© Pearson Prentice Hall Using MIS 2e Chapter 6 Data Communications David Kroenke

© Pearson Prentice Hall Study Questions Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? The chart below describes three major types of networks which are collections of computers that communicate with each other over a variety of transmission lines. (The Internet is discussed in Appendix 6A) Fig 6-1 Major Network Types

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Here are some additional characteristics of networks:  LAN communication lines reside on-premises, making it easier for a business to locate a network wherever it chooses.  WAN communication lines are owned by a third-party vendor. A business contracts with the vendor to use the WAN lines.  Each type of network uses protocols which are sets of rules that two devices use to communicate with each other.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? This figure depicts a typical LAN. The components are usually located within a half mile of each other. A switch, located in the center, is a special-purpose computer that receives and transmits messages to computers in the LAN. A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware component that connects each device’s circuitry to a cable allowing protocols to send data across the LAN. Most new computers now include an onboard NIC that’s built into the computer’s circuitry. Fig 6-2 Local Area Network (LAN)

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? A media access control (MAC) address serves as a unique identifier for each NIC on a LAN. Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, shown on the left, are one way to connect devices to a LAN. Optical fiber cables, shown on the right, are also used to connect devices to a LAN. The glass wires transmit signals in the form of light rays. Cladding surrounds the core and contain the signals. Optical fiber carries more traffic than UTP cables. Fig 6-3 Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) CableFig 6-5 Optical Fiber Cable

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Fig 6-4 Typical Arrangement of Switches in a Multistory Building This figure shows how a typical LAN might be arranged in a multistory building. Notice the combination of switches, UTP cable, and optical fiber cable on each floor.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? The IEEE, Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers, is a committee that creates and publishes protocols and standards used by virtually every network. The IEEE 802.3, or Ethernet, protocol is used by all LAN devices. It specifies hardware characteristics and describes how messages are packaged and processed. Onboard NICs in new PCs support the 10/100/1000 Ethernet protocol which describes transmission rate speed. Communication speeds are expressed in bits like 1,000,000 for megabits.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? The IEEE wireless protocol uses wireless NICs (WNIC) to connect devices to networks similar to how wired NICs operate. The most popular is IEEE g. This figure depicts a combination of NICs and WNICs on a LAN. It also shows access points (AP) that use the protocol to communicate with a switch and the protocol to send and receive wireless traffic.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Fig 6-7 Summary of LAN and WAN Networks, Part 1 The chart on this slide and the next one is a summary of LAN and WAN networks.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Fig 6-7 Summary of LAN and WAN Networks Part 2

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? WANs connect computers located at physically separated sites by obtaining connection capabilities from a third-party, typically an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The three primary functions of an ISP are:  To provide users with a legitimate Internet address  To serve as a gateway for users to connect to the Internet  To help pay for the Internet by collecting money from customers and using it to pay access fees and other charges.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Connecting personal computers to an ISP requires that digital signals coming out of the computer are converted to analog signals. Analog signals coming into a personal computer must be converted to digital signals. The figure below compares the two kinds of signals. Fig 6-8 Analog Versus Digital Signals

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Fig 6-9 Personal Computer Internet Access Modems are used to convert the signals back and forth as shown in the figure below.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? A dial-up modem uses regular telephone lines and a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to connect a personal computer to an ISP. A DSL modem shares a single communication line for a telephone and a personal computer. It’s much faster than a dial-up modem and allows a user to maintain a constant network connection with an ISP.  Asymmetric DSL, ADSL, provides different upload/download speeds.  Symmetrical DSL, SDSL, provides the same upload/download speeds.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? A cable modem shares a single communication line for cable TV and a personal computer. It’s also faster than a dial-up modem and allows users to maintain a constant network connection.  Because cable modems use a neighborhood distribution center, transmission speeds vary based on the number of network users. A dial-up modem is considered narrowband because it uses transmission speeds less than 56 kbps. DSL and cable modems are considered broadband because their transmission speeds exceed 256 kbps.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Companies can use networks of leased lines from telecommunications companies to connect computers located at geographically distributed sites as this figure shows. The lines use a variety of access devices to connect to each site:  Switches  Routers – special-purpose computers that move network traffic from one node to another. Only predefined sites can use the leased lines. These lines provide low-cost connections if the amount of traffic warrants it.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Fig 6-11 Transmission Line Types, Uses, & Speeds This chart allows you to compare line types, uses, and speeds.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? This figure depicts a public switched data network, PDSN, that is developed and maintained by a vendor who leases network time to other organizations. Each user site must lease a line on a PDSN. The line connection location is called a Point of Presence (POP). PDSNs are less costly and don’t require as much management involvement as leased lines. PDSNs use three protocols:  Frame relay with speeds from 56 kbps to 40 Mbps  Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) with speeds from 1 to 156 Mbps.  Ethernet with speeds from 10 to 40 Gpbs

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) create the appearance of private point-to-point connections by using tunnels to create virtual, private pathways over the Internet. The figure below shows the actual connections a VPN uses. Fig 6-13 Remote Access Using VPN: Actual Connections

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Fig 6-14 Remote Access Using VPN: Apparent Connection A VPN appears to be a direct connection between two sites as shown in this figure. Software encrypts data as they pass through the VPN making them more secure and then decodes them when the user receives a message.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Fig 6-15 WAN Using VPN This figure shows how a WAN uses three different VPN tunnels to connect geographically separated users.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? The following figures provide criteria you can use to compare network alternatives based on three categories: cost, performance, and other criteria. Fig 6-16 Criteria for Comparing Network Alternatives

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Fig 6-16 Criteria for Comparing Network Alternatives

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Fig 6-16 Criteria for Comparing Network Alternatives

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q5 – How does encryption work? The process of transforming clear text into coded, unintelligible text for security reasons is called encryption. It’s used to help make transmissions more secure across networks and between users and Web sites. Encryption algorithms use a key (number) to encode data in messages before they’re sent and decode them when they reach their destination.  Symmetric encryption uses the same key to encode and decode a message.  Asymmetric encryption uses a different key to encode than is used to decode a message.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q5 – How does encryption work? Public key/private key is a special version of asymmetric encryption mainly used on the Internet.  The public key encodes a message and is exchanged among users  The private key decodes a message but is never exchanged among users. HTTPS is the most secure protocol used on the Internet.  Secure Socket Layer (SSL), also known as Transport Layer Security (TLS), combines public key/private key with symmetric encryption to establish a secure exchange of data on a Web site.  Web sites using this type of security will have at the beginning of the URL.

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q1 – What is a computer network? Q2 – What are the components of a LAN? Q3 – What are the alternatives for a WAN? Q4 – What criteria can you use for comparing WANs? Q5 – How does encryption work? Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall?

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall? A computing device that prevents unauthorized network access is called a firewall.  It can be a special-purpose computer or a program on a general-purpose computer or router.  This figure shows a perimeter firewall that sits outside the network and is the first device incoming network traffic encounters.  An internal firewall is locatedinside the network and protects the LAN. Fig 6-17 Use of Multiple Firewalls

© Pearson Prentice Hall Q6 – What is the purpose of a firewall? Packet-filtering firewalls, the simplest kind, examine the source address, destination address, and other data in each incoming message and decide whether to let the message enter the network. Packet-filtering firewalls prohibit outsiders from starting a session with users behind the firewall, disallow traffic from particular sites, and filter outbound traffic. Each incoming message is compared to an access control list and the firewall stops messages that are prohibited from entering the network. Every computer should have a firewall!