Course: CompTIA Network+ (Exam N10-008)

The Open Systems Interconnection, or OSI, model is used to describe how computer systems communicate with each other. Frequently used for troubleshooting network problems, the seven layers of the OSI model are concepts with which all networking professionals should be familiar.

In this course, you’ll learn about each layer of the OSI model. You’ll outline how human-readable information, such as emails and chat messages, are transferred over a network, as well as the path this information takes along the OSI model.

You’ll also examine data encapsulation and decapsulation within the context of the OSI model. You’ll outline characteristics for Ethernet headers, IP headers, and TCP/UDP headers, and learn to differentiate between synchronization (SYN) and acknowledgement (ACK) flags.

Lastly, you’ll recognize the primary differences between maximum transmission unit, or MTU, and maximum segment size, or MSS, and how these concepts relate to data being transmitted over a network.

• Network topologies represent how computers are interconnected to

• form a network. There are five main network topology types - mesh,
• star, bus, ring, and hybrid - and each offers unique advantages and
• disadvantages that technicians need to be aware of. In this course,
• you'll explore the five topologies in detail and learn when to
• implement each. You’ll learn about computer networks such as local
• area networks, metropolitan area networks, and wide area networks.
• Next, you explore other computer network types including
• peer-to-peer, client/server, wireless local area network, personal
• area network, and campus area network. You'll examine Multiprotocol
• Label Switching and how it can be used as an efficient alternative
• to traditional Internet Protocol routing. Lastly, you'll learn
• about common service related entry points, virtual networking
• concepts, and the common network provider links such as satellite,
• digital subscriber line, cable, leased line, and metro-optical.

• Networking cables and connectors are network hardware components that allow devices to connect and communicate with each other. Different types of network cables exist, each offering different standards, limitations, and speeds. In addition to connecting devices, network cables and connectors are essential for transferring data and information between computers, routers, switches, and storage area networks.
• In this course, you’ll examine common network cabling implementations such as copper and fiber. You'll discover how to differentiate between the different cable types, including twisted pair, coaxial, and twinaxial. You'll also explore the many different connector and transceiver types and learn common cable management responsibilities including working with patch panels and punchdown blocks.
• Finally, you'll learn how to differentiate between 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T, 10GBASE-T, and 40GBASE-T copper Ethernet standards, as well as the 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-SX, 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX, 10GBASE-SR, and 10GBASE-LR fiber Ethernet standards.
• This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

• Computers and devices each require a unique identifier, known as

• an IP address, in order to participate on an IP network. Using a
• subnet mask, the IP address is divided into a network portion and a
• host portion. This practice is called subnetting and it allows for
• an IP network to be logically subdivided or segmented. In this
• course, you'll learn the fundamentals of public and private IP
• addresses and how to use Network Address Translation and Port
• Address Translation to translate addresses. Next, you'll examine
• the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, as well as
• various types of addresses including unicast, multicast, and
• anycast. You'll learn the basics of base-2 conversions and binary
• values and examine classes A, B, C, D, and E, which respectively
• allow you to portion a network into various different sizes.
• Finally, you’ll learn about supernetting, a more advanced form of
• subnetting, as well as IPv6 concepts, subinterfaces, and virtual IP
• addresses.

• In terms of computer networks, protocols are used to provide a

• required set of rules that enable computers to exchange
• information. Well-known Internet protocols include Transmission
• Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, User Datagram Protocol/Internet
• Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, and Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
• Ports, by comparison, are used to identify a type of network or
• specific process. Port numbers, ranging from 0 to 65535, are
• typically divided into three categories - well-known ports, dynamic
• ports, and registered ports. In this course, you’ll learn about the
• most commonly-known ports in use on a computer network today. These
• include File Transfer Protocol, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol,
• Domain Name System, and Hypertext Transfer Protocol. You'll examine
• how HTTP uses the reserved port 80 and enables computers to send
• and receive Web client-based communication and messages from a Web
• server, including web site pages and data. Next, you'll explore
• other key ports including, port 25, reserved for Simple Mail
• Transfer Protocol and how SMTP allows e-mail clients and services
• to send out e-mails. You'll learn how port 100, reserved for Post
• Office Protocol v3 and port 143, reserved for Internet Message
• Access Protocol, allow for e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail
• messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. Lastly,
• you'll learn about Secure Sockets Layer and how it can be
• incorporated into POP3 and IMAP implementations to enable more
• secure encrypted e-mail communications.

With a range from 0 to 65535 split across three groups (those reserved for TCP/IP applications, registered ports, and dynamic ports), differentiating port numbers can be confusing. In this course, you'll learn how to identify and use the most common registered ports.

You'll examine port 1433, reserved for Structured Query Language (SQL) Server and when to use SQLnet port 1521, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port 3306, and port 5060/5061, reserved for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

You'll then outline how IP protocols are used to facilitate Internet Protocol (IP) communication, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), and Gateway Routing Encapsulation (GRE).

Lastly, you'll examine connectionless and connection-oriented services, two data transmission services used to establish and terminate connections, exploring how they behave at the network and transport layers of the OSI model.

• All computers and network devices require an IP address to be

• able to connect to the Internet or other IP devices on an
• organizational network. In this course, you'll learn about the
• fundamentals of both DHCP and DNS and how DHCP can help automate
• the configuration of devices on an IP network. You’ll explore start
• of authority records as well as the various DNS record types used
• to handle requests and translate domain names into IP addresses.
• You’ll then review key characteristics of both the Network Time
• Protocol and IP Address Management. Next, you’ll examine basic
• corporate and data center architectures, and common architectures
• such as three-tiered, spine and leaf. You'll learn key
• characteristics of software-defined networking and explore the
• storage area network and common connections types that include
• fiber channel, fiber channel over Ethernet, Internet small
• computer, and Systems Interface. Lastly, you’ll learn about
• colocations and the benefits and solutions these data centers can
• offer. This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares
• learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

• Cloud networking is a type of Internet-based network solution that makes resources available to network users via a central, third-party platform that is typically hosted online.
• In this course, you’ll learn about cloud deployment and service models, and explore how to select the appropriate solution depending on your organizational needs. In addition to SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS, you’ll explore the benefits of using the desktop as a service software technology. You’ll also learn about the relationship between local and cloud resources, as well as relevant security implications and considerations.
• You’ll also examine how multitenancy allows multiple customers of the same cloud vendor to use the same computing resources. Finally, you will explore the effects of elasticity on cloud computing, with a focus on one of the main features of cloud computing, the ability to increase or decrease (scale) the size or power of a cloud solution.
• This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

• Networking devices are instrumental to the delivery of data over a network.
• In this course, you'll learn about comparing and contrasting various networking devices to determine when and where to use them on a network. You’ll also explore common networking devices such as hubs, switches, and routers in addition to network appliances used for more specialized tasks such as the Intrusion prevention system, intrusion detection system, proxy servers, and supervisory control and data acquisition systems.
• You’ll also examine different routing technologies, including dynamic routing concepts and protocols. And you’ll explore how to recognize the key differences between the Routing Information Protocol and Open Shortest Path First routing protocols, and recognize how to differentiate between link state, distance vector, and hybrid routing protocols. Lastly, you’ll learn about bandwidth management concepts including traffic shaping and quality of service.
• This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

Ethernet switching enables devices such as computers and printers to communicate seamlessly with each other on the same network.

In this course, you'll learn about key switching features. You’ll also explore different port configurations, how Address Resolution Protocol works, and examine key features of the Neighbor Discovery Protocol.

You’ll also explore how to install and configure the appropriate wireless technologies and standards and learn how to differentiate between 802.11 standards, and recognize when to implement 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless frequencies. You’ll also learn when to deploy a service set identifier as well as basic service sets, the extended service set, independent basic service set (Ad-hoc) and roaming. Lastly, you’ll learn about wireless encryption standards, cellular technologies, and multiple-input multiple-output, and multi-user MIMO.
This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

The goal of network operations is typically to monitor, manage, and respond to network-related incidents to ensure a network's overall availability and performance is not compromised.
In this course, you’ll learn about statistics and sensors available to ensure network availability. You'll explore the Simple Network Management Protocol and how it works, and examine using network device logs. You’ll also learn about interface statistics, errors, and alerts, as well as environmental factors and sensors that relate to temperature, humidity, electrical, and flooding.
You'll then learn about organizational documents and policies, and learn how to plan for incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity. Lastly, you’ll explore hardening and security policy planning strategies, and common documentation every organization should maintain. This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

Disaster recovery and high availability are areas of security planning that involve tools, policies, and procedures that ensure the availability and recovery of critical services and infrastructure in the event of a human-induced or natural disaster.

In this course, you'll explore high availability and disaster recovery concepts such as load balancing, multipathing, and network interface card teaming. You’ll learn about facilities and infrastructure support concepts including uninterruptible power supply, power distribution units, generators, HVAC, and fire suppression. Lastly, you'll explore redundancy and high availability concepts including cold, warm, and hot sites, as well as network device backup and restore states and configurations.
This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

Network security encompasses best practices and policies that are put in place to help monitor and prevent malicious attacks against both internal and external threats.

In this course, you'll learn about the confidentiality, integrity, and availability triad and other common security concepts. You’ll explore well-known threats, both internal and external, as well as common vulnerabilities and newly discovered software vulnerabilities. Next, you’ll examine authentication methods and how to perform security assessments.

You'll also examine common attacks, with a focus on technology-based attacks, and learn to differentiate between denial of service, distributed denial of service and Botnet/command and control attacks. You'll further explore how to prevent and remove ransomware and malware. Lastly, you'll learn about human and environmental attacks, such as social engineering, and how to differentiate between different social engineering attacks. This course is one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

Network security is the practice of protecting and preventing unwelcome access attempts to computer networks. In this course, you’ll learn about network hardening techniques and best practices. You’ll learn to secure networks and about wireless authentication and authorization features.

You’ll examine remote access methods and security considerations, VPN solutions, and the benefits of using virtual network computing and virtual desktop solutions. You’ll learn about remote authentication and authorization considerations and how to implement out-of-band management.

• If an incident or outage occurs, network administrators must be

• able to respond effectively and resolve network problems in a
• timely fashion. In this course, you’ll learn about best practices
• for identifying a problem, establishing a theory of probable cause,
• testing theories, formulating a plan of action to resolve a
• problem, implementing a solution, or escalating the issue. You'll
• explore how to verify full system functionality and document
• findings, actions, outcomes, and lessons learned. You’ll examine
• how to troubleshoot common cable connectivity issues and explore
• network specifications and limitations, cable considerations, and
• common issues such as attenuation, interference, bad ports, and
• duplexing issues. Lastly, you’ll learn about common cable
• connectivity tools including cable crimpers, punchdown tools, tone
• generators, loopback adapters, and cable testers. This course is
• one of a collection of courses that prepares learners for the
• N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification exam.

• Troubleshooting network connectivity is a complex responsibility

• that can require various approaches and techniques in order to
• resolve issues. In this course, you’ll learn about using the
• appropriate network troubleshooting software tools and commands.
• You’ll explore software tools such as Wi-Fi analyzers and port
• scanners and learn about traditional command line tools and network
• platform commands. You'll also examine how to troubleshoot common
• wireless connectivity issues including issues relating to
• specifications and limitations. Next, you’ll learn about common
• considerations and issues pertaining to wireless connectivity.
• You’ll explore general network troubleshooting best practices as
• they relate to wired networks. Finally, you'll examine
• considerations such as routing tables, VLAN assignment, and other
• common issues. This course is one of a collection of courses that
• prepares learners for the N10-008: CompTIA Network+ certification
• exam.