Practical – 1

Aim: To study different types of Networking cables.

Network cables are used to connect and transfer data and information between computers, routers,
switches and storage area networks. These cables are essentially the carrier or medium through
which data flows.

Types of network cable:

 Twisted pair cable

 Coaxial cable
 Fibre cable

Twisted Pair Cables

A twisted pair means that the cable is designed with two independent insulated wires wrapped
around each other. This method is used as a means to reduce interference from the electromagnetic
spectrum, which allows the network devices to run smoother with less noise from outside sources
(noise can come from multiple sources, such as power lines).

Reason for Twisting:

All transmissions are prone to noise, interference, and crosstalk. When the wires are twisted, some
part of the noise signals is in the direction of data signals while the other parts are in the opposite
directions. Thus, the external waves cancel out due to the different twists. The receiver calculates the
difference in the voltages of the two wires for retrieving data. Thus, a much better immunity. Against
noise is obtained. Twisted pair cables have two conductors that are generally made up of copper and
each conductor has insulation. These two conductors are twisted together, thus giving the name
twisted pair cables.

Types of Twisted–Pair Cables

Twisted Pair Cables are further of two types:

1. Unshielded Twisted Pair Cables (UTP):

These are a pair of two insulated copper wires twisted together without any other insulation or
shielding and hence are called unshielded twisted pair cables. They reduce the external interference
due to the presence of insulation. Unshielded twisted pair cables are arranged in pairs so that we can
add a new connection whenever required. The DSL or telephone lines in our houses have one extra

pair in them. When UTP are arranged in pairs, each pair is coded with a different colour as defined
by the 25-pair colour code developed by AT&T Corporation. The Electronic Industries Association
divides UTP into 7 categories based on some standards.

Advantages:

1. These cables are cost-effective and easy to install owing to their compact size.
2. They are generally used for short-distance transmission of both voice and data.
3. It is less costly as compared to other types of cables.

Disadvantages:

1. The connection established using UTP is not secure.

2. They are efficient only for a distance up to 100 meters and have to be installed in pieces of up
to 100 meters.
3. These cables have limited bandwidth.

2. Shielded Twisted Pair Cables (STP):

These types of cables have extra insulation or protective covering over the conductors in the form of
a copper braid covering. This covering provides strength to the overall structure of the cable. It also
reduces noise and signal interference in the cable. The shielding ensures that the induced signal can
be returned to the source via ground and only circulate around the shield without affecting the main
propagating signal. The STP cables are also color-coded like the UTP cables as different colour pairs
are required for analog and digital transmission. These cables are costly and difficult to install.
Advantages:

1. They are generally used for long-distance communication and transmission and are installed
underground.
2. The protective shield prevents external electromagnetic noise penetration into the cable.

Disadvantages:

1. These cables are very expensive.

2. They require a lot of maintenance which increases the cost more.
3. These can be installed underground only.
4. The length of the segment is similar to UTP for these cables.
5. They have a higher bandwidth as compared to UTP.

Categories of Twisted–Pair Cables:

EIA has classified twisted pair cables into seven categories −

 Category 1 − UTP used in telephone lines with data rate < 0.1 Mbps
 Category 2 − UTP used in transmission lines with a data rate of 2 Mbps
 Category 3 − UTP used in LANs with a data rate of 10 Mbps
 Category 4 − UTP used in Token Ring networks with a data rate of 20 Mbps
 Category 5 − UTP used in LANs with a data rate of 100 Mbps
 Category 6 − UTP used in LANs with a data rate of 200 Mbps
 Category 7 − STP used in LANs with a data rate of 10 Mbps

Applications of Twisted pair cables:

1. Twisted Pair cables are used in telephone lines to provide data and voice channels.
 2. The DSL lines make use of these cables.
3. Local Area Networks (LAN) also make use of twisted pair cables.
4. They can be used for both analog and digital transmission.
5. RJ-45 is a very common application of twisted pair cables.

Coaxial Cables:

A coaxial cable is an electrical cable with a copper conductor and an insulator shielding around it
and a braided metal mesh that prevents signal interference and crosstalk. Coaxial cable is also known
as coax. The core copper conductor is used for the transmission of signals and the insulator is used to
provide insulation to the copper conductor and the insulator is surrounded by a braided metal
conductor which helps to prevent the interference of electrical signals and prevent cross talk. This
entire setup is again covered with a protective plastic layer to provide extra safety to the cable.

Structure of Coaxial Cable:

 Copper conductor: A central conductor, which consists of copper. The conductor is the point
at which data transmits.
 Insulator: Dielectric plastic insulation around the copper conductor. Itis used to maintain the
spacing between the centre conductor and shield.
 Braided mesh: A braided mesh of copper helps to shield from electromagnetic interference,
The braid provides a barrier against EMI moving into and out of the coaxial cable.
 Protective plastic layer: An external polymer layer, which has a plastic coating. It is used to
protect internal layers from damages.
Types of Coaxial cables:

1. Hard-line coaxial cable: Hard-line coaxial cable’s centre conductor is made of copper, silver
and has a larger diameter when compared toother coaxial cables.
2. Flexible coaxial cable: The flexible coaxial cables are very flexible and the inner conductor is
surrounded by a flexible polymer.
3. Semi-rigid coaxial cable: Semi-rigid coaxial cable uses a solid copper outer sheath with a
dielectric of Polytetrafluoroethylene.
4. Formable coaxial cable: It is an alternative to semi-rigid cable, instead of a rigid copper outer
sheath a flexible metal sheath is utilized.
5. Twin axial cable: It has two central conductors in the core and a single outer core and
dielectric. These cables are best for low frequency digital and video transmission.
6. Triaxial cable: It is also known as Triax. It is very much similar to a coaxial cable but with an
additional copper braid added to it, the braid works as a shield and protects from noise.
Triaxial cables offer more bandwidth.
7. Rigid coaxial cable: Rigid coaxial cable is made up of two copper tubes supported at cable
ends and fixed intervals across the length of the cable using PTFE supports or disk insulators.
The rigid coaxial cable cannot be bent

Applications of Coaxial cable:

The coaxial cables are used in Ethernet LANs and also used in MANs

 Television: Coaxial cable used for television would be 75 Ohm and RG-6 coaxial cable.
 Internet: Coaxial cables are also used for carrying internet signals, RG-6 cables are used for
this.
 CCTV: The coaxial cables are also used in CCTV systems and both RG-59 AND RG-6
cables can be used.
 Video: The coaxial cables are also used in video Transmission the RG-6 is used for better
digital signals and RG-59 for lossless transmission of video signals.
 HDTV: The HDTV uses RG-11 as it provides more space for signals to transfer.

Advantages

1. Coaxial cables support high bandwidth.

2. It is easy to install coaxial cables.
3. Coaxial cables have better cut-through resistance so they are more reliable and durable
Disadvantages

1. Coaxial cables are expensive.

2. The coaxial cable must be grounded in order to prevent any crosstalk.
3. As a Coaxial cable has multiple layers it is very bulky.

Fibre Cable:

A fibre-optic cable is composed of very thin strands of glass or plastic known as optical fibres; one
cable can have as few as two strands or as many as several hundreds of them. These optical fibre
cables carry information in the form of data between two places using optical or light-based
technology. Once the light beams travel down the optical fibre cable (OFC), they would emerge at
the other end. A photoelectric cell will be required to turn the pulses of light back into electrical
information the computer can understand.

Main elements of Fibre Optics:

 Core: It is the central tube of very thin size made of optically transparent dielectric medium
and carries the light transmitter to receiver and the core diameter may vary from about 5um to
100um.
 Cladding: It is outer optical material surrounding the core having a reflecting index lower
than core and cladding helps to keep the light within the core throughout the phenomena of
total internal reflection.
  Buffer Coating: It is a plastic coating that protects the fibre made of silicon rubber. The
typical diameter of the fibre after the coating is 250-300um.

Types of Fibre optics:

On the basis of the Number of Modes:

It is classified into 2 types:

 Single-mode fibre:

In single-mode fibre, only one type of ray of light can propagate through the fibre. This type
of fibre has a small core diameter (5um) and high cladding diameter (70um) and the
difference between the refractive index of core and cladding is very small. There is no
dispersion i.e.no degradation of the signal during traveling through the fibre. The light is
passed through it through a laser diode.

 Multi-mode fibre:

Multimode fibre allows a large number of modes for the light ray traveling through it. The
core diameter is generally (40um) and that of cladding is (70um). The relative refractive
index difference is also greater than single mode fibre. There is signal degradation due to
multimode dispersion. It is not suitable for long-distance communication due to large
dispersion and attenuation of the signal.

On the basis of Refractive Index:

It is also classified into 2 types:

 Step-index optical fibre: The refractive index of the core is constant. The refractive index of
the cladding is also constant. The rays of light propagate through it in the form of meridional
rays which cross the fibre axis during every reflection at the core-cladding boundary.
 Graded index optical fibre: In this type of fibre, the core has a non-uniform refractive index
that gradually decreases from the centre towards the core-cladding interface. The cladding
has a uniform refractive index. The light rays propagate through it in the form of skew rays or
helical rays.

Advantages:

1. Bandwidth is above copper cables.

2. Optical cable is resistance for electromagnetic interference.
 3. Fibre cable is sized as 4.5 times which is best than copper wires.
4. Light has fastest speed within universe, such a lot faster signals
5. Fibre optic cables allow much more cable than copper twisted pair cables.

Disadvantages:

1. These cables are highly vulnerable while fitting.

2. These cables are more delicate than copper wires.
3. Special devices are needed to ascertain transmission of fibre cable.
4. These cables are very difficult to merge so there’ll be loss of beam within cable.
5. Installation of those cables is not cost-effective. they’re not as robust as wires. Special
equipment is typically required for optical fibre.

Applications:

1. Medical: Used as light guides, imaging tools and also as lasers for surgeries.
2. Defence/Government: Used as hydrophones for seismic waves and SONAR, as wiring in
aircraft, submarines and other vehicles and also for field networking.
3. Data Storage: Used for data transmission.
4. Telecommunications: Fibre is laid and used for transmitting and receiving purposes.
5. Networking: Used to connect users and servers in a variety of network settings and help
increase the speed and accuracy of data transmission.
6. Industrial/Commercial: Used for imaging in hard-to-reach areas, as wiring where EMI is an
issue, as sensory devices to make temperature, pressure and other measurements, and as
wiring in automobiles and in industrial settings.
7. Broadcast/CATV: Broadcast/cable companies are using fibre optic cables for wiring CATV,
HDTV, internet, video on-demand and other applications.
 Practical-2
Aim: To implement the cross-wired cable and straight through cable using a
crimping tool.

Apparatus: RJ-45 connector, Crimping Tool, Twisted pair Cable.

Theory:

Straight Through Cable: A straight through cable is a type of twisted pair cable that is used in local
area networks to connect a computer to a network hub such as a router. This type of cable is also
sometimes called a patch cable and is an alternative to wireless connections where one or more
computers access a router through a wireless signal. On a straight through cable, the wired pins
match. Straight through cable use one wiring standard: both ends use T568A wiring standard or both
ends use T568B wiring standard.

Crossover Cable: An Ethernet crossover cable is a type of Ethernet cable used to connect
computing devices together directly. Unlike straight through cable, crossover cables use two
different wiring standards: one end uses the T568A wiring standard, and the other end uses the
T568B wiring standard. The internal wiring of Ethernet crossover cables reverses the transmit and
receive signals. It is most often used to connect two devices of the same type: e.g. two computers
(via network interface controller) or two switches to each other.

Procedure:

To do these practical following steps should be done:

1. Start by stripping off about 2 inches of the plastic jacket off the end of the cable. Be very
careful at this point, as to not nick or cut into the wires, which are inside. Doing so could alter
the characteristics of your cable, or even worse render it useless. Check the wires, one more
time for nicks or cuts. If there are any, just whack the whole end off, and start over.
2. Spread the wires apart, but be sure to hold onto the base of the jacket with your other hand.
You do not want the wires to become untwisted down inside the jacket. Category 5 cable
must only have 1/2 of an inch of 'untwisted' wire at the end; otherwise, it will be 'out of spec'.
At this point, you obviously have a lot more than 1/2 of an inch of un-twisted wire.
3. You have 2 end jacks, which must be installed on your cable. If you are using a premade
cable, with one of the ends whacked off, you only have one end to install - the crossed over
end. Below are two diagrams, which show how you need to arrange the cables for each type
of cable end. Decide at this point which end you are making and examine the associated
picture.
 Practical-3
Aim: To study about different networking devices.

Theory:

Network Devices: Network devices, also known as networking hardware, are physical devices that
allow hardware on a computer network to communicate and interact with one another. For example,
Repeater, Hub, Bridge, Switch, Routers, Gateway, Brouter, and NIC, etc.

1. Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to regenerate the signal over
the same network before the signal becomes too weak or corrupted to extend the length to
which the signal can be transmitted over the same network. An important point to be noted
about repeaters is that they do not amplify the signal. When the signal becomes weak, they
copy it bit by bit and regenerate it at its star topology connectors connecting with original
strength. It is a 2-port device.
2. Hub – A hub is a basically multi-port repeater. A hub connects multiple wires coming from
different branches, for example, the connector in star topology which connects different
stations. Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are sent to all connected devices. In other
words, the collision domain of all hosts connected through Hub remains one. Also, they do
not have the intelligence to find out the best path for data packets which leads to
inefficiencies and wastage.
 Types of Hubs:

 Active Hub: - These are the hubs that have their power supply and can clean, boost,
and relay the signal along with the network. It serves both as a repeater as well as a
wiring centre. These are used to extend the maximum distance between nodes.
 Passive Hub: - These are the hubs that collect wiring from nodes and power supply
from the active hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network without cleaning and
boosting them and can’t be used to extend the distance between nodes.
 Intelligent Hub: - It works like an active hub and includes remote management
capabilities. They also provide flexible data rates to network devices. It also enables
an administrator to monitor the traffic passing through the hub and to configure each
port in the hub.
3. Bridge – A bridge operates at the data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, which adds on the
functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of the source and destination.
It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working on the same protocol. It has a single
input and single output port, thus making it a 2-port device.

Types of Bridges

 Transparent Bridges: - These are the bridge in which the stations are completely
unaware of the bridge’s existence i.e., whether or not abridge is added or deleted from
the network, reconfiguration of the stations is unnecessary. These bridges make use of
two processes i.e., Bridge forwarding and bridge learning
 Source Routing Bridges: - In these bridges, routing operation is performed by the
source station and the frame specifies which route to follow. The host can discover
 the frame by sending a special frame called the discovery frame, which spreads
through the entire network using all possible paths to the destination.
4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design that can boost its
efficiency (a large number of ports imply less traffic) and performance. A switch is a data
link layer device. The switch can perform error checking before forwarding data, which
makes it very efficient as it does not forward packets that have errors and forward good
packets selectively to the correct port only. In other words, the switch divides the collision
domain of hosts, but the broadcast domain remains the same.

5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their IP
addresses. The router is mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect LANs and
WANs and have a dynamically updating routing table based on which they make decisions
on routing the data packets. The router divides the broadcast domains of hosts connected
through it.

6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two networks that may
work upon different networking models. They work as messenger agents that take data from
 one system, interpret it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways are also called protocol
converters and can operate at any network layer. Gateways are generally more complex than
switches or routers. A gateway is also called a protocol converter.

Practical – 4
Aim: To connect two computers in a local area network and to share file between
them.

Apparatus: Two computers, LAN cable

Procedure:

Step 1: Connect Both PCs with LAN Cable Connect both computers to a LAN cable. You can use
any LAN cable (crossover or ethernet cable); it doesn’t matter on a modern computer. Because both
of them use the same port and have very few functional differences.

Step 2: Enable Network Sharing on Both PCs

Make sure you do this on both PCs.

To enable sharing, go to the ethernet icon available at the taskbar and right-click; small pane
appears; from there click on Open Network and Sharing Centre.

Step 3: Setup Static IP

Now that you have enabled network sharing on both PCs, it’s time to bring both the computers on to
the same network. We will do this by setting a static IP address of the same class. Just like the
previous step, you need to do this on both PCs. The following are the steps.
  Click on Change Adapter Settings
 On the next window, you will see the active connections which should be Ethernet, since
both PCs are connected with a physical LAN cable. Click on the Ethernet link. A new dialog
box will open, here click on the Properties button.
 In the next pop-up, select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”. Now, click on
Properties. This will open another dialogue box.

Here, you need to configure the two PCs with different IP settings.

On computer 1, select the option “Use the following IP address.” and, put the following values

 IP Address: 192.168.1.11
 Subnet mask: 225.225.225.0

On the second computer, do similar steps, but flip the IP address and

Default gateway values

 IP address: 192.168.1.1
 Subnet mask: 225.225.225.0

What we are doing is keeping the subnet mask the same and changing the IP address.

 Next, open your Window’s File Explorer and click on Network tab at the left side of the
window. If you have set up everything right, both the PCs should appear in this Network
window on both computers. Now, you can just click on the other PC’s icon and browse
the file. But wait, you still need to configure one last setting.
Step 4: Change Sharing Options

 Go to control panel; click on Network and Sharing Centre.

 In the next window that appears; turn on all the setting options.

Step 5: Network List Manager Policy

Search secpol.msc in the search tab. A window appears; click on Network List Manager Policies and
select Private option.

Step 6: Share a folder

Assuming that you have connected the cable properly, enabled the sharing options, and configured
the IP addresses. Now, it is time to send files from one PC to another. For that, you first need to
share the target folder on LAN.

To check whether both the PCs are connected; open command prompt (either of the PCs) and type
the command “ping 192.168.1.1 (IP address of the other PC)”
If you see same as in the above image means the connection has been established successfully.

 Next, select the folder you want to share and right-click on it. From the context menu,
navigate to “Give access to” and select the option “Specific People.”
 In the File Sharing window, choose Everyone from the drop-down menu. Click on the Add
button next to it and finally hit the Share button.
 Once you have shared it, the next window will show you the network location of the folder.
 That’s it. Just go back to the other PC from where you want to access the file, open the
Networks panel and click on the other computer’s name.
 Here, you will see the folder you just shared. From there, just open the folder and transfer the
files and folders as you normally do. i.e., by copy and paste. Similarly, you can repeat the
same steps from the other computer.