Networking with Server 2025

Networking gaps on a Windows Server team show up as avoidable escalations: DHCP scopes handing out the wrong router or DNS settings, name-resolution problems blamed on the server, and performance complaints that are hard to troubleshoot consistently. This course gives help desk technicians, junior systems administrators, and infrastructure team members a shared networking foundation before they take on higher-risk Server 2025 work.

Role fit and time investment: The course is rated Beginner and assumes basic Windows familiarity but little formal networking background. It runs 8.4 hours across nine skills, so plan on roughly two to three weeks per learner at a few hours a week. Coverage moves from IPv4/IPv6 addressing and the OSI and TCP/IP models through DHCP failover and relay agents, DNS and IPAM, NPS and VPN, network load balancing, and a brief overview of failover clustering.

Risk and change-management notes: The instructor covers least-privilege practices such as IPAM role-based access control, and he notes where services like RRAS/NPS become complex in production. Team Leads should pair the course with follow-up work on addressing standards, server roles, and troubleshooting runbooks so the concepts map to the organization’s environment.

How CBT Nuggets supports the outcome: Hands-on Virtual Labs let learners configure DHCP scopes and RRAS/NPS without touching production. Playlists sequence this course ahead of Windows Server Administration: Core Infrastructure for Enterprise IT, and Team Reporting tracks completion across the team.

IT teams use this training to close the networking gaps that turn routine Windows Server tickets into escalations. Instead of guessing, practitioners work through the same scenarios they will meet on the job: configuring DHCP scopes, options, and lease times on a domain controller; choosing between split scopes and Microsoft's built-in DHCP failover; and setting up a relay agent so clients on separate subnets still get correct addresses.

The course also prepares junior admins for the work that usually lands on senior staff. They see why IPAM centralizes DHCP, DNS, NPS, and domain controller data in larger environments, why RRAS and NPS setups call for careful, documented steps, and where Network Load Balancing still fits in Windows Server 2025 environments for stateless traffic such as smaller web, intranet, or read-only file server workloads.

• Fewer misdiagnosed outages: Team members use the OSI and TCP/IP models, ports, and switch and VLAN concepts to find the layer where a problem lives before escalating it.
• Faster DHCP troubleshooting: Practitioners filter event logs by severity and source, such as an unauthorized DHCP server, instead of reading through informational noise.
• Better-scoped performance complaints: Staff connect reported symptoms to network layers, protocols, ports, and recent configuration context instead of reacting to a single spike or isolated report.
• Repeatable changes at scale: Admins use ncpa.cpl for one-off fixes and PowerShell as a starting point for scripted readdressing of a whole department.

Knowledge

• How IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, public vs. private ranges, classful subnet masks, and the loopback address shape a Windows Server network
• How the OSI and TCP/IP models, common ports and protocols, and the TCP three-way handshake help isolate where a problem lives
• How Layer 2 switches forward traffic by MAC address, how routers separate subnets, and why VLANs affect server configuration and design
• How DHCP scopes, scope options, lease times, split scopes, Microsoft DHCP failover, and relay agents keep clients correctly configured
• How DNS, IPAM, NPS, and VPN fit together, including IPAM's Desktop Experience requirement and role-based access control
• How Network Load Balancing fits into Windows Server 2025 networking, why it still appears in legacy environments, and how it compares with other availability approaches at a high level

Ability

• Configure network properties through ncpa.cpl for one-off changes and through PowerShell as the basis for scripted, department-wide re-addressing
• Create and authorize DHCP scopes, set router and DNS scope options, and configure failover and relay agents across subnets
• Install and configure IPAM to centralize visibility into DHCP, DNS, NPS, and domain controller data
• Install RRAS and NPS to stand up a basic VPN configuration in a lab environment
• Validate DHCP and network configuration by confirming assigned IP settings and testing basic connectivity
• Use performance counters to spot discarded packets and retransmitted segments, and judge trends over time rather than reacting to isolated spikes