Vocational Training Course-2008

3
COMPONENTS OF A NETWORK

Different types of physical components are involved that builds a LAN/WAN

computer network. The major components are hubs, NIC adapters, network cables,
routers, switches, modems and gateway. Following is the basic overview of each of
the major component of a computer network.

Servers

Network servers are computers that provide different services to a computer network
such as logon authentication, internet access, disk space, printing access, CD/DVD-
ROM access, database access, antivirus and other software application updation
etc. The specialized server operating systems are Windows 2000 Serve, Windows
2003 Server, Linux and Sun Solaris. In the Windows 2000/2003 server, active
directory holds the users and network computer information.

Cabling

There are different types of network cables are involved in a compute network such
as coaxial cable, Ethernet cable UTP/STP and fiber optic cable. The most commonly
used cable in a local area network is UTP/STP (Unshielded twisted pair/shielded
twisted pair). However fiber optic is currently replacing all the traditional cables and
is being widely used in LAN and WAN networks. Data travels at the speed of light
through the fiber optic cables thus fiber optic is a fastest data carrier in the computer
networks.

LAN cards

LAN cards, NIC or network adapters are the essential physical parts of any computer
network. Every computer in a network requires a LAN card to get connected with the
other computers in the network. Every LAN card is assigned a unique IP address for
computer’s identification on the network. Wireless LAN cards are used in the
wireless LAN.

Switch/Hub

Hub or switch is a centralized device and both devices almost play the same function
i.e. every computer in a network (in star and mesh topology) is directly connected

AIR GWALIOR C.P.Harikumar-2008

Vocational Training Course-2008

with the hub or switch. The major difference in hub and switch is that when data
arrives at hub it broadcasts it to the every the computer in a network and only the
destined computer accept the data however the in case of switch, data is only
transferred to the destined computer and not to the all computers. Switch provides
more data transfer speed as compared to the hub. In the advanced switches, a
switching table is maintained, which has the database of IP addresses and MAC
address of every computer.

Router

The basic function of the router is to route the traffic (data) to its destination based
on the IP address. Router is a most important network communication device in LAN
and especially in WAN and the whole communication system of the internet is based
on the routers. Router is a key component is WAN. Like in the advance switches,
Router maintains the routing table, which contains the IP address of the source and
destination routers. With the help of the routing table, a route finds the best shortest
possible path of the destination. Routing tables are continually updated and this
updatation is propagated in all the connected routers.

Antenna

Antennas are the part of a wireless computer network for boosting the signals for
adapters, access points, and bridge equipments. Antennas also provide the building
to building wireless connectivity and some of the types of antennas are directional
antenna, video antennas, yagi antennas, wireless communication antennas, omni-
directional antennas, and base station antennas.

Modems

Modem is a network device that performs two functions modulation and

demodulation i.e. it converts the digital data into the analog signals and the analog
data into digital.

Gateway

A network gateway is a computer, software or device that is directly connected with

the external network i.e. internet. All the incoming and outgoing traffic of a network
passes through the gateway. Gateway computers are kept very secure as the can be
attacked directly through the internet and in case of any security holes and
weaknesses in the gateway computer, all the computers in a network can be
attacked.

Backbone

A backbone is a main line of wire such as fiber optic cable that connects two or more
big networks such as ISPs.

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AIR GWALIOR C.P.Harikumar-2008