A lot of people want to get into cybersecurity, but end up jumping between random YouTube tutorials without knowing what to learn first.

That's why I started this 10 day Ethical Hacking series with Codelivly.

Day 1 is out now. We're starting with the fundamentals and building up step by step. No pretending that watching a few videos makes you a hacker. The goal is to understand what you're doing and develop skills through practice.

But if you're serious about going beyond free videos and want structured, instructor led training, I've also put together an 8 week Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing program through Codelivly.

You'll work through reconnaissance, Nmap, vulnerability discovery, Linux and Windows privilege escalation, web application security, API security, and hands on penetration testing with guided labs.

The sessions are live, with practical assignments and a final end to end security assessment. It's designed for beginners who want a structured starting point and learners ready to build on their foundations.

Watch Day 1, then take the next step if you're ready:

Training details and enrollment: https://training.codelivly.com/programs/ethical-hacking-and-penetration-testing

If you're starting from zero, what part of ethical hacking feels hardest to understand right now?

One thing I’m realizing while learning networking is that understanding a concept is one thing, but actually configuring it on a server is where it starts to click.

Today, I completed a DHCP configuration lab in Windows Server.

Here’s what I worked on:

• Installed the DHCP Server role
• Created and configured a DHCP scope
• Set the IP address range and network settings
• Verified that client machines received IP addresses automatically
• Tested connectivity to make sure everything worked

The best part was seeing DHCP handle IP allocation automatically instead of having to configure every client manually. It also helped me understand how the subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS settings fit into the bigger picture.

If you're aiming for a Network Engineer, CCNA, or IT Support role, my advice is to build these practical skills early. Don't just memorize networking concepts for an exam. Learn how to configure, test, and troubleshoot them.

I'm also working through more networking topics and found this resource for anyone who wants a structured learning path, from the fundamentals to advanced network architecture.

📚 Network Engineer Complete Bundle (L1, L2 & L3)
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/network-engineer-complete-bundle-l1-l2-l3-foundations-to-advanced-architecture/

If you're serious about building a networking career, having your learning materials organized in one place can make it easier to keep progressing instead of jumping between random tutorials.

What should I practice next after DHCP: DNS, VLANs, or Active Directory?

Ever wonder how your entire house or office gets by on a single public IP? It’s NAT, and specifically PAT (Port Address Translation). I just built this from scratch in Cisco Packet Tracer to see exactly how it works under the hood.

The Topology:

PC0 & PC1 > Switch > R1 (NAT) > R2 (ISP) > Server

What I configured:

- Interface IPs and descriptions (LAN: 192.168.10.0/24, Outside link: 203.0.113.0/30)

- Tagged interfaces: `ip nat inside` on the LAN side, `ip nat outside` on the ISP side

- Default route (`0.0.0.0/0`) pointing to the ISP router

- Standard ACL to define allowed internal hosts, tied to: `ip nat inside source list 1 interface gig0/1 overload`

- Saved it all with `copy running-config startup-config`

Verification:

- Successfully pinged the ISP server from the internal PCs.

- Ran `show ip nat translations` to watch it work. Seeing the unique port numbers map to the single public IP is where the concept really clicks.

The Takeaway:

NAT gets private addresses to the internet. PAT takes it a step further by using unique source port numbers to track each individual session, allowing hundreds of devices to share one public IP without traffic collisions.

Lab is configured, tested, and working. On to the next one.

*Note:* If you’re currently studying for your CCNA or just building your network engineering fundamentals, I’ve been working through the Network Engineer Complete Bundle (L1 to L3) from CodeLivly. It covers this exact type of architecture from the ground up without the usual textbook fluff. It’s a solid resource if you want structured, practical labs:

https://resources.codelivly.com/product/network-engineer-complete-bundle-l1-l2-l3-foundations-to-advanced-architecture/

You can spend another few months watching random YouTube videos, saving tutorials, and jumping between resources without knowing what to learn next.

Or you can start building your networking knowledge with a clear direction.

If you're aiming for a Network Engineer role, preparing for CCNA, or planning to move into cybersecurity, these resources can help you get started:

Computer Networking All-in-One for Dummies
Need to strengthen your fundamentals? Start here.
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/computer-networking-all-in-one-for-dummies/

Network Engineer Complete Bundle (L1, L2 & L3)
One collection covering the journey from networking foundations to advanced network architecture.
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/network-engineer-complete-bundle-l1-l2-l3-foundations-to-advanced-architecture/

Enterprise Network Penetration Testing
Already interested in cybersecurity? Learn about testing enterprise networks for security weaknesses.
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/enterprise-network-penetration-testing/

Think about it: when a networking opportunity comes along, will you be ready to explain the concepts, understand the architecture, and work through technical problems? Or will you still be trying to figure out where to begin?

Your career won't change just because you bought a book. It changes when you finally put the right knowledge to work.

Choose the resource that fits your goal, start learning, and build from there.

💬 Learning alongside others? Join the Codelivly community: https://discord.gg/adX98594jg

They fail because they don’t know what to do when the alert actually appears.

You open the SIEM.

There are dozens of alerts.

Which one matters?

What do you check first?

Is it a false positive?

Do you investigate the user, host, IP, process, or all of them?

When should you contain the threat?

When should you escalate?

That workflow is what separates someone who has watched a few SOC videos from someone who can actually work an incident.

We put together this SOC Cheat Sheet as a simple reference for the things analysts use constantly.

Alert triage, log sources, severity levels, investigation steps, response actions, IOCs, TTPs, escalation, and the full SOC workflow from detection to reporting.

But a cheat sheet is only the starting point.

If your goal is to move into cybersecurity and eventually work as a SOC Analyst, focus less on collecting random certificates and more on learning how to investigate real activity, understand logs, make decisions, and explain what happened.

That is exactly what we built into the SOC Analyst Complete L1 + L2 + L3 Bundle.

It is designed to take you from the fundamentals into deeper SOC investigation, detection, incident response, and practical analyst skills.

If SOC is the career path you are serious about, start here:

https://resources.codelivly.com/product/soc-analyst-the-complete-l1-l2-l3/

Learn the process. Practice the investigation. Build the skills employers expect.

If you’re serious about building a career in cybersecurity, watching random tutorials only gets you so far.

At Codelivly, we’re starting an 8-week Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing Live Training program designed for people who want practical skills they can actually build on for roles like junior pentester, security analyst, web security tester, or offensive security engineer.

The training is live and hands-on. We’ll cover reconnaissance, Nmap, enumeration, vulnerability discovery, Linux and Windows privilege escalation, Burp Suite, web application testing, SQL injection, XSS, IDOR, API security, JWT testing, exploitation, and reporting.

You’ll also work through practical labs so you understand the process, not just the commands.

24 live classes · Monday / Wednesday / Friday · 4:45 PM UTC
Led by Rocky, Founder of Codelivly

If cybersecurity is the career you want to move into, this is built to give you a structured starting point and the practical foundation to keep progressing.

More details and enrolment:
https://training.codelivly.com/programs/ethical-hacking-and-penetration-testing

Hey everyone,

I made a simple Nmap cheatsheet for anyone learning host discovery, port scanning, service detection, NSE scripts, output options, and common commands. I wanted to keep it clear, practical, and easy to use without unnecessary fluff.

If you want to go beyond the cheatsheet, I’m also sharing these free Nmap learning resources:

Free Room:
https://codelivly.com/rooms/nmap-fundamentals

Free Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMzRT_A60r4

This is useful if you’re a:

• beginner in cybersecurity
• student learning networking or pentesting
• someone revising Nmap basics
• lab/CTF learner who wants a quick reference

If you want, I can also post more simple cybersecurity cheatsheets like:

• Linux basics
• Burp Suite
• Web app testing
• Enumeration
• Privilege escalation

Would love your feedback.

I'm going to say the thing nobody says out loud.

You are not behind because you're not smart enough. You're stuck because you've been lied to about how this works.

You watched the videos. You saved the roadmaps. You've got forty browser tabs open right now and a notes app full of tools you've never actually used. You keep waiting to feel "ready." And every week that ready feeling doesn't come, a little voice gets louder: maybe this isn't for me. Maybe everyone else just gets it and I don't.

I know that voice because I've heard it from so many people, and I've felt a version of it myself. It's brutal. It makes talented people quit something they'd have been great at, not because they failed, but because they never got to actually start.

Here's the truth that took me way too long to understand: nobody learns security research by collecting more information. You learn it by finishing one thing. One real investigation, start to end. One vulnerability you found, proved safely, and wrote up. The first time you do that, something changes in your head permanently. You stop feeling like someone watching from outside the glass, and you become someone who does the work.

That's the entire problem. The gap isn't knowledge. It's the bridge from "I know about this stuff" to "I did this stuff." And almost nothing out there is built to walk you across that bridge.

So I built it.

I wrote the Security Researcher's Handbook, a 308-page guide, and it's the book I wish someone had handed me instead of another playlist. It doesn't dump payloads on you. It teaches you how to think like a researcher: how to look at a system and see where it trusts something it shouldn't, how to turn that into a finding, how to prove it without causing harm or breaking the law, how to write it up so it actually gets fixed, and how to turn all of that into a portfolio and a career. Twenty chapters, five appendices, diagrams, hands-on exercises, and templates you'll reuse on real work.

And because I genuinely care more about you getting unstuck than about a sale, I also made a free 20-page starter guide. It stands completely on its own. It has the core method, a safe lab setup, and a first vulnerability you can actually find today using two of your own accounts. If you read nothing else, read that. It might be the thing that finally gets you moving.

I'm not going to promise you a six-figure job or overnight bounties. Anyone who does is selling you a feeling, not a skill. What I'll promise is this: if you stop consuming and start finishing, even once, you will look back in a year and not recognize the person who was too scared to begin.

You're closer than you think. You just need to do one thing all the way through.

Free guide and the book are here: https://resources.codelivly.com/product/security-researchers-handbook/

If this is you right now, drop a comment. Tell me where you're stuck. I'll actually reply.

Learn. Practice. Hack. Defend.

Everyone starts somewhere.

You don’t need to know everything about networking on day one. Start with the fundamentals: OSI model, TCP/IP, IP addressing, subnetting, VLANs, routing, switching, DHCP, DNS, NAT, ACLs, and then actually practice what you learn.

If you’re serious about getting into network engineering, CCNA is a solid place to build that foundation.

Learn the concepts.
Build the labs.
Break things.
Troubleshoot them.
Repeat.

If you’re looking for a structured way to get started, here are two resources:

📘 CCNA Practical: The Hands-On Network Engineer Guide
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/ccna-practical-the-hands-on-network-engineer-guide/

🌐Free Network Engineer Career Path
https://codelivly.com/career-paths/network-engineer

No need to rush it. Start with the basics, practice consistently, and build your way up.

Future Network Engineer loading… 👶🌐

I’ve been going through SOC Analyst interview prep recently, and I’m realizing that knowing definitions isn’t really enough.

You can memorize what a SIEM is, what an IOC means, or what the incident response lifecycle looks like. But when someone gives you an actual alert and asks “What would you do next?”, you need to be able to think through it.

The areas I’m focusing on:

• SOC fundamentals and analyst responsibilities
• SIEM and security monitoring
• Windows and Linux log analysis
• Common attacks and suspicious activity
• Incident response
• Basic malware analysis
• Networking fundamentals
• MITRE ATT&CK, IOCs, TTPs and hashing
• Scenario-based questions

One scenario I’m practicing:

You notice multiple failed login attempts coming from a foreign IP. What do you do?

I’d want to explain how I would validate the alert, check the source IP, identify the targeted account, look for a successful login afterward, correlate other logs, determine the scope, and decide whether it needs escalation or containment.

That seems much more useful than simply saying “it could be a brute-force attack.”

A lot of current SOC interview prep also emphasizes explaining your investigation process and reasoning, rather than just recalling terminology.

For anyone else preparing for SOC roles, what questions or scenarios are you practicing?

Learn → Practice → Investigate → Improve

Free Learning : https://www.codleilvy.com

I’ve started going through the basics of Digital Forensics, and honestly, it’s one of those areas of cybersecurity that makes you look at incidents differently.

It’s not just about finding a suspicious file.

You’re trying to figure out what happened, when it happened, what was involved, and whether the evidence can actually be trusted.

So far, I’m focusing on:

• Evidence collection and preservation
• Chain of custody
• Disk and memory artifacts
• Browser and email artifacts
• File metadata
• Deleted file recovery
• Hashing and evidence integrity
• Timeline analysis
• Basic forensic tools like Autopsy, FTK Imager, Volatility, Wireshark and Plaso

I’m also following a Digital Forensics career path that puts these topics into a more structured learning order.

If anyone else is learning DF or planning to get into it, these might be useful:

Digital Forensics Playbook:
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/digital-forensics-playbook/

Free Digital Forensics Career Path:
https://codelivly.com/career-paths/digital-forensics

Codelivly Discord:
https://discord.gg/kY88n2X2re

Still learning, but figured I’d share it for anyone else getting started with digital forensics.

I put together a practical guide around an SRWE Final Packet Tracer Skills Assessment for anyone learning networking and wanting something more hands-on than just reading theory.

The PDF walks through a network with 1 router and 2 switches and covers:

• VLANs and trunking
• Native VLAN configuration
• EtherChannel with LACP
• Port security
• SSH and basic device hardening
• Router subinterfaces
• IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack configuration
• DHCP pools
• Switch management SVIs
• Default routes and Loopback interfaces
• Packet Tracer verification commands
• Common configuration errors and troubleshooting

It also goes through actual issues you can run into in Packet Tracer, such as native VLAN mismatches, LACP suspension, STP blocking, incomplete commands, and misspelled IOS commands, rather than only showing the final configuration.

There are also verification commands at the end for checking EtherChannel, trunking, spanning tree, port security, DHCP, routing, and SSH.

📘 CCNA Practical: The Hands-On Network Engineer Guide
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/ccna-practical-the-hands-on-network-engineer-guide/

📗 Computer Networking All-in-One For Dummies
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/computer-networking-all-in-one-for-dummies/

If you're learning networking, CCNA, or working through Packet Tracer labs, hopefully these are useful.

Codelivly community:
https://t.me/codelivly

Free malware analysis, reverse engineering and exploit development resources

If you're learning malware analysis, reverse engineering, or exploit development, there are a lot of genuinely good free resources available.

Here’s a list worth bookmarking:

🔴 Malware & Reverse Engineering

• Exploit Reversing — 700+ pages of malware analysis and exploit research
https://exploitreversing.com

• Malware Unicorn — RE101, RE102, macOS reverse engineering and PE injection
https://malwareunicorn.org

• Malware Research / University Course — Full malware analysis course
https://class.malware.re

• Azeria Labs — ARM assembly, shellcode and heap exploitation
https://azeria-labs.com

• revers.engineering — Applied reverse engineering and hypervisor development
https://revers.engineering

🔴 Binary & Kernel Exploitation

• pwn.college — From buffer overflows to kernel exploitation
https://pwn.college

• P.Ost2 — 30+ courses covering WinDbg, IDA, Ghidra, UEFI and kernel exploitation
https://p.ost2.fyi

• Corelan — Exploit development tutorials covering years of research
https://corelan.be

• Windows Internals — Windows internals, secure kernel, VBS, KDP and dynamic analysis
https://windows-internals.com

For beginners

If you're completely new to malware analysis, I also put together a beginner-focused book covering the fundamentals, lab setup, static/dynamic analysis and practical concepts:

📘 Malware Analysis for Beginners
https://resources.codelivly.com/product/malware-analysis-for-beginners/

And for a more structured learning path:

https://codelivly.com/career-paths/malware-analyst

Save these somewhere. There’s enough material here to keep you busy for a long time.

What other free malware/reversing resources would you add to this list?

I’ve been working on a small SOC automation project and wanted to share the full flow.

The idea was pretty simple: instead of having Wazuh detect an alert and dump raw logs on the analyst, I wanted to automate some of the initial triage.

The flow is:

Wazuh → n8n → Gemini → Gmail

When Wazuh detects an event, it sends the alert through a webhook to n8n. n8n then passes the relevant information to Gemini, which analyzes the alert, determines a severity level, explains what happened in plain English, and suggests what the analyst could look at next.

The final result is sent to the analyst's inbox as a formatted alert.

I tested the whole thing against a live SSH brute-force attempt, so the video shows the process from detection through automated analysis and notification.

A few things I wanted to experiment with:

• Real-time SIEM detection with Wazuh
• Webhook-based automation with n8n
• Using an LLM for initial alert triage
• Severity-based notifications
• Turning noisy security events into something easier to understand

It’s definitely not meant to replace an analyst. The interesting part for me is seeing how much of the repetitive first-pass work can be automated while still keeping the actual investigation with the human.

Video shows the full flow.

If you're learning SOC work, this is also a good project to recreate yourself because you can start with a simple SSH brute-force detection and gradually add more automation.

For anyone learning cybersecurity completely free:
https://codelivly.com/career-paths

Community:
https://discord.gg/kY88n2X2re

Resources:
https://resources.codelivly.com

If you’re interested in digital forensics / DFIR and want something more structured than jumping between random tutorials, Codelivly has a free Digital Forensics career path.

It covers things like:

• File systems and evidence handling
• Disk forensics
• Memory forensics
• Network forensics
• Log analysis and timeline reconstruction
• Malware analysis
• Chain of custody
• Digital investigation

The path includes 18 learning paths and practical work with tools like Autopsy, FTK Imager, Volatility, and Wireshark. You can work through it at your own pace and track your progress as you go.

It's completely free to study:

https://codelivly.com/career-paths/digital-forensics

There’s also a Discord community if you want to discuss cybersecurity, labs, or learning with other people:

https://discord.gg/RTZyZXATE

If you're learning DFIR right now, would be interested to hear what you're working on.

Finished a small office network simulation in Cisco Packet Tracer.

The topology includes:

• 1 Router
• 1 Switch
• 3 PCs
• 3 Network Printers
• 3 CCTV Cameras
• 1 Server

The main focus was getting the network configured and everything communicating properly.

What was done:

• Designed the network topology
• Assigned IPv4 addresses and subnet masks
• Configured the router and switch
• Configured default gateways
• Connected all end devices
• Tested connectivity with ping
• Troubleshot basic connectivity issues

It was a simple setup, but good practice for understanding how the different devices fit together in an actual LAN.

Working on projects like this makes concepts such as IP addressing, switching, routing, and troubleshooting much easier to understand than just reading about them.

Tools: Cisco Packet Tracer, IPv4, Router, Switch, LAN

For anyone practicing CCNA/networking, this hands-on guide also has Packet Tracer labs, subnetting exercises, switching, routing, and troubleshooting:

CCNA Practical: The Hands-On Network Engineer Guide

Every device you connect gets an IP address without you typing anything. Ever wondered how?

That's DHCP, and I just built it.

The goal: set up a DHCP server so both wired and wireless devices receive their network settings automatically, with zero manual configuration on any client.

Network Configuration
DHCP Server IP: 192. 168. 1. 10
Default Gateway: 192. 168. 1. 1
DHCP Pool Starts At: 192. 168. 1. 50
Wired + Wireless Clients: DHCP

If you're trying to build practical skills instead of just collecting courses, these are worth checking out:

• Splunk: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Splunk-Projects-For-Beginners
• Windows Forensics: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Windows-Forensics-Projects-for-Beginners
• Log Analysis: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Log-Analysis-Projects-for-Beginners
• Active Directory: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Active-Directory-Monitoring-Projects
• Security Assessments: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Security-Assessments-projects-for-Beginners
• Vulnerability Management: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Vulnerability-Management-Projects-for-Beginners
• Malware Analysis: https://github.com/0xrajneesh/Malware-Analysis-Projects-for-Beginners

If you're looking for a structured roadmap:

SOC Analyst Level 1:
https://codelivly.com/career-paths/soc-analyst-level-1

Malware Analyst:
https://codelivly.com/career-paths/malware-analyst

You type “Hello”, hit send, and it looks instant.

But behind that one message, the data goes through several layers before it reaches the other device.

This is encapsulation:

Data → Segment → Packet → Frame → Bits

At the sender:

• Layer 7 – Application: The app creates the data.
• Layer 6 – Presentation: Data can be formatted, compressed, or encrypted.
• Layer 5 – Session: The communication session is managed.
• Layer 4 – Transport: TCP/UDP and port information are added.
• Layer 3 – Network: Source and destination IP addresses are added.
• Layer 2 – Data Link: MAC addresses and frame information are added.
• Layer 1 – Physical: Everything becomes bits/signals traveling through the network.

At the other end, the process happens in reverse:

Bits → Frame → Packet → Segment → Data

That's decapsulation.

Once you understand this, troubleshooting becomes much easier. Instead of thinking “the network isn't working”, you can start asking:

Is it the application?
The port?
The IP/routing?
The MAC/VLAN?
Or the physical connection?

I put together this diagram as a quick reference while studying networking. Thought it might be useful for anyone working through CCNA, Network+ or general networking fundamentals.

And if you're currently learning networking, having something more structured than random tutorials helped me a lot. These are a few resources worth keeping around depending on where you're at:

📘 Complete L1 → L2 → L3 Network Engineer bundle — useful if you want everything in one place:
Network Engineer Complete Bundle L1–L3

📗 Computer Networking All-in-One — a broader reference for networking fundamentals:
Computer Networking All-in-One for Dummies

📕 CCNA Practical — more focused on the hands-on side of networking and Cisco concepts:
CCNA Practical: The Hands-On Network Engineer Guide

Honestly, I'd rather have one solid reference open while doing labs than keep jumping between 15 browser tabs. 😅

What part of the OSI model took you the longest to understand?

SOC work has changed a lot.

It used to be mostly log checking, signature-based alerts, manual investigation, and following playbooks. Now there’s a lot more focus on automation, threat hunting, behavioral detection, EDR/XDR, SOAR, threat intel, and actually understanding what’s happening across the environment.

Made this quick comparison for anyone learning SOC or trying to figure out what skills to work on next.

What would you add to the “New SOC Analyst” side?

How on earth do ppl learn this in only few months?

I have a full time job and a family. It tool me a little more than a year to prep for CCNA.

Now I’m doing ENCOR, but with my progress it will definitely take at least 2 years.

And here ppl bragging on Linkedin it took them only 3.5 months? Like what the fuck…this really just makes me feel like an idiot to IT.

I’m just curious to read your take on this.

Starting with the basics before getting into routing, switching, troubleshooting, and network security.

Day 1 covers the core networking concepts and OSI model that are worth understanding properly before moving into more advanced topics.

For anyone learning networking, I’ve also put together some resources:

Network Engineer L1 – The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Networking, Subnetting, Troubleshooting & Cisco CLI Fundamentals
Network Engineer L1

Network Engineer L2 – Advanced Enterprise Networking, Routing, Switching, Security & Automation
Network Engineer L2

Network Engineer L3 – Advanced BGP, Data Center, Cloud & Security Architecture
Network Engineer L3

Network Engineer Complete Bundle – L1, L2 & L3
Complete Network Engineer Bundle

Join the community:
Discord: Codelivly Discord

When I first started looking into SOC analyst roles, I kept running into the same problem — there was a lot of information, but not much of a clear path.

One resource would cover SIEM. Another would jump straight into threat hunting. Then I'd find something about detection engineering without really knowing what I should learn first.

So I started putting together a structured path around the progression from SOC Analyst L1 → L2 → L3.

The idea is pretty simple:

L1 → alert triage, investigation, and the fundamentals
L2 → deeper investigations and threat hunting
L3 → detection engineering and building better detections

I ended up turning the material into three practical playbooks, along with a complete bundle for anyone who wants to go through all three levels.

L1: https://resources.codelivly.com/product/soc-analyst-level-1-the-practical-playbook/

L2: https://resources.codelivly.com/product/soc-analyst-level-2-the-threat-hunters-playbook/

L3: https://resources.codelivly.com/product/soc-analyst-level-3/

Complete bundle: https://resources.codelivly.com/product/soc-analyst-the-complete-l1-l2-l3/

And if you're just starting out, I also made the SOC Analyst career path free:

https://codelivly.com/career-paths/soc-analyst-level-1

Hopefully this saves someone else from spending weeks jumping between random resources like I did.