Mikrotik CG-NAT using NETMAP and hardware offload NAT

I will preface this with that I always say: do not implement this without IPv6 unless you literally have no other choice. IPv6 will allow for a significant resource offload because most eyeball services (Netflix, Youtube, Google, Facebook, etc.) will prefer IPv6, thus removing your requirement for more IPv4 NAT state and overload / port utilization. Because I found no simple how-to for using NETMAP for CGN on a Mikrotik, here is one.

Segment Routing: The Movie

As some may know, I have been head down in the segment routing game for almost two full years. As such, it has enabled me to get down into the gritty details of how SR - specifically SR-MPLS, and to a lesser extent the alternatives SRv6 and SRm6 - actually work in practice. Given that this is a fairly new technology, and that it is more service provider focused, there are limited resources available outside of the vendor documentation and and what is there tends to get drown our with the hype around things like SD-WAN and and other more marketed technologies.

The contrasted differences of networking

Today more than ever, networking has fundamental similarities. The days of routing IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, Banyan Vines or provisioning ATM and Frame Relay links are moving into the past. Most networks are now based on ethernet*. Most run at least IPv4 as a routed protocol. They leverage similar connectivity techniques such as an interior gateway protocol, a layer2 mechanism such as VLANs or VPLS, and an identifiable border (e.g. an autonomous system).

Updates, podcasts, and videos

Anyone that looks at this site with any regularity may have noticed that I have been pretty remiss in adding posts - for that I apologize, things have been busy. However, I have not been absent in the tech world…quite the opposite, in fact. I’ve been spending more and more time on podcasts and other forms of tech media which I have not provided links for here. So, to help expose that, here are a few of the other media resources I’ve been popping up in.

Alternate model for Service Provider networks; or how to keep net neutrality intact

There has been a lot of buzz about the service provider model, net neutrality and tiered access for consumers in the past few years. Just this week Google has been accused of paying Orange (more likely Orange is forcing google) for handling its traffic. This is a VERY slippery slope that teeters on the edge of what we all want to avoid as consumers or content creators. This recent story has sparked something I’ve been thinking about for a very long time.