A repeater is an electronic device that receives a weak or low-level signal and retransmits it at a higher level or higher power, so that the signal can cover longer distances without degradation. The term “repeater” originated with telegraphy and referred to an electromechanical device used to regenerate telegraph signals. Use of the term has [...]
A router is a computer networking device that forwards data packets toward their destinations through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at layer 3 (Network layer) of the OSI seven-layer model. A router can be used to either connect at least two networks, or to form a mobile ad-hoc network. A special variety of [...]
A network switch is a networking device that connects network segments. It uses the logic of a Network bridge but allows a physical and logical star topology. It is often used to replace network hubs. A switch is sometimes also referred to as an intelligent hub. How switches work? A switch can connect Ethernet, Token [...]
Also known as ethernet hub, is a physical device for connecting multiple ethernet devices together acting as if it’s a single segment. These ethernet devices are connected using twisted pair or any other suitable media to the hub. Hub operates at Physical Layer of the OSI model. Hub can also be called a multi-port repeater. [...]
A modem (modulator and demodulator) is a device that modulates a carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems are generally classified by the [...]
Sometimes also referred as Network Information Card, it’s a piece of computer hardware, works at layer 2 of the OSI model, and is designed to allow computers to communicate over a network. In the early days of computer networking, NIC cards relied solely on ethernet cables to connect to another computer on the network. But [...]
Without the use of a hardware equipment, the existence of a network is unimaginable. In this section we will examine networking hardware devices which are widely used in almost every type of network. Introduction to networking hardware On a very high level, there are two types of transmission technology that are in use as of [...]