can someone explain to me what I need to know involving networking?

[Corruption]

I don't know anything about it but I want to and have no idea where to start. I'm wanting to move to a google fiber comparable town and most likely will for their gigabit upload and download. But I have no idea what I'm doing! I don't know how to chose a router or modem or how those even work exactly, I don't know the difference between a gigabyte and gigabit. Hell, I don't know what I need to know how to know, you know? What do you do to get multiple Ethernet chords for multiple devices, can I just call up google fiber and they'll install Ethernet ports in rooms I want them in? I'm just so severely confused.

[Fusion]

A lot!

 

Start with basic things:

IPv4/6

Wireshark

Protocols (Learn the basics, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SSL, TLS, IMAP, POP, RDP, etc.)

Learn a packets structure(TCP/IP and UDP)

Firewalls

Proxies

VPN

Learn about sockets

Subnetting

HTTP GET and POST requests.

TCP(SYN, ACK)

 

Much more.

[flexin1981]

There is not much to know if you only want to setup a small home network, If you are looking at Google fiber then they should give you the router that you would need.

 

That just leaves number of ports that you need and add a wifi access point (if needed).

 

If you are looking to get into networking as a job or for enterprise design then I would suggest looking at the CCNA from Cisco