It’s time for our January Member Spotlight!   For this Member Spotlight, we are recognizing @rhbirkelund. Since joining in late 2017, he's written 444 posts, received 374 kudos, and authored 17 solutions. He consistently shares his expertise with others in the forums. Thank you for being a valued member of the Meraki Community, @rhbirkelund!   @rbnielsen with his family in the background What is the picture you chose and why? This picture was taken on a day where I simply needed to pull the plug on everything, after we had just eaten dinner. Let a messy house be a messy house, and head out to a nearby beach. It was getting towards the end of summer, with one of the last few days of somewhat nice weather. In the background is my wife, Michelle and two daughters Emily and Freya. We spent the evening enjoying the sun setting behind us, all the while Freya collecting seashells. Afterwards, we went to a nearby town, had an ice cream although it started to get a bit too cold, before we headed home again.   I think it's important to sometimes just pull the plug and focus on yourself and your family and cherish it. Sometimes you get lost in the corporate life, and you get a tendency to forget what's important around you.   Tell us a bit about your background. Background in Electrical Engineering, with a masters degree in telecommunications. Turned to Network Engineering, and haven't looked back so far. 😊   What keeps bringing you back to the community? The help and feedback you can get from the community is inspiring. 😊   What is your favorite IT-related movie or show?  I've always had a sweet spot for The Matrix. 😉   What would you rather do? Go skydiving! Scene you chose? Mountains Thanks, @rhbirkelund! Share your questions for him below in the comments, or simply say hello! Want to be featured in an upcoming Member Spotlight of your own? Fill out the form here. You can also nominate a fellow community member for the spotlight! ... View more

UPDATE: this contest has ended. Huge thank you to everyone for sharing your 2023 resolutions! Congratulations to our three randomly selected winners: @DanFletcher, @NetworkDemon, and @AndrejR!   It's time for our annual Resolutions contest! In last year’s Network Resolutions contest, the community resolved (among many things) to get CCNP certified, get more clients using Meraki, and pass the DevNet Associate exam! It’s wonderful to see such strong interest from this community in continuous learning.   This year, we’d love to hear how your 2022 resolutions went or what network resolutions you want to achieve in 2023! Maybe there’s a way the community can help you?   Three lucky winners will receive some fun Meraki swag!   How to enter Tell us your Network Resolutions in a comment on this blog post before 9:59am EST on Tuesday, January 17th.   How to win Once submissions close at 9:59am EST on January 17th, we select three entries at random to win a Cisco Meraki crewneck sweatshirt.     Good Luck!   The Fine Print Limit one entry per community member  Submission period: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 11am EST through Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 9:59am EST Complete rules and eligibility can be found here. ... View more

Check out December’s Members of the Month!   The Rising Star The Rising Star award recognizes our top new contributor. To achieve this award, you must fulfill BOTH of the below criteria:   Joined within the past 3 months Written the most posts in that time compared to your fellow new users   This month’s Rising Star award goes to @Adrian4. In just four weeks, @Adrian4 has amassed an impressive 21 posts across three boards by asking great questions in an effort to learn more about Meraki while working on their first API.     @Adrian4   Thanks for your posts @Adrian4 — we hope you'll continue to find value from participating in our community!   Everybody Wins This award allows us to highlight the actions of a member whose recent contributions created a win for everyone involved.   This month's award goes to @xaviervalette for taking the time to help out a few people with questions about Meraki certification in the Off the Stack board. Xavier was kind to share firsthand knowledge and experience with the wider community!   @xaviervalette   Thanks @xaviervalette  for taking the time to help your fellow Community members and do the right thing!   The Top Four Here, we congratulate our top four contributors of the month, based on the number of kudos they’ve received and accepted solutions they’ve authored. This month these amazing members provided the community with an impressive 35 solutions in all and received a total of 315 kudos for their efforts. Incredible!     @alemabrahao 107 kudos 14 solutions MOTM score: 135 @PhilipDAth 76 kudos 11 solutions MOTM score: 98 @Brash 68 kudos 8 solutions MOTM score: 84 @ww 59 kudos 6 solutions MOTM score: 71 (MOTM score = kudos received + 2*solutions authored)     Employee of the Month This award allows us to highlight the actions of a Meraki employee whose contributions have helped our members. (We're changing it up from last month's format going forward, so we can recognize more folks! 😉)   This month’s award goes to @KathleenJ. Kathleen has diligently been answering all of your questions in the New to Meraki board, including weighing in to provide more context or follow up on past threads.      @KathleenJ   Thank you for your continued helpfulness to Meraki Community members!   Congratulations to all of our ✨stellar contributors✨  and thanks to everyone who participated on the community in December!      If you come across a truly helpful thread, or a post that’s teeming with positivity and you’d like to nominate the author for the Everybody Wins award, you can submit your nomination here. ... View more

UPDATE: @JamesC_AB has found the missing gnomes! The Gnome of Switchmas Future brought them to a form where you can sign up to participate in future Mobile research studies. Now that our little gnome friends have been returned safely, they can hopefully stay put until next year… That's a wrap on this year's Gnome in the Home Challenge. Thanks to all who followed the gnomes' clues, and special congrats to our challenge winners!    Happy Holidays, and see you all in 2023!   Ah, at last – the final day of Switchmas is here. I barely got a wink of shuteye last night! Once again, I awoke in the night to a tolling of bells, but this time the scene was far from a jolly one. All was cold and dark, and a mist began to spill in from the doorway, filling the room.    A dark, hooded gnome appeared before me and stood silent.      “Are you… are you the Gnome of Switchmas Future?” I asked.    The gnome nodded, but said nothing. Then he reached a bony hand inside his cloak and withdrew the final clue. Handing it to me, he turned and walked off into the mist without a word.   I looked down at the scrap of paper in my hands and read:   For this next spot, you must search far and wide.  A form to sign up is what you’ll find inside. The post where you can join future studies, Is where you’ll find our little gnome buddies!   Can you help me figure out where the Gnome of Switchmas Future has taken MV and Switch?   If you find them, please comment BELOW with “I FOUND THE GNOMES!” and a link to the post where they are. The first to comment with the correct link will win a Meraki Osprey Ultralight Stuff Pack as thanks for your help.     Terms, conditions, & eligibility info for Gnome in the Home   P.S. To follow along with the Gnome in the Home challenge all week, simply subscribe to the Community Announcements board. You can subscribe by clicking the "⋮ Options" menu at the top. From this menu, you can select "Subscribe" for email notifications. ... View more

UPDATE: @Brash has found the missing gnomes!   The Gnome of Switchmas Present brought them to the most recent post in the Firmware Upgrades feed to see what’s current in Meraki. Now we wait to see where the final visitor brings our gnomes… Well, just as the Gnome of Switchmas Past had promised, it seems our friends encountered another spirit last night because they are missing again! I awoke in the middle of the night just in time to see them vanish from thin air as a bell rang out chiming the hour.   Suddenly, with a Pop! a jolly giant of a gnome appeared before me. His eyes sparkled with joy under a thick, bushy brow as he raised his head in a nod of greeting. He stood atop a bountiful spread of the most delicious Switchmas feast! A cornucopia of junk food spilled out from underfoot. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, and fries, great salted pretzels, and heaps of potato chips.      “I am the Gnome of Switchmas present,” he said in a deep, booming voice. “Come. Find the place where the gnomes are hiding.”   And with that, he and the feast disappeared, leaving only a clue in his wake.   There in the center of the room on a scrap of paper, it read:   Here is the place where we all can go,  To get upgrade news and stay in the know. In order to find the gnomes’ hiding place, Look for the latest post in this space.    Can you help me find where the Gnome of Switchmas Present has taken MV and Switch?   If you find them, please comment BELOW with “I FOUND THE GNOMES!” and a link to the post where they are. The first to comment with the correct link will win a Meraki Umbrella as thanks for your help.     Terms, conditions, & eligibility info for Gnome in the Home P.S. To follow along with the Gnome in the Home challenge all week, simply subscribe to the Community Announcements board. You can subscribe by clicking the "⋮ Options" menu at the top. From this menu, you can select "Subscribe" for email notifications. ... View more

Take your skills as an MR operator or seller to the next level with the MR Advanced Operations course. During this course, you will learn how to: Evaluate the connectivity health status and performance metrics of wireless clients  Resolve client connectivity and performance issues Evaluate the connectivity and performance health status of a wireless network deployment  Resolve the root cause of network connectivity and performance issues   You should have a solid understanding of networking concepts and want to be able to demonstrate, operate, and troubleshoot advanced MR features.   Once registered, you will have access to the following modules: Troubleshooting Wireless Client Connectivity (20 min) Troubleshooting Wireless Client Performance (20 min) Troubleshooting Wireless Network Connectivity (30 min) Evaluating Wireless Network Performance (25 min) Managing the RF Environment (30 min)   If you are an MR operator or seller, this course is for you! Visit the Meraki Learning Hub for more offerings. ... View more

UPDATE: @KRobert has found the missing gnomes! The Gnome of Switchmas Past brought them to this post of the Twelve Days of Switchmas song the Community wrote together! Now we wait to see what the next nightly visit brings for our gnomes… Our favorite time of year is here again. I fear the gnomes may have lost their Switchmas spirit though! I had to force them to join in decking the halls, nary a prank has been played, and their usual hoodwinks and hijinks have all but ceased! Now, it seems they have gone missing entirely.    It all started last night…   The gnomes were up late helping me pack up some old equipment to send off for repair when I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, I awoke to a loud tolling of bells. Clang! Clang! Clang! In the silence that followed, it soon became apparent that the gnomes had vanished without a trace! I began to search for them when suddenly a spirit appeared.      A glowing gnome dressed all in white stood before me and spoke.    “I am the Gnome of Switchmas Past.”   Aghast, I asked what business the gnome had here.   “I am the first of three spirits to haunt your gnomes. Each night, as the bell tolls one, a spirit will come to whisk them off to a place in the Community. Solve the clues in order to discover their location and bring them back! You just might discover the true meaning of Switchmas along the way.”   Then, with a soft flicker of light and a whoosh! as if from a candle being blown out, the gnome vanished.    All that remains is this clue on a scrap of paper:   Borrowing from a fave holiday song, We made up the words as we went along. With one line to start,  We wrote from the heart,  To share what we thought the Twelve Days should be.   Can you help me find where the Gnome of Switchmas Past has taken them?   If you find them, please comment BELOW with “I FOUND THE GNOMES!” and a link to the post where they are. The first to comment with the correct link will win a Meraki Cloud Pin Set as thanks for your help.     Terms, conditions, & eligibility info for Gnome in the Home   P.S. To follow along with the Gnome in the Home challenge all week, simply subscribe to the Community Announcements board. You can subscribe by clicking the "⋮ Options" menu at the top. From this menu, you can select "Subscribe" for email notifications. ... View more

The Switchmas season is nigh upon us, and that means the Gnome in the Home challenge is back! 🙌 In case you missed it, every year at this time the Meraki gnomes MV and Switch get up to "gnome" good.    They’re always slipping off to hide somewhere, and we’re sure that this year will be no different!    Sometimes they indulge in a little too much Switchmas spirit though! Lucky for us, they usually are kind enough to leave us clues to help find them.   If you want to play along this year and help us find the gnomes, you can!    Here’s how it works:    Each day, we will post a blog with a clue that indicates a post somewhere in the Community where the gnomes are hiding. You have to be the first one to comment with a link to the correct post to win!   Here is when the clues will be shared: 🔍 Clue 1: Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 11 am ET 🔍 Clue 2: Thursday, December 15, 2022 at 5 pm ET 🔍 Clue 3: Friday, December 16, 2022 at 11 pm ET   To follow along with the Gnome in the Home challenge all week, simply subscribe to the Community Announcements board. You can subscribe by clicking the "⋮ Options" menu at the top. From this menu, you can select "Subscribe" for email notifications. ... View more

  As the end of 2022 draws nearer, we are on the lookout for our next cohort of Meraki Community All-Stars!   A quick recap: the All-Stars program recognizes and rewards the most active and influential customers and partners in the Meraki Community. It's a year-long appointment that we reevaluate in December. If you miss out on January's roundup, we will also be scouting in June for additional outstanding members to join the program for the remaining six months of the year.   The All-Stars receive access to a variety of excellent perks: Shiny new All-Star badge All-Star icon to the right of your name, so your peers can see you got cred Exclusive access to All-Star community forum (there are couches in there!) Random acts of delight and other rewards (like this one)   The criteria for being selected is for All-Star status includes (but is not limited to) the following qualifications: You must be a Meraki customer or partner You must be a member of the Meraki Community All-Stars are selected based on their previous 6-month All-Star Score, which takes into account their frequency and helpfulness in community participation All members will need to re-qualify annually (re-qualification is only needed each December, not June) Meraki employees will also qualitatively assess a candidate’s contributions   Over the next month, we will be evaluating your contributions to determine the 2023 cohort of All-Stars. We’ll announce the new cohort in early January, so stay tuned! ... View more

Check out November's Members of the Month!   The Rising Star   The Rising Star award recognizes our top new contributor. To achieve this award, you must fulfill BOTH of the below criteria:   Joined within the past 3 months Written the most posts in that time compared to your fellow new users   This month’s Rising Star award goes to @Local_goat. Since joining the Community in late September, @Local_goat has amassed 16 posts across the Security and Wireless LAN forums by asking great, probing questions that help to get at a deeper understanding of Meraki!     @Local_goat   Thanks for your posts @Local_goat — we hope you'll continue to find value from participating in our community!   Everybody Wins   This award allows us to highlight the actions of a member whose recent contributions created a win for everyone involved.   This month's award goes to @C3SGInc for taking the time to add additional information to this solution thread on how to redeploy vMX100 in Azure.  C3SGInc ran into some issues while following the process first documented and shared by James-VetaTek. They took the time to troubleshoot and document their findings for the greater good of the wider community. Amazing! Special shoutout as well to @James-VetaTek for posting the original solution.     @C3SGInc   Thanks @C3SGInc  for taking the time to help your fellow Community members and do the right thing!   The Top Four   Here, we congratulate our top four contributors of the month, based on the number of kudos they’ve received and accepted solutions they’ve authored. This month these amazing members provided the community with an impressive 42 solutions in all and received a total of 458 kudos for their efforts. Incredible!     @alemabrahao 171 kudos 27 solutions MOTM score: 225 @PhilipDAth 122 kudos 9 solutions MOTM score: 140 @BlakeRichardson 84 kudos 4 solutions MOTM score: 92 @cmr 81 kudos 2 solutions MOTM score: 85 (MOTM score = kudos received + 2*solutions authored)     Employee of the Month   This month, we're introducing a new award that recognizes the contributions of the top Meraki employee from the past month based on the number of kudos they've received and accepted solutions they've authored.   This month’s award goes to @Ryan_Miles. Ryan has amassed an impressive 52 kudos and authored 6 solutions in the past month, for an EOTM score of 64.      @Ryan_Miles   Thank you for your continued helpfulness to Meraki Community members!   Congratulations to all of our ✨stellar contributors✨  and thanks to everyone who participated on the community in November!      If you come across a truly helpful thread, or a post that’s teeming with positivity and you’d like to nominate the author for the Everybody Wins award, you can submit your nomination here. ... View more

  UPDATE: This challenge has ended! You can see who the challenge winners are in the post here.    With ten days left to go, there’s still time for you to join us in the Folding@home challenge! You’ll not only help researchers to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, but you’ll also have a chance to win some sweet, sweet prizes. AND we’re thrilled to announce that everyone who participates will now receive one of these cool new badges to showcase your achievement.   You can check out who is leading the charge (and whom you have to beat 😉) here: Standings as of 10:30am ET Wednesday, November 30th* @NBP aka “0xdecafbad”  @NavyXC aka “navyxc” @riles0nic aka “rileyp” @antlac1-cr aka “antlac1” @ianwolfgang aka “pathsofglory” *based on team rank of those who have entered the challenge   If you missed the first announcement and are wondering, “What the heck is Folding@home?” you can get the full scoop including details on how to enter the Folding@home challenge in a past post. Remember to share your username in a comment on that post to be counted!   Good luck, and thank you to everyone for participating! Stay tuned for next week where we will announce the winners. 🎉   ... View more