About This Site

The Network Entropologist (n): part engineer, part diagnostician, part archaeologist of other people’s decisions. Reaches for the right tool, and builds it when it doesn’t exist yet. Found most naturally at 02:00 in a datacentre, Sharpie in hand, making sense of something that has quietly been unravelling for years.

This is a place to document the work, share the thinking, and occasionally just talk where you will find a mix of:

  • Project write-ups: network engineering, automation tooling, and the software built to make both a little less painful
  • Deep-dives & educational posts: sometimes a topic deserves a proper, structured treatment
  • Appreciation for old technology: sometimes they really do not build things the way they used to
  • The odd ramble: for when something interesting is rattling around that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else

No strict format, no fixed schedule; just an honest record of things being built, broken, and figured out.

If you’re a network engineer, an automation enthusiast, or just someone who enjoys getting into the technical weeds — you’ll probably feel at home here.

The Back Story

The IT bug bit early; somewhere around 1997, in a high school computer lab. What started as curiosity eventually turned into responsibility, and by the final year, there was a computer lab to look after. It was also around this time that software development entered the picture, starting with QBasic and Turbo Pascal, as so many of a certain generation did. That particular itch has never really gone away.

After school came certifications; the MCSE 2000 and a CNE (Certified Novell Engineer, for those too young to remember), followed by an early career that took some interesting detours. A stint as a payroll clerk doubling as the office IT person. A deeply rewarding role as workshop manager at a small company that refurbished disposed corporate IT equipment for distribution to underprivileged schools, a job that also quietly reignited the software development side of things, producing a couple of small in-house utilities along the way.

From there, the path moved into more corporate software development work building across a surprisingly diverse set of domains, from tool rental systems to mobile content provider networks, and even integrating with mobile network billing engines and enterprise-scale ERP platforms.

The 2008 financial crisis, as it did for many, brought an involuntary pause. That time was spent digging into embedded systems development, speficically building small widgets, learning a great deal, and keeping the hands busy while the industry found its feet again.

Finding Networking

In 2012, a position at a medium-sized MSP as an Infrastructure Project Delivery Engineer marked something of a turning point. Over the next seven-plus years, the scope of work was broad; broad enough to include writing the vast majority of the internal Fortinet/Fortigate firewall implementation manual. But more importantly, it was here that networking properly revealed itself, and with it, a natural aptitude that hadn’t been expected.

After 8.5 years across two MSPs, a redundancy in the Covid aftermath led, as these things sometimes do, to something better. The current role is Senior Network Engineer at a large multinational, responsible for the networking portfolio across the Sub-Saharan Africa region. It’s been a period of significant growth: a breadth of hands-on networking knowledge that’s hard to get anywhere else, several certifications including the Fortinet FCSS / NSE7, and a string of network design and implementation projects successfully delivered from the ground up.

Somewhere along the way, the old love for software development came back into focus too, particularly where it intersects with network automation. Several scripts and utilities have been built along the way, and a number of those will eventually find their way onto this site.

What You’ll Find Here

This site covers a fairly broad range of topics, including:

  • Networking — from beginner-friendly introductions to detailed technical deep-dives
  • Configuration & How-To guides — practical, hands-on, and written from real-world experience
  • Network automation & development — where code meets infrastructure
  • General technology — because not everything fits neatly into a category
  • The occasional ramble — no agenda, no apologies

Thanks for stopping by.