Tech · Computer Networking

Networking, Hands On: How Your Devices Really Reach the Internet

Written by Zeeshan Adil

13 h · 12 parts · 83 chapters

From chapter 1, 13 h

Find out how your laptop, phone and home router really reach the internet. Read the real numbers on your own machine, play with interactive pieces where addresses, ports and TTL change hop by hop, write the core address and routing logic in graded code exercises, and build a working home network inside one Linux machine (subnets, a router, NAT, DHCP and DNS) that you then break on purpose and fix. Part 2 shows how networks run by different companies reach each other with BGP, builds a WireGuard VPN, and teaches seven everyday network tools.

Read the course: the same chapters with diagrams, labs and quizzes.

Chapters

Part 1 · Your laptop is already on a network

58 min

Part 2 · IP addresses, and why we ran out

49 min

Part 3 · Your local network: subnets and neighbours

1 h 34 min

Part 4 · Leaving your network: gateways and routes

1 h 9 min

Part 5 · Ports, TCP and UDP: which app gets the packet

46 min

Part 6 · NAT: how every device at home reaches the internet

1 h 22 min

Part 7 · Joining a network and finding names: DHCP and DNS

55 min

Part 8 · Capstone: a whole internet on one laptop

52 min

Part 9 · IPv6: enough addresses for everyone

23 min

Part 10 · How networks reach each other: autonomous systems and BGP

1 h 39 min

Part 11 · VPNs: your own private network over the internet

1 h 12 min

Part 12 · Your network toolbox

1 h 22 min