Week 12: Clear

This week contained a large amount of information to be absorbed in regards to Communication and Networks. The lesson started out very general, giving an overview of communications and its protocols. Protocols are rules that enable orderly communications to occur. Mr. Olson compared it to the way two people would talk to each other...how only one person would talk at a given time while the other would listen. In addition, networks are a collection of devices connected together via communication devices and transmission media. There are four types of networks, PAN, LAN, MAN, WAN. All of which vary in terms of scale or "reach" that is available. For example, PAN (Personal Area Network) has a 10 foot reach, while a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network has the possibility of a 50 mile reach, connecting several organizations under one network). Bandwidth (measure of data transfer capacity) also plays a key role.

I learned about TCPIP addressing vs. DHCP. The latter being easier to scale to a multitude of clients.  Routers link multiple networks together and is responsible for traffic (data) that passes through it. It provides somewhat of a network security by the use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) by encrypting data whenever it receives data to be sent out to another party, such as the untrused public WAN (Internet). The benefits of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) were also clear to me. It is basically telephone over the internet. There are situations where it can be free, VoIP-to-VoIP calls, and situations where you can be charged. The only time you the average person will be charged is when a VoIP call is made to a PSTN--normal telephone network--and the data must be converted in order to go through the Public Switch Telephone Tetwork. However, one down side is that if Internet connection is lost, then one is not able to make emergergency calls. For ex: 911. It can also be incorporated with video and web conferencing. This week contained a an abundance of information that was interesting and of course useful in both a business and personal aspect.