Data Communication

Network has become an indispensable part of our daily life. If you have a computer at home, I’m sure that you are not unfamiliar with home network. In the past, there was only one way for home network deployment—wired network. However, the pace of network technology development has never slowed down, and now, there is wireless network, which makes it more convenient to get access to the network. As we are in wired network or wireless network environment every day, it is necessary for us to know something about network, especially home network. This article will introduce some basic knowledge about wired network and wireless network.

In wired network, there are two important devices, one is router and the other one is network cable.

We know that router is designed with several physical ports on the front or back of the unit, such as one WAN (wide area network) port, four LAN (local area network) ports and one power input port. Also, there are some LED lights to display device status. All WAN port and LAN ports are RJ45 interface, so one end of network cable can be plugged into them. But for the other end of network cable, there is one difference between WAN port and LAN port. For WAN port, the other end of network cable is plugged into an Internet source, such as broadband service provider; while for LAN port, the other end of network cable is plugged into the RJ45 port on Ethernet-ready device, like computer. The moment you plug a device into a router, you have yourself a wired network.

As for the selection of network cable used for the connection, either cat5e cable or cat6 cable will be OK. The latest network cabling standard currently in use is cat6 cable, which is designed to be faster and more reliable than cat5e cable. Both of them support data speed at 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s and 1000Mb/s, while cat6 cable is able to achieve 10Gb/s. Also, cat5e cable and cat6 cable can be used interchangeably, For most home usage, what cat5 cable has to offer is more than enough. But if you think about future-proof, cat6 cable is a great option in addition to its high price.

For wireless network, devices don't use network cable to connect to the router. Instead, they use radio wireless connections called Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity). This is one big difference between wireless network and wired network. The devices used in wireless network don't need to have ports, just antennas, which are sometimes hidden inside the device itself. In order to build Wi-Fi environment, an access point (AP) is required.

An access point is a central device that broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal for Wi-Fi clients to connect to. Generally, each wireless network belongs to one access point. For example, when you hang around some stores, you can see different networks popping up on your phone's screen and each of them belongs to one access point. For home wireless network deployment, you can buy an access point separately and connect it to a router. Now on the market, a kind of wireless router is available, which is a regular router with a built-in access point. This makes your wireless network building more convenient.

In a typical home network, there are generally both wired and wireless devices, and they can all talk to one another. To build a stable home network, it is important to choose quality router, network cable and access point. Though FS.COM does not provide router, they have high quality network cable and wireless access point.