A computer network is a network of two or more devices/computers (called nodes) connected together for the purpose of communication, data exchange and sharing of resources (such as, printers and software).
Some of the fundamental networking components are:
Network Interface Card (NIC)
Hubs
Switches
Bridge
Router
Modems
Gateway
Network cables
Hubs
Hubs are hardware devices used to connect together a number of devices to form a LAN.
A hub's main task is to take any data packet received at one of its ports and broadcast it to every computer in the network.
Hubs are so called "dumb" devices, that pass on data packets received on one connection to all other connections.
Since all data is sent to all devices, hubs are not very secure or efficient method of data distribution.
Switches
Switches are similar to hubs; in that they connect a number of devices or computers together to form a LAN.
However, unlike a hub, the switch checks the data packet received and looks up its destination address (or addresses) and sends the data to the appropriate computer(s) only. This makes a switch more efficient and secure than a hub.
Each device or computer on a network has a media access control (MAC) address that uniquely identifies it.
Data packets sent to switches have MAC address of both the source and destination devices.
The switch stores a lookup table containing the MAC addresses of all devices on the network.
When a switch receives a data packet, it looks up the destination MAC address of the packet in the lookup table.
Once the matching MAC address is found, the switch forwards the data packet to the corresponding device.
Network Interface Card (NIC)
A Network Interface Card (NIC) is an internal component (usually part of the device hardware) that allows a device to connect to the network. The NIC contains the MAC address generated at the manufacturing stage.
A NIC can be both wired and wireless and allows your computer to send and receive data over a network.
The NIC is required for a computer to connect to a network.
Routers
Routers enable data packets to be routed between different networks, for example to route data from a LAN to a wide area network (WAN).
Routers inspect the data packets sent to it from any computer; and analyze the data within packets to determine the best transmission path. Hence, routers are so called "smart" devices on a network.
The router is responsible for routing data packets between different networks.
The router connects different networks together, such as a local area network (LAN) to the wider internet which is a type of wide area network (WAN).
The router uses sophisticated routing algorithms to manage and prioritize data traffic; hence routers are so called "intelligent" devices of the network.
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