:24.690 --> 00:36:28.510 to be able to convey the necessity of such things 00:36:28.510 --> 00:36:31.909 to the decision makers, who are not technical 00:36:31.909 --> 00:36:34.989 people. They're business people, they're business 00:36:34.989 --> 00:36:38.670 administration, and so on. So you have to be 00:36:38.670 --> 00:36:40.630 able to convey that. But you can only convey 00:36:40.630 --> 00:36:43.449 it up to a point. Ultimately, it's their decision, 00:36:43.590 --> 00:36:45.909 and the philosophy and approach that they have 00:36:45.909 --> 00:36:47.670 is something that will affect that, definitely. 00:36:48.909 --> 00:36:51.869 And what's your take on learning new stuff like 00:36:51.869 --> 00:36:54.869 Terraform and Sybil? Are you on the side of, 00:36:54.929 --> 00:36:59.829 you know, if there comes the need to move to 00:36:59.829 --> 00:37:02.130 those technologies, are you in favor of that? 00:37:02.250 --> 00:37:05.309 Or you're like, no, I'm more on the side of doing 00:37:05.309 --> 00:37:07.769 the things. Traditionally, I'm not going to be 00:37:07.769 --> 00:37:10.190 automating stuff. What's your take on that? Like, 00:37:10.210 --> 00:37:17.519 what's your. I think. Well, we did say that in 00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:19.179 your part of the world, my part of the world, 00:37:19.239 --> 00:37:25.960 people are not that open to such changes. But 00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:29.659 the changes will take place. Whether it's faster 00:37:29.659 --> 00:37:32.719 or slower, they eventually will take place. And 00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:37.019 you have to be, you know, you have to move with 00:37:37.019 --> 00:37:39.760 the times. You have to learn new things. So I 00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:44.079 would say that definitely it's something that... 00:37:44.329 --> 00:37:50.650 We must do, we have to, we as network engineers, 00:37:50.769 --> 00:37:53.869 we have to learn these new things. So I'm definitely 00:37:53.869 --> 00:37:57.710 for learning it. It depends on also on where 00:37:57.710 --> 00:38:00.869 you are in your journey. Someone who's just out 00:38:00.869 --> 00:38:04.829 of university is in a better position to learn 00:38:04.829 --> 00:38:07.889 this new technology than someone like myself, 00:38:08.130 --> 00:38:14.639 you know, 25 years in the industry. I still like 00:38:14.639 --> 00:38:17.139 learning new things and I do. It's just I can't 00:38:17.139 --> 00:38:20.739 learn as fast maybe as someone who's something 00:38:20.739 --> 00:38:23.900 completely new as someone who's maybe 25 or 30 00:38:23.900 --> 00:38:27.019 years old. But definitely it's something that's 00:38:27.019 --> 00:38:29.679 necessary. It's something that's good. It's actually 00:38:29.679 --> 00:38:34.360 part of the excitement that's involved with this 00:38:34.360 --> 00:38:38.280 area because there's always something new to 00:38:38.280 --> 00:38:41.400 learn. And I think that I personally enjoy that. 00:38:41.639 --> 00:38:46.349 Yeah. Definitely. OK. And what advice do you 00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:49.949 have for people that is just starting thinking 00:38:49.949 --> 00:38:52.050 about starting? You know, let's say that I'm 00:38:52.050 --> 00:38:54.829 in the university. You learn a lot of stuff in 00:38:54.829 --> 00:38:57.690 the university, not just focus to a specific 00:38:57.690 --> 00:39:00.889 topic and you don't know what path to take. So 00:39:00.889 --> 00:39:03.949 what advice do you have for people to starting 00:39:03.949 --> 00:39:06.730 or thinking about to start in the networking 00:39:06.730 --> 00:39:12.820 world? Yeah, well. The network networking is 00:39:12.820 --> 00:39:20.119 a field which is very flexible. So my experience, 00:39:20.219 --> 00:39:24.219 my example is that I started off with physics 00:39:24.219 --> 00:39:28.800 and astronomy bachelor's degree. And through 00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:31.940 that, I was able to go into telecom. So it's 00:39:31.940 --> 00:39:34.980 you have a lot of options. You have a lot of 00:39:34.980 --> 00:39:38.119 opportunity to pivot. It's not like when you 00:39:38.119 --> 00:39:41.659 study to be a doctor, you you need. a medical 00:39:41.659 --> 00:39:46.260 degree in order to be a doctor or a lawyer. You 00:39:46.260 --> 00:39:49.900 need law school, go through the bar exam and 00:39:49.900 --> 00:39:53.619 so on. And you're locked in, in a sense. With 00:39:53.619 --> 00:39:56.300 telecom, there's a lot more freedom and flexibility. 00:39:56.599 --> 00:39:59.099 You want to learn something new, learn it, get 00:39:59.099 --> 00:40:02.260 your certification and go with it. It doesn't 00:40:02.260 --> 00:40:06.719 really matter so much what... what university 00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:10.780 degree you have, of course, it affects it. I 00:40:10.780 --> 00:40:14.679 mean, if you're in computer science or telecommunications 00:40:14.679 --> 00:40:17.900 or engineering, it's more related to these things. 00:40:18.019 --> 00:40:22.300 But I know people who have studied biology, chemistry, 00:40:22.460 --> 00:40:25.679 even someone who has studied theology and has 00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:31.000 gone into networking. So it's a very flexible 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:35.539 path. that you can take. And actually, I wanted 00:40:35.539 --> 00:40:38.300 to share at this point something that I've put 00:40:38.300 --> 00:40:41.800 together that I mentioned before, the Telecom 00:40:41.800 --> 00:40:44.539 and Networking Professionals Roadmap. This is 00:40:44.539 --> 00:40:48.820 a 27 -page document that I've put together, and 00:40:48.820 --> 00:40:56.019 it's essentially a guide for you to plan your 00:40:56.019 --> 00:41:01.039 path in telecom. It's organized in a way where 00:41:01.039 --> 00:41:06.730 you can See where you are now and examine what 00:41:06.730 --> 00:41:09.369 your very next step is, which I think is the 00:41:09.369 --> 00:41:11.469 most important question you have to answer today. 00:41:11.750 --> 00:41:14.309 And it's the biggest challenge often. You know, 00:41:14.349 --> 00:41:16.429 you said, what happens if you're in a university? 00:41:16.510 --> 00:41:18.289 What do you do? What's your next step? Well, 00:41:18.389 --> 00:41:22.489 if you're not sure, you have to find out where 00:41:22.489 --> 00:41:25.900 you are and see where you want to go. This document 00:41:25.900 --> 00:41:31.280 is actually organized as a roadmap. This is an 00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:34.500 overview of the roadmap. And throughout the document, 00:41:34.519 --> 00:41:38.619 I describe each section separately. For example, 00:41:38.639 --> 00:41:41.079 you have post -secondary studies, which is the 00:41:41.079 --> 00:41:47.320 question you asked about in university. And what 00:41:47.320 --> 00:41:54.710 I do for each section is I have an example. If 00:41:54.710 --> 00:41:57.750 we go to post -secondary, laying the foundation, 00:41:58.150 --> 00:42:01.429 I describe what that point in your journey is. 00:42:01.570 --> 00:42:04.829 And then I have a series of points with advice. 00:42:06.130 --> 00:42:08.690 And this advice is specific to that point in 00:42:08.690 --> 00:42:12.449 your journey. And it's advice that will help 00:42:12.449 --> 00:42:15.889 you to see where you are and see where you want 00:42:15.889 --> 00:42:19.329 to go. Hopefully, you'll be able to find yourself 00:42:19.329 --> 00:42:24.480 in this path and use that. document and use the 00:42:24.480 --> 00:42:29.179 roadmap to decide what your next step is going 00:42:29.179 --> 00:42:31.699 to be. And I want to share with you one section 00:42:31.699 --> 00:42:35.760 here that talks about various points of entry. 00:42:36.099 --> 00:42:39.340 So you're able to enter into telecom and networking 00:42:39.340 --> 00:42:42.380 from various points. I mean, you can enter before 00:42:42.380 --> 00:42:46.420 university. I know of someone who's on the telecom 00:42:46.420 --> 00:42:52.239 or who's on the networking lessons for him who's 00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:56.039 17 years old he's in high school and he already 00:42:56.039 --> 00:42:59.960 has a very solid grasp of networking this guy 00:42:59.960 --> 00:43:04.039 got in very early and he's gonna be you know 00:43:04.039 --> 00:43:07.619 he's gonna go places he's gonna be very uh um 00:43:07.619 --> 00:43:10.860 he's gonna move forward very quickly but you 00:43:10.860 --> 00:43:12.579 don't necessarily have to start off that early 00:43:12.579 --> 00:43:15.239 some people enter after university like i did 00:43:15.239 --> 00:43:18.179 other people get their business administration 00:43:18.179 --> 00:43:21.820 masters, and then they get into networking. And 00:43:21.820 --> 00:43:24.539 where you enter... Let me share a little bit 00:43:24.539 --> 00:43:28.500 about my journey there, if I may. Yes, absolutely. 00:43:29.619 --> 00:43:33.780 I didn't continue in the university. Well, I 00:43:33.780 --> 00:43:36.780 am now. I'm 37 years old. This is my final year 00:43:36.780 --> 00:43:42.500 in university. But when I started, I wanted something... 00:43:43.079 --> 00:43:46.500 faster that gave me results faster so i decided 00:43:46.500 --> 00:43:49.719 to go with networking decided to go with ccna 00:43:49.719 --> 00:43:53.420 right got my certification i got another one 00:43:53.420 --> 00:43:56.719 afterwards which was ccna security back then 00:43:56.719 --> 00:43:59.739 doesn't exist anymore but you dealt with the 00:43:59.739 --> 00:44:05.019 asa cisco asa firewall then i got my ccnp and 00:44:05.019 --> 00:44:09.960 that helped me get jobs basically right so the 00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:13.190 certifications did help me I got promoted. I 00:44:13.190 --> 00:44:16.750 got different jobs. Then I came into a point 00:44:16.750 --> 00:44:19.489 in which I was like, I want to try something 00:44:19.489 --> 00:44:22.949 different. So I moved away from networking and 00:44:22.949 --> 00:44:25.789 I wanted to go more into the infrastructure side 00:44:25.789 --> 00:44:28.809 of things. You know, Linux, monitoring. I was 00:44:28.809 --> 00:44:30.889 a monitoring engineer at my previous company. 00:44:31.090 --> 00:44:33.710 I worked there for like seven years. I got laid 00:44:33.710 --> 00:44:36.849 off, I don't know, like three months ago, something 00:44:36.849 --> 00:44:41.110 like that. But giving the job market now. It's 00:44:41.110 --> 00:44:44.130 difficult for me to find a job currently, especially 00:44:44.130 --> 00:44:46.789 the country that I'm in. There's not a lot of 00:44:46.789 --> 00:44:51.409 positions here. So I have to go back to being 00:44:51.409 --> 00:44:57.030 a networking engineer now. So it gives you options, 00:44:57.429 --> 00:45:01.250 right? And I didn't want to finish the university. 00:45:01.429 --> 00:45:03.849 I don't think I need it too much. It does gives 00:45:03.849 --> 00:45:08.730 me a lot of other topics that I can cover, programming 00:45:08.730 --> 00:45:12.570 and stuff like that. adds more tools to my belt 00:45:12.570 --> 00:45:16.750 right so like you said i didn't start the university 00:45:16.750 --> 00:45:20.429 i started with networking then you know started 00:45:20.429 --> 00:45:23.190 university i'm gonna finish it soon and i can 00:45:23.190 --> 00:45:25.389 switch between the two environments you know 00:45:25.389 --> 00:45:28.190 networking infrastructure side of things if i 00:45:28.190 --> 00:45:30.710 don't find an option in one place i can migrate 00:45:30.710 --> 00:45:34.550 to the other but uh yeah just continue just wanted 00:45:34.550 --> 00:45:37.949 to to add that there definitely that's very helpful 00:45:37.949 --> 00:45:40.889 and actually i wanted to share this graph that 00:45:40.889 --> 00:45:43.489 I've created from within the document that kind 00:45:43.489 --> 00:45:46.710 of gives you an idea of the importance of the 00:45:46.710 --> 00:45:49.289 university degree, importance of certifications, 00:45:49.329 --> 00:45:52.730 and the importance of experience, and at what 00:45:52.730 --> 00:45:55.710 point in your career each one is important. So 00:45:55.710 --> 00:45:58.409 the university degree is very important. You 00:45:58.409 --> 00:46:01.230 can see it here. It's very important at the beginning. 00:46:01.719 --> 00:46:03.960 Because that's kind of what gets you your foot 00:46:03.960 --> 00:46:07.900 in the door to get your first job. You know, 00:46:07.900 --> 00:46:09.699 right out of university, maybe you've done some 00:46:09.699 --> 00:46:16.159 practical, you know, what is it called? Like 00:46:16.159 --> 00:46:18.679 an internship. And then you get your foot in 00:46:18.679 --> 00:46:20.820 the door through that university degree. As time 00:46:20.820 --> 00:46:23.900 goes on, the value of that university degree 00:46:23.900 --> 00:46:28.800 goes down. And things like certifications and 00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:32.750 experience. go up so at some point certifications 00:46:32.750 --> 00:46:36.349 become the most important thing um you know maybe 00:46:36.349 --> 00:46:40.210 five seven ten years after uh your first job 00:46:40.210 --> 00:46:42.469 and this is what i found in in my life this is 00:46:42.469 --> 00:46:45.389 certifications were something that really helped 00:46:45.389 --> 00:46:48.510 me to take off um at the beginning that part 00:46:48.510 --> 00:46:51.329 of my life yes at the very beginning it's university 00:46:51.329 --> 00:46:54.170 degrees after several years it's certification 00:46:54.170 --> 00:46:57.210 and then Even the importance of certifications 00:46:57.210 --> 00:47:01.269 go down after 10, 12, 15 years. And it's really 00:47:01.269 --> 00:47:04.170 the experience which is what's most important. 00:47:05.469 --> 00:47:11.730 So, you know, this is a general guideline. By 00:47:11.730 --> 00:47:14.989 no means are the lines supposed to be exactly 00:47:14.989 --> 00:47:17.530 there. You know, your graph might be a bit different. 00:47:17.630 --> 00:47:19.829 But in general, this is what I've found from 00:47:19.829 --> 00:47:25.789 my experience. Interesting. Okay. Do you have 00:47:25.789 --> 00:47:31.690 any certifications, Lazarus? I do. Actually, 00:47:32.530 --> 00:47:39.849 I was looking at them today to kind of remember 00:47:39.849 --> 00:47:43.010 which ones I had in the past, because some of 00:47:43.010 --> 00:47:47.650 them are expired or have been retired, like yours. 00:47:48.010 --> 00:47:54.519 I do have a CCMP Enterprise. infrastructure. 00:47:56.900 --> 00:48:02.099 And CCNA, CCNA Security, CCNA Collaboration, 00:48:02.300 --> 00:48:05.880 Cisco Video Network Representative, CCNA Security, 00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:11.739 Wireless, Voice. So I had a wide variety of Cisco 00:48:11.739 --> 00:48:16.820 certifications. even the ones that are retired. 00:48:17.320 --> 00:48:21.280 But other than that, I've also done some MicroTik 00:48:21.280 --> 00:48:26.199 as well as some Ubiquiti. Those were done more 00:48:26.199 --> 00:48:30.719 to gain a little bit of experience with those 00:48:30.719 --> 00:48:35.519 platforms as well because I wanted to broaden 00:48:35.519 --> 00:48:40.539 my understanding of those as well. Those are 00:48:40.539 --> 00:48:44.440 the certifications I have. Okay, so that's the 00:48:44.440 --> 00:48:48.070 next. topic that i have here so do you recommend 00:48:48.070 --> 00:48:50.809 certifications what are your thoughts or your 00:48:50.809 --> 00:48:54.869 advice there for people just starting i definitely 00:48:54.869 --> 00:48:58.110 recommend certifications certifications are a 00:48:58.110 --> 00:49:03.190 way that uh you can verify the skill sets you 00:49:03.190 --> 00:49:07.829 have and they're verified by some authority um 00:49:07.829 --> 00:49:10.949 and that's why it's important to choose the appropriate 00:49:12.560 --> 00:49:14.440 certifications, certifications that are well 00:49:14.440 --> 00:49:16.920 -known in the industry, certifications that are 00:49:16.920 --> 00:49:25.139 widespread, like Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon, Juniper, 00:49:25.440 --> 00:49:31.760 Microtech, Ubiquiti. So these that are well -recognized, 00:49:31.820 --> 00:49:34.920 it's important. And I think the graph that I 00:49:34.920 --> 00:49:38.320 showed before also shows When they're important. 00:49:38.500 --> 00:49:42.119 I found that my CCNP was the most valuable certification 00:49:42.119 --> 00:49:44.880 that I had. It really opened a lot of doors for 00:49:44.880 --> 00:49:48.760 me at that particular point in my career. Yeah, 00:49:48.820 --> 00:49:53.579 same happened to me. I got my CCNP and I got 00:49:53.579 --> 00:49:57.019 promoted where I was working at. Eventually, 00:49:57.239 --> 00:50:00.099 I just reached the point, like I said, that I 00:50:00.099 --> 00:50:03.539 wanted to explore new things, you know, but it 00:50:03.539 --> 00:50:06.099 wouldn't have been possible without the CCNP 00:50:06.099 --> 00:50:09.739 because. Yeah. Other people that have the certification 00:50:09.739 --> 00:50:12.860 and that know how difficult it is to get it will 00:50:12.860 --> 00:50:15.340 pay attention. It's going to draw their attention. 00:50:15.639 --> 00:50:18.039 They're going to be like, OK, so it's like a 00:50:18.039 --> 00:50:21.400 starting point. It makes you stand out from other 00:50:21.400 --> 00:50:26.699 people for sure. It does. It does. Then I moved 00:50:26.699 --> 00:50:30.719 into infrastructure. I didn't need CCNP there, 00:50:30.860 --> 00:50:32.940 you know, because I wasn't doing any networking 00:50:32.940 --> 00:50:36.320 related stuff. So I just let it expire. I was 00:50:36.320 --> 00:50:38.880 not going to renew it. I was like, I'm not going 00:50:38.880 --> 00:50:41.559 to invest my time in that at the moment because 00:50:41.559 --> 00:50:45.239 it was not, you know, I wasn't using it, right? 00:50:45.360 --> 00:50:50.579 So, but still, it's there in your resume, you 00:50:50.579 --> 00:50:53.920 know, that you're CCNP. And what are your thoughts 00:50:53.920 --> 00:51:00.840 on CCIE, the CCIE cert? CCIE is a very, very 00:51:00.840 --> 00:51:05.519 valuable asset to have. Now, Someone might ask, 00:51:05.559 --> 00:51:09.719 well, why don't you have it? For myself. The 00:51:09.719 --> 00:51:13.460 reason is because I don't, at this point, I think 00:51:13.460 --> 00:51:17.840 I'm beyond the point in the graph where the curve 00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:23.639 gives me, where ECCIE will give me the benefit 00:51:23.639 --> 00:51:29.940 I need. A CCIE has been compared to half a PhD. 00:51:31.039 --> 00:51:34.099 As far as the amount of time you need to do it 00:51:34.099 --> 00:51:40.159 and how difficult it is. So if you have two CCIEs 00:51:40.159 --> 00:51:42.679 in two different areas, it's like having a PhD. 00:51:44.280 --> 00:51:47.420 As far as how difficult it is to get and how 00:51:47.420 --> 00:51:51.760 valuable it is as an asset. If you do achieve 00:51:51.760 --> 00:51:55.739 it, it's definitely something that's a major 00:51:55.739 --> 00:52:00.219 milestone in your career. If this was 10 years 00:52:00.219 --> 00:52:03.739 ago, I would probably go for it. For me, at this 00:52:03.739 --> 00:52:06.059 point in time, it's not worth the amount of time 00:52:06.059 --> 00:52:10.360 I'll need to invest in order to get it for the 00:52:10.360 --> 00:52:15.039 benefits that it will give me. Yeah. So the question 00:52:15.039 --> 00:52:19.619 is, then, when should you get your CCIE? Should 00:52:19.619 --> 00:52:22.320 you get your CCIE if you're working in networking 00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:27.050 related stuff? Of course, right? Would it make 00:52:27.050 --> 00:52:29.829 sense, I don't know, to get it once you have 00:52:29.829 --> 00:52:33.050 a little bit of experience in networking? Or 00:52:33.050 --> 00:52:35.070 let's say that I'm just starting. I don't work 00:52:35.070 --> 00:52:38.190 in networking. Should I go for my CCIE first 00:52:38.190 --> 00:52:45.190 or should I work in the industry first? If you're 00:52:45.190 --> 00:52:47.989 right at the beginning, I think the most important 00:52:47.989 --> 00:52:52.269 thing is starting to gain experience. So if you 00:52:52.269 --> 00:52:56.940 have a university degree or... some credentials 00:52:56.940 --> 00:53:00.400 that will get your foot in the door at a job, 00:53:00.539 --> 00:53:05.719 go for that. Start gaining experience. Start 00:53:05.719 --> 00:53:08.079 being able to say, I have one year experience 00:53:08.079 --> 00:53:11.099 at such and such a job in your resume, two years, 00:53:11.219 --> 00:53:14.159 three years. Start building that up. And at the 00:53:14.159 --> 00:53:17.800 same time, start with low -level certifications 00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:20.519 like CCNA so that you get a feel for what it's 00:53:20.519 --> 00:53:26.769 like to write those exams. And do it in an area 00:53:26.769 --> 00:53:29.130 that you're interested in. Start off with your 00:53:29.130 --> 00:53:31.949 basic CCNA and then see if you can diversify 00:53:31.949 --> 00:53:39.530 that. Go for various other certifications at 00:53:39.530 --> 00:53:43.469 that level. And then move on to CCNP and then 00:53:43.469 --> 00:53:46.070 CCIE. I would not recommend going directly to 00:53:46.070 --> 00:53:48.969 CCIE, even if you have a lot of experience from 00:53:48.969 --> 00:53:56.440 your job. The content that you need to learn 00:53:56.440 --> 00:54:01.260 for CCIE is very broad. So you would never cover 00:54:01.260 --> 00:54:04.599 all of that in any type of job because the job 00:54:04.599 --> 00:54:06.860 you have is usually very focused on something 00:54:06.860 --> 00:54:09.239 very specific. If you're a network engineer, 00:54:09.420 --> 00:54:12.860 you might be dealing with MPLS on an ISP. You 00:54:12.860 --> 00:54:15.659 might know MPLS very, very well and answer all 00:54:15.659 --> 00:54:19.280 the questions on MPLS and do well in your CCIE. 00:54:20.250 --> 00:54:22.269 There's so much more involved that you need to 00:54:22.269 --> 00:54:26.389 learn. So don't depend just on your experience. 00:54:26.550 --> 00:54:29.070 You should start off with your CCNA and then 00:54:29.070 --> 00:54:32.130 CCNP and then go on to your CCIE. I think that's 00:54:32.130 --> 00:54:37.110 the best, the path that will give you the highest 00:54:37.110 --> 00:54:40.090 degree of success because when you do go for 00:54:40.090 --> 00:54:45.610 your CCIE, you do pay several thousand dollars. 00:54:46.289 --> 00:54:51.349 And if you don't pass, you have to, you have 00:54:51.349 --> 00:54:55.090 to fork out that money again at a later date 00:54:55.090 --> 00:54:58.929 to do it again. And there's a very high percentage 00:54:58.929 --> 00:55:03.929 of failures in CCIE, which is good on the one 00:55:03.929 --> 00:55:05.670 hand because you know that it is a difficult 00:55:05.670 --> 00:55:12.190 and it's a valuable piece of paper. So your advice 00:55:12.190 --> 00:55:15.110 is do not skip CCNP because there's people that 00:55:15.110 --> 00:55:20.539 want to go from CCNA directly to CCIE. So it's 00:55:20.539 --> 00:55:25.280 recommended to go through CCNP. That would be 00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:28.179 my recommendation. That's not to say that someone 00:55:28.179 --> 00:55:30.380 can't do it. I know people who have done it. 00:55:31.659 --> 00:55:37.039 But I think the safest, or maybe not the safest, 00:55:37.079 --> 00:55:41.860 but the path that will give you the most success, 00:55:41.920 --> 00:55:45.480 I think, is going through CCNP and then CCIE. 00:55:45.880 --> 00:55:50.329 Okay. Okay. What are your thoughts on these other 00:55:50.329 --> 00:55:53.070 certifications that are more general? CompTIA, 00:55:53.070 --> 00:55:56.349 there's like a general certification. CompTIA, 00:55:56.349 --> 00:55:59.809 it's not like vendor related, but overall networking 00:55:59.809 --> 00:56:03.349 concepts. Would you recommend that certification? 00:56:04.750 --> 00:56:08.190 I would recommend that as well. I would consider 00:56:08.190 --> 00:56:16.219 it to be on par with CCNA. It is vendor neutral, 00:56:16.340 --> 00:56:20.579 but it is comprehensive. In the past, I have 00:56:20.579 --> 00:56:24.739 worked with a company in the UK that was preparing 00:56:24.739 --> 00:56:28.719 content for people that were wanting to take 00:56:28.719 --> 00:56:32.940 that certification. So I've had quite a bit of 00:56:32.940 --> 00:56:35.780 experience about the content that it covers. 00:56:35.980 --> 00:56:39.519 So it's very, very closely related to CCNA. I 00:56:39.519 --> 00:56:45.449 think it's... virtually at the same level. So 00:56:45.449 --> 00:56:50.090 if you're considering being more vendor neutral 00:56:50.090 --> 00:56:54.349 in your approach or in the company you're working 00:56:54.349 --> 00:56:58.329 for, you're not focusing only on Cisco, it is 00:56:58.329 --> 00:57:03.030 of some benefit to go for the CompTIA rather 00:57:03.030 --> 00:57:05.849 than Cisco. But like I mentioned before, Cisco 00:57:05.849 --> 00:57:09.710 is... has a high degree of vendor neutrality, 00:57:09.909 --> 00:57:12.610 meaning that what you learn can also be applied 00:57:12.610 --> 00:57:15.530 elsewhere and not just on Cisco equipment. Okay. 00:57:15.710 --> 00:57:21.210 What are your thoughts on virtualization software, 00:57:21.570 --> 00:57:24.210 however it's called, emulation software? I don't 00:57:24.210 --> 00:57:27.949 know. DNS3, EvenG, Packet Tracer. What do you 00:57:27.949 --> 00:57:31.090 recommend? Yes. Network simulators, network emulators. 00:57:33.320 --> 00:57:36.820 They're extremely useful. They're a very good 00:57:36.820 --> 00:57:41.699 way of learning for certifications, even creating 00:57:41.699 --> 00:57:45.219 like a testbed for a topology you might want 00:57:45.219 --> 00:57:49.579 to create in a production network just to see 00:57:49.579 --> 00:57:54.380 how it behaves or just to use it as a learning 00:57:54.380 --> 00:57:59.159 tool. Now, Packet Tracer is very CCNA oriented. 00:58:00.010 --> 00:58:02.309 It's not an emulator. It's a simulator, which 00:58:02.309 --> 00:58:08.530 means it tries to simulate the behavior of network 00:58:08.530 --> 00:58:12.210 devices, which means it only has a subset of 00:58:12.210 --> 00:58:16.110 the capabilities of devices. So it's not actually 00:58:16.110 --> 00:58:19.409 running the Cisco IOS software. It's running 00:58:19.409 --> 00:58:22.969 a software package that acts like the Cisco IOS 00:58:22.969 --> 00:58:28.750 software. So it's very limited for anything beyond 00:58:28.750 --> 00:58:32.820 CCNA. So if you're just getting started, Packet 00:58:32.820 --> 00:58:35.800 Tracer is fine. It's free. It's a good way of 00:58:35.800 --> 00:58:41.760 getting accustomed to Cisco CLI and Cisco devices. 00:58:43.860 --> 00:58:53.420 GNS3 and EVENG are two open source emulators 00:58:53.420 --> 00:58:59.500 that you can run on your computer. a steeper 00:58:59.500 --> 00:59:03.960 learning curve, but they too are very useful. 00:59:04.179 --> 00:59:06.719 They are actually emulators, which means that 00:59:06.719 --> 00:59:11.519 they actually run the iOS software itself. The 00:59:11.519 --> 00:59:13.420 problem with that, though, is that Cisco does 00:59:13.420 --> 00:59:16.179 not give its iOS software for free. So you have 00:59:16.179 --> 00:59:19.440 to find someone who has some contract with Cisco 00:59:19.440 --> 00:59:28.079 to give you, in quotes, give you the... The iOS 00:59:28.079 --> 00:59:32.360 image, the images. Cisco turns a blind eye, you 00:59:32.360 --> 00:59:35.239 know, strictly speaking, it's not legal to have 00:59:35.239 --> 00:59:37.219 them unless you have a contract. But in general, 00:59:37.320 --> 00:59:42.440 because it's a benefit to Cisco, Cisco will turn 00:59:42.440 --> 00:59:46.219 a blind eye to such things. There are other solutions 00:59:46.219 --> 00:59:50.480 like Cisco CML, specifically for Cisco devices, 00:59:50.639 --> 00:59:59.039 which... is Cisco certified, and because it's 00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:03.960 a paid option, they support it very well, and 01:00:03.960 --> 01:00:10.019 it's less buggy, and you can be more sure that 01:00:10.019 --> 01:00:13.840 things will work as expected. But by no means 01:00:13.840 --> 01:00:19.480 does that mean that GNS3 or AVNG are not useful. 01:00:19.559 --> 01:00:21.639 They are extremely useful, and if you can get 01:00:21.639 --> 01:00:27.539 over that learning curve, They're good tools 01:00:27.539 --> 01:00:30.099 to have. Out of the two, which one do you prefer? 01:00:30.460 --> 01:00:37.019 GNS3 or EVNG? I would say GNS3. I have more experience 01:00:37.019 --> 01:00:40.900 with it, but I believe that EVNG is a little 01:00:40.900 --> 01:00:46.159 more user -friendly in its deployment and setting 01:00:46.159 --> 01:00:52.699 it up, especially. GNS3 is a bit... Maybe it's 01:00:52.699 --> 01:00:58.179 a little more mature. This is my personal experience, 01:00:58.380 --> 01:01:01.119 my personal opinion. Someone might disagree, 01:01:01.260 --> 01:01:04.880 but that's fine. Personally, I prefer GNS3 simply 01:01:04.880 --> 01:01:06.780 because I have more experience with it, and I 01:01:06.780 --> 01:01:11.239 started out using it before EVNG was available. 01:01:11.769 --> 01:01:15.050 And by no means are we saying to anyone that 01:01:15.050 --> 01:01:17.610 they should get those images in an illegal way. 01:01:17.750 --> 01:01:21.210 No, they should receive them through legal channels. 01:01:23.429 --> 01:01:30.170 Yes. Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Okay. And what's 01:01:30.170 --> 01:01:33.369 your favorite vendor, your favorite network equipment? 01:01:33.489 --> 01:01:39.150 Is it Cisco or what is it? I would have to say 01:01:39.150 --> 01:01:44.190 Cisco. Not to say that it's necessarily better 01:01:44.190 --> 01:01:47.510 than others, but it's just that I started off 01:01:47.510 --> 01:01:52.409 with it. And it's difficult to move away from 01:01:52.409 --> 01:01:59.230 your first favorite. Not to say that I haven't 01:01:59.230 --> 01:02:02.289 used other vendors. And one vendor that I'm quite 01:02:02.289 --> 01:02:06.530 impressed with is Ubiquity. I've used them quite 01:02:06.530 --> 01:02:11.250 a bit for point -to -point links. uh and for 01:02:11.250 --> 01:02:16.309 wi -fi networks as well and i had set up a point 01:02:16.309 --> 01:02:18.030 -to -point link that was about five kilometers 01:02:18.030 --> 01:02:22.869 uh distance uh in a mountainous area here in 01:02:22.869 --> 01:02:27.570 crete and it was running for over eight years 01:02:27.570 --> 01:02:31.780 without me touching it Uh, it was there. I, I, 01:02:31.800 --> 01:02:34.440 I got a call, you know, eight years later from 01:02:34.440 --> 01:02:37.179 the person, uh, saying, Hey, my, my, for some 01:02:37.179 --> 01:02:39.420 reason, the network is down what's going on, 01:02:39.420 --> 01:02:42.139 but it was eight years later. So it was, it was, 01:02:42.159 --> 01:02:46.860 um, they, and it's, it's, you know, that's, that's 01:02:46.860 --> 01:02:49.460 a long time. And for equipment that that's, it's, 01:02:49.460 --> 01:02:53.440 it's relatively cheap as well. Hmm. Okay. Okay. 01:02:54.360 --> 01:02:58.750 Um, Going back to GNS3, I just wanted to show, 01:02:58.869 --> 01:03:01.030 I was going through my notes from a long time 01:03:01.030 --> 01:03:06.469 ago, and I did a lot of labbing back in time. 01:03:06.750 --> 01:03:09.710 This is a small lab that I created. I needed 01:03:09.710 --> 01:03:14.769 to do multicast, right, from site to site. So 01:03:14.769 --> 01:03:19.849 I did it using a GRE tunnel. So I had a lot of 01:03:19.849 --> 01:03:23.429 fun, actually. Now that I remember, man, I spent... 01:03:24.079 --> 01:03:27.420 Hours, days doing these labs. This is just something 01:03:27.420 --> 01:03:32.119 basic. But doing this is what got me to know 01:03:32.119 --> 01:03:35.239 Docker. I think these are Docker images that 01:03:35.239 --> 01:03:40.360 I could run in GNS3. So this got me thinking 01:03:40.360 --> 01:03:43.480 about Docker, infrastructure, all of those things. 01:03:44.079 --> 01:03:46.099 And if you don't know the basics, like you said, 01:03:46.159 --> 01:03:48.380 you cannot build stuff like this. You cannot 01:03:48.380 --> 01:03:51.679 understand how the Internet, how networks work, 01:03:51.920 --> 01:03:55.280 how protocols work. So, right. I don't know. 01:03:55.800 --> 01:03:58.800 This is like a video game, right? Doing these 01:03:58.800 --> 01:04:02.039 type of things. I think it's it's pretty fun. 01:04:02.679 --> 01:04:06.380 You learn a lot. You know, there's no way you 01:04:06.380 --> 01:04:12.800 can do this. You know. I don't have. the resources, 01:04:12.980 --> 01:04:15.599 the equipment to do this in the real life, right? 01:04:15.699 --> 01:04:20.099 So it's a pretty good way to get started if you 01:04:20.099 --> 01:04:23.780 want to practice. Definitely. And if you want 01:04:23.780 --> 01:04:28.920 to get good in networking, you know, you should 01:04:28.920 --> 01:04:32.260 spend about 60 to 70 % of your time just labbing 01:04:32.260 --> 01:04:35.559 things up. Lab them again and again and again 01:04:35.559 --> 01:04:42.559 without actually labbing. You can't learn. Labbing 01:04:42.559 --> 01:04:46.159 is among the best ways to learn networking. I 01:04:46.159 --> 01:04:49.940 have another here. Look at this, man. Wow, that's 01:04:49.940 --> 01:04:53.659 nice. It doesn't make too much sense. It's not 01:04:53.659 --> 01:04:56.760 something like real world, but I remember I added 01:04:56.760 --> 01:05:00.539 some Juniper devices here, OSPF, different areas, 01:05:00.719 --> 01:05:03.920 EIGRP. I used to do redistribution between routing 01:05:03.920 --> 01:05:06.820 protocols. This is the internet, different sites. 01:05:07.159 --> 01:05:10.400 This is the... The two different sites that need 01:05:10.400 --> 01:05:13.940 to send multicast traffic between them. I even 01:05:13.940 --> 01:05:17.599 did. Yeah. Any connect from this computer. Oh, 01:05:17.599 --> 01:05:20.340 wow. Remote access tunnel. Any connect to this 01:05:20.340 --> 01:05:25.320 ASA. So. Yeah. Yeah. I did spend way too long 01:05:25.320 --> 01:05:28.920 doing all of that stuff, but I really enjoyed 01:05:28.920 --> 01:05:33.239 it. So it looks like GNS3 is your favorite emulator. 01:05:33.460 --> 01:05:39.099 Yeah. Yep. Because I try to do this in. AVNG 01:05:39.099 --> 01:05:41.480 or AVNG, I don't know how it's pronounced, but 01:05:41.480 --> 01:05:44.659 I couldn't deploy Docker images. Like this is 01:05:44.659 --> 01:05:48.159 a Docker image here. This Ubuntu computer is 01:05:48.159 --> 01:05:51.000 a Docker image. These are Docker. So I couldn't 01:05:51.000 --> 01:05:56.519 do that unless I paid for EVNG. And I could do 01:05:56.519 --> 01:06:00.739 that freely on GNS3. So that's why I decided 01:06:00.739 --> 01:06:06.440 to go with it. And VLANs, man, it's like a video 01:06:06.440 --> 01:06:10.320 game. So I really enjoyed doing that back in 01:06:10.320 --> 01:06:15.760 time. It's really only network engineers or anyone 01:06:15.760 --> 01:06:19.940 who understands networking in this way that finds 01:06:19.940 --> 01:06:24.219 enjoyment in this. I talk about it with my wife 01:06:24.219 --> 01:06:28.460 and she can't understand why I'm so passionate 01:06:28.460 --> 01:06:32.389 about these. little, you know, black screen with 01:06:32.389 --> 01:06:35.710 white letters coming up on the CLI and not understanding 01:06:35.710 --> 01:06:37.989 anything. She says, how can you be passionate 01:06:37.989 --> 01:06:41.090 about that? How does it work? It takes a certain 01:06:41.090 --> 01:06:44.989 type of person, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People 01:06:44.989 --> 01:06:46.789 that are into technology and all that stuff. 01:06:46.949 --> 01:06:50.130 Same thing with my wife. I, man, I talked to 01:06:50.130 --> 01:06:53.889 her about GNS3 a lot in the past. Every new technology 01:06:53.889 --> 01:06:56.989 that I learned. she is the one that has to listen 01:06:56.989 --> 01:07:02.010 to to that stuff you know so it was dns3 cisco 01:07:02.010 --> 01:07:06.409 was juniper linux man all of the different topics 01:07:06.409 --> 01:07:10.550 i talked to him i talk about them with her she 01:07:10.550 --> 01:07:13.429 doesn't get it she just listens but i don't know 01:07:13.429 --> 01:07:16.190 i think it's kind of annoying for them you know 01:07:16.190 --> 01:07:18.409 to be listening listening to all that stuff but 01:07:18.409 --> 01:07:21.469 it's nice that she listens yeah that's uh that's 01:07:21.469 --> 01:07:25.489 important yeah good good and What are your thoughts 01:07:25.489 --> 01:07:35.050 on MicroTik, the MicroTik routers? I think there 01:07:35.050 --> 01:07:40.289 are big positives with MicroTik, but also some 01:07:40.289 --> 01:07:43.590 negative aspects as well. The positive things 01:07:43.590 --> 01:07:49.110 are that they're generally quite financially... 01:07:50.510 --> 01:07:55.050 Cheap, yes. They're cheap. They have a lot of 01:07:55.050 --> 01:08:00.429 options concerning functionality. They're very 01:08:00.429 --> 01:08:05.170 customizable. There's a lot of options on how 01:08:05.170 --> 01:08:10.929 to configure them. Their configuration is somewhat 01:08:10.929 --> 01:08:14.769 unintuitive, I would have to say. Again, this 01:08:14.769 --> 01:08:21.399 is my personal opinion. I believe that it's unintuitive. 01:08:21.399 --> 01:08:25.140 It's somewhat difficult to configure them, to 01:08:25.140 --> 01:08:28.159 make them behave the way you expect them to. 01:08:28.739 --> 01:08:32.880 There are some strange little quirks in how you 01:08:32.880 --> 01:08:37.819 have to configure them. And in general, I find 01:08:37.819 --> 01:08:40.979 that they don't have the same level of reliability. 01:08:42.130 --> 01:08:45.470 as other vendors, which makes sense. I mean, 01:08:45.510 --> 01:08:48.989 they're cheaper. If you need something to work 01:08:48.989 --> 01:08:52.090 quickly and you want to set it up, buy it, fix 01:08:52.090 --> 01:08:56.729 it, make it, put it in and make it work. But 01:08:56.729 --> 01:08:59.329 like I said, they're very configurable, so you 01:08:59.329 --> 01:09:03.609 can do a lot of things with them. But I think 01:09:03.609 --> 01:09:07.970 that the major concern is reliability. So if 01:09:07.970 --> 01:09:11.649 you have a mission -critical network, where you 01:09:11.649 --> 01:09:14.850 need high reliability and you need to make sure 01:09:14.850 --> 01:09:18.409 everything's working 24 -7, don't use MicroTik. 01:09:18.449 --> 01:09:23.069 But if you have a small office or a service you 01:09:23.069 --> 01:09:26.810 want to deploy quickly and well and flexibly, 01:09:26.909 --> 01:09:30.949 by all means, by all means. Makes sense. Yep. 01:09:31.109 --> 01:09:33.829 I think it's a matter of what you actually need. 01:09:35.630 --> 01:09:38.050 Okay. So they are good. They're excellent for 01:09:38.050 --> 01:09:41.750 specific purposes. Okay. Like for the house. 01:09:42.010 --> 01:09:45.770 In my house, I have two ISPs, right? Because 01:09:45.770 --> 01:09:49.310 I worked from home. Well, I work from home. So 01:09:49.310 --> 01:09:52.069 I need something stable. I need internet all 01:09:52.069 --> 01:09:54.250 the time. Or I needed internet all the time. 01:09:54.390 --> 01:09:56.770 So it was like, okay, what am I going to do? 01:09:56.829 --> 01:09:59.010 What am I going to use? Cisco, I cannot afford 01:09:59.010 --> 01:10:01.470 a Cisco router. And it's going to be a huge thing 01:10:01.470 --> 01:10:03.449 making noise there in the living room. My wife 01:10:03.449 --> 01:10:06.090 is going to hate it. You know, I could probably 01:10:06.090 --> 01:10:09.109 get like a Meraki device, but they're expensive. 01:10:09.390 --> 01:10:13.630 And I did get some OpenSense routers in a virtual 01:10:13.630 --> 01:10:18.609 machine. They worked with the two ISPs well, 01:10:18.750 --> 01:10:22.289 but they had some small issues because I used 01:10:22.289 --> 01:10:25.670 to run them as virtual machines. So I was like, 01:10:25.829 --> 01:10:29.109 what should I go with? It's just a house. So 01:10:29.109 --> 01:10:32.399 I heard about MicroTik. I purchased the MicroTik 01:10:32.399 --> 01:10:34.640 router, I don't know, like $100 or something. 01:10:35.340 --> 01:10:39.020 And I have it configured with the two ISPs. It's 01:10:39.020 --> 01:10:41.039 not simple because you need to do scripting, 01:10:41.039 --> 01:10:43.539 right? So you need to program the router itself 01:10:43.539 --> 01:10:46.520 so that when it detects that one of the links 01:10:46.520 --> 01:10:49.560 is down, switch to the other one and vice versa, 01:10:49.720 --> 01:10:53.000 right? So it sends me messages. If one of the 01:10:53.000 --> 01:10:55.420 ISPs is down, of course, the other one has to 01:10:55.420 --> 01:10:59.840 be up. It's going to send me a message to Telegram. 01:11:00.270 --> 01:11:02.289 letting me know that one of the ISPs is down. 01:11:02.409 --> 01:11:05.829 But it's not simple to set up. I completely agree 01:11:05.829 --> 01:11:09.409 there because you need to do everything via scripts 01:11:09.409 --> 01:11:13.510 and it gets involved, really involved and kind 01:11:13.510 --> 01:11:16.529 of complicated. You're not doing a lot of networking 01:11:16.529 --> 01:11:19.590 anymore. You're doing more like programming, 01:11:19.909 --> 01:11:23.489 we would say. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Have you had, 01:11:23.590 --> 01:11:28.510 I don't know, experiences with Microtech in big 01:11:28.510 --> 01:11:31.680 businesses? Are there any drawbacks, things that 01:11:31.680 --> 01:11:34.479 are not compatible with Cisco equipment? Like, 01:11:34.560 --> 01:11:38.140 have you managed them in BGP or just small networks? 01:11:39.659 --> 01:11:42.739 I don't have any experience with MicroTik in 01:11:42.739 --> 01:11:48.159 large networks. I've mostly used them for quick 01:11:48.159 --> 01:11:54.100 fixes. For example, I wanted to set up, I wanted 01:11:54.100 --> 01:11:58.449 to connect a, I wanted a BGP, sorry. I wanted 01:11:58.449 --> 01:12:03.510 a DHCP server. So I put in a little MicroTik 01:12:03.510 --> 01:12:08.609 switch that was running a DHCP server and off 01:12:08.609 --> 01:12:14.229 you go. I never used MicroTik for anything, like 01:12:14.229 --> 01:12:19.289 I said before, mission critical. So I don't have 01:12:19.289 --> 01:12:22.069 any direct experience with compatibility issues 01:12:22.069 --> 01:12:27.060 with other vendors. Okay. Okay. What are your 01:12:27.060 --> 01:12:30.619 thoughts on network monitoring? And I'm just 01:12:30.619 --> 01:12:33.420 bringing this up because I used to be a monitoring 01:12:33.420 --> 01:12:35.779 engineer, so I have a lot of experience with 01:12:35.779 --> 01:12:38.779 monitoring stuff. So what are your thoughts there, 01:12:38.859 --> 01:12:41.159 your advice? Should people monitor their networks 01:12:41.159 --> 01:12:45.000 and how would you advise them to do it? Well, 01:12:45.180 --> 01:12:49.300 definitely monitoring is important. I think it's 01:12:49.300 --> 01:12:52.060 most important for the network administrator 01:12:52.060 --> 01:12:56.479 because it makes your life easier. So for the 01:12:56.479 --> 01:12:59.579 municipality, for example, that I support here, 01:12:59.739 --> 01:13:03.420 we've set up a network monitoring system that 01:13:03.420 --> 01:13:07.500 just, very simple, just checks the uptime, just 01:13:07.500 --> 01:13:11.800 checks the connectivity of all of the network 01:13:11.800 --> 01:13:15.399 devices. We have about 80, 85 switches in the 01:13:15.399 --> 01:13:22.210 whole network, a couple of routers. It makes 01:13:22.210 --> 01:13:26.550 our job easier because we can proactively be 01:13:26.550 --> 01:13:30.289 informed of outages. We have it set up with Telegram 01:13:30.289 --> 01:13:33.149 as well. It sends us a message saying that such 01:13:33.149 --> 01:13:35.789 and this device went down. It's been down this 01:13:35.789 --> 01:13:39.109 long or when it's rebooted or whatever. So we 01:13:39.109 --> 01:13:42.010 know beforehand what's happening. So if someone 01:13:42.010 --> 01:13:45.109 calls and says, hey, why is this building, you 01:13:45.109 --> 01:13:47.210 know, we've lost connectivity. Yes, we already 01:13:47.210 --> 01:13:49.189 know we're working on it and it's going to be 01:13:49.189 --> 01:13:54.909 resolved very shortly. Um, it, it makes, uh, 01:13:55.310 --> 01:13:57.210 it makes the life of the network engineer much 01:13:57.210 --> 01:14:02.250 easier. And, uh, it also provides a level of, 01:14:02.329 --> 01:14:09.770 um, uh, professionalism, uh, to your clients 01:14:09.770 --> 01:14:12.270 because when they call up and you say, oh, really, 01:14:12.409 --> 01:14:14.670 it went down. What happened? You know, you, you 01:14:14.670 --> 01:14:16.310 look like you, you don't know what's happening, 01:14:16.329 --> 01:14:19.359 but if you say. If you're already on top of it, 01:14:19.439 --> 01:14:23.600 you can, you know, and, you know, you're, we're 01:14:23.600 --> 01:14:27.180 working on it and it's almost fixed. Or you resolve 01:14:27.180 --> 01:14:29.619 it before anyone notices, which is even better. 01:14:29.949 --> 01:14:31.470 And you can let them know. And then you can send 01:14:31.470 --> 01:14:34.270 the report afterwards saying that there was, 01:14:34.289 --> 01:14:38.010 you know, down times for a minute and a half 01:14:38.010 --> 01:14:39.550 at this place and this place, this place, whatever. 01:14:39.770 --> 01:14:42.609 And they say, oh, wow, you've responded in that 01:14:42.609 --> 01:14:46.489 way. That's wonderful. So I think the major benefit, 01:14:46.529 --> 01:14:49.090 other than the fact that, you know, you make 01:14:49.090 --> 01:14:52.630 sure that you maximize uptime, which is the most 01:14:52.630 --> 01:14:56.090 important thing. It's also good for the network 01:14:56.090 --> 01:14:58.989 engineer because they are able to do their job. 01:14:59.390 --> 01:15:04.569 and it simplifies your job. What tools do you 01:15:04.569 --> 01:15:08.710 use for monitoring stuff? One of my employees 01:15:08.710 --> 01:15:14.310 has set it up. It's Libra NMS, which just follows 01:15:14.310 --> 01:15:19.109 the network. Now, what they've asked for recently 01:15:19.109 --> 01:15:24.390 from the municipality is they want to check the 01:15:24.390 --> 01:15:29.779 quality. of the network at each location. There 01:15:29.779 --> 01:15:32.140 are 12 big buildings that are interconnected 01:15:32.140 --> 01:15:37.640 with the municipal area network, the fiber optic 01:15:37.640 --> 01:15:40.600 network, and there are over 40 smaller buildings 01:15:40.600 --> 01:15:43.340 that are connected. So it's one thing to see 01:15:43.340 --> 01:15:45.500 uptime. I mean, just the pings show you that 01:15:45.500 --> 01:15:48.399 the device is up. But if you want to check the 01:15:48.399 --> 01:15:52.199 quality, you need something like an IPSLA. So 01:15:52.199 --> 01:15:54.260 right now we're in the process of creating an 01:15:54.260 --> 01:15:59.420 IPSLA in various Cisco devices at various locations. 01:15:59.699 --> 01:16:02.399 And that IPSLA is going to be sending information 01:16:02.399 --> 01:16:06.039 to the server. And we're going to actually, there's 01:16:06.039 --> 01:16:07.800 going to be a developer who's going to put together 01:16:07.800 --> 01:16:11.340 a small script that's going to be able to show 01:16:11.340 --> 01:16:14.539 a list of all the locations and then give a... 01:16:15.289 --> 01:16:18.529 a percentage with a color that shows the quality 01:16:18.529 --> 01:16:22.350 of the link. So, you know, 97 % green or 100 01:16:22.350 --> 01:16:25.590 % green. And then if it's under 90%, it'll go 01:16:25.590 --> 01:16:30.670 to yellow. So that with one look at the dashboard, 01:16:31.010 --> 01:16:36.390 and this is catered towards non -technical people, 01:16:36.609 --> 01:16:39.170 they'll be able to go in and see what is the 01:16:39.170 --> 01:16:42.600 quality of the links. at each location and then 01:16:42.600 --> 01:16:44.479 you can actually click on that location and then 01:16:44.479 --> 01:16:47.520 it'll give you the quality of the links that 01:16:47.520 --> 01:16:50.920 connect to other sites within the municipality 01:16:50.920 --> 01:16:54.460 sites that are government sites that are used 01:16:54.460 --> 01:16:56.720 by the mean is the people in the municipality 01:16:56.720 --> 01:17:00.819 or general internet connectivity so that's something 01:17:00.819 --> 01:17:03.899 that we're developing right now and on the one 01:17:03.899 --> 01:17:06.300 hand it's good because you again you get an idea 01:17:06.300 --> 01:17:08.140 of what the network looks like on the other hand 01:17:08.140 --> 01:17:14.270 it's also a way to show your give them an opportunity 01:17:14.270 --> 01:17:17.550 to be able to participate in the monitoring of 01:17:17.550 --> 01:17:20.810 the network. Oh, interesting. Okay. Thanks for 01:17:20.810 --> 01:17:25.130 sharing all that knowledge. I'm sure that your 01:17:25.130 --> 01:17:27.710 experience with monitoring is deeper than mine, 01:17:27.789 --> 01:17:32.770 but that's maybe something that I guess we're 01:17:32.770 --> 01:17:36.850 working on currently and I wanted to share. Okay. 01:17:37.340 --> 01:17:40.760 Okay, yeah. People do things different way everywhere, 01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:46.300 right? So you're using the routers, basically. 01:17:46.500 --> 01:17:48.420 They're going to be the ones sending the information. 01:17:48.420 --> 01:17:51.119 It's not going to be a server inside sending 01:17:51.119 --> 01:17:53.720 the information, right? So you're using the routers 01:17:53.720 --> 01:17:57.170 already. That's right. That's right. And I think 01:17:57.170 --> 01:18:00.090 that has also to do with the philosophy that 01:18:00.090 --> 01:18:02.470 we were talking about before. Are you willing 01:18:02.470 --> 01:18:05.409 to spend the money to develop something that's 01:18:05.409 --> 01:18:13.989 more detailed? Do you want to run JSON or other 01:18:13.989 --> 01:18:16.810 scripting languages within the devices themselves 01:18:16.810 --> 01:18:19.130 to send more detailed information? Do you want 01:18:19.130 --> 01:18:24.250 to put a detailed SNMP agent in each device? 01:18:24.760 --> 01:18:28.859 At this point in time, financially, they're not 01:18:28.859 --> 01:18:31.119 offering something that will be able to do that. 01:18:31.180 --> 01:18:35.859 So this is kind of a low cost solution. So you 01:18:35.859 --> 01:18:37.140 have to adjust. It gives them what they want. 01:18:37.300 --> 01:18:39.300 Yeah, exactly. You have to adjust, okay. And 01:18:39.300 --> 01:18:42.640 what would you recommend? Someone in my case, 01:18:42.779 --> 01:18:46.739 like for example, right? If you want to connect 01:18:46.739 --> 01:18:49.939 a small business, what do you use in small businesses 01:18:49.939 --> 01:18:53.359 or houses, right? I'm using Microtech here. Is 01:18:53.359 --> 01:18:56.699 there any other vendor you would recommend besides 01:18:56.699 --> 01:19:00.619 Microtech? Because you don't need a huge router 01:19:00.619 --> 01:19:04.800 in a house or a small business. What vendor would 01:19:04.800 --> 01:19:06.479 you recommend in that case? Let's say that they 01:19:06.479 --> 01:19:10.359 want double ISP and just failover between the 01:19:10.359 --> 01:19:17.500 two ISPs. What do you usually do? I have also 01:19:17.500 --> 01:19:24.460 used, on some occasions, TP -Link. which is another 01:19:24.460 --> 01:19:30.039 low -end vendor, but they have devices that have 01:19:30.039 --> 01:19:34.600 a lot of capabilities. I think they're on par 01:19:34.600 --> 01:19:39.000 with MicroTik probably as far as reliability 01:19:39.000 --> 01:19:42.640 goes, but they're more intuitive in their configuration. 01:19:45.579 --> 01:19:50.720 Probably not as flexible as MicroTik, but I've... 01:19:51.159 --> 01:19:54.699 In homes where it's, you know, nothing mission 01:19:54.699 --> 01:20:00.359 critical, it's a good solution that I've used. 01:20:01.159 --> 01:20:04.140 Okay, wonderful. For load balancing as well, 01:20:04.140 --> 01:20:06.800 and even, you know, very fundamental firewall 01:20:06.800 --> 01:20:14.920 or fundamental security or VPN implementation. 01:20:15.579 --> 01:20:19.840 Okay, great. All right, so I'm going to be... 01:20:20.929 --> 01:20:24.369 uploading this as a podcast as well. So I don't 01:20:24.369 --> 01:20:26.590 know when, because I still have a few other chapters 01:20:26.590 --> 01:20:29.109 that I need to upload. So you will be able to 01:20:29.109 --> 01:20:32.569 listen to this as a podcast, I don't know, a 01:20:32.569 --> 01:20:35.789 couple of weeks from now in all the major platforms, 01:20:36.050 --> 01:20:40.890 Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and all 01:20:40.890 --> 01:20:45.050 the other ones. So are there any final thoughts, 01:20:45.270 --> 01:20:47.949 anything you want to share before we wrap it 01:20:47.949 --> 01:20:58.220 up? I think ultimately what's most important 01:20:58.220 --> 01:21:03.760 is to make sure that you do what you love. I 01:21:03.760 --> 01:21:07.640 will never forget something that an older cousin 01:21:07.640 --> 01:21:11.380 of mine said. I was 12 years old. He said, make 01:21:11.380 --> 01:21:14.079 sure that what you choose to do with your life, 01:21:14.279 --> 01:21:18.479 make sure that you love it. Because you're going 01:21:18.479 --> 01:21:22.220 to be spending more time doing that than you 01:21:22.220 --> 01:21:26.020 are with your wife. You know, at 12 years old, 01:21:26.039 --> 01:21:29.300 that really impressed me. And it stayed with 01:21:29.300 --> 01:21:34.939 me, you know, 30, you know, almost 40 years later. 01:21:36.979 --> 01:21:39.880 And that's so important. Love what you do. For 01:21:39.880 --> 01:21:43.899 me, my job is my hobby and my hobby is my job. 01:21:44.039 --> 01:21:46.859 You know, Monday morning comes and I'm happy 01:21:46.859 --> 01:21:51.640 to go to the office. Not always. OK, I'm not. 01:21:51.960 --> 01:21:56.340 I'm not, you know, that crazy. But I like it. 01:21:56.380 --> 01:21:59.859 I enjoy it. And for me, that's a huge blessing. 01:22:00.079 --> 01:22:05.680 It's a huge blessing to love what I do. And I 01:22:05.680 --> 01:22:11.619 think that if I would wish anything on someone 01:22:11.619 --> 01:22:16.039 I love, like my child, my children, the thing 01:22:16.039 --> 01:22:18.239 that I would wish for them most is that they 01:22:18.239 --> 01:22:23.619 will love what they do. It gives not only job 01:22:23.619 --> 01:22:26.279 satisfaction, but I think life satisfaction. 01:22:26.920 --> 01:22:29.539 Because it's a huge part of your life, what you 01:22:29.539 --> 01:22:35.479 do. And if you don't like it, it's tormenting. 01:22:35.479 --> 01:22:38.220 Maybe it's not there. Yeah, maybe you're not 01:22:38.220 --> 01:22:40.479 in the right place, right? Yeah, maybe you're 01:22:40.479 --> 01:22:42.439 not in the right place. And if that's the case, 01:22:42.619 --> 01:22:47.260 don't be afraid of making the decision to change. 01:22:49.060 --> 01:22:51.840 regardless of what area you're in. We're talking 01:22:51.840 --> 01:22:53.699 about telecom and networking, but you might be 01:22:53.699 --> 01:22:55.859 in something else. Don't be afraid to change 01:22:55.859 --> 01:22:59.520 if you're not content, if you're not satisfied, 01:22:59.640 --> 01:23:01.520 if you're not happy with what you're doing, because 01:23:01.520 --> 01:23:03.880 your happiness is worth it. It's worth it to 01:23:03.880 --> 01:23:07.640 make the change. Okay. Wonderful words. I'm just 01:23:07.640 --> 01:23:10.000 going to show your YouTube channel real quick. 01:23:10.680 --> 01:23:14.960 So I'm going to leave this in the video description. 01:23:15.500 --> 01:23:17.560 A link to your YouTube channel. You have all 01:23:17.560 --> 01:23:19.640 of your links listed here, right? Let me just 01:23:19.640 --> 01:23:24.239 switch to this real quick. Where's my... There 01:23:24.239 --> 01:23:27.619 we go. So you have links here to your website. 01:23:27.979 --> 01:23:31.439 Let's see. Yeah, this is your website. Yeah. 01:23:32.300 --> 01:23:36.699 Twitter, Instagram. So where should people go 01:23:36.699 --> 01:23:39.460 then? YouTube and your website. Those are the 01:23:39.460 --> 01:23:42.699 main ones. The YouTube and the website, yes. 01:23:43.079 --> 01:23:47.020 Okay. Also, from what you told me, you'll put 01:23:47.020 --> 01:23:51.899 in the description a link to the roadmap as well, 01:23:51.920 --> 01:23:54.500 the career roadmap, so people can download that 01:23:54.500 --> 01:23:59.859 for free as well. Okay, wonderful. So it's been 01:23:59.859 --> 01:24:02.840 an honor, Lazarus, you know, all of these years 01:24:02.840 --> 01:24:06.119 of experience were shared with a lot of people. 01:24:06.180 --> 01:24:08.800 I don't know how many people which will watch 01:24:08.800 --> 01:24:11.000 the video, you know, maybe at least one. I'm 01:24:11.000 --> 01:24:14.100 going to watch it, you know, but... I really 01:24:14.100 --> 01:24:16.560 thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing 01:24:16.560 --> 01:24:20.140 all of this with us and hope to see you in the 01:24:20.140 --> 01:24:23.819 next video. OK, and I appreciate very much the 01:24:23.819 --> 01:24:27.520 opportunity you give me to to chat about these 01:24:27.520 --> 01:24:31.079 things. It's it's a pleasure and an honor for 01:24:31.079 --> 01:24:33.739 me as well. I really appreciate it. All right. 01:24:33.739 --> 01:24:36.180 Let's see. Bye bye.