CompTIA Network+ (N10-008)

Identify and categorize networking devices across land, home, and perimeter, from switches and wireless access points to IoT and VoIP devices, understanding their roles in modern networks.

Explore routing concepts and bandwidth management, including static routing, dynamic protocols (rip, eigrp, ospf, bgp), convergence, and administrative distance, plus traffic shaping and qos for voice and streaming.

Learn ethernet switching essentials, including link aggregation (lacp), auto mdix, PoE and PoE+, VLANs and voice VLANs, trunks, spanning tree, and port mirroring and port security.

Examine wireless infrastructure fundamentals, including access points and stations, SSIDs and BSS/ESS concepts, roaming across an extended service set, and directional and omnidirectional antennas with MIMO considerations.

Explore the evolution of wireless encryption from WEP to WPA3, covering TKIP, CCMP, AES, PSK, enterprise 802.1X, radius authentication, and key concepts like per-packet encryption.

Explore 802.11 standards, frequencies, channel bonding, MU-MIMO, and the wifi alliance's role in selecting non overlapping channels to maximize wireless throughput.

Discover how cellular technologies enable global mobility, tracing 2G to 5G generations, GSM and CDMA architectures, and key concepts like GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, EVDO, LTE, MIMO, and beamforming.

Learn to monitor and baseline network performance with Windows Performance Monitor and data collector sets, tracking CPU, memory, storage, and network metrics across Windows and Linux environments.

Examine interface statistics to assess link state, speed, duplex, and packet flow using commands like show interface and ip link, and interpret runs, giants, and up time for network health.

Explore how device logs reveal network availability, review Windows Event Viewer and Linux logs, and set up a centralized rsyslog syslog server for efficient log management.

Snmp enables a management station to collect data from snmp agents on managed devices, using oids and mib to organize data and versions 1, 2c, and 3 with varying security.

Learn how environmental factors like humidity, temperature, and moisture affect networking gear and how sensors provide real-time alerts and visibility for data centers and server closets.

Learn the basics of change management and incident response. Explore the life cycle of networks from procurement to decommissioning, applying NIST IRP and SOP guidelines.

Implement a business continuity and disaster recovery plan by conducting a business impact analysis to identify critical systems and processes, and define recovery objectives (rpo and rto) with tested strategies.

Examine formalized security policies, including password, acceptable use, bring your own device, remote access, onboarding and offboarding, and how senior management drives compliance and asset protection.

Document the organizational network including physical and logical topology, device names, IP schemes, wiring diagrams, and rack diagrams to enable quick troubleshooting and onboarding.

Explore redundancy and high availability to eliminate single points of failure, using VRRP/FHRP/GLBP, NIC teaming, and multi-site strategies from hot to cloud sites, plus backup and MTTR concepts.

Explore confidentiality, integrity, and availability in security, along with data states and least privilege, to secure networks and protect information.

Explore cryptography basics: encryption hides plain text by turning it into cipher text, using symmetric and asymmetric keys—public and private—and hashing to ensure integrity in transit and at rest.

Defense in depth applies a layered security approach, from policies, procedures, and awareness to physical security, perimeter networks and zero-trust concepts, protecting data and internal networks.

Learn authentication methods within the AAA framework and MFA, combining knowledge, possession, and biometrics to securely identify, authenticate, authorize, and log activity.

Discover risk assessment and NIST RMF steps—preparation, categorization, selection, implementation, assessment, authorization, and monitoring. Explore vulnerability assessments, CVE/CVSS, penetration testing types (white, black, gray), and security posture with gap analysis.

Explain technology-based attacks by detailing malware types—virus, worm, trojan, rootkit, botnet, and logic bomb—and common methods like spoofing, DNS poisoning, and denial of service.

Explore remote connections for network administration, including vpn, vnc, and remote desktop protocols. Securely access devices with tls, ssh, and out-of-band console servers, and identify insecure options like telnet.

The lecture explains how social engineering exploits human weaknesses to gain network access, covering phishing, spear phishing, whaling, dumpster diving, shoulder surfing, tailgating, piggybacking, and countermeasures.

Discover how virtual private networks secure communications over insecure networks by tunneling and encryption. Compare remote access and site-to-site VPNs, including split tunneling and protocols like PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, and IKEv2.

This lecture on physical security covers detection, prevention, and asset disposal for network security. It highlights cameras, alarms, motion detectors, access controls, tamper detection, and data sanitization.

Learn how to harden networks by implementing SNMPv3, router advertisement guard, port security, and DHCP snooping, plus ARP inspection and dynamic ARP inspection to curb threats.

Explore wireless hardening through guest and client isolation, MAC filtering, and strong encryption (WPA2, PSK, EAP). Also learn about captive portals, geo fencing, and strategic antenna placement.

Apply the CompTIA network troubleshooting model to identify the problem by gathering the current network state, and analyzing symptoms such as dns, dhcp, and service issues through open-ended user questions.

Learn to establish and test theories during troubleshooting by questioning the obvious, starting with simple fixes, and using top-down, bottom-up, or divide-and-conquer approaches to isolate network issues.

Learn to plan and implement a network troubleshooting solution using a seven-step troubleshooting model, an action plan, change management, backup and rollback strategies, and maintenance windows to minimize downtime.

Verify the system's functionality through monitoring, baselines, traffic patterns, and end-user feedback to ensure ongoing performance after implementation.

Document the full troubleshooting process—from symptoms and tested theories to the final solution and post-implementation results. Build a reusable knowledge base to enable efficient, auditable fixes.

Learn essential cabling tools for network deployment, including snips, wire strippers, and crimpers, plus testing devices like cable testers, tone generators, and fusion splicers for fiber.

Explore cabling issues that degrade networks, including attenuation, distance limits, interference, signal loss, and duplexing, with practical testing across copper and fiber.

Explore key network software tools for troubleshooting and analyzing wireless and wired networks, including wifi analyzers, protocol analyzers, packet captures, bandwidth testers, port scanners, and iperf.

Master the five-step ping process from loopback to remote nodes to test connectivity, identify where issues lie, and verify TCP/IP communication and ICMP echo messages.

Discover essential ip addressing commands for Windows and Linux, including ipconfig, ip, dhclient, and route, to view IPs, DHCP leases, gateways, DNS, and troubleshooting with ping.

Explore DNS troubleshooting with nslookup on Windows and dig on Linux, verify local DNS servers via ipconfig, and test name resolution, cache, and record types using interactive and trace options.

Explore troubleshooting routes on Windows and Linux by inspecting the local routing table, using route and ip route commands to add or delete routes, and verifying paths with trace route.

Explore information gathering commands by using tcpdump for real-time packet capture and nmap for host and port discovery, export to pcap for analysis in Wireshark.

Explore essential network troubleshooting commands using netstat and arp on Windows and Linux, inspecting connections and per-protocol statistics, and configuring static ARP entries.

Explore wireless network issues, including interference sources, channel overlap and cochannel contention, antenna and cabling challenges, and client association disruptions with practical troubleshooting.

Identify common IP addressing issues, including DHCP conflicts, static mappings, and gateway or subnet mismatch, and apply practical checks on DNS, APIPA, and MAC address duplication.

Explore common network service issues, including network time protocol, DNS resolution, certificates, firewalls, and VPN connectivity. See how clock skew, TTL, zone updates, and misconfigurations cause outages and failures.

Analyze routing and switching issues, including asymmetric routing, routing loops, and layer two floods from broadcasts or unknown unicast, and learn how spanning tree protocol mitigates them.