IT Study Hub exists to give CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ candidates free, high-quality study material that actually explains the concepts — not just lists of definitions to memorize. Every article is written to help you understand what something is, why it works the way it does, and how it appears on the exam.
Who Runs This Site
I'm Sean — an IT Support Specialist working for the New York City Department of Education, CompTIA A+ certified and working toward Network+. I came to IT through teaching, which is part of why I focus on actually explaining concepts rather than listing definitions. I built IT Study Hub while studying for the A+ and have kept building it since, because the gap between what's freely available online and what candidates actually need never really closed.
My home lab spans three machines. A Dell OptiPlex Micro runs Windows 11 24/7 as an always-on RDP target. Two MacBooks run VMware Fusion VMs: one with Windows 11 and Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS side-by-side, the other running Windows Server 2022 with AD DS, DNS, IIS, File and Storage Services, and Print Services roles installed. The content here isn't purely theoretical — when I write about Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, or Remote Desktop Services, I've configured those things, broken them, and fixed them. I've spent time in the Windows Server event viewer at midnight wondering why a service account stopped authenticating. That hands-on context shapes how I explain concepts and which details I flag as the ones that actually trip candidates up on the exam. See my actual setup with photos →
Outside this site, I've shipped four iOS apps on the App Store under Fogarty Holdings LLC. The most directly relevant to readers here is CertFlash, a CompTIA flashcard app with 500+ cards covering A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and Linux+ exam objectives. The other three are NetScanPro, a network scanner utility built around the kind of subnet and host-discovery work covered on Network+; Referra, a referral-tracking app; and Digital Legacy Vault, a privacy-focused estate planning utility built with biometric auth and iOS Complete File Protection encryption. Building real tools alongside writing study material keeps the content here grounded in actual IT work, not just theory.
This site is both a resource for other candidates on the same path and a portfolio project that demonstrates what I've built and learned. I have a genuine stake in the accuracy of the content here — if something is wrong or unclear, it reflects on me directly.
My Certification Path
Why This Site Exists
When I was studying for the A+, I kept running into the same problem: most free resources either gave you a wall of bullet points with no context, or they were thin overview pages clearly written to rank on Google rather than to help anyone actually learn something.
The paid resources — study guides, video courses, practice exam packs — are genuinely good, but they cost money. And even the best paid courses have gaps. A chapter explains what OSPF is but doesn't explain why you'd use it over RIP. An article covers the OSI model layers without explaining how to actually use the model to troubleshoot a connectivity problem. You finish reading and you know the definition, but you still couldn't answer a scenario question about it.
I built IT Study Hub to fill those gaps. Every article here is written to answer the question a studying candidate actually has — not just "what is this term?" but "how does this work, when does it matter, and how will it show up on the exam?"
What Makes This Site Different
What's on the Site
IT Study Hub currently has over 100 articles covering every major topic tested on CompTIA A+ (220-1201 and 220-1202), Network+ (N10-009), and Security+ (SY0-701). Coverage includes:
Networking fundamentals — OSI model, TCP/IP model, subnetting, IP addressing, routing protocols, DNS, DHCP, NAT, VLANs, wireless networking, and network troubleshooting commands.
Hardware and operating systems — Windows 10 vs 11, Active Directory, Group Policy, Linux commands, file systems, storage types, RAID levels, and virtualization.
Security — Malware types, social engineering, encryption, PKI, identity and access management, incident response, Zero Trust architecture, cloud security, and physical security.
Certification guidance — Study guides for all three exams, domain breakdowns, how-to-pass articles, certification roadmaps, and honest recommendations for study materials.
New content is added regularly. As I work through the Network+ material, the networking content on this site continues to deepen.
Content Standards
Every article I write is cross-referenced against the official CompTIA exam objectives for the current exam versions — SY0-701, N10-009, and 220-1201/1202. The exam scenarios in each article are based on the actual question formats and phrasing CompTIA uses, not generic comprehension questions. Having sat the A+ exams myself, I know firsthand how CompTIA structures scenario questions and what kind of understanding they're actually testing — not just definition recall.
When I recommend a paid resource — a study guide, practice exam pack, or video course — that recommendation is based on what the CompTIA candidate community consistently reports as effective, and on resources I've personally used or evaluated. The three resources I recommend most on this site (the CompTIA All-in-One study guides, Dion Training practice exams, and Professor Messer's free video courses) are the three most consistently cited by first-attempt passers across Reddit, Discord, and study forums. I'd recommend them even if there were no affiliate relationship.
If you find something wrong in an article — an incorrect port number, a miscategorized protocol, a scenario with a bad answer — please tell me. I update articles when errors are reported. Accuracy is the whole point.
Get in Touch
Questions, corrections, or just saying hi
If you find an error in any article, have a topic suggestion, or want to say the content helped you pass your exam — I'd genuinely like to hear from you. Corrections especially: I take accuracy seriously and will fix anything that's wrong, usually within a day or two.
You can also reach out if you're working through the material and stuck on something. I can't promise a reply to every message, but I read everything.