Chapter 6: Basic Networking and the Internet, of the book Cybersecurity for the Home and Office takes the reader through the basics of how networks function, and how we access the internet. If you can start by understanding your home or small office network, that goes a long way towards understanding larger networks and the internet.
There's some helpful diagrams I created which are in the book, but I can't put them here unfortunately due to copyright restrictions.
One thing that can be very confusing and daunting are the multitude of cables and connectors we may have to deal with. This page has some photos to clarify what some of those connectors are.
Here’s some photos of some common networking cables and connectors, so that you can recognize each of them.
The chapter is organized with these sections:
a. Introduction
b. Network interface controller (NIC)
c. Internet
i. Dial-up
ii. Cable internet (“broadband”)
iii. Phone company internet (DSL, FiOS)
iv. Cellular company internet
v. Satellite internet
d. Modem
e. Router
f. Internet Communication 101
i. IP addresses on the internet
ii. IP Addresses on your local network: Network address translation (NAT)
iii. Ports: Virtual router ports and computer ports
iv. TCP/UDP internet protocols (language)
v. Network Layers (OSI model, TCP/IP model)
g. Wired networking
h. Wireless networking
i. Encryption in transit
j. Conclusion