Course 1 : Basic Information About Network

 LAN : Local Area Network  WAN : Wide Area Network  WLAN : Wireless Local Area Network

The LAN network is the most popular type of network which uses cables to connect clients together. The cable type is Coaxial that we is known as CAT. You can buy it from computer stores easily. Now the most popular type of this cable is Cat5 but also you can buy Cat 6. The Port is RJ45 which is a bit bigger than modem port. ( or the port you use for telephone )

 Switch : is a device which you can connect more than 2 clients ( PCs ) together. If you have more than 2 PCs you have to buy one switch and connect your PCs to it. You need just a cable for each pc to switch. There are many different types of switch and with different number of ports. 4,8,16,32,48 and etc. Also the port speed is different. Normally it is 100mb/s but there are many models with 1Gb/s speed which is more expensive.

 According to second slide you know the type of LAN cable which is Coaxial and known CAT. Every cat cable has 4 pairs of wire and that’s why specialists call it Twist-Pair. You can use CAT in 2 different way : 1 : Cross-Over -> when you want to connect 1 PC to another PC. ( P t P ) 2 : Straight -> When you want to connect 1 PC to switch, xDSL modem or etc. Don’t forget two type of CAT cable is just the way you patch the connectors (RJ45s). You can buy ready cables from computer shops and they are in different lengths.

 A wide area network is a kinda network which usually use different medium. There are many different media for example Cable, Wireless, Phone Lines, Satellite and etc. WAN network is included different type of network. The Internet is the largest WAN network. Also it has another meaning we can call it a network which connects another networks together.

Please note that wide area network as home networking meaning is called to xDSL, ADSL or any kind of internet port which you leased and ISP gives it to you. So in home network devices whenever you see WAN port, it means you should connect internet line to it.

 Local Wireless Networks (in abbreviation WLAN) are the most popular networks these days. People tend to not liking wires so they need something nice without any cable on the ground or sticking to the walls. Wireless network has two different parts, first Wireless Infrastructure networks which is professional and we are not going to talk about them, second Wireless local area network that is something you will learn about them.

 If you work with wireless devices you will read many abbreviations or numbers. There are few wireless standards that you should know for installing an WLAN in your house.  All the Wireless Standards start with x. The “X” is “a”, “b”, “g” or “N”.  a and b are the oldest wireless standard and these days few devices support them. The frequencies in a is 5.8Mhz and the range of the network is high b use 2400Mhz and it is more common.

 G came after the “b” and “a” and it supports both. It mean if you set your modem wireless for g all the devices that use either a or b will be able to connect this modem at the same time.  N the newest wireless standard and its speed it up to 300mb/s n work on the both frequencies (2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz). Please Note if you set your main device in one of this standards it will allow to connect devices that use the same standards.

 These days almost all the devices can join the wireless network. Cell phones, Laptops, all-in- one Pcs and the others. If you remember we introduced a device in LAN network which you could use it to connect more than 2 PCs together. ( it called Switch ) The switch in wireless network called Access Point. It is a device usually with 2 antennas and very beautiful case.

One type of access point Wireless Route. It has different ports which is able to connect wireless devices to cable devices. Wireless Modem. Allows you to share internet for your wireless or Lan clients.

Dear reader, There were some basic information and just headline of home networking. I wanted you get known to some words which we use a lot in installing and configuring network. There are many ways you can improve your knowledge by reading books, searching internet, etc. In the next power point I will show you more about your PC and we will start to build a network with 2 pc. If there is any question you can just ask me. Thank you for your time. Behrouz Kashani.