Before I begin, I love your name and the fact that the question and enthusiasm of your post match it makes me very happy lol
I am a very visual learner. My learning style is geared around
watching and
doing. As such, the combination of watching things on YouTube and buying stuff to play with is how I learned.
I think EliTheComputerGuy does a really good job in this old video explaining the
layers of networking.
Once you have an understanding of that topic, I think it helps everything else start to make sense. When we are talking about networking specifically, but any system generally, you need to understand at what stage does "X" matter. The OSI model does this for us, and Eli does a good job of explaining it.
The second thing I think worth learning about would be VLANs. Keith Barker does a really good job of helping you visualize this concept.
The next thing I would recommend is to buy an old used enterprise switch, they can be had for under 50 dollars, and in many cases less.
Here is an example of a $26 dollar HP switch. This guy is probably spending more $$ to ship them than he is making on the actual product.
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HP (J9086A) 24-Ports Rack-Mountable Switch Managed stackable at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Start trying to
break things and figure out how to fix them.
You can follow along with a guide like this one:
It teaches you alot of key important topics. If you have any questions, that's exactly what this community is for. I also try to keep my eye on stuff here, so shoot mme a PM if you want to talk more. Go forth and break stuff and come back with questions!
