Networks Explained:
As mentioned in "What is networking?" section, networks are means to allow computers to communicate with one and other. In this case, two computers in your home or a hundred computers in your office can also be connected to such devices to form as a network. In fact, the page you are reading right now are used by the largest existing network in the world, "the Internet."
Today, I will be discussing the world largest Networks using personal computers connects to an environment where they utilize common data, common peripheral devices such as printers or modems.
The above example on a local area network also simplified it as peer-to-peer networks, where only two computers are connected by a single cable. However, peer-to-peer network requires a special cable, very different from a normal network patch or connecting cable. This cable is called a "cross-over" or "cross-pin" cable.
For the next example, I will be adding another computer which also required to have another component, which is a hub or a switch.
For this example, a network that connected to either a hub or switch can also have two or more computers. Having a hub or a switch will allows us to add more computers to the network at any time. All that required is for us to have an additional cable connected from the hub or switching hub to a network card inside of the new computer. In addition, each computer, printer, or other peripheral devices that are connected to the network is called a node. One big network like the one used for the government can have thousands, or even millions of nodes.
Can we use any cable?
Networks are assembled by certain rules. Cabling, for example, has to be a certain length, and each cabling strand can only support a certain amount of network traffic. One most inexpensive networks is the Ethernet, it’s easy to set up and use, and are very fast.
Ethernet networks are categorized by how fast they can move data from one computer to another computer. The speed is expressed in megabits per second (Mbps). The "bit" can be categorized as 1/8th of a character, or number. Currently, there are two Ethernet speed categories in our life time. One, is the standard Ethernet operator which often as fast as 10Mbps. Two, Fast Ethernet, as fast as 100Mps, this operation normally offered to business whose networks traffic are busy. This high speed Ethernet is good for Video, multimedia, and other speed hungry applications.
Basics Cabling
There are two basic types of network cabling, one, is the twisted-pair (also called 10BaseT). Two, a thin Coax (also called 10Base2). The 10BaseT cabling has 8 wires inside its cable while thin Coax looks much like your TV cable at home. However, both can also be used as exclusively or together, depending on your flavors. Personally, if I setup a home networks, I would use the 10BaseT cabling by itself, because this type of cable is inexpensive, flexible, and ideal for going short distances. For a larger networks such as using 15 or more computers, you may need to use the thin Coax as your backbone and may also use small amount of 10BaseT cabling.
February 23, 2009
By: William Nguyen
|
Discuss this |
