There are several large network hardware vendors out there, and it can often be confusing to decide which brand to buy.  Do you want a Cisco router, a Juniper router, or a Nortel router?  What brand network switch or sever should your company purchase? Each specific company provides a huge amount of detail/advertising on why you should pick their solution.  I decided to congeal some of these product details and provide an overall list of features that  your company should be looking for in their enterprise networking hardware.

No matter what type of business vertical you are in, or where you are running your company from, networking hardware is a critical aspect of your business.  The five key features your network hardware and network infrastructure should provide  are:

• Simplicity: A network product and OS that is extremely simple, logical, and easy to operate will make everyone’s life easier.  Network hardware that is simple in installation and execution, but provides the infrastructure for complex company communication, is a must have.
• Security: Your enterprise data is your company’s most valuable resource.  Whether it be client data, financial data, or intellectual property data, it is extremely important that your network provides the protection and access control for this data.  Your brand of Network hardware can mean the difference between an occasional  security breach and a perfect record of protection.
• Speed: It is vital that your enterprise network is running at the speed of your business.  It should never hinder your company’s work flow, whether it be accessing data within your company’s network or at global access level.  The network equipment that you utilize is the engine that runs your entire company’s network infrastructure.
• Scalability: It is very important that your network be scalable with your company’s growth and downsizing.  A network that is not scalable can incur unnecessary cost for your company and unwanted hardship on enterprise efficiency.    Scalability means a network infrastructure that offers open source flexibility- the ability for your company to not be locked-in to one specific solution, but instead posses the capability to utilize the best market technology available.
• Savings: Maintaining a network infrastructure can often be a very costly process, and can tip a company’s earnings in one direction or the other.  Finding network hardware that is both cheap and reliable is quite the difficult task.  Depending on where you look, buying a used cisco router or refurbished cisco switch can sometimes mean the difference in simplicity, security, speed AND scalability.  However, it is equally as important that you don’t break the bank building up your company’s network infrastructure.  The key is to find a reliable network hardware vendor- whether it be a used network hardware reseller or a direct seller, make sure that they are clear-cut and trustworthy.

Beyond this list, there are basic consumer guidelines that you should follow when purchasing network hardware.  One of these components is a vendor’s warranty- make sure they clearly state that they offer a warranty on your network hardware purchase so that if your requirements change, you don’t end up paying the cost.

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When one is talking about networking hardware, what they are typically referring to is equipment facilitating the connection between a variety of individual computer monitors. In most cases this will include things like firewalls, routers, hubs, ISDN adapters, switches, network bridges, modems, gateways, network interface cards, access points, networking cables and other related hardware devices.

Copper based Ethernet adapters are known to be one of the most popular types of networking hardware; a view that is given extra weight due to this cabling being a standard addition on most of the modern systems that are available. There are many different devices out there, but what has become extremely popular as time has gone on is the wireless networking, especially when it comes to many handheld and portable communication devices.

Wireless has taken over because it is so much easier to use as you don’t have to have wires cluttering up the room and causing a general nuisance. Wireless is easier and neater but yet can still maintain the high standards of solid state hardware; which is why many people prefer to use it above other wired hardware. Because of the lack of wiring, or maybe even in spite of, wireless networking is extremely reliable. It can be used almost anywhere and you should encounter very few problems.

Some other hardware devices that are common within computer networking are datacenter equipment like storage areas, file servers and database servers. Network services are also common; these include email, DNS and DHCP. Content delivery is another type of hardware device that is well known when it comes to computer networking, as well as many other specific network devices. Many people find it hard to understand, but for those that are used to working with such devices and networking plans, they should know the meaning of these names.

There are many devices that one must think of when they are talking about network hardware, as they can include not only the conventional computer systems, but they can include anything from mobile phones right down to coffee machines and PDAs. Technology is advanced and there are new devices coming out nearly every day, and each device is a little more advanced than the previous one released, so whilst a little conventional don’t be surprised that modern coffee machines can be regarded as networking hardware.

As the state of technology grows and the IP-based networks are included into certain building infrastructures as well as other household utilities; the definition networking hardware systems have turned into a vague statement, primarily owing to the rising amount of network able endpoints.

So when you are trying to determine whether your networking hardware is reliable or not, think of the type of hardware it is that you are using and how it performs. If you have no problem with its performance then you have made a good decision choosing it. Some people find that they have problems with their hardware when they have been using it for a long time, but of course these cases are often few and far between.

Reliability often relies on the individual component parts that make up a network. All of those unique devices, most of which are mentioned above, need to be of a high enough standard to offer you years of quality service. False economies exist in all sectors, and this is certainly no different.

Regular checks on the standard of your network hardware can help to ensure that it isn’t being damaged or warn out unnecessarily. For new products, always ensure there is some kind of quality guarantee to help avoid any future upheaval.

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As technology evolves rapidly,  it is inevitable (and recommended) that you will want to bolster your company’s network infrastructure  with the newest and best stuff out there.   Getting the best possible network hardware and technology will mean a heartier infrastructure, better security, and speedier collaboration.   Although updating your network hardware and software is best practice, it is very important that the process is done right so that your expensive network doesn’t crash and burn when you need it most.

Although it is pretty much expected that you will have some network downtime during the lifetime of your setup (varying on how complex it is), there are several things that you can do to minimize this.   Especially today, when saving capital is of the utmost importance for business, preventing any network downtime will save your company a headache as well as loss of precious revenue.  The following is a list of steps you can rely on to minimize the chance being blindsided by a total network blackout:

1. Plan for compatibility: Just like you want to learn about a date’s likes and dislikes to see if there is potential for long term compatibility, you also need to carefully plan the integration of new and updated network hardware into your older structures.   This can be done simply by doing some research on the network hardware products with good ole’ Google search.
2. Testing is King : Create a near identical testing environment that mimics the network environment to give it a test run before going live.   It can be very dangerous to go live with new network hardware without ‘beta testing’ any potential problems and flaws.   Although it is very difficult to create a live testing environment without utilizing real-world stress, it is important to try to do this as diligently as possible.
3. Stagger Your Release: Like any control-variable experiment, it is important that each addition is installed and tested individually and sequentially.  If you add multiple variables at once, and something goes awry, it will be impossible to determine what caused the problem.  If each step is implemented and tested against a control, it can easily be determined at each interval what is working and what isn’t.
4. Be Ready for the Worst Case Scenario:  Expect that on the implementation of your new network hardware there will be some downtime.  Be prepared for this by creating a quick ‘reboot’ protocol, a blueprint that you can follow to get the network live as rapidly as possible.  Also schedule your implementations for off-hours when it won’t have a major impact on your business users.
5. Finish twice: When you think everything is up in order and working fine, go back to the drawing board and re-test everything.   Usually there are one or two components that you haven’t predicted and will cause a problem down the line.  Your due diligence during installation can prevent a hassle and loss of capital in the future.

Hope this helps.  As you can see the important part is preparation, and as in anything, the more the better.  Another important part of the equation for success is to to make sure your network hardware products are the best available on the market.  This is easier said than done, especially when small businesses are trying to save every penny available due to the economic downturn.   I recommend utilizing a reputable used network hardware reseller, where you can purchase equipment at a fraction of the cost.  Make sure they offer a good warranty and be sure to get their customer service on the line to answer any of your questions before going forward with a purchase.

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In this era of computers, there is hardly any household without a personal computer at home. Computers are now believed to be the solution to all daily works that one needs to search for. Life has been much better than before with all your needs being fulfilled at yours arms distance. The electronic market is booming with hundreds of latest technology computer peripherals being launched and sold in short spans of time.

With quick advancements in technology, the size and the price of the devices has gradually come down, while the efficiency and capacity has considerably increased. The scenario is same in all cases, whether it is about internal components like processor, RAM, motherboard, graphics card, and hard disk or for peripheral accessories like mouse, speakers, Bluetooth dongles, keyboards (wired/wireless), monitors etc.

Since many years, the main advancement has been seen in trends of the data storage. Latest technology hard drives and RAM’s have now given us the freedom to store and transfer unlimited amounts of on our systems. Also with newer versions of flash memory cards, USB extension cables, portable drives and other mobile computer accessories, carrying data along with you has become much easier. USB is a serial interface technology that has replaced existing serial and parallel ports drastically making connections clean and manageable.

Communication with your loved ones has been facilitated through the internet at much cheaper costs. With significant increase in varieties of handheld computer accessories like webcams, Ethernet cables, earphones and wireless broadband LAN computer networking hardware, keeping you connected to the whole world is no longer an expensive procedure. Also with the coming of wifi mesh networking hardware support and cat5e, cat6, Cat6a cables there has been a tremendous enhancement in the wireless technologies. The cat5e, cat6, Cat6a cable standard provides performance of up to 250 MHz and is suitable for 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet).

Our mode of entertainment has also seen gradual technological changes in multimedia stuff. The quality of voice and visual devices has effectively been refined over years. With the coming of powerful digital media players and audio visual cables it is possible to listen to music with refined bass and vocals and visualize smooth functioning of graphics.

Despite the incredible improvement in performance and functionalities of computer hardware and networking peripherals, the price of these components has actually fallen steadily. There are vast arrays of computer peripherals that allow us to do amazing things. But in my opinion we should go for the type of peripherals that suit our daily life in every way.

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So what is a network?

A network supports the interconnection of many devices and a protocol for ensuring they can communicate with one another in the most effective way.  The best way to understand how networks work is to visualise each element of the network as a layer, one on top of another.  The conceptual model that describes this layered model is known as the OSI Reference Model, which has seven layers.  All Network professionals use this in their day to day design and engineering work.

For our purposes we can simplify it into three layers, going from the bottom up there is:

1. The Physical layer – the cable between machines (typically called 100BaseT, uses four pairs), the card in the back of your machine (802.3 Ethernet NIC) or Wireless Networking adapter (802.11n etc) etc.
2. Includes the Internet protocol (TCP/IP), gaming and file transfer based protocols (such as UDP), and VPN networking from home to your office (PPTP or IPSec)
3. And the Session, Presentation and Application Layers – file sharing and database access in the office (NetBIOS, Named Pipes, NFS), Internet browsing (HTTP, DNS), eMail (MIME, SMTP, POP3) and securing Internet banking or shopping (SSL/TLS)

Breaking it out into layers like this helps us understand when we buy software or hardware which layer(s) it works at and therefore what it can provide for us.  Is it providing connectivity, access to another Wide Area Network (WAN, i.e. for the Internet), security or access to my own Local Area Network (LAN, i.e. for access to a printer).  It’s extremely useful when diagnosing problems with networks.

Network Addressing

In order to send a letter to your friend in the next town, or a country on the other side of the world the postal system requires an address which hones down through the address layers from country to house number to narrow down exactly where your friend lives and which post box the postman should drop the letter in.  Digital Networks work in a similar way only rather than moving mail around they move digital data packets.

MAC addresses – The Media Access Control address identifies a single piece of hardware on the physical network and is a scheme with a long number designed to be globally unique.  It’s set in the hardware at the point of manufacture.  An example of a MAC address is 1A-2F-1D-9C-7A-3C (Layer 2).

IP address – The Internet Protocol address uniquely identifies all network interfaces that are typically endpoints on the Internet, or your own local IP based network (in an office).  Within the local or global (Internet) address space the IP address must be unique, otherwise the IP routing protocol won’t know where to send the packet.  An IP address will be mapped across to a physical MAC address as described above, the mapping is held in the routing tables of router hardware on the network.  A sample IP address is 192.168.0.1 (Layer 4).  Addresses are divided up into Class A, B and C each having a larger address space for larger organisations requirements.  Small offices and domestic addresses are almost always Class C and the 192.168.0.nnn network is reserved for anyone to use on any small private network.

DNS name (and server) – Domain Name Server based addresses are just names, with dots to designate levels of uniqueness.  We are all familiar with Internet domain names such as; www.cryopc.co.uk, the DNS name in this instance is the ‘cryopc’ element of the full address.  DNS servers store all these hostnames and the IP addresses they map to.

Network Security

Your home hub/router will usually have built in security features, including the following:

MAC identification – Using the MAC address of the hardware as a list of authorised hardware to access your network.  Its a good basic precaution but unfortunately a dedicated hacker can spoof a known MAC address and gain access if they really want to.  It just stops the opportunists.

WEP and WPA – Are the most widely available forms of wireless network encryption and security.  Without the WEP or WPA keys your wireless network is unusable to outsiders.  WEP is now considered quite weak as hackers have demonstrated ways of cracking it fairly quickly, and once cracked its no longer secure.  WPA is the more secure system as it is harder to crack (has a much longer passphrase) and once cracked still only leaves a very small window of opportunity for exploitation as it derives a cipher for each packet that changes constantly.  It utilises TLS encryption just like the Internet checkout padlock.  Still the network is only ever as secure as the passphrase used to protect it, so pick an obscure one.

VPN, SSL/TLS and IPsec – Most of us don’t even know we are using these technologies but they all work in a similar way.  They use sophisticated and robust encryption to ensure private information sent over a public network is not visible to snoopers.  SSL/TLS is used most widely and you will recognise it as the checkout padlock, or encryption used when typing in credit card details when Internet shopping.

NAT – Network Address Translation isn’t really security at all but about economising on the rapidly diminishing availability of IPv4 addresses on the Internet, but it does shield your private network addresses from the outside by creating the impression to the internet that only a single address (your routers own public address) is accessing the Internet from your network.  This means ad hoc access to your local network from the outside is much more difficult without internal network devices initiating a connection first (and thereby establishing a NAT translation).

Typical network devices

Segment – a segment isn’t really a device it’s a single network cable potentially connected to multiple machines, but sometimes only a single machine.  It can be useful to think of it as a device in its own right as the cable itself imposes limits, resource demands and capabilities on the network.

Router – maps one address in one address space to another in another through routing tables and protocols stored on the device, usually in memory.

Hub / Switch – Most Hubs are known as switching hubs as each network port on the hub functions as its own segment of the LAN thus it’s able to utilise the full bandwidth of the link and not share it with everyone on the same LAN.

Firewall – Can be software or dedicated hardware based the latter widely being considered the best.  Windows has a built in firewall and most home hub/routers also have them preconfigured and built-in.  Firewall rules determine what traffic you want to let out, and into your network.  Usually they are preconfigured to let out only connections initiated internally (to prevent ad hoc attacks) and to let back in only traffic on certain known safe ports such as those commonly used for the Internet, http and ftp.  Games can sometimes have issues with firewalls as they will use other ad hoc ports.  You will need to create custom rules to get around this problem.

Wireless Access Point – Wireless networks are effectively airborne segments of network.  The access point serves as a point of access, and also secures the network as discussed in the above security section.

In a small network it often makes sense to combine many network devices into a single physical device.  That’s why most small office routers also have a Firewall, Hub and Wireless Access point built in.  However in a medium sized organisation or large enterprise single devices need to have more reliability, capacity and security and so tend to be dedicated devices to a single purpose.  A firewall for example can cost US$100 with a hub and router built-in or for a government departmental web site it could cost US$40,000 as a single appliance.

Benefits of different types of Network

Cable based networking – 802.3 Ethernet, which typically supports 100Mbit/s (CAT5 cable) or 1Gbit/s (CAT5e cable) speeds and higher if you are reasonably up to date.  Most network devices are backward compatible and will fallback to the speed of the slowest device in the network.  Cable is the best for reliability an speed.

Wireless Networking – It is defined by the standard 802.11a, b, g, and n (at Draft 2.0 stage at the time of writing this article).  Wireless offers flexibility, roaming, convenience but quality of reception can be very patch in large or complex buildings and this affects connectivity and connection speed.  In addition to the standards MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) uses multiple antennas to increase signal strength and quality, increasing range and available bandwidth.

Broadband, ADSL and Cable – all use local telephony cable and fibre optic trunks to provide homes and small businesses with relatively high speed Internet access.  Each one uses a different technology standard for implementation and you must buy the correct router or modem.

Setting up your own home or small office network

Based on the information provided above you need to decide what you need.  If you are starting with nothing then a good quality 802.11n combination router/hub device is the best solution.  They are now more or less preconfigured out of the box and only require connecting to the Internet.  Access to mobile devices, laptops and desktops can be provided by the Wi-Fi support or for fixed desktop by network switch port and cable.

Don’t forget to enable the WPA security with a good mixed alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric passphrase.  For extra protection limit access to only device MAC addresses you know.

Troubleshooting my network

There are a number of low level tools that are very easy to use that help network engineers diagnose problems with your network.  It pays dividends to get familiar with them for yourself.  To use these tools in Windows run the command line interpreter cmd.exe (type in cmd after Start->Run), then simply type the command in.

ping – using a hostname or address it ‘bounces’ a network packet off the endpoint.  Rather like a submarine using sonar, hence the name ‘ping’.  It outputs status information to confirm whether it has been able to reach the endpoint or not and how long the roundtrip took.

ipconfig – reports all the network information for all of the network adapters on your PC including wireless, cable, MAC address (physical address), IP address, gateway address (router), subnet (class of address), hostnames, connection state etc.

tracert – reports the route through the network that a data packet will take to reach a host.  It can help provide indications of why a connection might be slow or not working by indicating where it gets stuck in the network.  Like ping it also reports time taken to travel the route.

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