I started recording a new video series covering How Data moves through the Internet. The intent of this first set of videos is to serve as the first Module of a new course I’m considering developing discussing Networking Fundamentals.
The full course will give anyone looking to start a career in Networking the foundation they need to become competent and successful engineers, and pass job interviews.
Moreover, this course will also give anyone in any sort of IT role insight into whatever it is “the networking folks” are doing every day. This type of cross-discipline training will propel you further in whatever Tech career you are pursuing.
How Data moves through the Internet
Module 1 of this course will be available for free to everyone on YouTube and will teach anyone the very core of Networking: How Data moves through the Internet.
The individual videos for Module 1 are available here:
- Lesson 1a – Network Devices — Hosts, IP Addresses, Networks
- Lesson 1b – Network Devices — Repeaters, Hubs, Bridges, Switches, Routers
- Lesson 2a – OSI Model — Layer 1, Layer 2, Layer 3
- Lesson 2b – OSI Model — Layer 4, Layer 5/6/7, Encapsulation/De-Encapsulation
- Lesson 3a — Everything Hosts do when speaking to hosts on the Same network
- Lesson 3b — Everything Hosts do when speaking to hosts on a Foreign network
- Lesson 4a — Everything Switches do to facilitate communication
- Lesson 4b — Everything Switches do to facilitate communication
- Lesson 5a – Everything Routers do to facilitate communication
- Lesson 5b – Everything Routers do to facilitate communication
- Lesson 5c – Router Hierarchies and Route Summarization
- Lesson 6 – Network Protocols – FTP, SMTP, HTTP, SSL, TLS, HTTPS, DNS, DHCP
- Lesson 7 – Packet Traveling – Host, Switch, Router, Router, Host
The (tentative) full course outline is available below. The creation of the full course will depend solely on how much traction the videos above attract. If you would be interested in the full course, taught with the same high quality “practical networking” style, the best way to bring it to fruition is to share the videos above throughout your network.
Networking Fundamentals – Course Outline
Below is the outline for the full Networking Fundamentals course. Keep in mind, the topics are still being scoped, so this outline is subject to change.
- Module 1 – How Data moves through the Internet
- (Available for free, see above)
- Module 2 – IP Addresses and Subnetting
- Module 3 – Host Configuration and Verification
- Windows
- Linux
- Windows Server
- Module 4 – TCP and UDP
- Module 5 – VLANs
- Module 6 – NAT
- Module 7 – Network Designs
- Self Hosting vs Managed Hosting
- Firewalls
- Load Balancers
- Network Topology: Inside and Outside
- Network Topology: DMZ
- NIC Bonding / NIC Teaming (Port-Channel / EtherChannel)
- Virtual Machines (VMs) and Hypervisors
- Module 8 – Address Resolution Protocol
- Traditional ARP
- Gratuitous ARP
- Proxy ARP
- ARP Probe and ARP Announcements
- Module 9 – Troubleshooting Tools
- Ping
- Traceroute
- TCP Traceroute
- MTR
- PathPing
- iperf
- Netstat
- Nmap
- Wireshark
- TCP Dump
- Module 10 – Network Protocols
- DHCP
- DNS
- HTTP
- HTTPS / SSL / TLS
- SSH
- FTP
- TFTP
- SCP
- SNMP
- NTP
- Module 11 – IPv6
- Module 12 – Cloud Networking Basics
- What is the Cloud?
- “something” as a Service: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS (DaaS, FaaS)
- Cloud Basics: Amazon AWS
- Cloud Basics: Google GCP
- Cloud Basics: Microsoft Azure
- Module 13 – Network Engineering: (Possibly in it’s own Network Engineering addendum course)
- STP
- Port-Channel / Ether-Channel
- FHRP (HSRP, VRRP, GLBP)
- Advanced Routing and Routing Tables Concepts
- RIP
- OSPF
- EIGRP
- BGP
When complete, this course will be the “must watch” course for anyone looking to get into Networking or understand how Networking works.
Got a suggestion for a topic that would contribute to this goal? Suggest it in the comments below!
Spanning Tree. Command Line frequently used commands and interpretation of their responses. Subnetting and network design considerations. Configuring tiers of user access of network devices.
+1 to STP!
Noted =) I’ll add STP to the list. Thanks Garrett / Ludlow!
Noted about STP. Thanks! “Tiers of Access” is a good idea. I’ll add that as basic network designs / topologies.
Subnetting I covered here: https://subnetipv4.com/
As for device commands, I’ll probably omit that so the course content can remain device and platform agnostic. But I have written a lot of CCNA and Cisco related articles, you can find most of them here:
https://www.practicalnetworking.net/index/ccna/
audio is not working properly. plz check
Could you elaborate? Seems to be working for me. Which video?
Yes. It’s okay. I’m having issues with my audio driver. sorry for the confusion.
Hey Ed, I had issues with my Realtek audio. I had to uninstall and reinstall the driver. Great videos
Great. Glad that was sorted =). And that you enjoyed the videos!
I want more information about internet…. Please send me through e mail
Hello Ed,
Just wanted to says that I highly appreciate what you do. It has helped me understand so much about networking and how it really works behind the scenes,
Cheers
Happy it’s helped you, Steven. Hope the videos continue to help =)
Great information presented in clear and meaningful fashion.
Much appreciated and please keep up the good work!
Thank you, Peter. I’m glad you liked the content =)
Hello Ed,
thanks a lot for your explanations and posted videos, helped me a lot with better understanding of networking processes! Is there maybe a possibility to include VRRP and BFD courses?
Thanks!
Yes. I like both of those suggestion. Thanks Marin! VRRP (and HSRP / GLBP) will be in the Network Designs module. BFD… I’m not sure where I’m going to put it. But I’ll think on it. Thanks for the suggestions!
Glad the videos have helped you =)
I think it would be great to know better on how routers build their address table.
I know there are different protocols for that, with “costs” considerations, hops etc..
A video about all of this material will be really great
p.s. found your website thanks to a YouTube suggestion of one of your videos, I really like you work
Hi Eli. Yep, definitely! The next lesson in the series will discuss Routers and how they work. Just like the last (2-part) lesson discussed Switches. I’m hoping to get more time to dedicate to completing this first module.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoy the content!
Update: The Router videos have been created: Part 1 Part 2.
I saw you have a module about Cloud networking, will you talk about tunneling?
And why we need them?
e.g. VXLAN?
I still couldn’t understand what exactly the problem VXLAN helps us with..
Tunneling I might talk about in the Protocols module. Or possibly I might make a new module to discuss tunneling, and then go into the basics of the common tunnels that exist (GRE, IPsec, SSLvpn, VXLan, etc). That is a good suggestion.
VXLan lets you extend a layer 2 network across layer 3 boundaries. So, just like a Trunk/Tagged port lets you extend a VLAN across multiple switches, VXLAN lets you extend a VLAN across multiple routers. Hope that helps =)
Perhaps you could cover :
1) VPN (increasingly more people use this for corporate work from home)
2) Different types of last mile connectivity
3) Redundancy models in different parts of the network
4) A couple of concrete case studies to drive home some points
like the role of networks in supporting globe scale apps like whatsapp/twitter etc.
While these are great suggestions, I’m wondering if they go a little beyond the “fundamentals” of networking. The target of this course would be a solid/competent network admin or systems admin, not necessarily someone designing large scale networks.
VPNs certainly will be covered. And some of “redundancy models”, but the rest might be a little too niche for this course.
Thank you for the suggestions either way, though =)
Please, You can send me a slides of series networking fundamentals.
Thanks you.
I’m afraid that is not something I typically share.
Is this full course paid? Cause you mentioned in your Video explaining network devices, that only Module 1 will be available on youtube. Where will the rest be available?
Now that I’ve finished recording my TLS course, I will record either and IPv6 course or this Networking Fundamentals course. It will depend entirely on what has more demand.
Once the full course is recorded, it will be available on my website for purchase.
I am not sure how detailed Module 4 will be concerning TCP, but one topic I don’t see mentioned is MTU and how path MTU discovery is often broken, and how MSS clamping can mitigate the problem for TCP connections (but not UDP).
But it needs at least a mention, because it’s a common problem causing web pages to hang, when the webserver sends packets assuming 1500 byte MTU, that get dropped in an MTU blackhole.
There are some good resources on the internet (including Cisco’s “Resolve IPv4 Fragmentation, MTU, MSS, and PMTUD Issues with GRE and IPsec” whitepaper, but it is more detailed and dry than most readers will persist through) and the (not so very) short but very good video “TCP MSS clamping – what is it and why do we need it?” by Ivan Pepelnjak
Hi Jon,
I’ll definitely be defining MTU / MSS in Module 4. I may not get into MSS clamping until later on in the course. I think when I discuss tunneling might be a better time, as I’ll already be introducing header overhead and that would make a good entry point into MSS clamping.
Either way, good call about the suggestion. I’ve added it to my list =)
When will the new network course be rolling out?
If the youtube videos do well, it will be the next course I put together.
Please where can i purchase the full networking course ? I really need it
It hasn’t been created yet. But I will update this post and send an e-mail to my newsletter subscribers when I start recording.
How do I get the full course and I also need information on how to practically connect a remote community to a full network and internet access
How i can see the full course? Video are made very well in free module 1
I suggest to add also wireless (wlc, ise, prime)
Noted. Thank you!
Please share for free this entire course, it’s very interesting
How to access the full networking fundamental course? I found the first module on you tube to be cery useful.
Please advise how to access to full course?
It hasn’t been developed yet.
When is the full course coming out please? i cant wait to purchase it i really need it
At this point I’m still unsure I will create it. The playlist currently has 70k~ views, and the final video only has 25k~. I was hoping 10x~ that to see if there was enough demand for the full course.
This series is absolutely fantastic, I just revisited to brush up my understanding while preaching AWS Advanced Networking Specialty exam. Can you also cover MED, Jumbo frames as part of full course. BGP is very interesting topics , I see you already included in last module.
Hi Surender. Glad you’re still getting a lot from this series =). I’m weighing up a full BGP course, as it were. =)
where can I see full Networking Fundamentals course?
Hasn’t been created yet. Help me spread the word about this first module to help bring the full course to fruition.
dear sir,
thanks for your effort
how can i get all modules?
You’re welcome. Full course hasn’t been created yet. Help me spread the word about this first module to help bring the full course to fruition.
When will the complete networking course be available?
I’m finishing my OSPF series. Then adding the new TLS 1.3 content to my TLS course. Then possibly going to work on this course. Or possibly an IPv6 course.
Smashing!
I am in your (proverbial) debt, lads.
I am.
At the age of 55, yours truly being a respectable end user (be it for work or pleasure), YOU, gave ME a purpose: to look into things the way I NEVER did… i.e. with concern and interest, in order to become deservingly more knowledgeable and capable to interpret related matters insofar anyone ought to.
Thank you.
George from Greece
Hi George. Thank you for the kind words. =) It brought a smile to my face to read your comment. I wish you well in your learning journey. Cheers!
When will this course be available?
Hard to say…. I need to finish the OSPF series I am working on… then finish TLS 1.3 for my course… then possibly I can work on Networking Fundamentals.
Hi Mentor,
I did enjoy watching your first free module 1 and was thinking since this had been posted more than a year ago by this time the dots should have been completed, I meant all Modules should have been up and running either for free or learn as you pay. However, once we taste your way of teaching including me, Unicast, or Multicast the rest of the Modules for pay-as-you learn, I will be more than happy to buy the rest of the Modules for the Network course.
Thanks
Thank you for the kind words, Abdisalam. =). I haven’t forgotten about this course, I need to finish a few other projects to free up some time to work on it.
When is the. Networking Fundamental course outlines be available?
Awaiting your next course. This is the most wonderful explanation I’ve ever seen about networking. I’ve become a huge fan of this site and its contents. It perfectly fits your motto.. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
A brief about distributed system networking
Loved your videos Mr Ed.
Thank you, Praveen. Cheers !
Have you been able to complete the entire course? When do you think the course be made available? I absolutely love your teaching style.
Also, it would be great to see this course with hands on labs using something like the “Cisco Packet tracer” and not just theory.
I am going to work on this course once I finish the TLS 1.3 content for my TLS course. =)
I have some packet tracer videos posted here: https://www.practicalnetworking.net/stand-alone/packet-tracer-labs/
Hi Ed, I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for the great videos and content you created for the public. The images and animations are fantastic. Everything about the blogs and videos are outstanding— articulating the complex concepts in the simplest way is mind-blowing. The content helped me to understand the concepts in a new way that I couldn’t think was ever possible! In addition, your teachings opened a new door of passion and interest to me for learning more about networking. And of course, it’s all because of the content and courses that you have. Just curious, what would be the best courses to take for getting the certificate in networking? In any case, people should know about this. “Networking Got Easy” by Ed Harmoush.Thanks so much again for all you have done.
Thank you for the kind words, Mina. Sorry to only get back to you now. I’m glad you enjoyed the series =). I’m planning to continue the series, actually, and turn it into the full course. (finally) =). First I need to finish a few updates to my TLS course.
Is it possible to know if the networking course will be ever completed?
Yes! Soon. I’m wrapping up the TLS 1.3 content, then coming back to finish Networking Fundametnals.
Mail me if the course is available
Hi Ed, I thoroughly enjoyed “How data flows on internet” module. eagerly waiting for full course. Any date in mind when it’ll be available. Thanks a lot for great content.
very good materials and easy to understand
Ed, congratulation for the excelente course! Are there any idea when the full course will be available? Thanks again and I hope tô enjoy the full course ☺️
Thanks for putting together a wonderful course. Is the full fundamentals course complete. Eagerly waiting for more videos
Your content is amazing. I’m looking forward to get the full course once it’s ready.
Can you also add VXLAN& EBGP concepts please?