IT273: Networking Concepts Prof: Marcus Allen Unit 5: Network Hardware Richard Brown

Static is a technique in which a network administrator programs a router to use specific paths between nodes True or False: Bridges are protocol independent. True or False: Repeaters operate in the Physical layer of the OSI model. Firmware is a set of data or instructions that has been saved to a ROM. True or False: A NIC has no room for a

Hubs
Connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and making them act as a single network segment.

Switches
A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one local area network (LAN). Technically, network switches operate at layer two (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model.

Routers
Routers are physical devices that join multiple wired or wireless networks together. Technically, a wired or wireless router is a Layer 3 gateway, meaning that the wired/wireless router connects networks (as gateways do), and that the router operates at the network layer of the OSI model.

Bridges
A bridge device filters data traffic at a network boundary. Bridges reduce the amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing it into two segments.

Hubs are classified as physical layer devices in the OSI model. At the physical layer, hubs support little in the way of sophisticated networking. Hubs do not read any of the data passing through them and are not aware of their source or destination addressing. Ethernet hubs vary in the speed (network data rate or bandwidth) they support. Some years ago, Ethernet hubs offered only 10 Mbps rated speeds. Newer types of hubs offer 100 Mbps Ethernet. Some support both 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps (so-called dual-speed or 10/100 hubs).

As with hubs, Ethernet implementations of network switches are the most common. Mainstream Ethernet network switches support either 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) standards.

Home networkers often use an Internet Protocol (IP) wired or wireless router, IP being the most common OSI network layer protocol. An IP router such as a DSL or cable modem broadband router joins the home's local area network (LAN) to the wide-area network (WAN) of the Internet.

Bridges operate at the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model. Bridges inspect incoming traffic and decide whether to forward or discard it.

Switches can be connected to each other, a so-called daisy chaining method to add progressively larger number of devices to a LAN.

Maintaining configuration information in a piece of storage called the routing table, wired or wireless routers also have the ability to filter traffic, either incoming or outgoing, based on the IP addresses of senders and receivers.

Ethernet bridge, for example, inspects each incoming Ethernet frame - including the source and destination MAC addresses, and sometimes the frame size - in making individual forwarding decisions.

After looking at the comparison chart I think I would have to go with a Switch. It seems that a switch is more of a higher-performance and would be beneficial if I was setting up a office network. If Im going to have multiple computers set up on a network I have to consider network traffic, applications, file sharing and downloads. A switch seems that it would have the ability to distribute the data better.