Where can I find a good primer on network administration?

Question

Things like DHCP, IP addresses, configurations...that kind of thing. I have a Google search open, and it seems like there's just so much out there, I'm not sure where to begin. Perhaps there are some especially good websites/books/blogs out there that might help. Thanks

Answer 1

Network administration is a very broad field, and just about every organization will have its own ideas about the skills that are required. A good understanding of fundamentals never hurts, though, and one of the best books I've ever encountered for that purpose is Howard C. Berkowitz's Designing Addressing Architectures for Routing and Switching.

Answer 2

You might like to look at the book The Practice of System and Network Administration (Amazon link).

The first edition of this was an excellent book and this new edition has also received glowing reviews.

Answer 3

If you're looking for a good primer on the mechanisms that allow the internet to work, I learned the most about it from Security Now! Unfortunately, around episode 75, it starts getting really bad and turns into an hour long infomercial for the Sony E-reader, but up until then is really good.

Having a fundamental understanding of what makes all of this work makes finding problems so much easier.

Answer 4

For the basics what you need to start with is a TCP/IP introduction. For the actual act of administration that varies from one OS to another so you need to mention which OS you are using.

You might want to ask this question on the administrator version of this stackoverflow: http://serverfault.com/