#network-security
33 episodes
#4849: VPN on Public Wi-Fi: What's Actually Protected?
Your VPN isn't doing what you think. Here's what's actually at risk on airport Wi-Fi in 2026.
#4751: AI Agents vs Anti-Bot Systems
Why AI agents get blocked by anti-bot systems and what actually works to get through.
#4750: Reverse-Engineering Hidden Web APIs
How to find undocumented APIs in your browser's network tab and hand them to AI agents.
#4736: Running Networks Where Failure Means Lives Lost
How military sysadmins run air-gapped networks where mistakes cost lives, not just money.
#4698: What a Business Fibre SLA Actually Guarantees
DIA circuits promise 99.9% uptime, but the fine print tells a different story. Here's what you're really buying.
#4697: Why Your Speed Test Lies About Your Internet
The speed test number hides bufferbloat, jitter, and loss. Here's what actually tells you if your connection is good.
#4638: Traffic Shaping: How Routers Decide Who Gets Bandwidth
Token buckets, bufferbloat, and why your router's QoS settings might be lying to you.
#4635: Your Phone Is a Firewall Blind Spot — Here's Why
Android ships with no user-facing firewall, and cellular isn't the safe LAN you think. We dig into what's exposed and what actually protects you.
#4632: What Your Speed Test Is Really Measuring
Speed tests measure a journey, not a pipe. Here's how ISPs game results and what in-flight Starlink benchmarks reveal.
#4582: Designing a Home MCP Gateway for Conversational AI
How to securely connect ChatGPT to a home-hosted MCP gateway — transport, auth, and the missing pieces.
#4542: Going Fully SIP: Why It's Not Ready (Yet)
A deep dive into the three structural reasons you can't ditch your carrier for Twilio and SIP—yet.
#4541: What Would We Build If Cellular Started From Zero?
Exploring whether GSM's legacy parts—IMEI, SIM, circuit switching—are still needed in an all-IP world.
#4425: DNS Blocking That Doesn't Break Everything
How to block ads and trackers at the network level without breaking your spouse's banking app or your kid's game.
#3901: Traceroute Beyond the Basics: Path Diagnostics
Discover what traceroute actually reveals about network paths, firewalls, and multi-WAN failover.
#3892: Unlocking Hidden Android Cellular Diagnostics
Fix slow Android data by using hidden settings like dialer codes, APN configs, and band selection—no root required.
#3804: Stateful Firewalls vs. Modern Threats
Is a basic firewall still enough in 2026? We break down what each security layer actually catches—and misses.
#2831: What VPNs Still Protect After HTTPS
HTTPS encrypts your content but leaves your metadata exposed. Here's what a VPN still protects.
#2815: Free Cloudflare WAF: Is It Enough for Self-Hosting?
Skip Cloudflare Access and lock down Home Assistant with just the free WAF rules. Here's how.
#2587: Where to Draw the Line on DNS Blocking
DNS-level ad and tracker blocking compared — where each tool shines, where they fall short, and the real tradeoffs.
#2297: How to Scrape Geo-Restricted Israeli Sites with MCP Tools
Learn how to bypass advanced bot-protection on Israeli websites using MCP tools, residential IPs, and tunneling techniques.
#2292: Inside the Walled Garden: China's Parallel Internet
Explore China’s parallel internet ecosystem—how the Great Firewall works, the apps that dominate it, and the surprising innovations it fosters.
#2104: The Envelope Problem: Why Your VPN Isn't Enough
A VPN isn't magic. Learn how DNS and SNI leaks expose your browsing, and what encrypted DNS and ECH actually do to fix it.
#1908: The Web's New Bouncer: When to Block AI Bots
AI bots are crawling the web like a bank heist. Are Cloudflare's new controls protecting your content, or just helping Google?
#1876: Signal Bars Are a Lie: How to Read Your Real Connection
Those signal bars are a lie. Learn the real numbers—RSRP, RSRQ, SINR—that tell you if your connection is actually good.