What a decade this year turned out to be.
When I started at Auvik in February of this year, I was told by my director, “we never miss a Tuesday.” Which in reality meant, “We publish a new article every Tuesday, of every week, at 9 a.m., come hell or high water.” And it’s true. I’m proud to say despite the wild ride that was this first year with Auvik, we never missed a deadline.
But that’s not all. The content team also worked to add new posts for new sections of our website, and quietly toiled behind the scenes to refresh a number of older articles that, while still super useful, needed some updates for the new decade.
In total, we published a finger-aching 73 articles this year, with topics about networking 101, navigating your IT career, and even how to play DOOM in our own application (because who wouldn’t want to do that?!). We busted our collective humps, pushed a lot of traditional content boundaries, and had a lot of fun doing it.
And so, as annual tradition dictates, let’s run down the top 10 most popular blogs, based on your web traffic, that we published in 2021.
[But really, they’re all #1 in my heart.]
10. What are the Types of Network Devices?
Think of this as the ultimate cheat sheet for newbies. Network device types, and their functions, can get confusing—especially when some can serve multiple ends. Our Director of Product Strategy has split up all those network devices into 11 categories, and defined each. | Read it
9. Network Throughput vs Bandwidth and How to Measure It
People confuse these two terms all. the. time. So, we thought it’d be useful to clear up any misconceptions, and do our readers one better: show you our tips for how to properly measure throughput to keep your network in top shape. | Read it
8. 5 Steps to Configure Cisco AnyConnect VPN
When it looked like the work-from-home shift of 2020 really wasn’t going away, we saw a big jump in searches for info on VPNs, firewalls, and other tools admins needed to keep their workforce (and networks) safe. Here we got specific, with some helpful steps to configure Cisco VPN through your firewall. | Read it
7. How to Draw Network Diagrams
It’s almost a lost art, but don’t let it be lost on you. Drawing an effective network diagram is a vital skill to have in your toolkit. Learn how to quickly put together a map of Layers 1 – 3 that’s clear and easy for anyone on your team to understand. | Read it
6. How to Find IP Addresses on a Network (and Monitor their Usage)
75 billion IP addresses, and it’s up to IT teams to keep track of them all. While it’s certainly challenging, it’s not an impossible task. It starts with being able to find IP addresses on the network effectively.| Read it
5. Network Design and Best Practices
One of the most important steps in any IT professionals’ life is being involved, or leading, the design of a new network system. Here, we’ve laid out key steps in planning, designing, and implementing you need to know to start any project off the right way. | Read it
4. Classful and Classless Addressing Explained
For all the network history buffs, this one’s for you. Check out the rather cool story of classless addressing, and how network engineering solved an issue that was about to end the internet as we know it, for good. | Read it
3. 11 Types of Networks: Understanding the Differences
LANs, PANs, WANs, and… MANs? You don’t need to memorize the common network types you’re liable to run into when you keep this quick guide bookmarked. 11 different networks, and some question to ask yourself before deciding which is right for you. | Read it
2. What is an ARP Table? Address Resolution 101
This article has one of my favorite analogies in it: Think of ARP as the glue that binds Layer 2 and Layer 3 together. The ARP table is the map that shows you where those two points are glued. It’s a simple idea, but a complex process to the uninitiated, that we thought could use a little refresher. | Read it
1. Layer 2 vs Layer 3 Network Switches: What’s the Difference?
Network switches. It’s one of those devices we all know about, but do we really know everything we should? Like are there really such things as Layer 2 and Layer 3 switches, or is it just a clever trick with the OSI model? That’s what we tried to find out. | Read it
Any articles this year stand out to you that aren’t on this list? There’s a lot to choose from. Let us know in the comments if anything we put out this year resonated with you. We read all the comments that come in, and your good words really do make it worthwhile.
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