1.4 wired and wireless networks

1.4 wired and wireless networks

1. A LAN covers a small geographical area located on a single site

   • All the harware for a LAN is owned by the organisation that uses it
     • LANs are either wired (e.g ethernet) or wireless (wifi)
       • can use LAN in businesses,schools and universtities.
         • you can find LAN connected to various different devices e.g PC,tablets,TVs and printers

2. WAN stands for wide area network

   • A WAN connects LANs that are in different geographical locations
     • connects deivces together all around the world
       • WAN is more expensive then LAN
         • WANs may be connected using fibre or copper
           • telephone lines satalite links and radio links

3. Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transfered in a given time

   • available bandwidth, the better the platform can perform
     • wired connections are generally faster and more reliable than wireless
       • fiber optic canles can give much better performance then copper cabbles

4. A network interface controller is an internal piece of hardware that allows a device to connect to a network

   • they are now built into the motherboard
     • switches connect devices on a LAN
       • switches recieves data from one device and transmit this data to the device on the network with the correct MAC address
   • Routers are responsible for transmitting data between networks
     • connected to atleast two different networks