Networking

Networking fundamentals to learn (in order): 1. IP Addressing & Subnetting

What is an IP address Subnet masks (/24, /16, etc.) CIDR notation Network vs host portions Calculating subnets Private vs public IPs

  1. Basic Network Tools

ping - test connectivity traceroute - see path packets take netstat / ss - see active connections ip addr / ifconfig - check interfaces ip route - view routing table nslookup / dig - DNS queries

  1. TCP/IP Basics

OSI model (7 layers) TCP vs UDP Ports and services Three-way handshake Common ports (80, 443, 22, 53)

  1. DHCP

How DHCP works Set up DHCP server on mini Static vs dynamic IPs DHCP leases

  1. DNS

How DNS resolution works Set up local DNS server DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, etc.) Forward vs reverse DNS

  1. Routing

What routers do Routing tables Default gateway Static routes NAT (what we just did)

  1. Switching

How switches work MAC addresses ARP protocol Broadcast vs unicast

  1. Firewalls

iptables basics Allow/deny rules Port forwarding Basic security

  1. VPNs

What VPNs do Site-to-site vs remote access Set up WireGuard or OpenVPN

  1. Network Services

Web servers (nginx/apache) File sharing (Samba/NFS) SSH access Reverse proxies

Hands-on projects with your minis: Week 1-2: IP addressing practice, subnetting exercises, network tools Week 3: Set up DHCP server on Mini 1 Week 4: Set up DNS server (Pi-hole) on Mini 2 Week 5: Configure routing between two networks Week 6: Build simple firewall rules Week 7: Set up VPN server Week 8: Deploy web server + reverse proxy Resources:

Professor Messer (YouTube - free CompTIA Network+ course) Practical Networking (YouTube channel) TCP/IP Illustrated book