Introduction Netcat is a versatile networking utility that can be used for a wide range of tasks. It has often been referred to as the “network swiss-army knife”. Netcat was first released in the mid-90s, and I personally find it ironic to be blogging about it in 2023! But I feel like it is a somewhat cryptic tool, and new engineers or college graduates may not be familiar. This article is meant for those people who are not familiar with it, or have only briefly been exposed.

Switches are devices that support a large number of ports to connect devices to the network. Design: More towards a CCNP or CCDA topic, but designing a network when it comes to the switching side can be done in three building blocks. The access layer, the distribution layer, and the core layer. The access layer generally has a high port density, can support VLANs, QoS, and access lists. The distribution layer will aggregate multiple access layer switches.