This is the first in a series of courses designed to prepare you for the Cisco Certified Network Associate Exam. This course will introduce the basic components needed to understand data networks, including networking models and network addressing.

In this course, Introduction to Networking for Cisco CCNA, you will examine how basic human communication, like talking in person or on the phone, contains the same fundamental concepts used in moving data across a network. First, you will learn how to examine communication, and determine how to dissect it into components so it can be individually categorized and described. Next, you will learn how to break down communication into components, which will be of great benefit when understanding data networking, as there are many simple protocols which interact in complex ways. To accomplish this you will learn the TCP/IP and OSI models of networking, encapsulation, addressing, as well as what is called "chunks of information" at different points in the communication process. Finally you'll learn about the history and the birth of high speed data communications. By the end of this course, you'll know the OSI Model, TCP/IP Model, and you'll have an understanding of what encapsulation is as it relates to data networking.