Lifetime ipSpace.net Subscription
More than thirteen years after I started creating vendor-neutral webinars, it’s time for another change1: the ipSpace.net subscriptions became perpetual. If you have an active ipSpace.net subscription, it will stay valid indefinitely2 (and I’ll stop nagging you with renewal notices).
Wow, Free Lunch?
Sadly, that’s not the case.
I will gradually stop creating new webinars, and making the subscriptions perpetual was the only fair way to ensure the subscribers get what they paid for. The webinars I promised for autumn 2023 will definitely happen, but later than expected, and I might keep extending the networking fundamentals materials. Beyond that, the crystal ball is hazy.
What Will Happen With
- Online courses: You can no longer buy them (nor the Expert Subscription), but I will keep supporting you if you bought them in the past.
- ipSpace.net blog: I will keep ranting and writing about exciting tools and technologies (what else did you expect?), but probably with a reduced frequency.
- netlab software: no change. That’s one of the beauties of free and open-source software – keep sending the PRs, and the software will keep evolving. On a more serious note, I’ll keep adding features and fixing bugs, and I have a few projects in mind relying on it, so it’s not going anywhere.
But I Would Love to Get Access to Your Materials
No worries. You can still buy the Standard subscription until December 31st, 20233. At that time, I’ll set the expiration date of your subscription to January 1st, 21004. If both of us are still around after the modified expiration date, email me, and I’ll extend it further.
Hey, What’s Going On?
Glad you asked (or at least got this far). I’m going through creative burnout, and making new stuff (even as simple as turning email replies into blog posts) is becoming harder and harder. Slowing down and hoping for an eventual recharge of the creative batteries is the only way forward I could find.
More Questions and Answers
I explained the changes I was making to ipSpace.net subscribers a few days ago5 and got a few questions you might also be interested in:
Am I right in assuming I’ll have access to the material “forever” then?
Yes, for a very small value of “forever” compared to the expected time of the heat death of the universe ;) However, downloading the interesting stuff might not be a bad idea – Cloudflare promised that wouldn’t cost me a dime.
Also, how will it work for those just subscribing after the news? Will it be like a one-time payment?
Exactly.
Do you plan on having options to download the material?
It was always possible to download everything. There’s even a download button in the UI (the down-pointing arrow next to the video/file name)
If I want to upgrade my subscription to the expert one and to be able to watch webinars that are exclusively included in the expert subscription, would I still be able to do it with new changes?
No. The expert subscription disappeared today, but I will gradually make some of those materials available as part of the standard subscription.
It sounds like you are ready to retire. Is this the case?
Probably not. I tried it out once, and you see how well that turned out – I got bored and started blogging. I do have to disconnect and recharge, though.
What comes next for you?
No clear idea yet. However, I had an interesting chat about Kubernetes and eBPF a few days ago, so who knows…
What is the OSS you are working on?
https://netlab.tools/ and https://bgplabs.net/ with plans for other similar labs in the not-too-distant future.
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And another life ↩︎
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In reality, until AWS shuts down my servers due to an expired credit card. Don’t expect that to happen anytime soon, though. ↩︎
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Don’t wait till the last minute – I’ll turn off the purchasing process sometime during the day as I plan to be busy with more exciting things that evening. ↩︎
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It’s easier doing it that way than changing the back-end software. Call me lazy if you wish ;) ↩︎
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You wouldn’t want to learn about changes in a service you bought via a blog post, would you? ↩︎
Hello Ivan. Thank you for your contribution over the years. It's unfortunate that I get to know about you when you have ended the the subscription services for yout online courses. I would have benefited alot. But Goodluck with your knew endeavors Cheers
All I would like to say Ivan is " Thank You very much " for your materials and efforts over the years. You took a very different approach for educating people as compared to becoming just another popular vendor training house.
I am sure many engineers will always have this in their mind including myself that You played a crucial role in their career success as Network Engineer.
Hi,
Is there anyway we can access self paced online courses.
What's the future looks like for these courses or is it lost in time.
Regards, Tanveer ahamed
> Is there anyway we can access self paced online courses.
If you bought one of them before September 1st you still have full access. You can't buy them anymore though.
> What's the future looks like for these courses or is it lost in time.
Some of the materials might be made part of standard subscription. No detailed plans/timelines yet.
Hope this helps, Ivan
I look forward to reduced thoughts from refreshed Ivan!
When I'm burnt out on networking, I pivot to transportation -- bikes, buses, pedestrians, intersection design, traffic signals, lane widths, etc. There are lots of interesting parallels to digital networking but a much more satisfying connection to humanity.
If you are looking for networking topics to geek out on, I think the trend of adding metadata to ethernet frames is pretty cool. Inband Network Telemetry uses it. So do techniques for path selection and guaranteeing in-order delivery for AI/ML workloads (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV491nrm0fs). I suspect the ultra ethernet consortium (UEC) is all over metadata standards.
Hi Ivan, I missed your announcement about the last day of buying a subscription, and now it is too late to repurchase it. Is there any chance for me to subscribe again since I don’t want to miss out on this excellent opportunity to get a bunch of fantastic content from you indefinitely? It would be much appreciated.
@Adis: Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do. The payment infrastructure has been shut down for good (see also https://blog.ipspace.net/2024/01/goodbye-ipspace-subscription.html).
Well, I had to give it a try :) I want to thank you for all the knowledge you shared with us and wish you all the best in the future.
Sretno Ivane!
thank you for all this work and for sharing this knowledge with us as simply as possible. take care , all the best!
Any way to get access to your training? Please! This is exactly what I was looking for If not, is anyone willing to sell me their account access?