When setting up home network, you will require a few equipment to send out and receive the signals that will be carried, whether by radio or cables. A network interface card popular known as NIC commonly an Ethernet card is one component part that you’ll need. These are common, very cheap, and come in different range of speeds in between 10MB and 1 GB or more. The speeds depend on the card you use of 802.11g wireless network works at 54MB per second, while a 802.11b network runs at 11MB per second. As prices keep dropping, the lower speeds are becoming less commonly seen.

A network interface card can be either wireless or wire. The cards in 2 different devices on a network are barely ever direct connected by cables, but rather are connected to a switch or a router. A switch is a simple device; it’s like a box with ports for the Ethernet cables to connect to. They are extremely inexpensive and work good as networks which don’t need an internet connection. Nowadays routers are more commonly used though; sometimes multiple routers will be used by home network builders.

A router acts exactly as the name implies; it directs network traffic. Router performs this function by means of IP addresses and software made for sending and receiving data between devices. Routers can be either wireless or cabled. From each one can be found in many different models from different producers. There are different built in software’s with different functionality; some feature antivirus package built in. These routers differ in their number of ports (which determines how numerous devices can be plug in to the router). There’s also a difference in the speeds at which they operate; they may not run at the speed they are rated at. For example, a router rated at 54MB may actually run at 6MB