Chapter 1 Cisco Press "Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 1 (ICND1): CCNA Exam 640-802 and ICND1 Exam 640-822" .
Summary of Exploring the Functions of Networking
The key purpose of this section was to get a basic understanding of the key components in a computer network and how the network is used by business. The main points are as follows:
· A network is a connected collection of computing devices that communicate with each other to carry data in homes, small businesses, and enterprise environments.
· You have four major categories of physical components in a computer network: the computer, interconnections, switches, and routers.
· The major resources that are shared in a computer network include data and applications, physical resources, storage devices, and backup devices.
· The most common network user applications include e-mail, web browsers, instant messaging, collaboration, and databases.
· The terms that describe networks include characteristics around network performance and structure such as speed, cost, security, availability, scalability, reliability, and topology.
· A physical topology describes the layout for wiring the physical devices, while a logical topology describes how information flows to devices within the networks.
· In a physical bus topology, a single cable connects all the devices together.
· In a physical star topology, each device in the network is connected to central device with its own cable.
· When a star network is expanded to include additional networking devices that are connected to the main networking device, it is called an extended-star topology.
· Ina ring topology, all the hosts are connected to one another in the form of a ring or circle. A dual-ring topology provides a second ring for redundancy.
· A full-mesh topology connects all devices to each other for redundancy, while a partial-mesh topology provides multiple connections for only some devices.
