What could be the best source for beginners to learn about the topic of this thread? Both text and videos are good, e.g. something like the tutorial titled "Learn Computer Networking" on Udemy but aimed at total beginners with no prior knowledge of the subject. NB! Please feel free to ignore the text below if you're short on time.
[rant & stream of consciousness]
I bet some knowledge about the subject could really come in handy. For example, I have often felt helpless and clueless once I have lost my Internet connection, and I have seldom known where to look for the reasons. Recently, I have learned some basics as I bought a NAS that I had to configure. I have also done some port forwarding and I can disable bridged mode, start NAT-routing and so on. However, that's not much to say the least, and there's so much more to learn. Besides, I cannot really explain the things that I know by using technical terms, e.g. the real difference between bridging and NAT-routing. For someone like me, it's just basically being directly connected to WAN vs. being securely connected to WAN as NAT is a sort of firewall (but correct me if I'm wrong). The problem is that even though I could read about these things on Wikipedia, the explanations tend to be so technical that they go over my head. In other words, they often require some prior knowledge of the subject. It's like trying to figure out what thermodynamic entropy is all about by reading about the subject on Wikipedia without any prior knowledge -- it makes no sense. Similarly, what is relevant for the masses when it comes to different subjects might be difficult to explain in a purely objective, "scientific" way. Thus, some popularization and simplifications for beginners can be quite in order... And the same theory might hold good when it comes to technical subjects such as networking -- the detailed explanations should come when the time is right. Perhaps this could even be tested by giving an information-laden, detailed and technical article on some subject to one person with no prior knowledge of the subject and giving a shorter article where the subject is explained in layman's terms to another person (with no prior knowledge of the subject either). I would not be particularly surprised to find out that the latter person ends up with a better (albeit fairly rudimentary) understanding of the subject.
To learn about some subject, you need to know what to look for... And as we know, the Internet is a good place for finding information on just about anything provided that you know what you are looking for. Other than that, it can be like a massive library. You cannot expect Mr. Joe Six-pack to become a physicist by sending him to the Oxford physics library and telling him to see what he could find there. The library, just like the Internet, is simply too massive with its thousands of books on the subject, and Mr. Six-pack would probably have no idea what to really look for. Therefore, he should have a clear framework of what to look for, and a mentor pointing him to such material that is relevant, and telling him what could be put aside and what could be pursued. I have a somewhat similar problem here. I would need someone to tell me what is relevant and what is not. Incidentally, even the subject keyword is somewhat problematic as "networking" and "IP networking" would give you all sorts of results once googled. Anyway, I think the description of this thread nails it quite well: "TCP/IP, Internet Protocol, Routing, Routers, Network protocols"... But that's a lot of stuff, and I would need to know where to begin!
I hope you won't be gobsmacked at this huge mass of words coming out of my mind but I hope you got the point so to speak.
[/rant & stream of consciousness]