Common Networking Devices and their Functions

This is a very brief article about the different devices used in a network and their particular purpose.

1, The most common end points in our networks are the computers. Inside the computers we have the Network Interface Card or NIC. This is what allows our computers to be able to communicate in the network. We do have the wired and the wireless. It is in these NICs where the Media Access Control Address or MAC Address is burned to. No two NICs can have the same MAC Address. This is for the purpose of identification.

2. The switch is most commonly what is on the other side of our cables connected to our devices. The purpose of the switch is simple; to allow our devices to communicate internally and to be able to connect more devices in one network. Embedded on each switch port is the ASIC, Application Specific Integrated Circuit which allows simultaneous data transfer as contrast to the old hub which only allowed one communication at a time no matter how many ports it has.

3. The router. I have written a more detailed article about a router here. But, mainly, a router's role is to allow our devices to communicate to other networks.  It serves as the receiving point in and out of the internet which the switch is not capable of doing.

4. The cables.  In networking, you will always encounter different types of cables with different purpose, specifications and limitations. The most widely used cables are the Twisted Pair and Fiber Optics. These cables are very much different. The twisted pairs have a limit of 100 meters and use pulses of electricity to transmit data while the fiber optics use Light Emitting Diode and Laser technology and are used for very long distances ranging from 2 to 100 kilometers.

So, to summarize, all we need are these four essential devices / materials to be able to create our networks.