I’ve been slowly working my way though a list of skills to learn, both to put on my resume and as personal growth. Networking is the next thing on this list. I am not sure what I am looking for, but I want to start another project. I have built many a personal computer, but the world of networking is a pretty foreign concept to me.
I have experience with building computers and a minor glance at the network-side of things. I’ve set up a Pi-Hole or two and set a basic CUPS server up on a RPi0w, but beyond that, I have no idea what I’m doing, or even what the possibilities are. I just see posts like this and think that it’s a pretty cool hardware project.
Is there any resources you recommend to start learning, maybe what the hardware does? From my outsider’s perspective, I see a lot of people’s racks have at least a router, switch, and firewall, along with various other machines.
E: thank you all for the suggestions! I’ll have to take some time to figure out what to do first
A custom router + managed switch is a great way to learn. Studying the fundamentals is also good, but in my opinion it’s not as fun as setting up your own network and learning hands-on.
If you decide to go this route I highly reccomend taking regular backups of your config (and backup again before you change stuff). Part of learning involves breaking things - trust me you will break your network - and in networking that’s one of the best ways to learn. Backups will give you an easy way to restore to a known working configuration.
I’d start with a second router added to the current network, use it to segment a “lab” network. Then, when
it breaksyou break it, it breaks the lab stuff and not your house stuff.
I don’t think you really need to dive that deep into networking to start self hosting, but Network Chuck has a pretty good CCNA course on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhvC56v63IJVXv0GJcl9vO5Z6znCVb1P&si=VOajj1fJjb-Sx58p
This is a great place to start.
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I started learning networking with OpenBSD’s tutorial on building a router.
Building a router forces one to learn networking.
You already have a pihole. I assume you like it. You could buy a cheap minipc/NUC and set up proxmox on it and learn to set up and configure a second pihole as a virtual machine. Then you’ll have a server running with the ability to expand as needed. You could look into setting up new network gear (like tp-link’s omada) and run the software controller in a VM. Or you could dabble with HomeAssistant and get into smarthome. Or set up a photo management tool like Immich. Like others have said, find a problem you want to solve and use these tools!
For project ideas, I think most of us start with a problem and learn how to solve it. But without some foundational knowledge, you may struggle to even realize what’s a solvable problem.
You should maybe start with something like Linus Tech Tips “techquickie” content. Look at tutorials for home servers and home labs.
Or just spin around with your eyes closed, and point at a random tech object in your home, then start searching for info on how that works. How you can customize it, fix it, break it, make your own.
Not sure how else to help you jumpstart what many of us have just been naturally doing our whole lives. Like… be curious. That’s the key actually. Curiosity.
Networking will take you from being “they guy that fixes computers” to full blown Telco engineer. It’s a lot though, more than I can explain. Get managed switch and start having LAN parties.
Cisco do free networking courses which teach the fundamentals. The one I did was more theoretical than practical but it really helped me think of what Im really trying to achieve and learning the terminology was really helpful, especially later when trying to troubleshoot and finding help online that was a struggle before the course.
There are assessments as you progress and a certificate at the end.
They also have virtual software you can play around with for different potential configurations. Thats much cheaper than buying lots of hardware!