Terms

Question 1

What is a Network?

Answer 1

A group of connected devices

Question 2

Local Area Network (LAN)

Answer 2

A local area network, or LAN, spans a small area like an office building, a school, or a home.

Question 3

Firewall

Answer 3

A firewall is a network security device that monitors traffic to or from your network. Firewalls can also restrict specific incoming and outgoing network traffic.

Question 3

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Answer 3

A wide area network or WAN spans a large geographical area like a city, state, or country. You can think of the internet as one big WAN.

Question 4

Servers

Answer 4

Servers provide a service for other devices on the network. The devices that connect to a server are called clients.

Question 5

Hub

Answer 5

A hub is a device that provides a common point of connection for all devices directly connected to it. Hubs additionally repeat all information out to all ports (Broadcast). From a security perspective, this makes hubs vulnerable to eavesdropping

Question 6

Switch

Answer 6

A switch forwards packets between devices directly connected to it. It maintains a MAC address table that matches MAC addresses of devices on the network to port numbers on the switch and forwards incoming data packets according to the destination MAC address.

Question 7

Router

Answer 7

Routers sit between networks and direct traffic, based on the IP address of the destination network. The router reads the header information and forwards the packet to the next router on the path to the destination. This continues until the packet reaches the destination network.

Question 8

Modem

Answer 8

Modems receive transmissions from the internet and translate them into digital signals that can be understood by the devices on the network. Usually, modems connect to a router that takes the decoded transmissions and sends them on to the local network.

Question 9

ISP

Answer 9

ISPs provide internet connectivity via telephone lines, coaxial cables, fiber-optic cables, or satellites and usually interface with Modems.

Question 10

Wireless Access Point

Answer 10

A wireless access point sends and receives digital signals over radio waves creating a wireless network.

Question 11

Wi-Fi

Answer 11

Wi-Fi refers to a set of standards that are used by network devices to communicate wirelessly.