I'm largely clueless about networking, and that has to change

I build my own machines from parts I buy, I install Windows, etc etc. With the help of Google and, occasionally bothering a friend or two, I can pretty much do what I want on my computer - except when it comes to networking.

Until about 4-5 years ago, I only had one computer. I didn’t have tablets, had the cheapest smartphone I could get that worked, so I had very modest networking needs. If I got online and could game, I was good. Open the occasional port to let a game work, and that was it. Now I have a few tablets and a wireless printer, and I’ve been fumbling my way through it.

Lightning hit nearby about a month back and took out my old router, so I bought a Netgear Nighthawk 6700. It’s a upgrade over my old POS, but man, I get confused every time I log into it and look at the settings screen. My wireless printer is not working right, my Logitech ARX display is not working, I can’t seem to get my VPN working correctly, my Plex isn’t working through my tablet. . . gah.

Anyway, I’ve had enough. Does anyone know of good online tutorials about this sort of thing? Where might I start? I’ve poked around a bit, watched a video here and there, but a good series, either on a website or a video series, should be easier to follow as it builds on itself, instead of a slapdash random education by random videos of unknown quality and veracity.

It’s surprising no one has helped you yet.

Sorry I can’t help either as I just picked up bits and pieces here and there and Google specific problems. So what I would do in your situation is a Google search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=tutorial+networking

But one thing to keep is mind is how easily malware of various types can travel across networks, so it may be wise to keep some of your stuff disconnected.

Thanks for responding. No one else has helped because they’re wondering why I don’t just type, “Tutorial networking” into google. :slight_smile:

I get this a lot with my questions. Maybe it means if I can’t find the answer, no one can. Or maybe I ask ridiculous questions.

The problem I had was I kept coming up with things like this, or this. Everything seems way more involved than I want to get, like the 7 layers of the OSI model, or too simple, explaining how to plug the router into the computer. Also, there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s very old. . . Finding a tutorial that was for Win10, and at the level I was looking for, seems difficult.

I’m still looking though. This one seems like a start.

My D-link router isn’t that new, but I have been adding new things to my home network. I found the built in help system on the router to be quite helpful for the basics.

First thing is to get all the MAC numbers of your devices, enable MAC filtering and add them to the allowed devices. This helps keep others from intruding. I set up DHCP for all the devices with their IP addresses. These steps help secure from other devices getting access too.

Right now all my Home entertainment devices, PC, and laptop are hard wired to the router and work fine. Phone works fine via WIFI. Security server and cameras work good too. Receive warnings via phone.

I do not have any idea as to VPN connectivity. But the VPN provider or software help should set you straight.

So far I don’t have any security issues ( that I know of ).

Thanks. I’ll keep those things in mind as I read up on things and experiment further.

Having some weird things going on, and I had our clan’s network/server guru help me tonight. He gave some ideas, but there were things going on that he can’t quite figure out. Might end up being hardware problems, which would be depressing for a one month old router.

Years ago I set up a home network of Windows computers with the help of World Of Windows Networking.
Then changed to Linux and it all became so much simpler.

But I have been thwarted recently with new computers using Linux, just can’t seem to get a handle on it.

You could look at the material covered in the appropriate Microsoft certification exam, 70-741: Networking with Windows Server 2016, and design your own learning path around that, even if you don’t have any intention of taking the exam. There are also various learning materials listed (books, online-courses etc.), but of course, those aren’t free (although there’s an exam prep session from Ignite 2017 linked, I just saw). You can typically find some material online, though, YouTube or even Microsoft’s Channel 9.

I’m a GIS programmer. I also manage a couple of servers and wear a number of hats. But networking isn’t my gig either.

It’s true that XKCD has a strip for everything. From my experience, it’s spot on. You do NOT mess with a Sys Admin.

My light bulb moment for networking was reading the O’Reilly book on TCP/IP. Mind you, this was the mid-1990’s, so some of that information is dated - but it was a solid grounding in what IP was, addressing schemes, local hosts and network masks, DHCP, DNS, routing protocols (totally irrelevant in a small home network) NAT and port forwarding.

Basically, there are plenty of resources online - too many. Just build your way.
Do you understand ethernet - MAC addresses - vs IP addresses? All local ethernet traffic is MAC address to MAC address, or broadcast.
Do you understand IP addressing - local network and subnet mask, and default gateway?
(Simple point - on the local network, the computer uses “ARP” to say “Hello -who is address x.x.x.x?” gets a MAC address back, and sends to that MAC address.
If subnet mask on IP indicates the IP address is not local, send to the default gateway (usually the router) and let it handle things from there).
A machine either has a hard-coded IP address when it is first set up or uses DHCP.
If set to use DHCP, it broadcasts “Can I get an IP address?” (broadcast because no address) and gets a broadcast back “use this one”. If it accepts, it leases the address for a fixed time. Renew as needed.

Typical diagnosis - a DOS box is your friend.
IPCONFIG tells you if you have a valid IP address (169.x.x.x is an address Windows assigns if it can’t get one externally)
PING <gateway IP> - can you even talk to the router.
PING 8.8.8.8 This is Google’s DNS - if you are on the internet, it will respond. So packets will reach the internet.
PING YAHOO.COM - (or any valid web name) does the name translate to an IP address? If so, then DNS is working, you should be able to reach anywhere on the internet.

If your printer is defined by its IP address and you reset the entire network, including router, the printer may get a different IP address.
You can set reservations in DHCP to fix a MAC to a specific address. Some newer print drivers will find the printer even at a new address, but don’t count on it.

Assorted applications use defined “port numbers” on TCP/IP. (On TCP actually, sometime on UDP)
UDP is connectionless - send and forget, TCP typically sets up connections for extended conversations.
The other end of an application may respond typically n a port number over 1024. So you ask a web server on 80 (http) or 443(https) and it responds on a random higher port number.

NAT is typically implemented on home routers.
You do whatever you do with your internal IP. The router NAT’s the external communications from all the network’s devices to the one external IP address it has from the internet provider(ISP).
So computer A and Computer B open web browsers. As far as the outside world is concerned, one device - your router - opened two different browser windows.
(It’s more complex than that - obviously your computer tells the web server some details like browser version, cookies, so a web server can notice same IP is a different machine than other time…)
Note the router knows when you stated a conversation and allows replies to that conversation to come in and sends them to the device that started the conversation.

If everything is NAT’ed and looks like it comes from outside - what does the router do with unsolicited incoming traffic?
Logically you would want it to ignore most traffic, which might be malicious.
If you want to run a web server, say, then you might want port 80 traffic to forward to one of your computers where a web server is running. “Port forwarding”
Opening such a hole can be risky if you don’t know how to secure that web server, but it can be done.

Speaking of security - you can also block ports going out - for example, viruses love to use your PC to send SPAM, pretend to be an email server - so block port 25 outbound.
(Of course if they’ve hacked your PC, they probably also can hack your router - did you at least change the default password?)
Some routers by default block some ports outbound, which may explain VPN problems.

Some devices - my Nest thermostat for example - I can control from outside the home. This is because the Nest contacts a central server, and my phone app also contacts that server and the server relays info back and forth.
So there’s some typical hints for home networking.
If you don’t understand these concepts, look them up - there is infinite detail available on each topic.
Another handy hint - your user manual is called “Google”. Even as an IT professional, I find a lot of my work involves googling error message exact text to determine what is going on - there’s a billion people on the internet, someone else has had this problem before and blogged about it, or the user manual is online.

I’m an IT professional. Making networks function is a big part of my career for the last couple of decades. The problem is that there’s a lot involved. It’s like saying, “My car broke down and I want to be an auto mechanic, tell me how to do that.” Answering specific questions is one thing, explaining a vast technical field is another.

What I can tell you is how I got started. I trained for CompTIA Network+ certification (it’s a vendor-neutral certification that ensures you know the basics). Look for tutorials/guides geared toward preparing people for that. It will assume you have some reasonable technical ability but assume your knowledge of networking itself is limited. That sounds like it’s probably about at your level. The info from md2000 is similar to what you’d find from such materials, though they’ll be able to explain things more thoroughly than what you would get from a message board post.

I should also point out that often Windows Firewall is enabled by default. This creates a firewall on the local machine, which will confuse you if you don’t realize that even internally inside your network, some packets to and from your computer are being blocked. If you have a laptop, leave the firewall on for public networks, but inside you home, turn it off - at least until you can get whatever you want working, then turn it on and see if it is causing a problem once you know everything works without it.

I don’t know how many times I’ve spent a while trying to figure out a network problem, only to realize that the latest Windows Update ahs turned the local fireall service back on.

I would also recommend the Net+ certification(just using it as a study guide, not actually getting the cert). I got it back in high school and it’s fairly easy and mostly focuses on practical things.