VCA-NET-101 — Networks and Packet Analysis
Networks demystified by reading actual packets, not by memorizing an OSI poster. Students learn the layers (physical, data-link, network, transport, application), the common protocols a practitioner encounters daily (DHCP, DNS, HTTP, TLS), and how to build a packet from scratch in Python and watch it leave the wire in Wireshark. The course assumes FND-102 Python fluency and produces graduates prepared for every subsequent Virtus course that touches network traffic.
Course Overview
VCA-NET-101 teaches networks by taking them apart. Rather than memorizing the OSI layers, students capture real traffic on a shared lab network, decode the frames, and reconstruct the application behavior from the wire. By the end of the semester a student can look at a packet capture and explain what the user on the other end was doing. The course also introduces the Python socket API so students can emit what they have learned to read, closing the loop between protocol knowledge and programming capability.
What Students Learn
- Layered models. OSI and TCP/IP, what each layer abstracts, and where the abstractions leak.
- Ethernet and IP. MAC addressing, ARP, IPv4 addressing and routing, NAT, a light touch of IPv6.
- Transport. UDP, TCP three-way handshake, flow control, congestion control concepts.
- Core services. DHCP, DNS (recursive, authoritative, caching), common record types.
- Application protocols. HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 basics, TLS at an operational level (not cryptographic depth), SMTP/IMAP mail flow.
- Packet capture and analysis. Wireshark filters,
tcpdump, pcap files, display vs. capture filters. - Python sockets. Build a TCP client, a UDP listener, a minimal HTTP request tool.
- Operational intuition. What a healthy network looks like, how to spot anomalies, how to triangulate from logs.
Capstone (Planned)
A documented map of the student’s own home network: every device, its IP and MAC, its role on the network, the protocols it uses most, a 24-hour traffic-volume observation, and a short written analysis of what the student observed (including anything surprising). Produced as a lab-notebook-style report with Wireshark screenshots and a clear network diagram.
Certification Alignment
CompTIA Network+ Cisco CCST Networking
Primary: CompTIA Network+ — VCA-NET-101 covers the substantive domains at greater depth than the exam requires. Students who want the credential should sit Network+ within three months of completion. Alternative: Cisco CCST Networking — a less-expensive ($125) entry-level credential appropriate for students who want an earlier cert milestone.
Interested in VCA-NET-101?
Email academy@virtuscybersecurity.com with your register and why.