Is networking hardware knowledge related to software programming?

Question

I am a programmer. More specifically, I do php and website stuff.

At school, there is this class that I can take called CISCO Networking Academy.

Cisco Networking Academy is a global education program that teaches students how to design, build, troubleshoot, and secure computer networks for increased access to career and economic opportunities in communities around the world. Networking Academy provides online courses, interactive tools, and hands-on learning activities to help individuals prepare for ICT and networking careers in virtually every type of industry.

Would taking this class benefit software programming skills - especially in web engineering?

Answer 1

Yes. It should teach you how networks are built and what their properties are so when coding software that works on a network - and that includes web programming - you'll know why your software behaves the way it does.

For example, you'll have a better understanding of why some calls have to be asynchronous or why you need to include time-outs in calls to databases etc.

Answer 2

I have passed on applicants that can't describe the TCP/IP handshake and HTTP protocol. It's very applicable for anything other than pure front-end work.

Answer 3

Every programmer should know the difference between NetBIOS names, FQDN's and IP addresses. Plus the reason one should use FQDN's when calling databases or external resources - not using IP addresses.

So yes, a foundation Cisco course will teach you these things.

• NetBIOS = Names that Windows uses, something like \MyServer\c_drive

• FQDN = Fully Qualified Domain Names, these are what most people call URLs

• IP = the numbers of a host, any machine running IP will use these and any firewall will block on IP, never on a name. Reason above to use FQDN and not IP is this allows you to use DNS failover (with an option for backup servers) and also changing the IP is just a DNS entry away.