networks and security how to start?

[ajit]

well i wanna be fair to everyone out there.
i have been told on AO to learn networking and security(networking).
i am really trying to learn networking i am reading computer networks .
believe me or not i am out of hacking thing i just wanted to do it once in my life that was my
dream i have done it and i wanna come over it.
it is like a new starting.
what i wanna ask some of Ao members who are learning networking or who are experts
is---- what is the right approach to learn networking and security reading books or some
certifications if certifications which one .
and plz don't say CCNA it is very costly.

[d0ppelg@nger]

What do you mean costly? The CCNA is ~$100 for the test and say maybe ~$50 for a book. That is about the cheapest cert that you'll find in network or security area. Mind you there is a lot of reading that is involved, which is some time from your day. CCNP is multiple tests at ~$100 a peice, not to mention the books or classes.....Certs are expensive, but for some unknown reason Managers love to see a peice of paper on someone's desk rather than having a compentent person working for them, well not all managers. Experience is finally coming back into fashion, and the grocery bagger with an MS cert or Cisco cert are starting to have to prove their worth.....

Well there are lots of certs out there for the security industry, not just network. Just take a look at what cramsession has on their "security" section.

http://studyguides.cramsession.com/c...ty/default.asp

[ajit]

what i mean by costly is by indian standerds it cost 8000 indian rupees +7000 tutorial+1000 for books wich to me is costly wat i wanna ask every one is-can i clear ccna wityhout classes
if yes wat sould i read ?is there any online tuts on ccna?

[shadow_dancer]

u may visit these links :
dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/network.html
for scholl pf networking .. here the issue www.cosn.org.
if you want to know more about ccna www.cisco.com/en/US/learning or www.ccna.ca
if not enough .. go to FAQ's and they will help u .

by the way .. what kind of wetworking do you want to learn ? .. there are kinds of the network , remote, peer to peer, domain, workgroup or else ? and what operating system do u use now ?
just read more and more and it will make u greater then.

[instronics]

Hello.

It is really difficult for someone to tell you all the subjects/topics needed to learn such a massive topic like networks, or security. It is true, the ones where you pay money will have a certain list of standards that you would have to go through. Another way, is to get as many books, and start reading. Its easy to find out what to read up on. An example when you start reading on networks, and somewhere along the readÃ*ng you come up with terms such as bind, dhcp, tcp/ip etc.... and you do not know any deeper information on these words or terms, then lookup books or documents related to these terms or words. There are several books out there which only cover the subject "bind", "dhcp", "tcp/ip" etc... As you read and learn, you will always encounter things that might not make sense to you at first, so go and look for information regarding them. Back to my example, once you get the information on let us say bind, and you have read alot on bind itself, then continue to read the first book where that term was first mentioned, that way whilst you continue to read you will understand what is meant by bind or any other term you were unfamiliar with. There is no book that will answer all your questions for you. Every book or information will bring along other sources, as books or documents. In order to secure a webserver for example, you need to know the basics of networking. In order to know the basics of networking, you need to know the deeper details of your OS that you choose to use. In order to learn the deeper details of you OS you need to learn the basicsl. What im trying to say is, in order to learn about any subject, if you read alot, you will automatically see what other information is needed and what and where to get it from. The information provided by reading will answer all your questions and will also point out to you what to read up on next. An excellent source is www.oreilly.com They have so much reading material about almost any subject. Remeber one thing though. Security comes at the very end. Learn everything else first before attempting to go into security. Do not think you can learn alot within a few moths. It can take much much longer. Be in no rush to go into the subjects that interest you at this moment. Learn from the very beggining. Learn things that might seem boring to you ( i hated reading about subnetting, i hated reading about mail servers and print services, they all seemed boring and not important to me) but in order to secure any system, i had to learn this too. Without this, it would be madness for me to setup anything security related. Also, your best friend at all times should be www.google.com


Good luck, and i hope that this site here will also help you in many ways.

Cheers.

[IKnowNot]

don't know if this fits, just my 2 cents for someone starting out, assuming they are young ( or young at heart )
there is nothing like hands-on experience to help you learn; and nothing more satisfying then doing it yourself.

. read, read, read ... The Network Administrators' Guide

. Grab yourself some old computers that people are throwing out that still boot, network them ( they will probably use windows of some sort )

. read, read, read ... list of HOWTOs

. then format some of them and load linux and tie them to the network. (if the junk computers can't handle X-windows, then you'll learn a lot more!! get friendly with the command line! )

. read, read, read ... JustLinux, SANs Reading Room, CSRC/NIST , CERT

. pretend everybody on AO is going to try to hack you, not to mention all those ignorant script kiddies, and set up your OWN firewall to protect the network. Once you are sure you have protected your network, get friends to try and hack you, then rewrite your firewall so they actually can't. ( A.O. has some great tut's and links to help )

. read, read, read ... netfilter/iptables, Linux Security.COM

. Now, set up an enterprise using the NEW junk computers you found, and you should have by now, if you have been reading, included an IDS ( is Tripwire on your firewall box and server, a separate box for logging and snort, etc.? ) and you regularly check the logs, etc.?

. read, read, read ... The Linux Kernel

. You should have built custom kernels for the linux boxes to maximize efficiency and cut down on unnecessary services running, learned what processes need/use what permissions and learned how to CHROOT processes.

. You should have written your own policies for your network for everyone who uses it, such as a security policy, an incident response policy, an incident response procedure, and a formal maintenance procedure.

*****Learn to document everything you do, so if you suddenly move out of the house a family member can maintain and/or rebuild every system if disaster happens ( that's not the mind set of most CIOs out there, but the RIGHT WAY TO DO IT )
read, read, read ...

If you have reached this stage you should begin to realize that Degrees and Certs will be needed to actually make a living at this, but you will be more comfortable with the fact that you don't know enough. The field of study is growing exponentially and in far more different directions then you could have imagined. There will only be a small percentage of Geeks out there that will be able to keep a leash on it and bring sanity to the world.

just my 2 cents.

[d0ppelg@nger]

Well from personal experience, I was able to study for about 6 weeks and I passed the CCNA without a problem. It's basically a lot of memorization, especially on the Cisco CLI commands, you can't short cut them on the test like you can when you actually work on their equipment. One big plus I had when I was studying was that I had a friend that was also taking the test and we studied together. It really helps I think to have a study partner that can test you and vice versa. Print out all you can off the web, braindumps, tech sheets, etc....It's not a stretch to just study and pass. You really don't need equipment to study with on the CCNA, although if you can find a good sim for your computer that would not hurt. Get a buddy and start studying!!!!!

[Muhannad]

if any want to learn about network security quiqly he just has to see this slides at
www.williamstallings.com/dcce6.htm

if you need help just write to
star_eng@hotmail.com

[PuReExcTacy]

If your serious about computer networking and computer security. there are many resources online, e-books, videos, texts, and many, many pages that cover the topics in detail. Invest your time, then invest some money on an exam. After your first exam and being competant with what you learn, you should be able to get an entry level job in the field, where you are sure to learn more. They may even offer you more training and pay for the courses. Hope this info inspirers you to reach your goal.


PuRe

[tonybradley]

Seems self-serving, but I would recommend About.com as a decent starting point as well. About.com has a ton of original content as well as links to a multitude of other resources so its a good one-stop-shopping place to start.

For your purposes I would recommend the following two sites within About.com:

Computer Networking
Internet / Network Security