Introduction to Networking | Network Fundamentals Part 1
Hello and welcome to the Network
Direction video channel. What you’ve found here is the start of a new group of
videos designed to help you understand the foundations of Networking. If you’re
new to networking or studying for a certification like CCNA, Network +, or JNCIA this is a great place to start. For the
first few videos, I’m going to assume that you have no networking experience.
My goal is to create a solid foundation for you to build on. In this video, we’re
going to start with understanding what a network is and some of the
network types you’ll see. We will follow up in part two with a look at how a network
may be cabled and get an overview of addresses. If you like this video please, let me
know with the like button. It’s important to me to know if I’m on
the right track with my videos so a comment would be helpful too.
If you want to see more, please use the subscribe and notification buttons. Now if you’re ready
let’s start right at the beginning. What is a Network? So maybe you already know what a network is. Maybe you’ve built your network at home or helped someone run the
network at school or your job. That’s okay I don’t want to bore you so if this
applies to you I would like to give you this challenge pause the video and think
of a good description of what a network is if you’ve come up with something
you’re happy with well-done feel free to skip ahead otherwise stay with me and
I’ll see if I can come up with something for you. At work or home, you have a bunch
of devices; Computers, printers, TVs, and so on. You connect these using a
network. When the devices are connected they’re able to share data. This could be
sending a print job to a printer, sending an email, or streaming a video.
This can
also, be used for sharing an internet connection.
Most network users are unaware of the network they’re using as long as they
can browse the Internet and do their job browse YouTube they’re usually fine. For
all of these devices to communicate they need to be connected somehow.
One way is to plug cables into the devices and connect them to another device
called a switch. An example is in a school’s computer lab in this case a
computer in the lab connects to a wall socket with a cable. Another cable runs
through the wall which comes out at a patch panel. This may be in a cabinet on
the wall somewhere in the room or another room entirely. The port on the
patch panel then connects to the switch you might have a switch at home too most
homes don’t have wall sockets so devices are connected directly to the switch
we’ll talk more about how switches work later.
We can also connect devices
wirelessly a common way to do this is to use a wireless access point a wireless
network like this is also called Wi-Fi an example of this is if you have a
tablet. It is impractical to cable it in so Wireless is a good option. The access
point is like a switch without cables more than one device can connect to the
access point over time but without messy cabling. The access point can also
be connected to the switch with a cable this way wired and wireless devices can
all be part of the same network. Having both wired switches and wireless access
points give you more connection options imagine you have a laptop in an office
you may connect it to the network with a cable when you’re at your desk when you
have a meeting in the conference room you remove the cable and connect to
Wi-Fi.
Whether wired or wireless, the goal of the network is to move
information from one device to another for this to work the sender and the
receiver must understand each other. They need to speak the same language. In the
network speaking the same language means that devices agree on how data is sent,
received, organized, and handled. They agree on a process that they all
follow. It’s a bit like filling out paperwork. This is called a protocol. A
lot of different protocols are used depending on what’s needed at the time.
Network software and hardware are designed with these protocols in mind.
You will hear of protocols like Ethernet and TCP which are used for sending and
receiving data. You may also hear of protocols like HTTP which is used for
accessing the web and SMTP which is used for email usually several protocols are
used together to achieve a task. We’ll look at protocols further in future videos in summary networks are used to connect
devices.
Devices use the network to communicate and share information.
To share information, devices need to speak the same language. This language is
called a protocol which is a set of instructions on how to handle the
information we’re going to start with some simple
questions to get the brain working firstly what are the two ways computers
can connect to the network to follow on from that what devices do they usually
connect to and finally how many protocols are used when one computer
accesses another computer. When you’re ready to see the answers follow the link
at the bottom of the screen. Networks connect devices.
You could call devices
on the network nodes. Nodes may include devices that help control the traffic
flowing through a network like switches and routers. Nodes also include end
points or hosts. These are devices that send and receive the bulk of the traffic
this includes workstations servers printers and so on. Networks come in
different sizes a network at home is an example of a small network these
networks usually only have a few nodes this is called a SOHO Network. SOHO means
Small Office Home Office these networks typically have a couple of computers a
printer a few phones and tablets some devices will be wireless and some are
connected to a switch this might be a good time to mention that people often
say hub, when they mean, switch you can see why of course as the switch looks
like a central hub in a Soho Network but please keep in mind that switches and
hubs are very different things hubs are really old technology that you
generally don’t see anymore outside of a museum while switches are modern and
commonly used they look very similar so it’s easy to mix them up have a look at
the model number to see if it gives you any clues about what the device really
is.
In a Soho Network, a router is used to connect to the internet you might find
that the router switch access point are all integrated into one
device While a SOHO network will only have a few
devices a corporation for example a bank will have many devices this is
called an enterprise network the enterprise network may cover several
floors in a building. They may also have several office buildings in different
cities or even across different countries. An internet provider has a
very large network this is called a service provider network. Not only do
they provide Internet access they also offer services to connect
their customers together.
Consider the bank with offices all around the country
the service provider uses part of their network to join these officers together
when devices are collected into a local area we call this a local area network
or LAN. The LAN may be a small network in a SOHO Network the LAN is the switch
with the handful of devices connected or the LAN may be part of a bigger network
like an enterprise network. This network may have many switches routers and
access points depending on their needs think of the bank from before they had
an office with several floors you could consider the whole building as a LAN or
more likely the network is broken up into smaller parts. Perhaps there is a
separate network on each floor each of these could also be called the LAN. These
separate LANs may be connected but we’ll talk more about that later. But
a bank’s network is going to be larger than just one building. Banks have
offices all over the country and all over the world even though they are far
apart these networks can be joined together.
This is called a WAN or Wide
Area Network. Imagine for a moment that you work for a company with an office in
Sydney and an office in Melbourne you could contact a service provider and
they can connect these officers for you WANs is a topic all of their own,
so we’ll cover them in detail in a later video let’s take a moment for a quick summary
all networks are different and this includes their size a Soho Network is
very small while an enterprise network may be very
large. Of course, your network could fit anywhere in between. A LAN or local
area network is a collection of network devices in a local area like a single
building. A WAN or wide area network connects networks that are far apart. And
once again it’s time to get the brain working. Here’s something to think about
you work for a company that has a finance division and an engineering division
and an admin division each group has its network and the networks are
joined together in this network still a LAN or is it something else entirely the
the company grows and adds a retail division in addition to the head office there is
now six branch offices what type of network is this as before go to the link
below to see the answers I hope you’ve enjoyed part one of this
series join me in part two where we’ll have a look at different types of
cabling the Ethernet protocol and a bit of an introduction to network
addressing if you found this helpful subscribe and click the notification
the button also if you liked it please click the like button and tell me what you
thought in the comments
