Choosing Network Hardware

Choosing network hardware means matching each device to the kind of connection it needs. Every device that joins the network, such as a computer, a till or a scanner, needs a NIC (Network Interface Controller): a wired NIC if it plugs into a cable, and a wireless NIC if it joins the network without one. Once you know how each device will connect, the rest of the hardware follows.

Matching hardware to the connection

For example, a garden centre might have two till computers joined by copper cable to a switch, a handheld stock scanner that connects wirelessly through a WAP, and a router linking the whole network to the outside world. The cable from each till to the switch, and from the switch and WAP to the router, is the transmission medium for the wired links; the scanner uses a wireless medium, radio waves, to reach the WAP.

One box or several devices?

A single device can do the job of a router, a switch and a WAP at the same time. In a one-room print shop, one box could give the two wired computers their switch ports, let the owner's wireless devices join, and link the shop out to the internet. Choosing a combined device means buying, powering and managing just one piece of hardware, which suits a small network.

A larger organisation is more likely to choose separate routers, switches and WAPs. Each device then does one job, so it can be the right size and in the right place: a switch with plenty of ports in a busy room, a WAP in each area where people work wirelessly, and a router where the network meets other networks. If one of them fails or needs upgrading, it can be replaced on its own.