2.04 - LAN Hardware

Question 1

What did the early LANs use?

Answer 1

Coaxial cables

Question 2

Which cable is now widely used for networking connections?

Answer 2

Twisted pair cable

Question 3

Which cable is more common to find nowadays when compared in the past?

Answer 3

Fibre optic cable

Question 4

In a bus configuration, what is the bus consist of?

Answer 4

A series of sockets linked by cables, with terminators at the ends of the bus to prevent signals from reflecting back to the bus

Question 5

Why are there terminators at the ends of the bus in a bus configuration?

Answer 5

To prevent signals from reflecting back to the bus

Question 6

Describe what is found at the end of each end system in a bus configuration

Answer 6

There is a short length of cable with a RJ 45 connector. One end of the end system is connected to the bus socket and the other to the LAN port of the end system

Question 7

Describe the bus configuration

Answer 7

In the bus, there is a series of sockets linked by cables, with terminators at the ends of the bus to prevent signals from reflecting back to the bus. At the end of the end systems, there is a short length of cable with a RJ 45 connector. One end of the end system is connected to the bus socket and the other to the LAN port of the end system

Question 8

Difference and simmilarity between the bus and star configuration

Answer 8

Star configuration uses the same type of cable with the same connectors but longer cables are used since they need to be plugged into the socket on the central device

Question 9

Why are the cables of the star configuration much longer than the cables in the bus configuration?

Answer 9

In the star configurations the cables need to be plugged into the socket in the central device

Question 10

How can a bus be extended in a bus network?

Answer 10

Using repeaters

Question 11

Why are repeaters needed?

Answer 11

They are needed beacuse over long distances, signals get attenuated making communications unreliable

Question 12

What is the LAN port of an end system connected to?

Answer 12

Network Interface Card (NIC)

Question 13

What is NIC?

Answer 13

Network Interface Card. It is manufactored with a unique network address used to identfy the end system it has been installed in

Question 14

In a star network, the central device can be a …

Answer 14

… Hub, Switch or Router.

Most Switch

Question 15

What is a switch in a star network?

Answer 15

It is a central device that can direct communication to specific end systems

Question 16

How does an repeater work?

Answer 16

A repeater recieves an input signal and generates a new full strength signal.

Question 17

What are segments?

Answer 17

Sometimes bus network is constructed in segments.

Question 18

What is a bridge?

Answer 18

Two segments (bus segments) are connected using a bridge. It stores the network addresses of the end systems of the two segments

Question 19

What is the term used to describe WiFi (WLAN/Wireless LAN)?

Answer 19

Wireless Ethernet

Question 20

What is the formal description of WiFi?

Answer 20

IEEE 802.11

Question 21

What is IEEE 802.11?

Answer 21

The formal description for WiFi. This is a wireless LAN standard that uses radio frequency transmission

Question 22

What is the central device of WiFi LAN?

Answer 22

Wireless Access Point (WAP),

Question 23

What is WAP?

Answer 23

It is the central device in a WiFi LAN. It can communicate with an end-system in the WiFi LAN provided that the end-system has a Wireless Network Interface Card (WNIC) installed.

Question 24

What is WNIC?

Answer 24

Wireless Network Interface Card. It is needed to use for comminucations using WAP