While studying for the CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) exam, I ended up building the study material myself instead of just working through someone else's course — a self-built, interactive HTML course with the dark terminal look you're looking at right now.
Why build it instead of just using one
Writing the explanations myself forces a level of understanding that just reading someone else's slides doesn't. Each module is gated behind a quiz, so I can't move on to the next topic until I've actually proven I understood the last one — no passively scrolling through material.
What's in it so far
- Modules 7 through 15, covering WAN technologies, network services, cabling, documentation, monitoring, and high availability/redundancy
- A Section 2 mini project tying several of those modules together
- Hands-on labs in Cisco Packet Tracer for each relevant topic
- A companion Anki deck of roughly 216 cards spanning the OSI model, ports and protocols, cabling, WiFi standards, IP addressing, DNS, routing protocols, and security
Packet Tracer quirks worth knowing
Building labs in Packet Tracer surfaced a handful of gaps between it and real hardware that are worth documenting for anyone else working through the same material:
- Device numbering starts at 0, not 1 — routers, switches, and PCs come out as R0, SW0, PC0
- Several DHCP commands aren't supported, including
lease,client-identifier, andhost - OSPF router-id has its own constraints that don't always match real IOS behavior
- Routers have interface count limits that can cramp a topology
- Servers have quirks around default gateway configuration
logging trap informationalthrows an invalid input error- VRRP and GLBP are largely unsupported
Keeping it consistent across sessions
Since the course gets built incrementally, I keep a standards reference file documenting the visual system, structure, and conventions so new modules stay consistent with the ones already built.
A related project
The same approach produced a standalone CompTIA A+ storage fundamentals course, built for students and mentees who needed a lighter starting point before tackling something like Network+.