What are Data Network Peripherals In the modern 21st century world, almost all aspects of life and

society have been connected through computer networks. Especially with the introduction of the internet to the world, networks have been the way to go, for almost everything concerning professional tasks. Networking is one of the key factors that have caused the phenomenon of globalization as well. Hence, with networking having this kind of impact on many aspects of our life in the modern world; it is important to look at how so much has become possible, with the utilization of networking hardware or peripherals. Networking hardware refers to equipment which typically enables computers to network, includes hardware such as, routers, switches, access points, network interface cards and other hardware devices. With respect to the modern trend in these technologies, it is important to mention that the most common kind of hardware used today are copper based Ethernet adapters, which are included in many modern computer systems. The importance and the integration of networking hardware in modern devices can be understood better, as these devices are also included in day to day utilities such as mobile phones, PDAs and even modern coffee machines. Routers A router is referred to a computer which has the ability to perform such tasks as routing and forwarding information with use of software and hardware. Routers are regarded to generally contain a specialized operating system, along with such devises as RAM, NVRAM, flash memory, and one or more processors. Switches and Hubs According to simple theoretical terms, switches are defined as devices which join multiple computers together, with better facilities offered than hubs. And hubs can be defined as, small, uncomplicated, economical devices that join multiple computers, with a lower or basic level of networking facilities. Modems A modem enables a computer to transmit data over long distances using a cable or telephone line. As computer data is in digital form, it needs to be converted for transmission over the cable/telephone line, which only carries analog waves. This task or conversion is facilitated by a modem. Network Adapters This piece of networking hardware is one of the most essential pieces of equipment for any computer network, since it has the function of providing access between a computer and a network connection. When considering the theoretical aspects of network adapters, it is common to discuss the importance of another essential component, the network interface card or NIC. The term NIC refers to network adapter hardware in the form of a card. Network Cables Patch Cables - A patch cable connects two network devices Ethernet Crossover Cables - A crossover cable directly connects two network devices of the same type to each other over an Ethernet. Crossover cables are useful for temporary networking of devices when a network router, switch or hub is not present. Fiber Optic Cable - Fiber optic cables carry information using light pulses. These cables are typically designed for long distance networking use, although they are soon becoming popular for home use today.

What are Hub, Switch, and Router The functions of the three devices are all quite different from one another, even if at times they are all integrated into a single device. Which one do you use when? Let's take a look... Hub A common connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN. A hub contains multiple ports. When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.

Switch In networks, a device that filters and forwards packets between LAN segments. Switches operate at the data link layer (layer 2) and sometimes the network layer (layer 3) of the OSI Reference Model and therefore support any packet protocol. LANs that use switches to join segments are called switched LANs or, in the case of Ethernet networks, switched Ethernet LANs. Router A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs orWANs or a LAN and its ISP.s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocolssuch as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts. The Differences Between Hubs, Switches, and Routers on the Network Today most routers have become something of a Swiss Army knife, combining the features and functionality of a router and switch/hub into a single unit. So conversations regarding these devices can be a bit misleading especially to someone new to computer networking. The functions of a router, hub and a switch are all quite different from one another, even if at times they are all integrated into a single device. Let's start with the hub and the switch since these two devices have similar roles on the network. Each serves as a central connection for all of your network equipment and handles a data type known as frames. Frames carry your data. When a frame is received, it is amplified and then transmitted on to the port of the destination PC. The big difference between these two devices is in the method in which frames are being delivered. In a hub, a frame is passed along or "broadcast" to every one of its ports. It doesn't matter that the frame is only destined for one port. The hub has no way of distinguishing which port a frame should be sent to. Passing it along to every port ensures that it will reach its intended destination. This places a lot of traffic on the network and can lead to poor network response times. Additionally, a 10/100Mbps hub must share its bandwidth with each and every one of its ports. So when only one PC is broadcasting, it will have access to the maximum available bandwidth. If, however, multiple PCs are broadcasting, then that bandwidth will need to be divided among all of those systems, which will degrade performance. A switch, however, keeps a record of the MAC addresses of all the devices connected to it. With this information, a switch can identify which system is sitting on which port. So when a frame is received, it knows exactly which port to send it to, without significantly increasing network response times. And, unlike a hub, a 10/100Mbps switch will allocate a full 10/100Mbps to each of its ports. So regardless of the number of PCs transmitting, users will always have access to the maximum amount of bandwidth. It's for these reasons why a switch is considered to be a much better choice then a hub. Routers are completely different devices. Where a hub or switch is concerned with transmitting frames, a router's job, as its name implies, is to route packets to other networks until that packet ultimately reaches its destination. One of the key features of a packet is that it not only contains data, but the destination address of where it's going. A router is typically connected to at least two networks, commonly two Local Area Networks (LANs) or Wide Area Networks (WAN) or a LAN and its ISP's network . for example, your PC or workgroup and EarthLink. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect. Using headers and forwarding tables, routers determine the best path for forwarding the packets. Router use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts. Today, a wide variety of services are integrated into most broadband routers. A router will typically include a 4 - 8 port Ethernet switch (or hub) and a Network Address Translator (NAT). In addition, they usually include a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, Domain Name Service (DNS) proxy server and a hardware firewall to protect the LAN from malicious intrusion from the Internet. All routers have a WAN Port that connects to a DSL or cable modem for broadband Internet service and the integrated switch allows users to easily create a LAN. This allows all the PCs on the LAN to have access to the Internet and Windows file and

printer sharing services. Routers might have a single WAN port and a single LAN port and are designed to connect an existing LAN hub or switch to a WAN. Ethernet switches and hubs can be connected to a router with multiple PC ports to expand a LAN. Depending on the capabilities (kinds of available ports) of the router and the switches or hubs, the connection between the router and switches/hubs may require either straight-thru or crossover (null-modem) cables. Some routers even have USB ports, and more commonly, wireless access points built into them. Some of the more high-end or business class routers will also incorporate a serial port that can be connected to an external dial-up modem, which is useful as a backup in the event that the primary broadband connection goes down, as well as a built in LAN printer server and printer port. Besides the inherent protection features provided by the NAT, many routers will also have a built-in, configurable, hardwarebased firewall. Firewall capabilities can range from the very basic to quite sophisticated devices. Among the capabilities found on leading routers are those that permit configuring TCP/UDP ports for games, chat services, and the like, on the LAN behind the firewall. So, in short, a hub glues together an Ethernet network segment, a switch can connect multiple Ethernet segments more efficiently and a router can do those functions plus route TCP/IP packets between multiple LANs and/or WANs; and much more of course.

What is Server In most common use, a server is a physical computer (a computer hardware system) dedicated to run one or more services (as a host), to serve the needs of the users of other computers on a network. Depending on the computing service that it offers it could be a database server, file server, mail server, print server, web server, gaming server, or some other kind of server. In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients". The clients either run on the same computer or connect through the network. In the context of Internet Protocol (IP) networking, a server is a program that operates as a socket listener. Servers often provide essential services across a network, either to private users inside a large organization or to public users via the Internet. The term server is used quite broadly in information technology. Despite the many server-branded products available (such as server versions of hardware, software or operating systems), in theory any computerised process that shares a resource to one or more client processes is a server. To illustrate this, take the common example of file sharing. While the existence of files on a machine does not classify it as a server, the mechanism which shares these files to clients by the operating system is the server. Similarly, consider a web server application (such as the multiplatform "Apache HTTP Server"). This web server software can be run on any capable computer. For example, while a laptop or personal computer is not typically known as a server, they can in these situations fulfill the role of one, and hence be labelled as one. It is, in this case, the machine's role that places it in the category of server. In the hardware sense, the word server typically designates computer models intended for hosting software applications under the heavy demand of a network environment. In this clientserverconfiguration one or more machines, either a computer or a computer appliance, share information with each other with one acting as a host for the other[s]. While nearly any personal computer is capable of acting as a network server, a dedicated server will contain features making it more suitable for production environments. These features may include a faster CPU, increased high-performance RAM, and increased storage capacity in the form of a larger or multiple hard drives. Servers also typically have reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) and fault tolerance features, such as redundancy in power supplies, storage (as in RAID), and network connections.

Servers became common in the early 1990s as businesses increasingly began using personal computers to provide services formerly hosted on larger mainframes or minicomputers. Early file servers housed multiple CD-ROM drives, which were used to host large database applications.[citation needed] Between the 1990s and 2000s an increase in the use of dedicated hardware saw the advent of self-contained server appliances. One well-known product is the Google Search Appliance, a unit that combines hardware and software in an outof-the-box packaging. Simpler examples of such appliances include switches, routers, gateways, and print servers, all of which are available in a near plug-and-play configuration. Modern operating systems such as Microsoft Windows or Linux distributions rightfully seem to be designed with a client server architecture in mind. These operating systems attempt to abstract hardware, allowing a wide variety of software to work with components of the computer. In a sense, the operating system can be seen as serving hardware to the software, which in all but low-level programming languages must interact using an API. These operating systems may be able to run programs in the background called either services or daemons. Such programs, such as the aforementioned Apache HTTP Server software, may wait in a sleep state for their necessity to become apparent. Since any software that provides services can be called a server, modern personal computers can be seen as a forest of servers and clients operating in parallel. The Internet itself is also a forest of servers and clients. Merely requesting a web page from a few kilometers away involves satisfying a stack of protocols that involve many examples of hardware and software servers. The least of these are the routers, modems, domain name servers, and various other servers necessary to provide us the world wide web. The introduction of Cloud computing allows server storage and other resources to be shared in a pool and provides servers with a higher degree of fault tolerance.

What is Desktop Computer A desktop computer is a personal computer built to be used at a desk. This is in contrast both to large mainframe computers, which are not meant to be used at a desk, and to portable computers, or laptops, meant to be taken around from one location to another easily. Originally, a desktop computer was be seen as a very small version of a computer, as the majority of computers required a great deal of space. These days, the desktop computer is looked at as the larger end of the computer spectrum, with computers having become incredibly small. The desktop computer was traditionally be assumed to be a fairly specific layout. This type of computer would contain most of the computer components, such as the CPU, the hard disk, and the RAM, within a single case that would sit horizontally on a desktop. A monitor would then sit on top of the desktop computer case, and an external mouse and keyboard would attach to it. Later, the desktop computer tower became the dominant form of desktop computer. This sort of case sits horizontally, and is usually either placed under a desk, or up on the desk next to the monitor, rather than underneath the monitor. Towers usually have more space, allowing for many bays to hold things like hard drives and multiple media drives. The all-in-one desktop computer has also been popular to varying degrees over the decades. Many of Apples original computers were all-in-one, with the monitor included as a part of the component case, but the mouse and keyboard still being external. The later iMac series, also by Apple, continued the all-in-one tradition. All-in-one computers have a number of advantages over towers or the basic desktop computer, including a smaller desktop footprint, a more attractive form factor, and greater portability. In fact, many older all-in-one computers actually incorporate a carrying handle, so that they are a sort of intermediary step between a truly portable laptop and a totally static desktop computer. The trade-off is that all-in-one computers tend to be much less upgradable than other desktops, since their components are carefully sized to fit in the smallest possible area, and in some cases may even be soldered directly to other components. Historically, the desktop computer has been desirable over the laptop computer for a number of reasons. For one, since the parts can be much larger, desktop computers are usually cheaper than a similarly-powerful laptop. This price difference has shrunk in the past few years, however, making laptops become a much more popular choice. A desktop computer is still, however, able to integrate more powerful components than a laptop of the same generation, making them preferable for highperformance tasks such as video and sound editing, design, and games.

Generally, a desktop computer at its peak can be seen as about a year and a half ahead of a laptop computer at its peak. The desktop computer is also much easier to customize than a laptop, since parts are generally not made to such specific sizes, so many people who like to build their own computers or modify their computers over time still find desktops preferable to laptops. What is Laptop A laptop computer (also called notebook computer) is a computer that integrates all the elements that needs to run properly, including a battery power supply, a screen and a keyboard, in a small casing (on average 360 cm x 40 cm x 270 cm). The main advantage of a laptop computer versus a desktop computer is its mobility as well as its reduced size. On the other hand, the price is generally higher for slightly less impressive performance and the laptop's hardware configuration is much less adaptable, even though it is possible to connect additional external peripherals thanks to its numerous I/O ports. Therefore, the motivation for buying a laptop computer must above all be a need for mobility or a need to save space. Moreover, with the emergence of wireless networks, and WiFi in particular, it is becoming very easy to connect to the Internet in public Hot-Spots or simply in any room of your home as long as it is equipped with a WiFi terminal. For advanced multimedia uses (e.g. digital video manipulation, connecting a digital camera or an mp3player, etc.), the choice should fall on both the computer's performance (both graphic as well as computing power) and on the types and number of I/O ports that are available. What is Wireless Router A wireless router is a device that performs the functions of a router but also includes the functions of a wireless access point and a network switch. It is commonly used to provide access to the Internet or a computer network. It does not require a wired link, as the connection is made wirelessly, viaradio waves. It can function in a wired LAN (local area network), in a wireless-only LAN (WLAN), or in a mixed wired/wireless network, depending on the manufacturer and model. Most current wireless routers have the following characteristics: LAN ports which function in the same manner as the ports of a network switch. A WAN port which connects to a wide area network, typically one with Internet access. External destinations are accessed using this port. A wireless antenna that allows connections to other wireless devices, such as NiCs, wireless repeaters, wireless access points, and wirelessbridges. This antenna typically uses the Wi-Fi standard. Wireless router has many types of security for different manufacturers.Ex-WEP,WAP,WPA.

Some wireless routers also include a DSL or cable modem in addition to the other components. What is IP Phone An IP telephone system uses packet-switched Voice over IP (VoIP), or Internet telephony, to transmit telephone calls over the Internet as opposed to the circuit-switched telephony used by the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Also known as VoIP phone systems, IP telephone systems typically comprise a VoIP private branch exchange (an IP PBX) and desktop VoIP phones (IP Phones) that connect to a VoIP service provider via a Local Area Network (LAN). One of the key advantages to IP telephone systems is that whereas long-distance calls on a regular phone system can be cost prohibitive, the same calls on an IP phone system are free -- there are no fees beyond the cost of Internet access. VoIP phones can be simple software-based softphones or purpose-built hardware devices that appear much like an ordinary telephone or a cordless phone. Ordinary PSTN phones are used as VoIP phones with analog telephone adapters (ATA).

Two combined signal-and-power wired cable interfaces are in common use to communicate between computer networks (or computers) and physically separate VoIP phones: USB and Power over Ethernet. The latter is preferred in industry such as large scale [[ For these reasons, USB and softphone PC applications are considered transitional by many industrial users and makers of larger telephone switches, used only to build markets for VoIP that will eventually shift over to the more robust PoE technology shipped by Cisco, Siemens, Alcatel and other large switch makers. A VoIP phone or application may have many features an analog phone doesn't support, such as e-mail-like IDs for contacts that may be easier to remember than names or phone numbers, or easy sharing of contact lists among multiple accounts. Generally the features of VoIP phones follow those of Skype, Google Voice and other PC-based phone services, which have richer feature sets but (because they rely on mainstream operating systems' IP support) latency-related audio problems. A competing view is that as mainstream operating systems become better at voice applications with appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees and 5G handoff (IEEE 802.21 etc.) becomes available from outdoor wireless carriers, netbooks and smartphones will simply become the dominant interfaces. iPhone, Android and the QNX OS used in 2012-and-later BlackBerry phones are generally capable of VoIP performance even on small battery-charged devices. They also typically support the USB but not Ethernet or Power over Ethernet interfaces, at least as of late 2011. According to this view, the smartphone becomes the dominant VoIP phone because it works both indoors and outdoors and shifts base stations/protocols easily to trade off access costs and call clarity and other factors personal to the user, and the PoE/USB VoIP phone is thus the transitional device.

What is Wireless Access Point? Wireless access points (APs or WAPs) are specially configured nodes on wireless local area networks (WLANs). Access points act as a central transmitter and receiver of WLAN radio signals. Access points used in home or small business networks are generally small, dedicated hardware devices featuring a built-in network adapter, antenna, and radio transmitter. Access points support Wi-Fi wireless communication standards. Although very small WLANs can function without access points in so-called "ad hoc" or peer-to-peer mode, access points support "infrastructure" mode. This mode bridges WLANs with a wired Ethernet LAN and also scales the network to support more clients. Older and base model access points allowed a maximum of only 10 or 20 clients; many newer access points support up to 255 clients.

What is a Firewall A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. You can implement a firewall in either hardware or software form, or a combination of both. Firewalls prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet (i.e., the local network to which you are connected) must pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria. Note: In protecting private information, a firewall is considered a first line of defense; it cannot, however, be considered the only such line. Firewalls are generally designed to protect network traffic and connections, and therefore do not attempt to authenticate individual users when determining who can access a particular computer or network. Several types of firewalls exist: Packet filtering: The system examines each packet entering or leaving the network and accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. Packet filtering is fairly effective and transparent to users, but it is difficult to configure. In addition, it is susceptible to IP spoofing. Circuit-level gateway implementation: This process applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP connection is established. Once the connection has been made, packets can flow between the hosts without further checking.

Acting as a proxy server: A proxy server is a type of gateway that hides the true network address of the computer(s) connecting through it. A proxy server connects to the Internet, makes the requests for pages, connections to servers, etc., and receives the data on behalf of the computer(s) behind it. The firewall capabilities lie in the fact that a proxy can be configured to allow only certain types of traffic to pass (e.g., HTTP files, or web pages). A proxy server has the potential drawback of slowing network performance, since it has to actively analyze and manipulate traffic passing through it. Web application firewall: A web application firewall is a hardware appliance, server plugin, or some other software filter that applies a set of rules to a HTTP conversation. Such rules are generally customized to the application so that many attacks can be identified and blocked.

In practice, many firewalls use two or more of these techniques in concert. In Windows 7, Vista, and XP, software firewalls are built into the operating system. Earlier versions of Windows did not have firewalls built in. Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.2 and later are also equipped with a built-in firewall. Third-party firewall packages also exist, such as Zone Alarm, Norton Personal Firewall, Tiny, Black Ice Protection, and McAfee Personal Firewall. Many of these offer free versions or trials of their commercial versions. In addition, many home and small office broadband routers have rudimentary firewall capabilities built in. These tend to be simply port/protocol filters, although models with much finer control are available.