Hands-on guides for real network hardware, organised by device. Pick the router or switch on your desk and follow its guide from console cable to a working network. Each device has its own page, with a beginner series first and then the faster lab builds. The ideas (addresses, DHCP, NAT, VLANs) are the same on every device, so what you learn on one carries over to the next.
No router needed. These guides explain what a network is and how the Internet actually works, with commands you run on the laptop you already have. Every device guide below builds on them.
What a network is, packets, MAC and IP addresses, switches versus routers, the layers and ports, DNS, NAT, and one web request followed from your keyboard to the server and back.
Further guides in this series will each take one idea from the introduction and go deeper: subnetting by hand, how Wi-Fi works, IPv6, and how to troubleshoot a network step by step.
A router connects different networks together and decides where each packet goes. It's also where DHCP, NAT and remote management usually live. Each router guide starts from a factory-fresh box and a console cable.
An ISR G2 branch router with two Gigabit ports and IOS 15. A three-part beginner series takes it from console cable to a laptop on the Internet. Lab builds then cover the switch, NAT in depth, and VLANs.
Guides for other routers are on the way. Each one will get its own page like the 1921's, and will follow the same path: console, first network, Internet, then the lab build.
A switch connects many devices on the same network and moves traffic between them by hardware address. Managed switches add VLANs, trunks, PoE and their own management address. Dedicated switch setup guides are coming.
A 24-port PoE+ Layer-2 switch, and the one used in the 1921 lab. Until its own guide is ready, its configuration is covered inside the router guide's Setup (management VLAN, uplink, access ports, SSH) and VLANs (VLANs and trunking) pages.
Each switch will get a beginner path of its own: console and first boot, a management address, access ports, VLANs and trunks, then PoE and port security.
Pick the box on your desk. Every guide starts with a console cable and a blinking prompt.