Troubleshooting/Networking Future

So here we are...the final module of the networking course! I was looking forward to getting this course completed and moving on to learning about operating systems including beginning to use the command line. This final module was about troubleshooting common networking issues and the learning objectives were:

• To inspect common network connectivity problems
• To use tools available in Windows, MacOS and Linux to troubleshoot network issues

And so I began. First up I was learning about the various tools that can be utilised to verify network connectivity, one of these such tools being the command ping. Ping is a tool that enables an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) message, an 'echo request', to be sent to an IP address or domain name. Another utility I learnt was
traceroute, which is used to discover the pathway between two nodes, giving information about each hop by manipulating the TTL field at the IP level. Finally, I learnt how to test port connectivity by using the command netcat in Linux & MacOS or test-netconnection for Windows operating systems.

Next I dug a little deeper into DNS to understand name resolution tools like the nslookup command, public DNS servers, DNS registration & expiration, as well as how loopback addresses use hosts files to direct traffic back to yourself. To finish this module and the course I briefly touched on the future of networking, include the Cloud and how it is being used, before looking into IPv6 addressing, headers and how those addresses work in harmony with IPv4 addresses.

And there we have it...after finishing my final piece of graded work, the end of my Bits and Bytes of Networking course has come to an end, with a final overall mark of 100% again! 

https://coursera.org/verify/PJE8KWWRTMBW

I've really enjoyed this whole course and feel like I've really started to get my teeth into some fairly complex aspects of networking...I particularly enjoyed getting a deeper understanding at the network layer and how subnetting can be utilised in a number of ways!! 

Time to learn about operating systems! 😁

Dave