In: Computer Science
Describe how to select various cable media and network interface cards (NIC) options for your own home network configuration. Be sure to discuss what you would want for the optimal situations for your network. Brainstorm with other students to improve upon their optimal situation or provide an alternative idea for their situation.
I want the following goals to be met by my home network for optimal performance :
1. Cost reduction by sharing hardware and software resources such as printers, application softwares etc.
2. Provide high reliability
3. Provide multiple cable types
4. Expansion and modification should be easy
5.Easy to install and configure
6. Easy fault detection and troubleshooting
7. Since there are only few people at my home (3-5) , I would like to cut cost on buying a separate PC for each of us, rather I would prefer to have a central hub (server PC).
All these goals are best met by adopting a star topology for implementing my home network. Star topology allows us to select/use any one of various cable types and NICs. The various cable options for that I have are:
(i) Shielded twisted pair cable
(ii) Unshielded twisted pair cable
(iii) Ordinary telephone cables
(iv) Baseband coaxial cable
(v) Broadband coaxial cable
(vi) Optical fiber
Since most modern PCs have a built-in Ethernet NIC cards which use a standard interface RJ45 connector , the ideal cable would be an appropriate cable with RJ45 connector.
Out of these available cable options I will choose twisted-pair cable complying to 10BASE-T standards, because of the following features:
(a) It gives a good combination of high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity.
(b) Easy to install and configure
(c) Low cost
(d) Easy to repair or replace.
All these features fullfils my network requirements.
Various types of NIC card options are:
(I) Jumper configurable NIC cards
(II) Software configurable NIC cards
(III) Plug-and-play configurable NIC cards
Out of these options I will choose the plug-and-play NIC card , because I just need to plug the card into my PCs PCI port and the NIC card will automatically configure itself without the need for additional software.
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