1. C ONNECTING YOUR NETWORK National 4/5 Computing Science

2. L ESSON AIMS By the end of this lesson you will be able to:  Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of wired and wireless networking

3. D O IT Y OURSELF … You have bought a new house You want to install a network to connect all of your computers together Do you break out the toolkit?

4. T ASK You now have 5 minutes to prepare your ‘excuse’ or reason! on whether you should get your tools out or not!

5. W IRED N ETWORKS This is when the devices in a network are connected using cables What are the advantages and disadvantages to using cables?

6. F EATURES OF W IRED NETWORKING  Generally fast transfer speeds  Hardware generally cheaper  Portability  Expandability Advantages Disadvantages

7. W I -F I N ETWORKS This is when devices on network communicate wirelessly using WiFi ® This requires wireless networking equipment

8. F EATURES OF W I -F I  Portability  Expandability  Guest access capability (free Wi-Fi)  Security  Legal issues  Transfer speeds generally slower than wired Advantages Disadvantages

9. E QUIPMENT – NIC’ S Whether you are using wired or wireless devices each device will have an NIC Network Interface Card (NIC) These can be wired or Wi-Fi