Series

DevOps Networking

16 parts · about 207min total. Written in order — start at part 1.

  1. Part 1

    Lesson 01 — What Networking Means in DevOps, and IP Addresses

    Networking from zero: why machines need to reach each other, who hands out IP addresses, how the world ran out of them, and what IPv6 fixes.

    · 13 min · beginner

  2. Part 2

    Lesson 02 — Ports

    How ports identify which program on a machine a request is for, who claims them, the permission rule for low numbers, and why every request carries a source port too.

    · 13 min · beginner

  3. Part 3

    Lesson 03 — Network Models and Layers

    What a network layer actually is, where the official numbers and names come from, and how encapsulation nests the message like envelopes inside envelopes.

    · 10 min · beginner

  4. Part 4

    Lesson 04 — DNS

    How DNS turns names into numbers by walking a chain of delegation, why caching and TTL exist, and who actually runs, sells, and rents out domain names.

    · 30 min · beginner

  5. Part 5

    Lesson 05 — DHCP

    How DHCP automatically hands a joining computer its number, DNS runner, and way out through a four-line conversation, and why the number is a lease rather than a gift.

    · 9 min · beginner

  6. Part 6

    Lesson 06 — MAC Addresses and ARP

    Why every device carries a second, factory-burned address, how the Layer 2 envelope and ARP handle the final metres of delivery, and why the MAC envelope is rewritten at every hop while the IP envelope crosses the world untouched.

    · 13 min · beginner

  7. Part 7

    Lesson 07 — Routing

    Since Lesson 01, one phrase has carried the whole story: junctions read the address and "pick a direction." The MAC lesson sharpened it — the IP envelope crosses the world untouched while each hop reads 140.82.121.4 and decides which way to pass it.

    · 9 min · beginner

  8. Part 8

    Lesson 08 — Subnets and CIDR

    Three lessons have leaned on the same vague phrase: the DHCP bundle describing "which addresses count as the house," the laptop's local-or-gateway decision, and routing table lines like 192.168.1.x → house side.

    · 7 min · beginner

  9. Part 9

    Lesson 09 — NAT

    Lesson 01 promised: "your whole home shares one internet-facing number, and the router does the translation in both directions." The factory-to-pixels story in Lesson 06 flagged the same gap: the reply's journey back into the house skips a step.

    · 13 min · beginner

  10. Part 10

    Lesson 10 — TCP vs UDP

    From the layers lesson, the message is lines read by different readers:

    · 12 min · beginner

  11. Part 11

    Lesson 11 — HTTP and HTTPS

    From the layers lesson:

    · 16 min · beginner

  12. Part 12

    Lesson 12 — TLS

    TLS sits just below Layer 7 .

    · 13 min · beginner

  13. Part 13

    Lesson 13 — Firewalls

    Firewalls make decisions using the envelope layers already covered:

    · 12 min · beginner

  14. Part 14

    Lesson 14 — Troubleshooting Tools

    dig asks a DNS runner a question and prints the full answer.

    · 11 min · beginner

  15. Part 15

    Lesson 15 — VPN

    VPN = Virtual Private Network.

    · 14 min · beginner

  16. Part 16

    Lesson 16 — DNSSEC (and the post-quantum wrinkle)

    Lesson 04 taught the whole DNS chain: you type github.com, your runner walks root → .com → the owner's computer, and comes back with "github.com is 140.82.121.4." One question was never asked:

    · 12 min · beginner