Syllabus 

Network components; server, router, NIC, switch, modem; 11 ATAR 12 GEN

Background

For a network to work correctly it needs to have important items as listed above. If there is a breakdown in any one of these components, the network won't work.

Clients (people, school students) want to use a network to surf the web, conduct their jobs, be entertained, print out documents and much more.

Modem

• brings the internet into the network, eg a school,  via a phone line
• is the converter from analogue to digital (modulates the analogue phone line signal to digital so the computer can understand it)
• is the converter from digital back to analogue (demodulates the digital signal back into analogue to go over the phone line)
• Why is a modem needed? If the whole internet was digital from your computer to all other computers on the internet, then a modem would not be needed. But it isn't, so we need the conversion from analogue to digital to occur.

Router

• connects networks
• connects network from one location to a network from a different location
• ie connects a school network to the public telephone network
• it connects via an ip address eg 10.201.201.1

Server

• the server is a computer
• checks username and passwords so only authorised users can access the network
• can have many servers
• a server for authentication ie check username and passwords
• a server for supplying the internet, proxy server
• a server to supply printing
• a server to save files for clients on the network
• it is the server that distributes these resources to the clients (people)

Switch

• is a device that a room full of computers can connect to
• it is the next step in the chain from the classroom computer NIC
• ie from NIC, through cabling to the switch
• the switch then sends the data to server. (often with optic fibre)

Network Interface Card (NIC)

• connects a computer to a network
• in a desktop computer it is located where the ethernet cable clicks in the back
• in windows computers it often has lights, green, orange which flicker when data is transmitting

 For You To Do

1. Create a graphic with labels to describe a network with the above components

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