What is networking hardware and how does it work?

What is networking hardware?

Network hardware are those computer components that allow data to be transmitted between electronic devices. A network of devices can contain a wide variety of hardware components, from the well-known routers that we all have in our homes, to switches, which allow connecting multiple devices on the same network. Is the copper based Ethernet adapter which is a standard inclusion.

There are some devices that are considered network hardware, telephone, mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) and some modern electronic devices; these are considered because most have integrated IP.

What are the hardware components?

• Router
• Modem
• Switch
• Network card
• Hub

What are the main components of networking hardware?

As we have previously discussed, the router is probably one of the best known devices in networking hardware.

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What is a router?

A router allows interconnecting networks between devices. The router is in charge of managing the data traffic between devices, let’s say that it is the one that chooses the way in which the information packet will travel. Currently, a router can be used to distribute the internet over a phone line to multiple devices. In order to connect to a router, the most typical method is usually using an Ethernet cable, which connects from the device in question to the router. In addition, if it is a Wireless or WiFi router, it also gives us the possibility to connect to a network wirelessly.

Router Operation

The operation of a Router is, let’s say, it stores the received packets and then processes it to obtain the origin and destination information that they possess once having this data, the router sends it to another router or takes it to its final host

In order for our devices to connect to these devices, specific networking hardware, known as network cards, is required.

What is a Network Card?

Network cards are used to connect a device to the network, so that they can receive and transmit data. There are many types of network cards, among them, the most common are: Ethernet cards, which allow you to connect to a network through a network cable. And wireless cards, which allow us to connect to a network without the need for any cable and that make it possible to share resources such as: files, external hard drives, printers. There can also be a computer network

What characteristics do you have on network cards?

The most common characteristics of a network card are the following

• Jumbo Frame: These indicates that it supports large packages, let’s say that when downloading or uploading a large package this will allow us to improve our speed
• IEEE 802.1Q: With this we can have technology that will allow you to have several logical subnets in our same physical network
• 1p: This will give you good service and a good speed improvement
• 802.11b: With this we can reach 11 Mbits (Megabit)
• 802.11n: With this we can reach 248Mbits (Megabit)

There are many more characteristics of a network card but these are for the most common when buying one and with the passage of time it can improve.

What is a Switch?

A switch works much like a router, however there are several differences between the two components. A switch allows the interconnection of devices in the same network. Using Ethernet cables, we can connect multiple devices to include them in the same network. The switches vary in size and capacity, we can find from switches with 8 ports to switches with more than 50 ports. The switches are usually used in places that require a large network with many devices, such as workplaces, schools, or others. Unlike routers, they have more limited functionality.

How does a Switch work?

When our team emits a message, the switch is the one in charge of retransmitting the message sent, this can only be done by the output, so that the switch can do it, use the physical address of our network card (MAC) if you connect several switches They will communicate themselves, let’s say they already know how to send our data.

What is the difference between a Switch and Hub?

The difference between a Switch and Hub is the way they have when distributing an ethernet packet between the devices that have connected to the ports. The hub only copies the transmission units of the network and each of its ports instead the Switch it learns the addresses of each of its connected devices and simply transmits the network drive from one port to another

In summary, a switch keeps records of the MAC address (Media Access Control) of all its connected devices, with only this information the switch can identify the system, it is on each port, instead, the Hub generates traffic on the network and can generate downtime. Network responses and you also have to share your bandwidth with all connected ports.

What hardware do I really need for my network?

After looking at the main components of a network, you will wonder what components are really necessary for a network. The answer varies depending on the needs of each network.

For example, on a home network, a router with an integrated modem and hardware enabled with network cards / chips would suffice to access the internet. Most modern routers are capable of managing devices on a small network. If we want to improve our home network, we can do it by having a hub or switch, this will help more technological devices to have internet access through wiring, but if we only want to WiFi it would be better to buy some WiFi amplifiers these we can put where our WiFi network reaches the connection too slow and thanks to this we can have a better connection.

However, in the event that we need a larger network, for example, for an office located in an entire building, we would probably need specialized and powerful networking hardware, such as those offered by IT Market.

For a company or work office, the best thing would be to have a Switch that if you have many devices that need to have a network this would be good for the ports of our router to be increased and also for our network speed to go faster

Many home routers are limited to a small number of ports, which is a problem in networks that require wired connections from multiple devices. Also in some cases, it is necessary to separate the devices in different networks, which requires a special configuration of the network components. Depending on each network, we will need one type of hardware or another, so in the case of needing to create a large network, the help of qualified technicians is essential to devise and implement it.

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