Basic Concepts for Network Engineers

In this short blog I will put together a checklist of what I believe are basic (if not, fundamental) concepts and tools a network engineer should have in his/her arsenal. You could use this list as a tool to evaluate yourself. It could also give you some guidance for your reading material 😉

And now, the list:

• OSI / TCP-IP Models
  • What is it? Why is it needed?
  • Different tshoot tools at different Layers
  • Know at which Layer the most common protocols operate
  • Know some of the most common default TCP/UDP ports (smtp, dns, http, https, ssl, telnet, ssh, etc.)
• Protocols
  • DNS
  • DHCP
  • TCP 3 x Way Handshake
• Switching
  • What is a MAC address
  • What is switching?
  • Unicast vs. Broadcast
  • Know the difference between a broadcast and a collision domain
  • VLANs
  • Understand what are Layer2 loops and how are they formed; how to avoid them
• Routing
  • What is an IP address
  • What is TTL; what’s its purpose
  • ARP Protocol; gARP
  • Understand what is routing?
  • What is NAT?
  • Dynamic vs. Static routing
  • What routing protocols are there
• Troubleshooting Tools
  • Understand the MAC address table; how are MAC addresses learnt; factor in multiple switches
  • ping
  • How does traceroute work?
  • pathping (WinOS)
  • nslookup (Linux & WinOS) / dig (Linux)
  • telnet
  • curl

Originally posted 2017-10-28 03:19:14.