A Drink of Technology for the Thirsty Mind
With the rising popularity of telecommuting and the increasing need to protect their electronic assets, companies large and small have been turning to Virtual Private Networking (VPN). The good news is that many savvy IT departments realize that many of their telecommuting employees share their broadband connections with consumer-grade routers. Those folks have made their lives easier by using “NAT […]
Read moreThe inability to open a website by name usually indicates a DNS (Domain Name System) problem. DNS is the service that converts the website URL, i.e. www.yahoo.com into the IP address that is needed for actual communication. A quick way to test this is to try to access the problem website via its IP address instead of its name. You […]
Read moreThis is one of the most frustrating problems that a broadband user faces. The ISP will probably blame the router. The router vendor will probably blame the ISP. The solution usually lies somewhere in between, but no one seems to want to help. Random disconnect problems are generally hard to pin down because there are so many variables to consider […]
Read moreReview of the Basics We’re often asked at SmallNetBuilder what the advantages are of using a “high-end” or “enterprise” grade firewall, such as a Cisco PIX, Juniper Netscreen, etc., over a consumer-grade router. To get a good start on the subject, let’s review a few basics, the first being NAT. I’m sure many of you know what NAT (Network Address […]
Read moreI often see questions in the forums from people struggling with one of the most basic tasks in creating a home network: what to do when you run out of ports in your router. The answer is to just connect a switch, as shown in the diagram below. But since that makes for a very short article, I’ll answer some […]
Read moreKnowing how fast your network can move data is a question for more than just tweakers and speed demons. It’s a key skill to have when testing out wireless, powerline, MoCA and other “alternative” (to Ethernet) networking technologies. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to see how fast the bits fly and it even the pay-for options are easy on anyone’s wallet. […]
Read moreIntroduction We often hear from people who have two (or more!) routers in their LAN and are trying to get Microsoft File and Printer sharing running among all their computers. This ProblemSolver will explain why this doesn’t work by default and provide some suggestions for working around the problem. Setting Up Figure 1 shows a two-router LAN configuration that I’ll […]
Read moreIntroduction What is a VLAN? Is it some sort of highly expensive technology or virtual reality? Not at all. VLANs are relatively simple, yet they offer a wide variety of options and capabilities to improve your network. VLAN, or Virtual LAN, is a technology that enables dividing a physical network into logical segments at Layer 2. Functionally, VLANs enable a […]
Read moreProtocol Description IPX / SPX (NWLink) Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange. The default network protocol for Novell Netware prior to NetWare 5. (Current default is TCP/IP). NWLink is the Microsoft version of IPX/SPX. NETBEUI / NetBIOS These two terms are grouped together by many technical resources, which can be misleading. NetBEUI is the NetBIOS Extended User Interface. A non-routable protocol […]
Read moreCable Type Common Name Physical Layer Name Speed Max Length (M) RG-6 Satellite TV N/A N/A RG-8 Thicknet 10Base5 10 Mbps 50 (drop) 500 (backbone) RG-58 Thinnet 10Base2 10 Mbps 185 RG-59 Cable TV N/A N/A CAT3 UTP Fast Ethernet 10 Base-T 10/100 Mbps 100 CAT4 UTP Fast Ethernet 10 Base-T 16 Mbps 100 CAT5 Fast Ethernet 10 Base-T 100 […]
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