![]() So you hand it over to your friendly mail carrier, and using the address and zip code, the mail carrier will make sure it ends up at the correct destination, even if it means passing the letter over to a local mail carrier. But they live in a different state, which you can't easily get to. If you want to send a letter to one of your housemates, you might just address it with "Room A." But what happens if you want to send a letter to your best friend who lives in "Room A" of a different house? You would need more information to differentiate. So when you enter a search term on Google, your router directs this packet to Google's servers for processing. This is how your LAN connects to the wider Internet. ![]() Routers use this destination address to send the packet between routers until it reaches its destination. Image Credit: Aquarius Studio/ ShutterstockĪ router is a device that sends packets of data between different networks.Ī packet is data that contains the address of the destination. Managed switches let you set up the network and prioritize traffic, say Skype to ensure great call quality. Unmanaged switches are the most common, allowing you to plug in and get using straight away with no setup. When buying a switch, there are managed and unmanaged varieties. The Netgear GS105NA is a five port switch that you can either use to create a LAN or can be plugged into one of your router's Ethernet ports to increase the number of wired ports on your network. Great switches are relatively inexpensive these days and can be found from most networking manufacturers. This process hugely reduces bandwidth usage when compared to a hub. The switch can then send data directly between them, with the data arriving at port 1 and leaving the switch at port 4. ![]() The switch would see that Computer A is on port 1 while Computer C is on port 4. Hubs used to be recommended for this because they were cheaper than switches, but switches are far superior as they minimize the traffic on a network, decrease bandwidth usage, and only send data to the intended computers.įor instance, Computer A wants to send data to Computer C.
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