Honestly, Cisco still is king for this. Look for some CCNA training courses to get a proper education on networking. Just get the material, don't worry about the exam.
YouTube, CBT Nuggets, and INE all have plenty of courses.
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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Yup. And the official training books are still a great resource for learning everything from the basics to more advanced stuff.
I bought an updated set a couple of years ago, and they still hold up.
I still reference my Cisco Press CCIE routing TCP/IP volume 1 and 2 from 2005
Cisco offers a whole lot of free online training as well, on several different websites.
Its kind of a pita to get access in the first place, but its definitely free, comprehensive, and starts from the ground up.
And of course, they have paid training options on those same sites.
Network Chuck's earlier videos are pretty good, especially the You Suck At... series.
Unfortunately he's been pushing AI shit lately.
Network Chuck
They are archived for download at https://archive.org/details/NetworkChuck. That way you don't have to jump through all of YT's bs.
At least the AI-related videos of his I've seen were about running models locally, and for relatively legitimate use cases (training text-to-speech voices and commanding Home Assistant), so it could be worse.
Old school recommendation, but the O’reilly book “Network Warrior” is actually a good read. It walks through common networking technologies, explains why they’re needed and how they’re used. Provides an excellent foundation of knowledge.
If books are more to the OP's liking, some that I've read that I've found useful:
- Building a Home Cybersecurity Lab
- Deep Dive into Linux Networking: Configuring Firewalls, VPNs, and Secure Connections
- The Home Network Manual
- Home Networking Bible
ETA: One more. This is more of a start to finish kind of course but networking is definetly covered. Takes you from day one with your linux distro and a blank slate, all the way to scripting, all in easily digestible chapters: https://linuxupskillchallenge.org/
Oh my. That Linux Upskill Challenge resource is right up my alley. Thank you for sharing.
Happy to share. Came across it in my internet travels and bookmarked it thinking, maybe some could use it.
Ohhhhh, I'd forgotten about this. Good one.
Hi! I really enjoy the THM service: https://tryhackme.com/module/networking They have a bunch of different modules to study. They do cater more to Cyber Security, but Networking is definitely included there!
Professor Messer’s videos are free and a good place to start. It’s prep for A+ and Network+
If you search for "data communications and networking" you will find alot of learning materials.
Eg:
I would start at the OSI model. Focus on layer 1 to start and then move on up. The more you learn the more you realize there is way more to learn.
Well ... How much do you want to learn? How serious are you?
If you want to know networking, the authority is Cisco.
I'm scheduled to take my CCST Network exam tomorrow. That's an entry-level Cisco cert.
I've been studying for about 3 months. Wish me luck ...
Junior NetAdmin Cert
The CCST training is online and entirely free.
https://www.netacad.com/career-paths/network-technician?courseLang=en-US
Access
You've got to jump through some hoops. You need to create an account and go through some verification.
They need to figure out if you are 'overseas' and whether you should be able to download encryption products.
I think its probably easiest if you use your work email, that's what they are really looking for.
Cisco U
There's a shit-ton of free classes at Cisco U as well.
Most of those are not directly cert-related, but a large amount of them were created for people studying for the CCNA, so they are certainly helpful. There's all sorts of rando training, keep ya real busy.
Here's one I've started.
https://u.cisco.com/paths/understanding-cisco-data-center-foundations-20705
Lab Environments
The whole study program uses Packet Tracer for the labs, which you download from them.
I also got a copy of Cisco Modeling Labs running. That was a bitch, had to shoe-horn an OVA to run on Proxmox.
And I got an older edu copy of the Cloud Services virtual router, if there's anything these other lab environments can't handle. (This version can be freely downloaded ... csr1000v-universal9.03.12.00.S.154-2.S-std.iso)