The prime motive of this study is to probe the basics of computer networking protocols. This article elucidates a few imperative views behind computer networks theory with a firsthand approach. This manuscript demonstrates ten important hands-on exercises using tools such as wireshark, nmap, and MS-DOS commands. Examples of IPv4 addressing scheme, Domain Name System (DNS) call through Nslookup, obtaining NS type DNS records, and a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) 3-way handshake process are the first five exercises considered here. The other five tasks are such as a TCP termination, public versus private Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, identification of a firewall server, the role of a firewall server on Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packet requests, and understanding of sequence and acknowledgment numbers during application data transfer in tcp. This type of research inspires the student community with self-learning, and hence, teachers may concentrate more on practice. © 2020 IEEE.