Part 0 — Start here: how to use this guide
Read this part. It's short and it will save you weeks.
0.1 Who this guide is for
| You are... | Works for you? |
|---|---|
| A developer who has never thought about networking | Yes — this is the target reader |
| A student starting a networking or sysadmin course | Yes |
| Someone studying for CompTIA Network+ / CCNA | Yes, as the "why" behind the syllabus |
| A support/SRE person who wants to stop guessing | Yes |
| A network engineer wanting reference material | Use the companion guide instead |
Assumed knowledge: you can open a terminal and run commands. You know that a website has an address. That's it.
Not assumed: the OSI model, binary, hexadecimal, IP addresses, ports, protocols, or any acronym at all. Every term is defined the first time it's used.