Networking Basics

The "quarterback" of your network that controls the whole thing.

Ubiquiti UniFi Consoles are some of the best made, license free, and ideal for creating a robust network backbone that will scale to your needs.

Ubiquiti Dream Machine Consoles feature Apps that control features including network traffic, security cameras, locks and access controls, audio and kiosk equipment, and even Electric Vehicle (EV) charging.

Gateways are defined as the entry point to your LAN, but in basic terms they are a Modem and Router combined into one.

Routers are the traffic cop of your network, directing the data on where it should go.  They take a single internet (WAN) connection and then share that with multiple devices on your own network (LAN).

Routers utilize a protocol known as Dynamic Host Client Protocol (DHCP) which is geek-speak for the addresses, or name tags, that it issues connected devices. Every device on your network will have an Internet Protocol (IP) address that is issued by your Router.

Be careful having two routers on the same network or they'll fight with each other for control, requiring you to make one submissive to the other. This is known as Double Network Address Translation (NAT). 

Switches allow you to expand and combine connections on your network.

Importantly you can create bottlenecks if combining slower older Switches on your network because all connected devices to that switch are limited to its maximum bandwidth.

Today Network Switches come in several speeds from older "Fast Ethernet" 100 Megabit per second (Mbps), to "Gigabit Ethernet" 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps), and now the  fastest "10GbE" 10 Gbps.

Switches can be either managed or unmanaged, meaning having an internal computer that can delegate specific traffic versus just simple expansion.

Access Points can be built-in to your router for simplicity or external allowing for maximum performance.

Depending on the kind and size of network you're creating, each type of Access Point has its own advantages.

For residential home based WiFi Networks often one or two Access Points get the job done when calibrated and spaced properly.

For business or church based WiFi networks it is important to plan the demands of the network carefully. Each access point can serve a specific number of clients and placed strategically to encourage the best quality of connections.

Importantly Access Points are NOT repeaters. Repeaters are simply like a parrot that repeats what it hears in order to "expand" service range. We strongly discourage using WiFi Repeaters.

As previously discussed there are now seven generations of WiFi since its inception in 1997.

Originally (aka WiFi Prime) was just 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz), but it quickly became saturated with interference because of the extremely limited amount of channels.

Beginning in 1999 the 5 GHz frequency band became available however had slower adoption.

Today most WiFi enabled devices can take advantage of both 2.4 and 5GHz frequencies, but environmental considerations must be made for your deployment.

Beginning with WiFi 6E the introduction of the 6GHz band has become available.  While the signal is more fragile, it has very little interference allowing for ultra fast connections to the latest capable devices.

Ethernet wiring is a low voltage rated wire that has eight individual conductors twisted together into four pairs. Over the years the ruggedness of the wire and its protection (shielding) from interference is graded by category (CAT).  

The first eight conductor Ethernet wires were rated as CAT 5, meaning it was capable of "Fast Ethernet" connections up to 100 Mbps. The world quickly outgrew that and then CAT 5E was introduced that allowed speeds up to 1 Gbps.

Over the last two decades the standards have evolved to allow powered devices and even higher speed connections, but those require higher quality Ethernet wire that has shielding and pure copper wires -- thus introducing CAT 6A and CAT 7 wiring. When planning your network we recommend using Plenum-rated CAT 6A wiring to allow reliable connections and be ready for the future.

Modems translate the proprietary signal from your Internet Service Provider into an Ethernet WAN connection that you connect to your Router.

Commonly coaxial cable based internet will have a traditional "dumb modem" that simply translates their signal to a WAN IP address.

Some Modems can have a Router built into them, but those all-in-one devices then become referred to as a "Gateway" instead.

For connections that require ultimate performance, fiber optic wires and cables are used. Because information is transmitted with laser, the communication is at the speed of light which makes it almost instantaneous.

Currently fiber optic connections are used to link sections of networks together similar to a tree trunk, or used when connecting to very busy links like a server.

Sharing and pooling data is important in many workflows. Keeping extremely large amounts of data is impractical to store on an internet storage solution like iCloud, One Drive, or Dropbox, therefore having Network Attached Storage (NAS) is the ideal solution.

 NAS drives come in different shapes and capacities, most often used for storing huge media files or databases that need to be quickly accessed on the LAN. Usually these devices will be connected with the highest performing links on the network like fiber optic or 10GbE cables.