From the course: Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) Networking (100-150) Cert Prep

Fundamental networking concepts

From the course: Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) Networking (100-150) Cert Prep

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Fundamental networking concepts

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- [Kevin] Throughout this course, we're going to be using the term network a lot. So let's begin with a simple definition. When we use the term network, we're talking about a collection of interconnected devices, and some of those connections might be over copper cabling. Others might be over fiber optic cabling. Still, other connections might not even be visible because they're communicating wirelessly. As an example, let's say that as part of your job, you have to regularly check your email when you go into the office. Well, in the background, your laptop or desktop computer, it's communicating with your company's email server over a network. And we don't just see networks in our offices. We also have networks in our homes today. As an example, my wife and I, we built a new home a few years back, and that gave me the opportunity to go a little bit overboard with the house wiring and the technology, we were able to get a gig fiber internet connection, and I put in wiring to support 10 gigabit per second speeds. For wireless connections, we installed seven wireless access points, and we've got nine security cameras powered over ethernet network connections, and we purchased several IoT, or Internet of Things devices. For example, our doorbells, refrigerator, TVs, thermostats, they're all networked together. And we said that a network interconnects devices. But what exactly does that look like? Well, we've got two primary ways to connect into a network. We could use a wired or a wireless connection. First, consider wired connections. A common example of a wired connection is an ethernet cable with an eight conductor connector at each end. This connector, which you see on screen, is called an RJ-45 connector, and you might have heard of the cables referred to as Cat 5 or Cat 6 cables. A second type of connection we mentioned was a wireless connection. This might be over a wireless local area network, or we might get data through a cellular connection. Think of a smartphone like you see on screen. This is able to get on a network using Wi-Fi if it's in close proximity with a wireless LAN. And if it's not, it can get on the internet using a cellular data connection. Now, let's see exactly what we're going to be learning in this module. We're going to begin at a high level, just thinking more about what a network is and what does it offer us. Then we're going to consider some different types of networks. Everything from a very small network that might be running between your game controller and your gaming console to networks that could interconnect countries. Next up, we'll consider a collection of network topologies. We'll distinguish between the concepts of a physical topology and a logical topology. And you might have heard the expression from the business world that you cannot manage what you don't measure. While we're going to identify four metrics that we can use to measure network performance. And finally, in this module, I'll demonstrate for you a really cool tool, and it's free, that we can use to measure network throughput, and that can be super handy for troubleshooting. But let's ease into this module in our next video as we consider at a high level a network and its benefits.

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