Path 02: Networking Fundamentals — KashSec Academy

Networks, IP, ports, packets, TCP/UDP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS — the bedrock. 20 free lessons, beginner level, starting with "What is a network?"

Level: Beginner · 20 lessons · Free, no account needed.

Lessons in this path

1. What is a network? — The post-office picture that makes it all click.
2. Routing basics — Routers, the default gateway, and how packets travel hop by hop.
3. IP addresses — Private vs public, IPv4 vs IPv6, and finding yours.
4. Subnetting & CIDR notation — Reading /24, /16, and why smaller numbers mean bigger networks.
5. NAT & Port Forwarding — How your whole house shares one public IP, and why forwarding a port is risky.
6. Ports: the doors — Well-known ports and why scanners knock on them.
7. Packets & the OSI layers — How data is chopped, wrapped, and reassembled.
8. Switches & VLANs — One physical switch, several isolated logical networks.
9. What is a protocol? — Rules two computers agree on before talking.
10. TCP vs UDP — Registered mail vs postcard — plus the handshake.
11. Wireless networking basics — WPA2/WPA3 vs. broken WEP, open networks, and evil twin attacks.
12. DNS: the phonebook — How names become numbers, and what leaks.
13. HTTP & HTTPS — The web's language, and why the padlock matters.
14. Firewalls: the basics — Default-deny vs. default-allow, and stateful vs. stateless filtering.
15. Common Network Attacks: An Overview — ARP spoofing, DNS spoofing, SYN floods, and packet sniffing, named and mapped.
16. Network Troubleshooting Tools — ping, traceroute, nslookup, and the toolkit for looking at a real network.
17. DNS Lab — Understand how DNS works and how it can be abused.
18. Cloud & Modern Networking — SDN, virtual networks, and why the concepts transfer even when hardware disappears.
19. Network Security Careers & Certifications — Network+, CCNA, and why this foundation underlies most other security specializations.
20. Practical Packet Analysis Intro — See how data actually moves, hands-on.