Week 1 The Basics of Networking Devices

Question 1

Lots of different cables and network devices can be used to allow computers to do what with each other.?

Answer 1

Lots of different cables and network devices can be used to allow computers to properly communicate with each other.

Question 2

What is the most basic component of a wired network & what do they do?

Answer 2

Cables are the most basic component of a wired network. Cables are what connect different devices to each other allowing data to be transmitted over them.

Question 3

Most network cables used today can be split into two categories what are they?

Answer 3

Most network cables used today can be split into two categories: copper and fiber.

Question 4

What are the most common form of networking cable?

Answer 4

Most network cables used today can be split into two categories: copper and fiber. Copper cables are the most common form of networking cable.

Question 5

What is the most common form of networking cable?

Answer 5

Copper cables are the most common form of networking cable.

Question 6

The most common forms of copper twisted pair cables used in networking, are what?

Answer 6

The most common forms of copper twisted pair cables used in networking, are Cat 5, Cat 5e, and Cat 6 cables.

Question 7

What is Crosstalk?

Answer 7

Crosstalk is when an electrical pulse on one wire is accidentally detected on another wire. The receiving end isn’t able to understand the data causing a network error.

Question 8

Luckily, there are network devices that allow for many computers to communicate with each other. What is the most simple of these devices? &, what does it do?

Answer 8

Luckily there are network devices that allow for many computers to communicate with each other. The most simple of these devices is a hub. A hub is a physical layer device that allows for connections from many computers at once.

Question 9

What is a collision domain?

Answer 9

a collision domain is a network segment where only one device can communicate at a time.

Question 10

What is a much more common way of connecting many computers with a more sophisticated device?

Answer 10

A much more common way of connecting many computers
is with a more sophisticated device known as a “network switch”

also originally known as a “switching hub”

Question 11

A switch is very similar to a hub since you can connect many devices to it so they can communicate but what is the difference?

Answer 11

The difference is that while a hub is a layer one or physical layer device, a switch is a layer two or data link device. This means that #1 a switch can actually inspect the contents of the ethernet protocol data being sent around the network, #2 determine which system the data is intended for and then only send that data to that one system.

This reduces or even completely eliminates the size of collision domains on the network.

Question 12

What do routers store?

Answer 12

Routers store internal tables containing information about how to route traffic between lots of different networks all over the world.

Question 13

What is the most common type of router you’ll see?

Answer 13

The most common type of router you’ll see is one for a home network or a small office.

These devices generally don’t have very detailed routing tables.

The purpose of these routers is mainly just to take traffic originating from inside the home or office LAN and to forward it along to the ISP, or Internet service provider.

Once traffic is at the ISP, a way more sophisticated type of router takes over called the Core ISP Router

Question 14

What are core routers?

Answer 14

core routers form the backbone of the Internet, and are directly responsible for how we send and receive data all over the Internet every single day.

Core ISP routers don’t just handle a lot more traffic than a home or small office router, they also have to deal with much more complexity in making decisions about where to send traffic.

A core router usually has many different connections to many other routers.

Question 15

Routers share data with each other via a protocol known as what?

Answer 15

Routers share data with each other via a protocol known as BGP, or border gateway protocol.

This BGP let’s them learn about the most optimal paths to forward traffic.

When you open a web browser and load a web page, the traffic between computers and the web servers could have traveled over dozens of different routers.

The Internet is incredibly large and complicated, and routers are global guides for getting traffic to the right places.

Question 16

It’s important to understand the concepts of servers, and clients.

The simplest way to think of a server, is as something that provides what?

Answer 16

The simplest way to think of a server, is as something that provides data to something requesting that data.

The thing receiving the data, is referred to as a client.

Question 17

All of the network devices you’ve just learned about, exist so that computers can communicate with each other, whether they’re in the same room or thousands of miles apart. What do we call these devices?

Answer 17

All of the network devices you’ve just learned about, exist so that computers can communicate with each other, whether they’re in the same room or thousands of miles apart. We’ve been calling these devices “nodes”.

Question 18

While we often talk about nodes being servers or clients, the reason our definition uses a word as vague as something, is because what?

Answer 18

Because it’s not just nodes that can be servers or clients.

Individual computer programs running on the same node can be servers, and clients to each other too.

Question 19

It’s important to call out, that most devices aren’t purely a server, or a client, almost all nodes are what?

Answer 19

It’s also important to call out, that most devices aren’t purely a server, or a client.

Almost all nodes are both at some point in time.

Each node is primarily either a server, or a client.

Question 20

What does LAN stand for?

Answer 20

LAN stands for Local Area Network.

Question 21

What’s a router?

Answer 21

A device that knows how to forward data between independent networks.

A router connects independent networks by forwarding data between them.