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 6 – Packet Traveling — Host, Switch, Router, Switch, Host
- Lesson 7 – Packet Traveling — Host, Switch, Router, Switch, Router, Switch Host
Videos are in still in development.
This post will be updated as new videos are released
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 – Address Resolution Protocol
- Module 8 – Troubleshooting Tools
- Ping
- Traceroute
- TCP Traceroute
- MTR
- PathPing
- iperf
- Netstat
- Nmap
- Wireshark
- TCP Dump
- Module 9 – Network Engineering:
- STP
- Port-Channel / Ether-Channel / NIC Teaming
- Advanced Routing and Routing Tables Concepts
- RIP
- OSPF
- EIGRP
- BGP
- Module 10 – Network Protocols
- DHCP
- DNS
- HTTP
- HTTPS / SSL / TLS
- SSH
- SCP
- TFTP
- FTP
- SNMP
- NTP
- Module 11 – IPv6
- Module 12 – Network Designs
- Module 13 – Cloud Networking
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?