What is Networking?

Networking is the practice of linking multiple computing devices together in order to share resources. These resources can be printers, CDs, files, or even electronic communications such as e-mails and instant messages. These network can be created using several different methods, such as cables, telephone lines, satellites, radio waves, and infrared beams. Without the ability to network, businesses, government agencies, and schools would be unable to operate as efficiently as they do today. The ability for an office or school to connect dozens of computers to a single printer is a seemingly simple, yet extremely useful capability.

Communication Media

Hub2

Hubs connect computers together in a star topology network. Due to their design, they increase the chances for collisions. Hubs operate in the physical layer of the OSI model and have no intelligence. Hubs flood incoming packets to all ports all the time. For this reason, if a network is connected using hubs, the chances of a collision increases linearly with the number of computers (assuming equal bandwidth use). Hubs pose a security risk since all packets are flooded to all ports all the time. If a user has packet sniffing software, they can extract data from the network and potentially decode it and use it. Hubs make it easy to "spy" on users on the same LAN as you.

Repeater

A wireless repeater.

A repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it at a higher level and/or higher power, or onto the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances without degradation. Because repeaters work with the actual physical signal, and do not attempt to interpret the data being transmitted, they operate on the physical layer, the first layer of the OSI model. Repeaters are majorly employed in long distance transmission to reduce the effect of attenuation. It is important to note that repeaters do not amplify the original signal but simply regenerate it.

Modem

Modem (from modulator-demodulator) is a device that turns the digital 1s and 0s of a personal computer into sounds that can be transmitted over the telephone lines of Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS), and once received on the other side, converts those sounds back into a form used by a USB, Ethernet, serial, or network connection. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time, normally measured in bits per second, or "bps".

NIC (Network Interface Card)[

Network Interface Card

A network interface card is a computer hardware component designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It is both an OSI layer 1 (physical layer) and layer 2 (data link layer) device, as it provides physical access to a networking medium and provides a low-level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses. It allows users to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly. Most motherboards today come equipped with a network interface card in the form of a controller, with the hardware built into the board itself, eliminating the need for a standalone card.

Switch

Switches are often confused with alia bridges because they also operate at the data link layer of the OSI model. Similar to a hub, switches provide a central connection between two or more computers on a network, but with some intelligence. They provide traffic control for packets; rather than forwarding data to all the connected ports, a switch forwards data only to the port on which the destination system is connected. They use a database of MAC addresses to determine where computers are located and very efficiently send packets only where they need to go. The database is created dynamically as computers communicate on the network. The switch simply watches the incoming packets and memorizes the MAC address and port a packet arrives on. If a packet arrives with a destination computer that the switch does not have an address for in its MAC address table, it will flood the packet out all connected ports. A switch creates separate collision domains for each physical connection. A switch will only create separate broadcast domains if separate VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) are assigned to different ports on the switch. Otherwise, a broadcast received on one port will be flooded out all ports except the one it came in on.

Wireless access point

A wireless access point (WAP or AP) is a device that allows wireless communication devices to connect to a wireless network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards. The WAP usually connects to a wired network, and can relay data between the wireless devices (such as computers or printers) and wired devices on the network.

A typical corporate use involves attaching several WAPs to a wired network and then providing wireless access to the office Local Area Network. Within the range of the WAPs, the wireless end user has a full network connection with the benefit of mobility. In this instance, the WAP functions as a gateway for clients to access the wired network.

A Hot Spot is a common public application of WAPs, where wireless clients can connect to the Internet without regard for the particular networks to which they have attached for the moment. The concept has become common in large cities, where a combination of coffeehouses, libraries, as well as privately owned open access points, allow clients to stay more or less continuously connected to the Internet, while moving around. A collection of connected Hot Spots can be referred to as a lily-pad network.

Home networks generally have only one WAP to connect all the computers in a home. Most are wireless routers, meaning converged devices that include a WAP, router, and often an Ethernet switch in the same device. Many also converge a broadband modem. In places where most homes have their own WAP within range of the neighbors' WAP, it's possible for technically savvy people to turn off their encryption and set up a wireless community network, creating an intra-city communication network without the need of wired networ