Connecting your network National 4/5 Computing Science
Lesson aims By the end of this lesson you will be able to: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of wired and wireless networking
Yes or No? Do it Yourself… You have bought a new house You want to install a network to connect all of your computers together Do you break out the toolkit? Yes or No?
Task You now have 5 minutes to prepare your ‘excuse’ or reason! on whether you should get your tools out or not!
Wired Networks This is when the devices in a network are connected using cables What are the advantages and disadvantages to using cables? Image © : http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1258691 (Enzo Forcitini)
Features of Wired networking Advantages Disadvantages Generally fast transfer speeds Hardware generally cheaper Portability Expandability
Wi-Fi Networks This is when devices on network communicate wirelessly using WiFi® This requires wireless networking equipment
Features of Wi-Fi Portability Expandability Advantages Disadvantages Portability Expandability Guest access capability (free Wi-Fi) Security Legal issues Transfer speeds generally slower than wired
Equipment – NIC’s Whether you are using wired or wireless devices each device will have an NIC Network Interface Card (NIC) These can be wired or Wi-Fi Image - http://www.sxc.hu/photo/467366 © Akash Khairate Creative Commons License