My name is James Seymour and I'm a principal content publishing manager on the global customer learning team here at Microsoft. I have a background in training and consulting with more than 20 years of IT industry experience focused primarily on networking infrastructure and messaging. I'm excited to spend the next few hours with you examining the essentials of networks from basic network components to how the Internet connects users and businesses all over the world. Now, you've already taken the first step in your journey committing the time and effort to explore the prospects of IT support as a career. In this course, you'll take the next step in that journey by expanding on your technical knowledge related to networking fundamentals. We will begin by introducing you to core networking concept. We will analyze the purpose and benefits of creating networks, and then we'll look at how networks are configured in homes, offices, between offices, and around the world with the Internet. This includes a review of networking typologies, physical networking, and networking protocols. This course concludes with an introduction to network troubleshooting including how to troubleshoot common networking issues. This networking essentials course consists of five modules. In module one, you'll be introduced to core networking concepts. You'll answer the question, what is networking? And you'll examine that benefits that networking provides to businesses and homes. From there, you'll learn about internets, extranets and of course the internet, which you probably already know something about. In this course, we'll take a behind the scenes look at the internet by examining the internet infrastructure including security zones, perimeter networks, and firewalls. We'll then wrap up this module by examining different types of networks such as local area networks and wide area networks, and by introducing you to network topologies. In module 2, you'll examine actual physical networking. We'll start with a conceptual look at networks including network architecture, network layers, and basic network equipment. We'll then look at wireless networks and cover such topics as wireless standards, wireless network security, and wireless interface cards. We'll then transition from wireless networking to wired networking. We will review wired media and transmission types as well as Network Interface Cards. And we'll wrap up with a look at the benefits of wireless networking versus wired networking. In module 3, you will be introduced to network protocols which control how networks communicate with other devices and networks. We'll examine what protocols are, we'll look at the basic concepts of protocols, and we'll introduce you to the basic types of protocols. We will then move into the realm of Internet Protocol addressing and you'll be introduced to the two most popular IP addressing methodologies IPV4 for an IPV6. We'll then conclude the module by examining networking services. The king of which is domain name systems or DNS. DNS is a methodology by which Internet addressing is constructed. In module 4, you'll be introduced to network troubleshooting. We'll provide a high-level overview of what network troubleshooting is and we will look at how performance and security monitoring works. You'll then be introduced to common network troubleshooting tools. There are many tools that analyze diagnose and in some cases resolve networking issues. We'll look at the most commonly used tools that help troubleshoot most networking issues. And lastly, we'll introduce you to the basic network troubleshooting techniques. This includes connectivity testing as well as troubleshooting wired and wireless networks and network devices. In module 5, you'll be asked to test the knowledge you've retained from the course by taking a final exam. After that exam, we'll ask that you take a post course survey and then you examine whether you met your goals for this course. So with that, I welcome you to the IT Support Networking Essentials online training course. Thank you for your time and best of luck with your training.