It's entirely up to you. I did have a bunch of such certs, but none of them were actually useful for real-world setups; the knowledge I used for self-hosting came from me mucking around on the internet and reading RFCs and instruction manuals.

CompTIA is very high level, general, and basic. You’ll learn far more by doing than studying for CompTIA. Those certs are only useful to get yourself in the door for entry level positions at orgs.

It really depends on you, there are more resources than ever to help from text, YouTube videos and of course paid courses. Start small, see what you like, Tech is a marathon for most. Can a NET+ help fill in gaps, sure but so can trial and error on your own hone lab. If you are just going for knowledge and not to further a career just stick to the free stuff.

Thanks for asking the question. I am in the same boat. I am decent with the hardware and container stuff. Then I get totally lost the second reverse proxies, tunnels, and firewalls come up. I have been stumbling my way through most of the network stuff but I think some basic networking knowledge might help me also. I am Interested to see if anyone links some good courses, YT channels, or videos.

Get hands-on experience, it's priceless!

You got this, go for it!

Cool

I’ve teached the courses a long time ago. I wouldn’t recommend it as reading a good book 2-3 times will work pretty much the same. If you have the self discipline to learn by yourself use the internet and books. Otherwise take the course but don’t be too disappointed as in the end you still have to learn it by yourself :) many people think a course will circumvent this problem.