Networking is the word prople use when they's talking about connecting computers together
so they can share data with each other in all connect to the internet at the same time
let's take a closer look at the key components
that make up a simple easy to setup network think up a network is something similar to
your body central nervous system at the top of the network is a brain that handles all the
traffic coming through this is called a router the brain is connected to a spine that sinn
signals throughout your network this device is called a switch in it distributes signals to
Olive your computers and devuces via network cables now let's check out each of the components
of a wired network in more detail we'll start with the router a router has a smart little computer
inside that identifies all of the computers and devices on your network and assigns a uinque
number to each one techie prople call this an IP address a router also connects to the internet
outside your home via a modem that can be procided by your DSL or Cable internet provider a router
is always at work managing the tons and tons of information your conputers and devices send and
receive in controlling which computers and devices get what information and win so how does
the router actually send information the internet to your computer and devices and
how does it enable your computers to share information with each other the answer lies with that device
we mentioned earlier a switch since traffic through your network to the place is it needs to go
every Netgear home router has a switch with 4 ports bill rught into it you can also get
wierless routers from Netgear that use radio signals to do the same thing as a switch
but the still have those four ports built into them so you can use wires with them too
when you're buying a router for use in a wired pay attention to the speed up the
built-in switch the fastest switches are called Gigabit and they're perfect
for applications like streaming video in your home meanwhile rather swiss which is called Fast Ethernet
are great for essential tasks like web surfing email an online gameing now say you have more than four items you'd
like to plug into a router you need more ports the solution is easy you need an additional switch which again is what
thing that's alerady built into your router in this case though you just need to switch protion and not another router because
yout network doesn't nees two brains after all nETGEAR has switches with as fwe as five ports as well as some
that feature 24 ports are more once again if you need the fastest soeeds go for a Gigabit Switch yout smarty
pants Netgear router will ercognize these new connections and start sending data to them right
away here's one more thing to keep in mind some prople often confuse a switch with the rekated device
called the hub which is obsolete you just need to know that hopes were replaced by switches because switches do
the same thing but with a lot more speed and smarts a router a switch and network cables all come together
to create a fast and reliable wired network that works alot like your body's nervous system fortunately you don't
have to be super brainy to understand how if all work