New to Networking

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miguelgonzalez11790

n00b
Joined
Mar 18, 2014
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I am very new to networking and I currently plan on attending the community college in my town this fall for CS degree in systems administration and management. My question is, if any of you have any advice or knowledge on websites that I can get good studying material for beginners and or a good community based zone for networkers in IT.

The help is much appreciated guys, seriously
 
Well systems administration and networking are two different fields, though often closely related.

If you're just starting out I'd suggest downloading CBT Nuggets on topics that interest you, or just look at YouTube...Lots of training companies put sample videos on YouTube.

Really though I find the internet in general to be better for troubleshooting and understanding specific topics than I do for general education about something. I don't know of any websites (though they could exist) dedicated to teaching you basic networking or systems administration from start to...finish? It's usually forums or blog posts about specific topics.

If you're going to go into Networking you're almost guaranteed to run across Cisco and there is a good site for learning that stuff with GNS3:
http://gns3vault.com/

The guy who runs that website posts tons of labs and YouTube videos for learning Cisco stuff. But he isn't really teaching networking in general, he's teaching a concept.

Of course it's not what you want to hear but pick up a book and read...
 
MysticRyuujin said:
Well systems administration and networking are two different fields, though often closely related.

If you're just starting out I'd suggest downloading CBT Nuggets on topics that interest you, or just look at YouTube...Lots of training companies put sample videos on YouTube.

Really though I find the internet in general to be better for troubleshooting and understanding specific topics than I do for general education about something. I don't know of any websites (though they could exist) dedicated to teaching you basic networking or systems administration from start to...finish? It's usually forums or blog posts about specific topics.

If you're going to go into Networking you're almost guaranteed to run across Cisco and there is a good site for learning that stuff with GNS3:
http://gns3vault.com/

The guy who runs that website posts tons of labs and YouTube videos for learning Cisco stuff. But he isn't really teaching networking in general, he's teaching a concept.

Of course it's not what you want to hear but pick up a book and read...
Click to expand...
Thank you very much, seriously. That helped a lot
 
Not affiliated with these guys in any way, but it might be worth a look. Full access to the site will cost you about as much as a couple courses at a community college. (They run commercials on the TWIT network, with ads to give you 50% off a year's subscription.)

http://edutainmentlive.com/itprotv/
 
Todd Llamle CCNA study guide - It will give you a better introduction to networking with a very easy method to learn subnetting better than any other book out there.

ITIL - I know this has nothing to do with networking though it will give you a best practices overview of service management and give you a good idea of how corporate IT works or should work.

Ask a lot of questions, there's no such thing as a bad one except the one you don't ask. We're here to help.
 
Make a LAB. I gained more information and knowhow with my lab faster than I did with books. Not that books are bad, they are great material. However you will gain like 75% of what you need to know dicking around with your lab. Then fill in the gaps with the books.
 
Honestly, I say pick up a CompTIA Network+ study guide. Network+ is extremely basic and has no presumption of prior knowledge. It provides a broad base of information that is completely vendor-neutral, and thus applicable in all situations.

I will absolutely not disagree that a Cisco CCNA guide is "better" terms of having some more relevant content and a greater focus on how things are actually configured (in a Cisco environment), but in my humble opinion it is not the best place to start for you. If you were in classes specifically for Cisco networking or starting a new job configuring switches at an entry level, sure, but since you are starting at step 1 and are going to be learning about systems administration... Network+ is going to be a better place.


Now, once you're done with the Network+, if you're still interested in networking I would suggest immediately going to the Cisco CCNA guides (preferably the official certification guides, I really do think those are the best). With your gained knowledge you'll be able to fly through it and spend more time absorbing "how equipment is configured" versus "how hardware is configured and how the underlying protocols work".
 
The first book of the CCNA materials covers a lot of the basic network terms and concepts.
 
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