introduction
Welcome to the world of the Internet. The series of articles “Network Basics Even Newbies Can Understand” will help you build the basic knowledge of the Internet from scratch. If you have never been exposed to anything related to the Internet, then we are the same. We must have encountered the same problems in the learning process! I wrote these articles to record my own learning process, and on the other hand, I hope to help friends who also want to learn the basics of the Internet.
Part of the content and materials of this article are learned and collected from the series of videos released by [ Network Direction ] on [Youtube platform]. Translation is not easy, and some content may not be perfect, and there may even be some flaws. I will try my best to make the content of the article easy to understand and comprehensive. If you find any problems, I hope you can leave a message or send me a private message. I will be very grateful! Of course, I will correct it as soon as possible.
In every future article, I will treat the readers as newbies with no network experience at all. My goal is to build a solid network foundation together with newbies with no network experience. Network experts, please skip this series of articles.
Let’s start our online journey!
1. What is the Internet?
The Internet actually exists in every corner of our daily life! Your computer , printer , mobile phone, and even TV are all network devices. Usually, we need to connect these devices through the Internet so that data can be transmitted and shared, making our work and life more convenient.
If there is no problem with our connection, we can send instructions to the printer through the computer to ask it to print the data for us; or store the data on our local server; of course, we can also publish articles or videos to the Internet.
The problem is that although we usually perform these daily operations, we are not aware of the existence of the network, or we are not very clear about the internal workflow and details. The reason why we can browse videos , download materials , send emails or video chat with friends through the Internet is actually the result of the tacit cooperation between network devices.
1. Switch
So, how do we connect these network devices? “Switches” need to be used with device cables to achieve interconnection between devices.
For example, most computers in company offices or school classrooms can use network cables to connect to a network cable interface on the wall or other locations. The network cable interface is then connected to a patch panel via cables. This patch panel is usually placed in a separate room or cabinet. Then, you only need to connect the patch panel to the “switch” to achieve a basic network connection.
Ordinary home users may have rarely heard of “switches” because we usually connect cables directly to optical modems or routers. After all, there are relatively few network devices in our homes. However, for an enterprise or school institution, they have a lot of computers, and the management of cables becomes complicated. Switches can solve this problem very well. (We will explain “switches” in detail in the following chapters )
Of course, if we don’t have many devices, we can also connect the cables directly to the switch. The specific situation depends on the number of our devices and cables.
2. Wireless connection
The reality is that, in addition to desktop computers, the most commonly used devices are mobile devices. Most of these devices, such as mobile phones, mobile laptops, and tablet computers, do not require the use of cables and can also achieve network connection. This is achieved through the so-called “wireless connection technology (Wi-Fi)” . With it, we can access the Internet wirelessly within the coverage of Wi-Fi.
If wireless devices are also connected to the switch, we can share the contents of wired and wireless devices in a local network, for example, transferring information on a mobile phone to a printer to print data; it should be noted that there will be differences in data transmission speed between wireless connections and wired connections.
My usage of mobile devices in the company is like this: when I sit at my desk and work, I will use a wired connection, after all, it is faster; but if I have a meeting, I will unplug the computer network cable, take my naked laptop to the meeting room, and then connect to the wireless network.
3. Network Protocol
Regardless of the way we connect, our ultimate goal is to send information from one device to another. Therefore, the sender and receiver must understand each other, which requires them to speak the same language in the network. Although we don’t need to worry about this problem, after all, devices basically know how to organize data and process and send it. Fundamentally, it is because they all follow the same set of rules, which we call “protocols” .
The protocol is the “communication rules set for both parties” , which means that if both parties want to cooperate well, they must follow these protocols. For this reason, if one party has a problem, we can quickly and accurately locate the problem.
In computer networks, engineers who design network software and hardware will strictly follow this set of “protocols” to ensure that they can be unimpeded in the network! You may have heard of protocols such as “Ethernet” , you may also have heard of the “TCP (for sending and receiving data)” protocol, or the “HTTP (for accessing the network)” protocol, or the “SMTP (for sending and receiving emails)” protocol, which will be explained in detail in subsequent chapters… No matter which protocol, its ultimate goal is to complete data exchange.
Often, we use several protocols together to accomplish a task.
4. Summary
- The role of the network is to connect devices together, allowing them to share resources, exchange information, and other functions.
- Network devices need to speak a common language and follow the same rules, which we call “protocols”.
- A protocol is a set of instructions on how a device should process information.
5. Small test
- What are the two ways a computer can connect to a network?
- What equipment is usually used to connect multiple network devices together?
- When you want to communicate from one computer to another, which protocols are used?
2. Network Type
In this section, we will learn the following:
- What are nodes in a network ?
- What types of networks can we build based on the different network nodes ?
- In our daily life, what are the actual application scenarios of different network types ?
1. Network Node
Any device that is connected to the network and can send, receive or forward information through a communication channel can be called a “network node” . For example, switches , routers , computers , printers , mobile phones , etc. are all nodes in the network.
2. Soho Network
A small network with only a few nodes is called a “soho network” . The network built in a small office or home office belongs to a “soho network” . It is usually a small network environment with only a few computers, printers, a few mobile phones and tablets.
It is worth mentioning that people often refer to “switch” as “central hub”. Indeed, “switch” does look like “hub”, but please remember that switches and hubs are completely different things! Hubs are really old technology, and we basically don’t see them now. Switches are now very commonly used network devices, so be sure to distinguish them clearly.
In a soho network, we usually use a router to complete the network connection, because most modern routers integrate the functions of routers and switches, but usually because the router has very few interfaces, we can only connect a small number of node devices to achieve network sharing.
3. Local Area Network (LAN)
But in fact, in a company, it is obvious that just having a router and a switch is far from enough! For example, a local bank enterprise may have network equipment spread across several floors or even across multiple buildings. At this time, the network connecting network equipment of this scale is called a “Local Area Network (LAN)” .
In fact, the “soho network” also belongs to the local area network, but the “soho network” connects a few devices. In the enterprise network, we will need to use multiple switches and routers to link, which we can understand as a larger network structure that connects multiple “soho networks” together.
4. Wide Area Network (WAN)
Although “local area network technology” can enable network nodes in a larger area to interconnect and share information, what if this area is expanded to span cities and regions? For example, a cross-regional banking enterprise usually does not have office buildings in only one region, but may have its own office buildings in various regions across the country. At this time, the bank network becomes very large, and even if the distance is far, the banking enterprise also wants to connect all these networks together. At this time, we need to use a new network construction technology “wide area network (WAN)”.
For example, if a multinational company has branches in Sydney and Melbourne, we share data with the Sydney office, and the Melbourne office wants to obtain this data. In this process, we need to contact the service provider to help us achieve long-distance data interaction.
5. Summary
- Soho network: usually suitable for home or small office
- LAN: Suitable for multiple floors of network architecture
- Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): suitable for network architecture within a range of 10~100km
- Wide Area Network (WAN): Suitable for networks over 100 km, usually large-scale networks spanning countries and regions
6. Small test
- You work in a company where the finance department, engineering department, and management department each have a LAN , and the LANs of the three departments are connected together. Is this network still a LAN ?
- In addition to the head office, the company has six branches. So what type of network connection does this company have?
Conclusion
If you think the article is great, you can forward it and comment on it. If there are any problems with the article, please leave a message or send me a private message. I will adjust the content as soon as possible. This will help everyone who wants to learn the basics of the Internet. Thank you!
Original author:
- Original author: Network Direction
- Link address: Click to view
Other articles by the author:
- Network Basics Even Newbies Can Understand 01 | What is the Internet?
- Network Basics Even Newbies Can Understand 02 | Connecting Devices
- Network Basics Even Newbies Can Understand 03 | How Does the OSI Model Work?
- Network Basics Even Newbies Can Understand 04 | How Do IP Addresses Work?
- Network Basics Even Newbies Can Understand 05 | Deep Learning of IP Addresses