Where do I start with networking in IT?

[LebowskiBuschemi]

So I'm a rookie computer engineer about to graduate very soon and I developed an interest in the networking side of things. So if I wanted to establish a solid foothold within networking itself, where would I begin? Also, what distributions of Linux are important when it comes to networking? I heard the Kali distribution is quite critical when it comes to stuff like ethical hacking. 

[jaslion]

It's as simple as you rent a server, render farm, windows desktop vm,... online for x amount of time and can use it to do whatever computing task you want on it that is allowed.

 

There really is nothing else special about it. It's as if you can suddenly have a bunch of systems at home to use for a little while.

 

What bash has to do with it is up to you. I guess you can run some scripts and whatnot that you need a result from or whatever.

[RZomerman]

just start with the AWS or Azure foundational trainings.. 

 

[GuiltySpark_]

My concern is you're about to graduate as a computer engineer and aren't familiar with cloud computing or bash. 

 

https://aws.amazon.com/training/

[jaslion]

Just now, rickeo said:

My concern is you're about to graduate as a computer engineer and aren't familiar with cloud computing or bash. 

 

https://aws.amazon.com/training/

Depends on the education I guess? I basically got a book was told to read it and then do a certificate test which was honestly not hard at all if you just read the book and not did anything practical.

[RZomerman]

7 minutes ago, jaslion said:

It's as simple as you rent a server, render farm, windows desktop vm,... online for x amount of time and can use it to do whatever computing task you want on it that is allowed.

 

There really is nothing else special about it. It's as if you can suddenly have a bunch of systems at home to use for a little while.

 

What bash has to do with it is up to you. I guess you can run some scripts and whatnot that you need a result from or whatever.

I don't agree with this .. yes the basics are this.. but the scale at which cloud computing runs gives their companies additional power over what you cannot achieve (at reasonal cost) in an enterprise..  and you have to change the entire concept from "installing a couple of VM's by hand" to .. how do I patch millions of systems without downtime for customers and impact to the other systems running... 

[LebowskiBuschemi]

18 minutes ago, rickeo said:

My concern is you're about to graduate as a computer engineer and aren't familiar with cloud computing or bash. 

 

https://aws.amazon.com/training/

You do realize that list of courses you take varies from country to country, right? I'm from a third world country. I wanted your guidance. Not your sarcasm.

[LebowskiBuschemi]

11 minutes ago, ONOTech said:

Re: bash

I'm assuming OP didn't say he doesn't know bash, but he doesn't know the relationship between bash and cloud computing. It can be read either way I suppose

 

Re: cloud computing

It's not a big concern. Computer engineering has so many disciplines, all the way from the lowest level in silicon development to the highest level of cloud computing. Realistically, you won't cover all of it.

 

OP could have realized late in his college career that he has an interest in the cloud (which is a little different from networking btw OP), and may not have taken a single cloud computing class. It wasn't a rarity at my school.

 

Nonetheless, I think the link is a good resource. Get AWS or Google Cloud certified and you'll have what you'll have a good base 

My apologies, I realize it's different from networking, but the thing is, I kept hearing people talking about cloud related stuff like cloud administration when it came to networking.

[RZomerman]

10 minutes ago, ONOTech said:

Re: bash

I'm assuming OP doesn't mean he doesn't know bash, but he doesn't know the relationship between bash and cloud computing. It can be read either way I suppose

 

Re: cloud computing

It's really not a concern. Computer engineering has so many disciplines, all the way from the lowest level in silicon development to the highest level of cloud computing. Realistically, you won't cover all of it.

 

OP could have realized late in his college career that he has an interest in the cloud (which is a little different from networking btw OP), and may not have taken a single cloud computing class. Many students at my school were in a situation like this and are doing fine

 

Nonetheless, I think the link is a good resource. Get AWS or Google Cloud certified and you'll have a solid base + resume builder 

or Azure

 

3 minutes ago, LebowskiBuschemi said:

My apologies, I realize it's different from networking, but the thing is, I kept hearing people talking about cloud related stuff like cloud administration when it came to networking.

No worries.. there is an open standard for networking in Cloud Computing.. perhaps that might spark your interest.. 

SONiC (azure.github.io)

 

its a new operating system you can run on (expensive) switches (or in a demo environment) on how to manage VERY large networks

[LebowskiBuschemi]

I guess I'll just rephrase my question:
If I want to have a solid base in networking in IT, what kind of courses could I take?

[RZomerman]

2 minutes ago, LebowskiBuschemi said:

I guess I'll just rephrase my question:
If I want to have a solid base in networking in IT, what kind of courses could I take?

ah.. then you go for that Sonic stuff (future large scale) - standard Cisco stuff (lots of companies use that) - Juniper courses (lots of companies use that) - standard BGP/OSPF courses (lots of youtube videos on that).. get yourself some old Juniper / Cisco stuff.. and play with BGP and such.. no need for the super duper fancy expensive new stuff.. older stuff from 200x works just as well

 

once you know the basic of BGP (eBGP/iBGP) and OSPF, then you can always upgrade for the super advanced stuff.. but this is the absolute core.. routing, subnets, ports, etc... once you know that.. then you go for virtualized networks, SDWAN's etc.. 

[LebowskiBuschemi]

8 minutes ago, RZomerman said:

ah.. then you go for that Sonic stuff (future large scale) - standard Cisco stuff (lots of companies use that) - Juniper courses (lots of companies use that) - standard BGP/OSPF courses (lots of youtube videos on that).. get yourself some old Juniper / Cisco stuff.. and play with BGP and such.. no need for the super duper fancy expensive new stuff.. older stuff from 200x works just as well

 

once you know the basic of BGP (eBGP/iBGP) and OSPF, then you can always upgrade for the super advanced stuff.. but this is the absolute core.. routing, subnets, ports, etc... once you know that.. then you go for virtualized networks, SDWAN's etc.. 

I'm currently doing some courses on netcad. One's a Ubuntu course and the others are a few CCNA courses. I think OSPF might be a part of one of the CCNA courses, but I'm not sure yet since I haven't progressed that far into the courses. Are there any courses that you recommend in particular besides the OSPF course that you just mentioned? I'd appreciate some links if that's okay.

[Lurick]

8 minutes ago, RZomerman said:

ah.. then you go for that Sonic stuff (future large scale) - standard Cisco stuff (lots of companies use that) - Juniper courses (lots of companies use that) - standard BGP/OSPF courses (lots of youtube videos on that).. get yourself some old Juniper / Cisco stuff.. and play with BGP and such.. no need for the super duper fancy expensive new stuff.. older stuff from 200x works just as well

 

once you know the basic of BGP (eBGP/iBGP) and OSPF, then you can always upgrade for the super advanced stuff.. but this is the absolute core.. routing, subnets, ports, etc... once you know that.. then you go for virtualized networks, SDWAN's etc.. 

This, understand the theory and basics behind the routing and switching protocols. Practice with some Juniper or Cisco gear (or both) and then move onto the complex stuff like orchestration tools. Having Python or other programming knowledge is going to be extremely valuable as well as knowing how to interact with APIs too. Cisco's DevNet is another great start.

[LebowskiBuschemi]

3 minutes ago, Lurick said:

This, understand the theory and basics behind the routing and switching protocols. Practice with some Juniper or Cisco gear (or both) and then move onto the complex stuff like orchestration tools. Having Python or other programming knowledge is going to be extremely valuable as well as knowing how to interact with APIs too. Cisco's DevNet is another great start.

I have some experience with APIs in the sense that I made this little webhook for this IoT project that I was using via JSON. Wasn't anything fancy. If you don't mind me asking, where exactly is Python used in networking? Also, what languages should I learn besides Python?

[Lurick]

7 minutes ago, LebowskiBuschemi said:

I have some experience with APIs in the sense that I made this little webhook for this IoT project that I was using via JSON. Wasn't anything fancy. If you don't mind me asking, where exactly is Python used in networking? Also, what languages should I learn besides Python?

Python is used, at least from what I've seen, for a lot of automation framework as it relates to networking. So deployment, configurations, validation, etc. will be written in Python or some other language and utilize API functions and calls to the devices directly or in more cases higher level orchestration tools which then handle the rest. Example would be I want to configure x number of devices for something I would make a call to a orchestration framework and it would then go out and push that intent down to the devices but it all depends on the company, some like to do it per device but generally speaking they'll have orchestration tools to handle talking to the devices

[Mondale]

If you're just starting out, getting your first networking job can be difficult without experience. I would recommend starting in a HelpDesk/Desktop support role to learn how IT works in organizations and try to work your way up learning as much about networking as you can. Volunteering to help the networking team can also pay off with experience you can add to your resume.

 

Some people swear by certifications and they can be useful getting into some organizations but not entirely necessary.

[Roswell]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Depends on the education I guess? I basically got a book was told to read it and then do a certificate test which was honestly not hard at all if you just read the book and not did anything practical.

There’s an enormous difference between whatever you’re talking about reading a book with a certification and becoming an actual engineer…

 

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

It's as simple as you rent a server, render farm, windows desktop vm,... online for x amount of time and can use it to do whatever computing task you want on it that is allowed.

 

There really is nothing else special about it. It's as if you can suddenly have a bunch of systems at home to use for a little while.

 

What bash has to do with it is up to you. I guess you can run some scripts and whatnot that you need a result from or whatever.

This is not how to become a network engineer whatsoever.

[Catsrules]

I would focus on the basics, like IP addressing, OSI modal, what is a switch, what is a router, port numbers etc... That stuff will apply everywhere doesn't matter what software your using or what ecosystem your in, it is almost always running TCP/IP on the back end and it is good to have understanding of how that works. I would assume most network courses should cover the basics. For example CCNA course cover many of the basics.

 

Once you know the basics it is really a matter of applying the basics to whatever software your using, figuring out the proper terminology and commands for that ecosystem.

 

 

There are even a few free ones on Youtube.

 

 

 

 

 

[LAwLz]

Was the original post edited? Like 9/10 replies in this thread are not about what the OP is asking for.

 

If you want to learn about networking then I think finding some free CCNA courses is a good idea. That covers the basics.

[LebowskiBuschemi]

7 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Was the original post edited? Like 9/10 replies in this thread are not about what the OP is asking for.

 

If you want to learn about networking then I think finding some free CCNA courses is a good idea. That covers the basics.

I've already taken a CCNA course that basically covered the basics. Where do I go from there? Any courses you recommend?
 

 

36 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Python is used, at least from what I've seen, for a lot of automation framework as it relates to networking. So deployment, configurations, validation, etc. will be written in Python or some other language and utilize API functions and calls to the devices directly or in more cases higher level orchestration tools which then handle the rest. Example would be I want to configure x number of devices for something I would make a call to a orchestration framework and it would then go out and push that intent down to the devices but it all depends on the company, some like to do it per device but generally speaking they'll have orchestration tools to handle talking to the devices

Are there any courses that you particularly recommend relating to this?

[LebowskiBuschemi]

11 minutes ago, Catsrules said:

I would focus on the basics, like IP addressing, OSI modal, what is a switch, what is a router, port numbers etc... That stuff will apply everywhere doesn't matter what software your using or what ecosystem your in, it is almost always running TCP/IP on the back end and it is good to have understanding of how that works. I would assume most network courses should cover the basics. For example CCNA course cover many of the basics.

 

Once you know the basics it is really a matter of applying the basics to whatever software your using, figuring out the proper terminology and commands for that ecosystem.

 

 

There are even a few free ones on Youtube.

 

 

 

 

 

I've already taken a course based off of the CCNA material. So where do I go from here?

[Mondale]

21 minutes ago, LebowskiBuschemi said:

I've already taken a course based off of the CCNA material. So where do I go from here?

 

 

 

[Lurick]

28 minutes ago, LebowskiBuschemi said:

I've already taken a CCNA course that basically covered the basics. Where do I go from there? Any courses you recommend?
 

 

Are there any courses that you particularly recommend relating to this?

There is the DevNet cert courses from Cisco which help, especially the first level of DevNet

[LebowskiBuschemi]

25 minutes ago, Lurick said:

There is the DevNet cert courses from Cisco which help, especially the first level of DevNet

Alright, guess I'll look into them. Thanks!
By the way, for networking, is it worth spending time learning the Red Hat distribution of Linux? I've heard it's used for setting up servers.

[Mondale]

12 minutes ago, LebowskiBuschemi said:

Alright, guess I'll look into them. Thanks!
By the way, for networking, is it worth spending time learning the Red Hat distribution of Linux? I've heard it's used for setting up servers.

 

It never hurts to learn Linux but I've found  that the majority of companies I've dealt with mainly use Windows servers with maybe a few Linux sprinkled in. Also, it depends on the company structure too. Some companies have departments separated where network only does networking and System Admins only do servers, etc.