Appendix Creference
Sources & further reading
Where the material comes from, and what to read next — in the order it becomes useful.
C.1Where each module comes from
| Module | Source notes |
|---|---|
| 01 What a network is | Foundations/OSI-TCPIP-Models.md, Foundations/Network-Design-And-Topologies.md |
| 02 Packets and layers | Foundations/Packet-Flow-Encapsulation.md, Foundations/Ethernet-ARP-And-Local-Delivery.md |
| 03 Addresses and subnets | Foundations/Addressing-Subnetting-CIDR.md, Labs/Subnetting-Drills.md |
| 04 The local network | Foundations/Ethernet-ARP-And-Local-Delivery.md, Switching-LAN/VLANs-Trunking.md, Switching-LAN/STP-And-Loop-Prevention.md |
| 05 Crossing the world | Routing/Routing-Fundamentals.md, Routing/Route-Selection-And-Metrics.md, Routing/OSPF-Fundamentals.md, Routing/BGP-And-Internet-Routing.md |
| 06 Names and numbers | Core-Protocols/DNS-DHCP-ICMP.md, Core-Protocols/Ports-And-Services.md |
| 07 Conversations and trust | Core-Protocols/IP-TCP-UDP.md, Core-Protocols/TLS-And-HTTPS.md, Core-Protocols/HTTP-Versions-And-QUIC.md |
| 08 Wireless and the edge | Switching-LAN/Wireless-80211.md |
| 09 Boundaries | Network-Services/NAT-And-PAT.md, Network-Services/Firewalls-And-ACLs.md, Security/Network-Security-Fundamentals.md, Security/Zero-Trust-And-Segmentation.md |
| 10 When it breaks | Labs/Troubleshooting-Scenarios.md, Automation-Observability/Telemetry-And-Monitoring.md, Labs/Home-Lab-Setup.md |
C.2The primary documents
| Document | What it settles |
|---|---|
| RFC 791 — Internet Protocol | The IPv4 header, TTL, fragmentation |
| RFC 793 — Transmission Control Protocol | The handshake and the state machine |
| RFC 1034 / 1035 — DNS | The hierarchy, records, and why caching is specified |
| RFC 1918 — Private addresses | The three private ranges, in four pages |
| RFC 2131 — DHCP | DORA, leases and relay behavior |
| RFC 3021 — /31 on point-to-point links | Why a two-address subnet has two usable addresses |
| RFC 8200 — IPv6 | The fixed 40-byte header, and what was removed |
| RFC 8446 — TLS 1.3 | The one-round-trip handshake and 0-RTT |
| RFC 9000 / 9001 — QUIC and HTTP/3 | Per-stream recovery, connection IDs |
| RFC 4271 — BGP-4 | Path attributes, and the absence of authentication |
| BCP 38 / RFC 2827 — ingress filtering | Why spoofed source addresses should never leave a network |
C.3Tools worth installing
| Tool | Use |
|---|---|
dig / drill | DNS queries with TTLs, specific resolvers, full traces |
mtr | Repeated traceroute with per-hop loss — better than traceroute for diagnosis |
tcpdump / Wireshark | The wire itself. Learn -ni any -w file.pcap first |
ss / nc | What is listening, and whether a port answers |
ip route get | Which route a specific destination would use, and why |
openssl s_client | Certificate chain, dates, SNI behavior, protocol version |
ethtool | Link speed, duplex, and per-queue error counters |
| containerlab / FRR | A real routing lab on one machine, no vendor images required |
C.4License and reuse
This course is released under CC BY 4.0: copy it, adapt it, teach from it, including commercially — with credit to Starphix and a link to the license.
The prose, diagrams and exercises are original synthesis built on public research and documentation. The papers, standards and product names remain the property of their authors and are cited rather than reproduced. Prices, model names and benchmark figures date quickly; check them against a current source before quoting them in a classroom or a proposal.
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