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Old 10th July 2008
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JMJ_coder View Post
What I am looking for right now are good resources that I can read up on for the configuration and implementation of such a network.
If you really want to learn networking well, there isn't a cookbook recipe. I would suggest:
  • Learn IP addressing first. Many of the details you will be forced to learn here will hold up when working with various protocols. A classic paper on the subject is the following:

    http://www.3com.com/other/pdfs/infra..._US/501302.pdf

    ...however note that the formatting has problems with superscripting.
  • At this point, you should have sufficient background to understand what DHCP is doing. Read the manpage to dhcpd.conf(5) for configuration issues. The NetBSD Wiki has more information:

    http://wiki.netbsd.se/How_to_set_up_a_DHCP_Server
  • Next, start reading on firewalls. Note that NetBSD aficionados can use PF originating from the OpenBSD project. One of the better introductory papers is Hansteen's:

    http://home.nuug.no/~peter/pf/
  • As J65nko will say, learning tcpdump(1) is imperative to debugging firewall issues. Wireshark is another popular packet sniffer:

    http://pkgsrc.se/net/wireshark
  • As for the other protocols/applications mentioned, become very familiar with the information in the appropriate manpages. Reading RFC's will build character too.
  • If you want to play with DNS, I would suggest leaving it out until late in the game. Make sure more basic elements are working well first.
When trying to learn networking, it is best to keep the configuration simple until you have developed enough experience to diagnose the various problems which you will likely encounter. A favorite patron back on BSDForums never heeded this advice, & constantly whined about how nothing worked after he had piled layers of applications on top of each other where he didn't understand any of them.

Lastly, poke around the Internet & decide for yourself what is important to you.
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