Book Image

Networking Fundamentals

By : Gordon Davies
Book Image

Networking Fundamentals

By: Gordon Davies

Overview of this book

A network is a collection of computers, servers, mobile devices, or other computing devices connected for sharing data. This book will help you become well versed in basic networking concepts and prepare to pass Microsoft's MTA Networking Fundamentals Exam 98-366. Following Microsoft's official syllabus, the book starts by covering network infrastructures to help you differentiate intranets, internets, and extranets, and learn about network topologies. You’ll then get up to date with common network hardware devices such as routers and switches and the media types used to connect them together. As you advance, the book will take you through different protocols and services and the requirements to follow a standardized approach to networking. You’ll get to grips with the OSI and TCP/IP models as well as IPv4 and IPv6. The book also shows you how to recall IP addresses through name resolution. Finally, you’ll be able to practice everything you’ve learned and take the exam confidently with the help of mock tests. By the end of this networking book, you’ll have developed a strong foundation in the essential networking concepts needed to pass Exam 98-366.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Network Infrastructure
7
Section 2: Network Hardware
11
Section 3: Protocols and Services
18
Section 4: Mock Exams
19
Mock Exam 1
20
Mock Exam 2

Understanding CIDR

While classful networks make life simpler, they are not efficient in terms of IP address usage. What if you want a Class C network with only two hosts on it? Well, for that network, you would need to have four IP addresses, that is, two for the hosts, one for the network address, and one for the broadcast address. We would have 252 IP addresses sitting there unused. Admittedly, that does give you scope to grow your network, but it is still not ideal.

CIDR provides us with the means of escaping from default subnet masks, thus allowing us to be more flexible in sizing our networks. Do you only want two hosts? Not a problem we can create a subnet mask for that. CIDR is a key component in Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSMs). VLSMs offer you the ability to break your network down into smaller networks of various sizes (as opposed to having multiple smaller...