What you need to know about routers, switches and network hardware

Today, let's take a look at home network hardware: what are the components, when they are needed, and how to best deploy them. Read on, and you will understand more clearly that you need to optimize your home network.

When do you need the switch? A center? What does a router do? If you only have one computer, do you need a router? Network technology may be a quite mysterious research field, but with the correct terminology and general overview of how the device works on the home network, you can deploy your network confidently.

Understand home network through network diagram

Rather than start with the network glossary, it is better to throw you some technical terms that are not easy to refer to in this process, and let us view the network diagram directly. This is the simplest network configuration available: a computer is directly connected to a modem, which is connected to a personal Internet service provider through a telephone line/cable/optical fiber uplink.

Nothing is simpler than this arrangement, but we have to pay the price for this ultra-simple setting. Such users cannot access the Internet through Wi-Fi devices (and therefore cannot access smart phones, tablets or other wireless devices), and they lose the benefits of using routers between computers and the larger Internet. Let's introduce routers and highlight the benefits of using them. In the following diagram, we introduce two elements to the network: a wireless router and a laptop connected to the network through wireless connection.

When should I use a router? Considering the low cost of home routers and the benefits of installing routers on your network, you should always use a router (it almost always includes firewall functions).

The home router is actually a combination of three network components: router, firewall and switch. In a business environment, these three kinds of hardware are separated, but consumer routers are almost always a combination of routing and switching components, and firewalls are added as a good measure. First, let's look at the role of router functions.

At the most basic level, the router connects two networks, one is the home network (regardless of size), and the other is the external network (in this case, the Internet). The broadband modem provided by your ISP is only suitable for connecting a computer to the Internet, and usually does not include any type of routing or switching functions.

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