Eric Stewart: Running Off At The Mouth

I got it into my head to develop a class for “non”-networking people who are becoming part of a networking group (students and other staff members that aren’t touching a switch every day) to start them on the road to becoming a network professional (or at least a dabbler).  At $JOB, we have a few new people coming into the department in the systems/server admin role, but they’re going to eventually be part of the on-call rotation, so it will be useful to teach them some skills that will prevent them from having to wake up someone else too often.  It’s going to take time to develop materials and speaking skills, so I’m going to get a head start on that, since it will be a while before the “official” class at $JOB gets going.

Here’s the basic updated outline I’m starting with using.  Note that not every point is going to be a single class – some of the points will cover multiple classes.

1. OSI vs TCP/IP models, and touch on some terminology
2. Ethernet, including
   1. Cabling, including what 10Base2 and moving on to
   2. Ethernet basics, including CSMA/CD (and why it’s still relevant)
   3. That would lead to how hubs worked, and that leads to how switches work, including CAM tables and MAC learning
3. A little bit about wireless here – it’s not Ethernet
   1. We’ll talk about frequencies (mainly 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz)
   2. Channels
   3. Interference
4. IP
   1. This would include VLSM and how a computer makes the decision on what to ARP for, going into the details of Hostmasks and Gateways, but avoiding teaching binary math as much as possible
   2. Also included here would be comparing/contrasting the different methods of indicating a subnet mask, such as 255.255.255.0 vs /24
   3. Routers, but only in as much as frame disassembly and passing packets around
   4. Some very basic IPv6
5. TCP vs UDP; ICMP
6. VLANs vs Subnets – they aren’t the same thing
   1. Following this would be revisiting switch operation to touch on VLAN trunks, access ports
7. Firewalls, ACLs, Load Balancing
   1. Areas touched on this would indicate where ACLs, while something you find on routers, start reaching into L4
   2. Routers again, but in this case, only about how they filter when compared to an actual Firewall
   3. We talk about NAT/PAT and mention home routers, and this leads to
   4. Load Balancers
8. DNS
   1. Different types of DNS servers – Authoritative, Resolvers
   2. Different types of records
9. DHCP
10. Routers: basics of routing protocols, such as loop prevention, metrics, and route sharing

I need to get started on slides, which I’m hoping to do sometime in the next day or so.  The schedule I’m looking at for Twitch is Wed/Thurs 7pm-8pm Eastern US for a couple of runs through lecturing, with random streams on the weekends if I don’t like how either Wed/Thurs went.  This will probably start on July 24, 2019.  Here are the “rules” of the stream:

• I’ll be focusing on the lecturing and timing, which means I won’t be focusing on chat for questions until I’m done (particularly on Wednesdays).  I’d target about 45 minutes for the lecture itself, and then at the end I’d be willing to go through questions.  However, don’t be surprised if you ask a question and I don’t respond right off the bat.
• Creative criticism is welcome, particularly if a slide has too much or too little info.
• I reserve the right to respond to questions with “that goes way into the weeds” and point you (at least initially) to Google/Wikipedia.

On a side note, especially for people from $JOB who are trying to get ahead of the “real” class:

• I try to keep the “streams from crossing”.  So … I often avoid mentioning certain details (often, even my name) on stream (or in blog posts).  So it might sound a little awkward from time to time.
• I’m already crossing streams in the sense that I usually keep this networking blog and gaming (which even has its own blog) separate … but I’m too lazy to start a second Twitch account for this.
• As such, no face cam.  You’ll be looking at slides most of the time, maybe some web browsing on Wikipedia/Google.

When all is done, I’d want an attendee to understand at least a good portion of what happens when you type a new website into a browser and all the little things that happen in the milliseconds between hitting “enter” to go to the site, and the web page starts rendering.  I’d want them to be able to understand where we came from, why some of the old stuff still matters, and when you can look at something and have everything “look” right if you’re not really looking at the right thing.  And finally … hopefully helping people who watch to understand there’s more to it than names and websites.