Wed May 11, 2016 10:22 pm
Learn about the OSI model - in particular, learn what layers 1 - 4 do.
I find that many people posting here have problems that come from a lack of fundamental understanding about what's going on.
The OSI model helps you break down the various things that are happening into much more easily-understood components.
Once you know those pieces, and what they do, you'll be able to understand that some given set of symptoms must be coming from TCP ports, for instance, so you wouldn't even waste time thinking about vlans or MAC addresses...
Here's a starting list of examples of where things fit in the OSI model:
Layer 1 - fiber, cat5e cable, coaxial cable, 5.8Ghz wireless, etc....
Layer 2 - Ethernet, WiFi, PPP, DOCSIS, ATM (usually just DSL in today's world)
Layer 3 - IP, IPv6,
Layer 4 - TCP, UDP (these are the two most common - these are the "port numbers" protocols)
Layer 5 - 7 are a bit ambiguous in TCP/IP - most people just refer to the whole group as "layer 7" - and these are the things you may have heard of: DNS, http, ftp, smtp, pop3, imap, ssh, etc....
The first time I was ever taught this, it sounded like more of that "this is boring theory crap that doesn't really apply to real life" but I was pretty wrong. It really does come in VERY handy to understand this theory and apply it to network design and troubleshooting.
Next, I'd say to learn the basic functions of things like routers, switches, and access points. The words get thrown around alot as if they're all the same, but in networking, each one is a certain kind of device that does certain things. Many devices (like lots of Mikrotik devices) combine the functions of many of these into one piece of gear, but you need to know what the components are and what jobs they do.