Header picture

The header picture that you see at the top of my blog is one of my first Visio diagrams that I made.

I made this network diagram for my CCNA Capstone class where I had to 'fix' the merger between 2 computer infrastructures.

My instructor at my local college signed us up for the Microsoft academy and that allowed us to use certain MS software for free (for a year.)

MS Visio was one of the programs that one could get for free and even though it wasn't necessary for my CCNA class, I did it anyway. Visio is one of the diagramming programs that real-life network engineers use to draw network diagrams. So I killed 2 flies with one swing by learning how to draw network diagrams Visio and enhance my class experience at the same time, which in turns better prepares me for the real world.

Why I created this particular style of network diagramming
When I first started out my CCNA capstone class, I really didn't know what real-world network diagrams looked like. I googled some pictures up and even though most of them looked very functional, practical and gets the job done right, I kinda felt it was a bit boring.

ratemynetworkdiagram.com was one of the main sites I looked at for inspiration and how most people draw their network diagrams. Most of them are with a white background, with 'rectangular lines' that connected the various devices. There were a few that were totally over the top, and include a 3d, isometric view of their network setup.

As a beginner to Visio, the 3d/isometric network diagrams were out of my scope and the bland, simple diagrams were boring. So, one day I was watching Tron Legacy again and thought hey, lets make a network diagram inspired by the theme of Tron Legacy and see if that looks cool. So, I learned some more features of Visio while creating this awesome network diagram for my CCNA Capstone course. The picture you see above has been edited to from dark blue to the lighter blue you see now because the darker blue was too dark for a header in my opinion. This lighter blue does give it more of a 'blueprint'-style feel to it.

There's a good reason why real-world network diagrams look so, style-wise, so simple and bland.
1) Why invest so much more time to create a different looking network diagram when that time could have been used more more productively?
2) If you were to print out these network diagrams with a colored background, it would cost a ton more than one with a white background.

Bottom line: I created this particular network diagram to learn create Network diagrams with Visio for my class and I achieved that.