The Wi-Fi is slow in the back room
A shop owner says the card machine works at the front but fails in the back room. The Wi-Fi signal is weak there.
To fix it you must know which box makes the signal and which cable feeds it. Today you learn the parts and how to make and test a cable.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can pick the right device and cable for a job and test a cable I made.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Network | devices joined so they can share data |
| Router | a box that joins networks and sends data between them |
| Switch | a box that sends data only to the right port |
| Hub | an old box that sends data to every port |
| Firewall | a filter that allows or blocks data by rule |
| Access point | a box that joins Wi-Fi devices to a wired network |
| NIC | a network interface card, the part that joins a device to a network |
| Fibre | a thin glass cable that carries light |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Starter: what you already know
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Starter: what you already know
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Each box has one main job
A router joins your network to another one, such as the internet. A switch joins the computers in one place and sends data only to the right port. A hub repeats data to every port, so it is slow and rare now.
A firewall checks data against rules and blocks what is not allowed. An access point gives Wi-Fi to phones and laptops, and joins them to the wired network. Many home routers hold a switch, a firewall and an access point in one box.
Choosing the device
| Job to do | Device | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Join the shop to the internet | Router | It passes data between two networks |
| Join five tills and a printer | Switch | Each cable gets its own port |
| Stop unwanted data coming in | Firewall | It follows allow and block rules |
| Give Wi-Fi in the back room | Access point | It adds a signal where the router cannot reach |
| Let one old computer join | NIC | It is the computer's own way onto the cable or Wi-Fi |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
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Check
4 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.