If you have multiple computers and you want all of them to have simultaneous access to the internet, you will need a network. More and more people are moving towards broadband internet connections (cable, DSL...). If you have a broadband connection and you want more than one computer to access the internet, this page will help you understand what's required to get your network up and running. The following image shows a generic network setup with a router.
Broadband Modems:
This first device is a DSL modem. It's only one of many different styles but they are all similar in function. The modem is the interface between the ethernet line that goes to your computer's network card and the telephone/DSL/cable TV line. All will have some sort of indicator lights on the front of the unit. This one has lights to tell you if the modem has passes a self-test, has a good connection to the DSL equipment at the service provider, has a good connection to your ethernet card and a light to indicate that the is traffic passing to/from the WAN (Wide Area Network).
On the rear of the modem, you can see two telephone type connectors. One is a standard RJ11 connector and connects with a standard telephone cable. The larger connector is an RJ45 connector and is relatively standard for LAN (Local Area Networks). The RJ45 connector has 8 conductors. For most LAN connections, only 4 of the conductors are used.
Network Cables:
The following 2 images are of a typical network interconnect cable. The first shows both the top and bottom of the connector. Notice the locking tab on the connector. When pulling the cable through a bundle of other cables or from behind your computer, you have to be careful not to allow the tab to catch on anything. They are relatively fragile and are easily broken. Some cables have protective boots over the tab. This makes them much less likely to get broken but sometimes makes them harder to depress and release (especially in tight spots where there is little room to work).
This shows a close-up of the colored conductors inside the connector. They are arranged in a specific order. The conductors are coded in pairs. The colors are orange, green, blue and brown.
The image below shows the standard wiring for a 'straight-through' cable. Both ends are wired exactly the same. In a 'crossover' cable, the orange pair goes in place of the green and vice-versa but only on one end of the cable. When networking with a hub/switch/router, the cables are typically the straight-through type.
Network Hub:
The following 2 images are of a 'hub'. A hub is the simplest interface. It simply passes on any data sent to it by one computer to all of the other computers that are connected to the hub. This is a relatively old hub and its maximum throughput is only 10Mb/s. This is fine for internet connections but is not suitable if you want to quickly move large files from one computer to another.
Network Router:
This device is a router. This is one of the most important security devices in a home network. While it allows computers to communicate with each other and the internet, it also prevents other computers from easily accessing the computers on your network. I'll cover more about routers on the virus and spyware page.
Network Switch:
This next piece is a switch. A switch is a lot like the hub that we saw above but a switch passes information only to the computer that needs it. This particular switch is a 'gigabit' switch. Most home network equipment is designed to operate at 10Mb/s to 100Mb/s. This one is capable of transferring data at 1000Mb/s. The only problem is that the computer can not produce that sort of throughput for more than a second or so. The hard drives (even some RAID setups) are simply not fast enough to provide data at that rate. With a RAID to RAID setup, I only managed about 300Mb/s
USB Ethernet Adapter:
The following adapter is for computers who don't have an RJ45 ethernet connection. You plug this into a USB port and you plug the ethernet cable into the adapter. It's not as fast (in my experience) as a true ethernet connection but it's fine for internet traffic.
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