Virtual LANs (VLANs) are common features built into almost all switches. VLANs provide superb control of your LAN but have their own quirks that a good tech understands.
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This clip is from the chapter "Local Area Networking"...

Even the most basic router has settings beyond the basic setup. Protocols such as Quality of Service (QoS), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) give extra features to enhance the capabilities...

NAT is a handy tool but comes with a huge drawback: no servers behind the firewall are accessible to the outside world. Port forwarding allows opening specific ports on your NAT-enabled router to provide access to servers behind...

All routers share some basic configuration steps every tech must know. From router passwords to LAN IDs, this is the place to learn about these settings.
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This clip is from the chapter "Local Area Networking" of the series...

The CompTIA A+ exams challenge test takers to perform many configurations of a typical home router. But what does a router do for a SOHO network?
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This clip is from the chapter "Local Area Networking" of the series "CompTIA A+...

When a user complains the Internet is down, what's often happening is that DNS isn't working. There are a few simple tools and procedures to diagnose and repair DNS problems.
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This clip is from the chapter "Local Area...

Individual hosts use IP addresses, but humans are terrible at memorizing long strings of numbers. To make our lives easier, most TCP/IP networks (and certainly the Internet) use the Domain Name System (DNS) to apply more human-friendly...

Manually entering IP addresses into all our devices is an administrative nightmare. To avoid this mess, smart techs use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to automatically provide IP addresses to individual hosts.
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You'd be hard-pressed to find a home or small office router that isn't using Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT provides some amazing benefits but also has some serious limitations.
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This clip is from the chapter "Local...

The designers of IP addresses reserved many IP addresses for special uses. From loopback to private IP addresses, a good tech understands these special addresses as well as when and how to use them.
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This clip is from the...

IP addressing was designed from the ground up for flexibility in supporting LANs and WANs of any size. The first step towards understanding this flexibility is to understand Network IDs and how they interact with a subnet mask to get...

The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the cornerstone of Internet addressing and routing. It's important to understand IP addressing schemes and to see how TCP and IP work together to make the Internet...

When a user complains the Internet is down, what's often happening is that DNS isn't working. There are a few simple tools and procedures to diagnose and repair DNS problems.
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This clip is from the chapter "Book Chapter 19 -...

Many printers today come with wireless capabilities and can connect directly to an infrastructure or ad hoc 80 2.11 network. This episode looks at manual and automatic setup options, plus how to connect a printer for cloud-based...

In this episode, Mike looks at the benefits of cloud computing (or moving virtual machines out onto the Internet). The cloud VMs enable benefits such as rapid elasticity and on-demand scaling, so you can quickly support any Internet...

In this episode, Mike shows how Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) work and why people use VPN connections. He discusses the types of protocols and clients that make this work today and walks through a generic VPN setup.
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This...

Networks sometimes fail. A good network tech knows how read symptoms and diagnose a network quickly to enable users to get back to work.
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This clip is from the chapter "Book Chapter 19 - Local Area Networking" of the series...

Virtual LANs (VLANs) are common features built into almost all switches. VLANs provide superb control of your LAN but have their own quirks that a good tech understands.
<
br/>
This clip is from the chapter "Book Chapter 19 - Local...

All routers share some basic configuration steps every tech must know. From router passwords to LAN IDs, this is the place to learn about these settings.
<
br/>
This clip is from the chapter "Book Chapter 19 - Local Area Networking"...

The CompTIA A+ exams challenge test takers to perform many configurations of a typical home router. But what does a router do for a SOHO network?
<
br/>
This clip is from the chapter "Book Chapter 19 - Local Area Networking" of the...

Individual hosts use IP addresses, but humans are terrible at memorizing long strings of numbers. To make our lives easier, most TCP/IP networks (and certainly the Internet) use the Domain Name System (DNS) to apply more human-friendly...

An IP address directs a packet to the right computer, but it's the port number that makes a connection between two applications on separate systems. It's critical to understand how port numbers do their job and to memorize many special...

The traditional IP addressing scheme (called IPv4) is quickly being replaced with the much more advanced IPv6 scheme. IPv6 adds several benefits over IPv4, and good techs know how to use it in our systems.
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This clip is from...

Manually entering IP addresses into all our devices is an administrative nightmare. To avoid this mess, smart techs use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to automatically provide IP addressing to individual hosts.
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