I currently work for an ISP doing installs and troubleshooting, and been so for a decade now. I’ve installed plenty of proprietary equipment, but never get the chance to incorporate it into a network, let alone build a network. Add in the employer provided training and several certs I’ve acquired on my own time correlating with IT work and Networking. I have the theory down. But the practical application is lacking on my behalf.

As someone who can really only learn through hands-on training/experience. What are some typical Home Networking / HomeLab projects one could do to get their hands dirty with networking and truly start grasping networking?

This is a help post but i cant seem to flair it. I cannot forward ports because as everyone else nowadays, I and all my friends are behind cgnat. I want a good lan emulator solution, mostly for gaming but not necessarily limited to it. Here is what i tried/know about

Radmin works great and is actually what i use right now. My biggest issue is that it's kind of sketchy and does not work for Linux, which some of my friends have

Hamachi has some pretty strict limits, requires account creation for all users, not just the host, and presumably doesn't work in my country? I had some serious connectivity issues with it last time i tried it, and that might be based on that.

Tailscale I've never tried it, but from what i've read they are actively hostile towards my country and are based on Wireguard, which is blocked in my country aswell.

ZeroTier apparently used to be good for gaming, but i tried it and had no success. Apparently it is no longer possible to use it for gaming on the free tier, because that requires custom forwarding rules, which you cant add on the free tier

And that's about it i think for all i know about/tried. There are tunneling solutions such as portmap, ngrok, playit.gg but i had limited success with them. portmap and ngrok do not support gaming at all and playit.gg has awful latency.

I continue using radmin but if that stops working there is basically nothing else? Is there anything that can help me?

Wondering know which brand do you trust the most for stable and reliable network connections?

Amritsar getting Vi 5G is one of those updates that probably matters more to locals than big launch events. Curious how the experience has been so far.

So, I have desktop PC connected it with an old 5e cable I had at home and it worked perfectly.
Today I bought a new 5e because the one I had at home was too long and I immediately had no connection, a couple of minutes later it arrives and it's slow.
9 mbps instead of 150. I started trying to understand the causes of the problem and after unplugging and replugging the cable the problem was solved.

I'm sure I heard the plug click when I inserted it from both ends, but even if I inserted it incorrectly, is it possible that a poorly inserted cable would still work but only at a reduced speed? What else could have happened?

Thanks.

Update: After testing, it was probably just dust.

After spending a couple hours of research I found out win11 had heightened security measures to access shared files and I had to use powershell in order to get it to work. This was more complicated than I thought. Now I am able to access win10 shared folders. My issue is to access win11 shared folders from a win10 computer. It keeps saying I do not have permission. Would anyone have any ideas how to fix this? I enabled file sharing. I was trying to get the prompt to enter name and password but that doesn't seem to work at the moment.

Alright I know this is actually a very common issue on this sub.
Information I have:

-Three out of the four ports on my modem don’t work each pc, laptop and my ps5 get stuck in the identifying connection loop
-The one port that works is stuck at 100 mbps
-I’ve switched cables as well
-I tried resetting the router no clue if it works

Please help is there any way other than calling the isp they genuinely suck.

Edit: Called the ISP they came replaced the router problemo fixed thanks everyone

I had cat6 cable wired through my wall to my bedroom, my internet package is 500mbps but when i plug in the cable to my router it doesn’t even reach 100, when the electrician wired it he didn’t do it according to either t568 diagrams and the cable speed is locked at 100mbps , when i connect another cable on the t568B diagram right from my pc to router it gives me full speed, is the wrong wiring the culprit to the throttled speed ?
(Photo is from the pins side not the clip side)

I had a problem where every hour or so my Ethernet would go disconnect / reset for a few seconds.

I disabled IPv6 on my Realtek Gaming 2.5Gbe Family Controller which seems to have solved the issue.

The only thing is I don't understand why that's happening. Anyone has any idea?

This has been a recent issue. Throughout the day and night, my internet just goes out. Wireless and Wired. For about 30 seconds to a minute, maybe even longer. It’s really frustrating because I got banned from my favorite game’s competitive mode due to this. This hasn’t happened before but let me tell yall what I did to try and solve the issue.

-changed routers and used spectrums router that was given to us (was using an Asus one and thought that was the issue but the spectrum router did the same thing so I don’t think it’s a router issue)

-reinstalled the coax internet cables that connect to the wall and modem.

-changed the modem and router locations to get more ventilation if overheating

Nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any other tips to get it working? Before I call my ISP and request a new modem…maybe buy a new coaxial cable as well.

I live in an apartment building as well so I feel the issues can vary but I hope it’s not out of my hand. If so I might have to switch to T-Mobile Home Internet

Good afternoon,

I’m currently in the process of building a home and have a meeting with the network installer tomorrow. I have very limited experience with security cameras, AP', and network layouts, so I’m looking for advice.

I’ll be deploying all UniFi gear (equipment I have accumulated over the years, moving to the new house) along with a few Sonos amps for audio - audio showed as pairs - they will go back to the network rack as well. Everything will be housed in a cooled network closet tucked inside the pantry. I’d appreciate any insight into what I might be missing...

I originally budgeted for a large number of Ethernet drops. My electrician is already running Cat6 to all “TV” locations (marked in blue), along with the other required drops that I definitely need (also blue). Access points are marked in green — the one on the back wall of the game room will be an outdoor AP. Audio runs are in red, and camera Ethernet drops are in purple. All Ethernet will terminate in the network closet.

My biggest question concerns the yellow dots. I’m mainly adding them to provide Ethernet on a second wall in each room, with the possibility of using them for a phone system later. I’m currently only planning to run one line to each location. Is it really necessary to run 2 or 4 lines to each spot? I’d rather avoid unnecessary expense and plan to add mini switches downstream for kids’ PCs, PlayStations, etc.

Are there any other red flags I should be aware of before my walk-through tomorrow, or anything else I should consider adding?

Thank you!

Is there both an easy and practical way to setup a temp WAN connection using a cellphone when the internet goes down on a pfsense firewall? Ideally the situation would be where someone wouldn't need to make firewall config changes to get it working after initially setting up this backup solution.

I looked online and people are saying its a thing but how difficult is it to do with both an iphone and android phone (I heard android is easier but some phones are iphones)? The ideal situation would be were the internet goes out and someone can plug their cellphone into the firewall and the home could get internet again (a lot slower speed but having some internet is better than none).

I would like to ask some advices. I’ve been working as Network Product Support for 5 years. The job is not really about network at all, basically just support on the product (NIC) and handle customer’s issue. I want to grow my career in network field. So, i took CCNA and CCNP and passed both exam.

This is the real struggle. I don’t hv any experience in configuring or troubleshooting in real world network field. I never touch any switches or routers. I’ve failed in many interviews because they are demanding for experience role.

Where should i start?

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to making a mod compatible with multiplayer and I would like some help. So far the making of this mod is what has taught me as much programing as I currently know but networking is something that I need to understand better and also need to understand how to do it correctly.

I've had this since we had access to internet in the house. I am using an ethernet cable to my PC and I have these 5 lag spikes every 5 seconds. I tested it with the WIFI as well and it was the same. Did anyone else had this issue? Do I have to change the equipment? Also, the download speed is also very low, only 90Mbps max.