FreeBSD call for testing: PREFSRC route attribute support <https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-net/2026-July/009137.html>

this lets you set the preferred source IP address for outgoing packets via a particular route, overriding the default source selection logic.

it's particularly useful for IPv4-over-IPv6 routing; previously, BSD required assigning an IPv4 /32 to every interface for this to work properly; now, you can simply set the IPv4 loopback address as the preferred source.

it's also useful in situation where the router has multiple IPv6 addresses and you want to select which is used, similar to the "net.inet.icmp.reply_src=lo0" sysctl for IPv4 (but it affects all outgoing connections, not just ICMP errors).

it's also useful for IPv4 when you want to control this per-route rather than globally, especially if you're routing in multiple FIBs.

basically, it's really useful for a lot of situations and i'd love to see it land, so please help test it.

it is compatible with the Linux netlink API and works out of the box with BIRD (krt_prefsrc attribute).

the main patch is this one: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D58294 - either use the 'download raw diff' link, or use 'git arc patch D58294' to apply it to a tree.

you can send feedback directly to Pouria, or just reply to me and i'll forward it.

#freebsd #ipv6 #networking

Interesting technical article about the Telstra failure. I learnt a thing or two about NTP too; like majority vs consensus. I wonder how many networks are only designed for NTP redundancy, not resilience against a falseticker? Probably most.

https://community.cisco.com/t5/network-management/failure-of-national-telco-telstra-stratum/td-p/5564772

#networking #ntp

Nick Buraglio opened his CHI-NOG 13 talk with “one of my jobs is taking IPv4 out of the network.” ESnet has run IPv6-only in production since 2018, and Google's adoption graph crosses 50% on weekends now, when everyone's home on residential broadband. My writeup of the talk that finally made the v6 pitch land: https://routerjockey.com/buraglio-ipv6-why-you-should-care-chi-nog-13/ #IPv6 #networking

OpenBSD relayd(8) adds ECDSA support with CA engine code from smtpd(8) https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20260721124747 #openbsd #relayd #ecdsa #cryptography #security #https #loadbalancing #webserver #networking #develppment #freesoftware #libresoftware

Dear #network teachers, students and #hacker friends, I have a #browser based network simulator to enable learning #networking. Please have a look and tell me what do you think. Made for desktop or bigger screens.

https://howcomputer.works/netsim/ Everything is in the browser, and there is documentation.

The goal is to allow kids to start learning while their schools/systems are not big enough to be able to build lab networks. It has a small/minimal #curl implementation too. @bagder

Alt...

A simple network setup.

What's the cheapest 2.5G (or 10G) switch with ≥16 ports?

Needed features:
* The basics 10, 100, 1000M
* 2.5G
* non-blocking
* ideally 10G or ≥10G SFP+ port
* ideally Jumbo-Frames
* Edit: ideally PoE
* unmanaged (managed works as well, but I don't need those features as long as it doesn't break things like VLANs and just passes them through unfiltered)

I'm currently interested in seeing what the lowest price point without compromising on these features is.

#fediask #networking #noc

are you tired of unnecessarily low bandwidth and high latency in your #wireguard network and know a more optimal route exists, but you are not able to configure it, because it is not static and could change at any time?

i've built something to solve this problem and finished it today: https://codeberg.org/provokateurin/WireGuard-Mesh

this fixes my home network bottleneck of 100mbits up/50mbits down dsl by deutsche telekom, because they canceled our old contract, but were not able to provide us with fiber yet. instead of a meager 50mbits connection to my home server, which is literally meters away from my desktop, it allows me to use the full 1gbits connection while staying within wireguard, even though both devices use dhcp. same story for my laptop, which is sometimes on my home network and now able to utilize more bandwidth (not 1gbits, but still), but sometimes also on a different physical network somewhere outside (i know scary!).

this was my first larger #rust project (beyond a few hundred loc) and i also learned quite a bit about lower level #networking and #linux apis.

WPA3 support coming to OpenBSD https://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20260719093851 #openbsd #networking #wifi #wpa3 #wpa #wireless #development #freesoftware #libresoftware

Spent a lot of time today playing with OPNSense (err, fighting - a while back my whining about not getting along with networking was no joke).

Eventually got what I wanted to work to actually work: OPNsense as an exposed node inside a Bell Giga Hub network and routing/NAT'ing to a dmz host hanging off said exposed node. But omfg, I suck at this stuff. It's painful - be glad you can't watch me work. Ha.

Aaannyyyywwwaaaayyyyyy...

If you haven't already upgraded to the latest OPNSense (26.7), you may be surprised by some of the quality of life GUI clean up and more impressively the sped up boot time. On my N150 based box it boots 'super fast' like a normal PC compared to the old fashioned, slow thing it was doing before. No hard data to share, just a seat of the pants anecdote.

#OPNSense #RunBSD #networking #PF

I might be a nerd, but I'm fascinated by the thought of the journey my data takes inside my house.

The router is downstairs and is connected via a 10 Gbps fiber link to the upper floor, and to an access point whose cable goes directly upstairs (a relic of old telephone lines that I ripped out during the Covid lockdowns). It’s powered via PoE by the router itself.

Upstairs, on the other end of the fiber, there is a 2.5 Gbps switch. Connected to it are another access point in the same room, various devices, and a cable going into the attic, where the temperature is exceeding 40°C these days. Up there is a PoE switch installed in 2020. For years it was powered via PoE and in turn powered another access point; now I've put a power supply up there, and it distributes the network to other parts of the house, as well as to another access point (which it powers via PoE) in another corner of the medium floor.

In the garage, far away from everything, there's a device without Wi-Fi that I need to reach. Also back in 2020, I set up a MikroTik mAP lite acting as a station and router, allowing the device to be reached.

Right now, I can connect to the device downstairs: I'm on the access point that goes straight into the router, so down one floor, from there it goes up to the switch in the study, up one floor, which in turn goes up to the switch in the scorching hot attic, upper floor, from there it goes back down to the other access point on this floor, and the device in the garage gets its signal from there. Effectively, it's just a few meters from the router, same floor, but it travels through the entire house.

Yes, I'm a nerd, and I'm proud of it.

#IT #Networking #Cabling

A new article at the RIPE blog explains the current state of running IPv4 services over IPv6-only networks.

The three pieces are RFC 8950 (IPv6 next-hops for IPv4 prefixes), a draft about IPv6 next-hops for IPv4 routes, and a draft for solving the IPv4 gateway problem that systems running IPv4 services in these kind of networks typically have.

It’s cool to see this gateway thing in such an informed piece, I’ve been wondering about that bit for a while. You might have seen different service providers solving this in different ways, with a /32 on either a regular interface or a loopback, and a strange default route pointing to just an interface (with no destination IP), or a destination IP in a prefix that the given machine doesn’t know about.
Linux seems to support a couple of different ways to go about this (of course), and FreeBSD and OpenBSD each support a single, different solution AFAIK. I don’t believe illumos even has a way to solve this problem at the moment, but I might have that one wrong.

Anyway, do have a look at the article:
https://labs.ripe.net/author/remco-van-mook/a-farewell-to-arps-ipv4-service-on-ipv6-only-networks/

#IPv6 #IPv6mostly #fuckdualstack #networking

Wondering how and why? With @BoxyBSD@bsd.cafe and @BoxedTux@mastodon.social, I’m already running platforms that provide free VPS instances for educational purposes, learning and testing for years now. I guess, providing real AS and peering services (maybe even sponsoring LIR in cooperation [but this would cost money]) could also be very interesting for several ones, apart from the DN42 network. Happily looking for feedback…

#isp #network #networking #ipv6 #as #autonomoussystem #ipv4 #free #opensource #devops

How did I miss the release of network rack gacha series 4?!?! https://tarlin-capsule.jp/product/705

‼️ ALSO, they have a poll going until the 17th for which devices to put into series 5! https://www.ap-com.co.jp/tenohira5-vote/

Original thread: https://bitbang.social/@kalleboo/111368348844681030

#sysadmin #networking

Alt...

Promo for a gachapon machine called 手のひらネットワーク機器 with various tiny-sized network devices in a rack

RouterOS 7.23.2 release notes:

!) fixed a service security issue, home user with default config not affected, but we recommend the upgrade for all users regardless;

so... we fixed a security vulnerability, but we're not going to tell you what it is, so you have no idea how urgent this update is or how exposed you are or if you're even affected at all.

thanks, i guess?

(rumour has it this is a memory disclosure or potential RCE in pptp/l2tp/ppoe...)

#mikrotik #routeros #networking #security

I found the network rack gacha! Assumed it was so niche it would only be found in like Tokyo but there was one around my neck of the woods as well.

This is the cutest thing ever! Look at the little cables and cable management hoops, the PDU, all of it is so well-done!

#japan #gacha #networking #sysadmin #mb

Alt...

A gacha machine with an image of network rack toys on the front

Alt...

The un-constructed bits of plastic toy network gear all spread out

Alt...

The built network rack from the front, with two Cisco switches and a Furukawa Electric. Cables go between them.

Alt...

The rear with power cables going to a PDU through cable management hoops.

I still don't understand the advantage, for me as a user, of enabling IPv6. The privacy angle concerns me. IPv6 SLAAC addresses can embed your MAC address and make devices uniquely trackable across networks, and while privacy extensions exist they're inconsistently implemented across devices (especially IoT). It feels like a headache for marginal user benefit that only benefits those with extremely large data footprints (datacenters).

#IPv6 #Networking #Internet

Phew

Finally finished cataloging the network traffic, and building comprehensive firewalls

Each device gets placed in one or more address lists, and the firewall rules map access between devices. IPv4 ended up being a but busier for now, and assigning address lists via leases is fairly clean. The ipv6 side seems harder to manage in the same way..

The whole thing isn't as powerful as the cilium network rules within the cluster, but it is a good outer layer, and keeps the various IoT devices nicely isolated.

Next up is likely finishing the CI build pipelines, or whatever else I get immediately distracted by

#Networking #Homelab

Networking on Mac OS X is weird:

$ ifconfig | grep UP | wc -l
21

One loopback (lo0)
3 x anpi devices
9 x en devices
ap1 device
awdl0 device
llw0 device
4 x utun devices
and a bridge0!

WTF is going on here?

#crapple #Networking

Phenomenal explainer on nftables/iptables

https://jackma.com/2026/06/19/iptables-demystified/

#Networking

Conversation a few minutes ago between @TAV and I:

Me: You know what an IP address is.

TAV: They're weird.

Me: Waiting until you learn about IPV6:

TAV: No.

#Networking #IT

What am I doing wrong here? Just a very basic #FreeBSD pf NAT config, but the src address isn't being updated:

scrub in all
nat pass on tun0 from tun0:network to any -> (vtnet0)
pass all

#Networking

Ten months ago, I left this setup in place. The 4G modem is external, connected via USB. Performance is good enough, and it was supposed to stay like this for a month or two.

Then life happens, and it remained in that position for over ten months, completely unattended. Not a single minute of downtime, apart from a brief power outage a couple of months ago. The various devices connected over Wi-Fi, cameras, smart switches, and so on, did not experience even a single disconnection.

I’m tempted to turn this setup into a permanent one...

#MikroTik #Networking

Alt...

A MikroTik RouterBOARD router and mAP lite device connected with Ethernet and power cables, resting on top of a white plastic laundry basket indoors.

Während meiner Recherche nach Anbietern für BGP Tunnel (oder zumindest VPS mit BGP Access), die an der US-Ostküste und Sydney / Australien verfügbar sind...

... Und nur mit Ökostrom laufen, bin ich hart gescheitert. Das scheint es schlichtweg nicht zu geben. Nur in Europa. Aber das Thema "100 % Ökostrom" scheint im Rest der Welt einfach nicht relevant zu sein.

Außer bei Hetzner. Aber die haben keine BGP Tunnel und deren VPS können es auch nicht. Nur Colo. Und in Australien sind sie auch nicht - nur Singapur.

Uff.

Also wenn jemand einen Tipp hat - gerne her damit!

* USA / Australien
* Ökostrom
* BGP

#bgp #networking #peering #ipv6 #hosting

Anyone know if #OpenVPN3 config file syntax is 100% compatible with OpenVPN2? I'm having trouble locating documentation for the config file syntax.

#OpenVPN #Networking

@thomas
Congrats!

Waiting for the update from @new_ripe_asns

Ah https://social.bgp.tools/@new_ripe_asns/statuses/01KVT5TK21GY8NSE4KXEWCXFDH
#networking #bgp #as

💪 Got AS219366 as my first AS

#networking #bgp #as

Madness.

https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/06/13/aws-rolls-the-dice-for-faster-more-efficient-networking/5253248

#AWS #Networking

Alt...

RNG relies on a routing algorithm called Spraypoint to identify node paths and an optical device called a Shufflebox for mixing connections between routers. Rehder said the Shufflebox is one of the pieces of magic that makes RNG work. "In a random graph network you don't have that hierarchical structure where you can have all the cables neatly aligned," he explained. "So how do you do that? How do you basically make a random network feel more structured? Well, you have the Shufflebox and the idea is that you plug fiber in here and inside of this it will randomize or basically scramble the fiber. So the ports you plug in get scrambled around and come out on some random port around the other side." RNG is AWS's new network for its core database servers. Machine learning hardware uses the company's UltraServer network, because the machine learning workloads need full bandwidth.

✅️ Sent application for my first own AS to RIPE :)

Wish me luck! Hopefully they'll accept my application in a few days.

#as #asn #ripe #ipv6 #networking

For the record, here are the other impulsive, spontaneous, unhinged research questions I came up with in 10 minutes of rapid brainstorming, last Wednesday.

• How can decentralised, peer-to-peer, and encrypted communication protocols favour the development of autonomous and localised yet federated communities?
• What concrete communication technologies can already be adopted to prepare for a post-climate collapse world?
• How can practices of networking and collaboration benefit the re-population of rural areas?
• What role did the neoliberal progression of tech oligopolies play in the de-politicisation of technology?
• How can community-maintained infrastructure serve the needs of all the World’s population?

#researchQuestion #XPUB #XPUBthesis #thesis #socialCapital #networking #netwerking #Web #surfing #Internet #p2p

Research question prophecy

I am far from actually beginning my research for the thesis I will be writing at @xpub next year. Still, together with my class we are already exploring interests, ideas, and PMOMMs. A pattern should be emerging out of them, outlining our research focus.

Yesterday, as I was chatting with @barbs, I somehow came up with a research question that feels particularly close to me. I am publishing it here for posterity, because I am super curious about how this will evolve over time.

What is the relationship between in-person networking and Web surfing in accruing social capital?

I want to investigate how life crossovers relate with clicking links and surfing the Web. Then, how do the two contribute to growing a person’s (or a community’s) social capital, in the interpretation of the word specific to Bourdieu’s philosophy?

#researchQuestion #XPUB #XPUBthesis #thesis #socialCapital #networking #netwerking #Web #surfing #Internet

It's #NetMCR's (https://www.netmcr.uk/) 10th birthday this Thursday (11th) in #Manchester from 7pm!

There's 3(!) talks this time:

- Wren Wood, ‘Emergency Broadcast Connectivity’:

Ever wondered how you can see a correspondent live from the middle of nowhere, or embedded deep in a warzone? Wren will be pulling back the curtain on what goes into making live news. With a wide range of scenarios, and having to prepare for the absolute unknowns, they will discuss how you plan, deploy and execute reporting from all kinds of scenarios. Including connectivity from mobile networks to microwave links and satellite to dark fibre - all of the challenging environments there are.

- Michael Young, ‘The Apprenticeship Gap’:

We’re really excited to hear from Michael, who’s coming to us to speak about his employer’s apprenticeship scheme. His team’s intention was clear; to bring in new skills, and foster new ways of working that could help move the organisation forward. In practice, it wasn’t entirely straightforward to match new capabilities with how teams were already operating. We’ll hear the story of how Michael’s team identified the issues, talked about them openly, and started changing on both sides in order to meet in the middle.

- James Blessing, ‘Digital Infrastructure in the North’:

There are things being built in the north that we may well all be interested in. James will tell us all about the recent DINA26 meeting, and what we should be aware locally to that end. Slightly cryptic? You’ll just have to come and see for yourself!

Go and chat with some nice people, have some weird 🍻, and if you're hungry, 🍔 and 🍟!

#Networking #MeetUp

so, i want to do IPv4 routed access for end-users in a way that conserves IP addresses, since they're quite rare and valuable nowadays, but also doesn't require bridging.

will this work?

- each end-user connects to a layer 3 switch port. one device per port, no BYO switches

- static route a /32 to each client port on the switch, distribute these routes via IGP

- enable proxy arp on the client ports

- DHCP server assigns each client its static /32 based on the DHCP option 82 remote circuit id, but sends a prefix length of /27, or however large our actual network is; default router is the first usable address in the subnet

- all clients can reach each other and the default router via proxy arp + normal layer 3 routing. the actual default router is different based on which switch you're connected to, but clients don't know that.

- broadcast traffic won't work, but that's fine

i feel like this should work, but i also feel like i might be missing something. is there a better / more common way to do this?

(please don't say "just use bridging" or "just use NAT".)

#networking

At BSDCan 2026: Full day Network Management with the Packet Filter Toolset on OpenBSD and FreeBSD https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/timetable/timetable-Network-Management-with.html

To register: https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/registration.html

See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/pf_tutorial_upcoming_questions_welcome.html (https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/05/for-upcoming-pf-tutorials-we-welcome.html)
and https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html (https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-is-bsd-come-to-conference-to-find.html)
plus https://nostarch.com/book-of-pf-4e

#pf #packetfilter #bookofpf #networking @nostarch @bsdcan