What Devices Are Needed?

Types of Device

Switches

Switches are very similar to hubs with the exception of containing the ability to read the packets received.  This means that the device gets the packets, reads them and only forwards them to the appropriate attached device.  Because switches can read the packets instead of just sending them on to all devices, it means they operate at the data link layer, layer 2.  

Repeaters

A repeater is a simple device that boosts the signal so that it can travel much greater distances or avoid “obstacles”.  They operate at Layer 1 of the OSI Model.

Hubs

A hub is simply a device that connects parts of LANs together.  They are multiport devices and copy the data received from one port onto the other ports.  Hubs operate at the physical layer (level 1) as they operate by using simple physical transmissions to send data from one device to the next.  Hub’s only use bits to send the data and cannot understand anything above bits on the OSI model.  

Bridges

Bridges and Routers are quite similar – they both direct traffic between two devices. A bridge will connect hardware together using hardware assigned MAC addresses. Bridges are a layer two device.  This means that bridges cannot determine the type of network that they’re running on.

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Routers

Routers, like hubs and switches, connect together multiple networks. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to create and send packets to determine the path through the networks and this means they operate at level 3, the network layer.  

Gateways

Gateways are used to “interface with another network that uses different protocols.”  This allows two different systems using two different protocols to work with each other.  Gateways operate at all levels of the OSI model.  Gateways can handle what can access the network and what cannot and helps to control the applications that require networks to run. ...

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