Hello Network Professionals,?

Question

I am a fresher in the networking industry.I don't know how the actual network environment works.Could you please describe the network infrastructure / design of your company including types of server,switch,router,printer,software etc.

Answer 1

Each installation will be different based on the individual needs of the company, typically they will all share some common points though:
Cabling, most common is to use UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair), Cat5e or the more recent Cat6 will be found in most new installations, these cables have what is known as an RJ45plug on the end of them (squarish looking plug).
Another form of cabling is coax, however this is fairly rare and has limited abilities as far as speed/reliability go, the best analogy to describe this is like one large water pipe that has a cap on each end (terminations) and T connectors at each workstation that the workstation "taps" into this "pipe". One of the larger pitfalls is if someone "breaks" this pipe, the network "stops" working, which is one key advantage of the UTP cabling method as it is a "star" configuration where everything goes back to a central point (the patch panel/switches/hubs). This means if someone disconnects there workstation, it doesn't effect the network.
So we will base the rest of this assuming that UTP Cat5/5e/6 is used in a "star" topology:

All the cables as mentioned above come back to a central point in a building in a small/medium/large business (not often in older houses). At this point is often a "Patch Panel" where the cables in the walls terminate to. The offices will have there ports on the wall labeled (usually with numbers!) 1,2,3 etc.... On the patch panel you will also find labels that correspond to the labels in the offices, so, outlet 1 in the first office has the cabels running in the wall/ceiling, back to the patch panel and into the port labeled 1. Outlet 2 in an office runs back to outlet 2 on the patch panel etc.
This is known also as structured cabling.
From the office outlets you plug a "Patch cable" from the wall outlet to the workstation (let's use outlet 1 as an example), then on the patch panel you plug the outlet number 1 into a spare port on the hub/switch (doesn't matter which one) using another patch cable.

The next vital piece of equipment is the hub or switch.
A hub receives data from the computers/devices on the network and resends it to all the other computers/devices on the network so they can talk to each other. A switch does the same job except it's a little smarter than a hub. Hubs broadcast all received data to everything connected to it, switches handle the data a little more intelligently and routers are smarter still!

Next you will have a server, servers can have many different purposes within a network and depending on what they are used for will be configured accordingly, however in a perfect world they would be the fastest, most powerful pc on the network, alas in the real world they often are not! The server (file) is typically the machine that all the workstations run to for advice:
What's my IP address, where's this file, who has this, who am I? etc. it's not unlike a man (the server) with multiple wives (the workstations) constantly nagging him for stuff!

Printers: Use whatever you like!

Hope this helps a little.