Re: [gentoo-user] [WAY OT] wanna learn networking internals

[Francisco Ares]

2015-09-02 17:23 GMT-03:00 Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>:

> On 02/09/2015 21:43, J. Roeleveld wrote:
> > On Wednesday, September 02, 2015 02:19:24 PM Francisco Ares wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Sorry for such WAY out of topic message, but Gentoo users are also way
> out
> >> of regular computer users.
> >>
> >> I intend to learn more deep details about networking intrinsics,
> (packets,
> >> ports, negotiation, UDP, multicast, unicast, TCP, ethernet, DHCP,
> >> protocols, and so on) so I decided to recur to this list.  Googling the
> >> terms, just gets me to network administration and equipment
> interconnection.
> >>
> >> Any hints on web resources for this research?
> >
> > It would depend on the level you are at now. :)
> >
> > Generally, I know more than enough about how it all works to do my job
> and
> > keep my own systems running reliably.
> >
> > But generally I simply listen when the likes of Alan McKinnon start
> talking
> > about networking.
>
> Hey, that's me!
>
> As it turns out, I got a call last week from an old mate who needed
> someone to deliver his 2-day TCP/IP course on short notice. I had 2 days
> free anyway so I help out.
>
> It all went well till we got into the dirty details of TCP header
> fields. You know how that stuff works - a whole bunch of fields that we
> mostly ignore and concentrate on just the few we know are important.
> Anyway, there was me standing in front of a class going down the list.
> And all I could think of was "WTF is most of this stuff??? Half of these
> fields I've never heard of!"
>
> There was more fun to come. Someone asked to clarify the exact
> differences between unicast, multicast, anycast and any other *cast that
> happens to be. Holy cow. Try explain that off the cuff without having
> time to think the answer through first :-)
>
> To the OP:
>
> Someone suggested RUTE. That's a good one, it may be 14 years old, but
> networking basics have not changed. The Linux Network Administrator's
> Guide available at tldp.org is also worth reading.
>
> And then wikipedia too. Technical facts are usually reliable there and
> most articles give you nice pictures and tables without assuming you
> already know it all anyway.
>
> Finally you already have Gentoo, which is probably the best tool you
> could have to find out such stuff. Read up on a topic, grasp the basic
> theory, then follow it all through on Gentoo seeing how the bits fit
> together.
>
> For the full picture in strict technical language, nothing beats the
> proper Internet RFCs. They are not for the faint-hearted though.
>
> I don't want to scare you off but working in spare time it probably
> takes something like a year to go from networking user to having a
> decent depth of knowledge about it. It's all logical, all the info is
> there, and it can be understood. There's just so much of it :-)
>
>
> >
> > You could start with sites like:
> >
> >
> http://web.stanford.edu/class/msande91si/www-spr04/readings/week1/InternetWhitepaper.htm
> >
> > --
> > Joost
> >
>
>
> --
> Alan McKinnon
> alan.mckinnon@×××××.com
>
>
>
Thanks, Alan.

Well, I have noticed that, for the few details I got an eye on, it will
take a good time for an deep dive in.

I will start to look into some RFCs and see how much can be digested. Also,
downloaded RUTE to read during lunch, alternating with some RFCs ;-)

Best Regards,
Francisco