Bits, Bytes, & Radio Waves

A quiet journey through discovery and understanding.

  • Assigning Switch Ports to VLANs

    Interfaces on Cisco switches can belong to two VLANs, one for data traffic and one for voice traffic. You set the interface to be an access port. This also turns off trunking and VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP). Configure The following command will configure an access port. An access port is intended for data traffic. Switch#configure…

  • Default Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)

    The default virtual local area network (VLAN) is 1 by default on any Cisco switch. It is a special VLAN in that it cannot be changed or deleted. It is a management VLAN that carries control protocols such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP), Port Aggregation Protocol (PagP), and Dynamic Trunking Protocol…

  • Link State Advertisements (LSA) Types

    Routers have to agree on certain parameters (such as timers and being on a common subnet) before they can become neighbors. After its neighbor routers are discovered, the router determines whether it should exchange routes with those neighbors. (If they decide to do so, they become adjacent.) If they are adjacent, they begin to exchange…

Notes from practice

I use this site to document systems, configurations, and lessons learned as I work through real problems—both professionally and through personal experimentation. The goal is clarity: understand how something works, explain why it behaves the way it does, and make it reliable and repeatable.

These notes are written primarily for myself, but shared openly in case they help someone else avoid a dead end or reduce frustration. If you’d like to learn more, visit the About page.

If you have questions or comments, you’re always welcome to contact me.

Aaron Rombaut

Technologist & Writer