Free online courseNetworking Fundamentals

Course Description

Reliable cloud services, stable websites, secure servers and fast applications all depend on one foundation: networking. This free online course helps you build the practical knowledge needed to understand how devices connect, how data moves, and why common network problems happen in real environments. If you are moving into cloud computing, web servers, DevOps or IT support, you will gain the core vocabulary and mental models that make troubleshooting easier and configuration decisions more confident.

You will start with the building blocks of modern networks by learning how hosts identify themselves, what IP addresses represent, and how networks are organized. From there, you will see how different devices shape traffic flows, clarifying the roles of hubs, bridges, switches and routers. Instead of treating network gear as a mystery box, you will understand what each device does, where it fits, and how it influences performance, reachability and segmentation.

The course also turns the OSI model into a practical tool rather than a memorization exercise. You will connect layers to real outcomes, like how end-to-end delivery works, what the transport layer is responsible for, and why session, presentation and application concepts still matter when diagnosing issues. Along the way, you will explore what hosts do to communicate on local and foreign networks, including how address resolution works and how devices choose the next hop when the destination is not on the same subnet.

To round out your foundation, you will look at how switches learn and forward frames, how VLANs are used to segment networks, and how routers make forwarding decisions with the help of tables. You will also learn why hierarchical routing designs and summarization matter in larger environments. Finally, you will connect the infrastructure view to real internet services by examining essential protocols such as DNS, DHCP, HTTP/HTTPS, TLS/SSL, SMTP and FTP, including an approachable look at HTTP vs HTML and what happens when data traverses the internet.

By the end, you will be better prepared to speak confidently about networking, read diagrams, understand common protocol behavior, and troubleshoot issues that affect cloud deployments and web servers. You will also reinforce learning with questions and exercises that check understanding as you progress.