What is Networking

 What is Networking

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 JN

CIA

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 actually 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 own network

at home or help someone to run the

network at school or at 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 by means of 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 video this can

also be used for sharing an internet

connection

mostly network users are unaware of the

network they're using as long as they

can browse the Internet do their job

browse YouTube they're usually fine for

all of these devices to communicate they

need to be connected together somehow

one way sir 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 in

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 the

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 wires access

points gives 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 where the 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 basically

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 look

at protocols further in future videos

in summary networks are used to connect

devices together devices use the network

to communicate and to share information

to share information devices need to

speak the same language this language is

called a protocol which is a set of

instructions of 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 that works

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 now works 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

also her network will only have a few

devices a corporation for example the

bank will have many devices this is

called an enterprise network

the enterprise network may cover several

floors in a building there 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 land may be a small network

in a Soho Network the LAN is the switch

with the handful of devices connected or

the land 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 have

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 together

but we'll talk more about that later but

a banks 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 win 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

where's there 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

in anywhere in between a LAN or local

area network is a collection of network

devices in a local area like a single

building a when 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 an engineering division

and an admin division each group have

their own network and the networks are

joined together is this network still a

LAN or is it something else entirely 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 into network

addressing if you found this helpful

subscribe and click the notification

button also if you liked it please click

the like button and tell me what you

thought in the comments