[ale] [Semi-OT] Networking Equipment

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 11:43:51AM -0500, Leam Hall wrote:
> It really depends on what you want to do. If you're a programmer
> then knowing the RFCs is useful. If you're adding to your sysadmin
> knowledge then they don't matter nearly as much, if at all. The
> TCP/IP stack has minimal relevance in practical use; you need to
> know physical, switching, and routing layers.

Layer 2 (for multiple types of Layer 2) has documentation in RFC
form.  There might even be an RFC or two that cover Layer 1
specification, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

> Similar to the Red Hat/Ubuntu answer I provided earlier. If you want
> to work with networking, use Cisco and get Todd Lammle's CCNA
> book. If you want to work on networking, then something open like
> OpenWRT, reading the RFCs, and such become key.

Any time a vendor-specific answer is given, it (in my book) loses
credibility.  As with the multitude of Linux distributions out there,
there are multitudes of hardware used for networking, and it is the
knowledge of the standards that they all implement that is important.

Specifics, such as user interfaces and proprietary extensions, are
easy to work with if you have the base that is the standard stack.  It
doesn't matter if you're talking about operating systems, Linux
distributions, networking, or even cars.

	--- Mike
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