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A cable that delivers broadband signals between your modem, router, computer, and other wired Internet-capable devices

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Bright House Networks offers Digital TV, High Speed Internet, Home Security and Home Phone that connect your home to entertainment, information and the world around you.

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A cable that uses glass or plastic threads to transmit messages through light waves

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What is Fiber Optics? Webopedia Definition

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A technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. Fiber optics has several advantages over traditional metal communications lines.

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A cable in which two wires are twisted around each other in order to prevent electromagnetic interference

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Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs. It was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

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A cable that has an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular insulating layer, which is then encased in a conduction shield.

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Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable that has an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. Many coaxial cables also have an insulating outer sheath or jacket. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric axis.

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A device that receives information and regenerates it to send it down to the next device

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1) In digital communication systems, a repeater is a device that receives a digital signal on an electromagnetic or optical transmission medium and regenerates the signal along the next leg of the medium. In electromagnetic media, repeaters overcome the attenuation caused by free-space electromagnetic-field divergence or cable loss. A series of repeaters make possible the extension of a signal over a distance.

Repeaters remove the unwanted noise in an incoming signal. Unlike an analog signal, the original digital signal, even if weak or distorted, can be clearly perceived and restored. With analog transmission, signals are restrengthened with amplifiers which unfortunately also amplify noise as well as information.

Because digital signals depend on the presence or absence of voltage, they tend to dissipate more quickly than analog signals and need more frequent repeating. Whereas analog signal amplifiers are spaced at 18,000 meter intervals, digital signal repeaters are typically placed at 2,000 to 6,000 meter intervals.

2) In a wireless communications system, a repeater consists of a radio receiver, an amplifier, a transmitter, an isolator, and two antennas. The transmitter produces a signal on a frequency that differs from the received signal. This so-called frequency offset is necessary to prevent the strong transmitted signal from disabling the receiver. The isolator provides additional protection in this respect. A repeater, when strategically located on top of a high building or a mountain, can greatly enhance the performance of a wireless network by allowing communications over distances much greater than would be possible without it.

3) In satellite wireless, a repeater (more frequently called a transponder) receives uplink signals and retransmits them, often on different frequencies, to destination locations.

4) In a cellular telephone system, a repeater is one of a group of transceivers in a geographic area that collectively serve a system user.

5) In a fiber optic network, a repeater consists of a photocell, an amplifier, and a light-emitting diode (LED) or infrared-emitting diode (IRED) for each light or IR signal that requires amplification. Fiber optic repeaters operate at power levels much lower than wireless repeaters, and are also much simpler and cheaper. However, their design requires careful attention to ensure that internal circuit noise is minimized.

6) Repeaters are commonly used by commercial and amateur radio operators to extend signals in the radio frequency range from one receiver to another. These consist of drop repeaters, similar to the cells in cellular radio, and hub repeaters, which receive and retransmit signals from and to a number of directions.

7) A bus repeater links one computer bus to a bus in another computer chassis, essentially chaining one computer to another.

Dig Deeper on Troubleshooting Wireless Networks

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What is repeater? - Definition from WhatIs.com

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1) In digital communication systems, a repeater is a device that receives a digital signal on an electromagnetic or optical transmission medium and regenerates the signal along the next leg of the medium. In electromagnetic media, repeaters overcome the attenuation caused by free-space electromagnetic-field divergence or cable loss.

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A device that governs the flow of traffic of information between networks as well as delivering packets between them

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Bridge (Computer Science Definition) - Computing Students

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The Computing Students Dictionary of Computer Science Definitions. Defining . Find other computing, ICT, and computer science resources related to

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Any device or data point on a large network

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A node is a basic unit of a data structure, such as a linked list or tree data structure. Nodes contain data and also may link to other nodes. Links between nodes are often implemented by pointers.

In graph theory, the image provides a simplified view of a network, where each of the numbers represents a different node.

A simple binary tree of size 9 and height 3, with a root node whose value is 2. The above tree is unbalanced and not sorted.

Nodes are often arranged into tree structures. A node represents the information contained in a single data structure. These nodes may contain a value or condition, or possibly serve as another independent data structure. Nodes are represented by a single parent node. The highest point on a tree structure is called a root node, which does not have a parent node, but serves as the parent or 'grandparent' of all of the nodes below it in the tree. The height of a node is determined by the total number of edges on the path from that node to the furthest leaf node, and the height of the tree is equal to the height of the root node. Node depth is determined by the distance between that particular node and the root node. The root node is said to have a depth of zero. Data can be discovered along these network paths. An IP address uses this kind of system of nodes to define its location in a network.

Definitions

Child: A child node is a node extending from another node. For example, a computer with internet access could be considered a child node of a node representing the internet. The inverse relationship is that of a parent node. If node C is a child of node A, then A is the parent node of C.

Degree: the degree of a node is the number of children of the node.

Depth: the depth of node A is the length of the path from A to the root node. The root node is said to have depth 0.

Edge: the connection between nodes.

Forest: a set of trees.

Height: the height of node A is the length of the longest path through children to a leaf node.

Internal node: a node with at least one child.

Leaf node: a node with no children.

Root node: a node distinguished from the rest of the tree nodes. Usually, it is depicted as the highest node of the tree.

Sibling nodes: these are nodes connected to the same parent node.

Another common use of node trees is in web development. In programming, XML is used to communicate information between computer programmers and computers alike. For this reason XML is used to create common communication protocols used in office productivity software, and serves as the base for the development of modern web markup languages like XHTML. Though similar in how it is approached by a programmer, HTML and CSS is typically the language used to develop website text and design. While XML, HTML and XHTML provide the language and expression, the DOM serves as a translator.

Different types of nodes in a tree are represented by specific interfaces. In other words, the node type is defined by how it communicates with other nodes. Each node has a node type property, which specifies the type of node, such as sibling or leaf. For example, if the node type property is the constant properties for a node, this property specifies the type of the node. So if a node type property is the constant node ELEMENT_NODE, one can know that this node object is an object Element. This object uses the Element interface to define all the methods and properties of that particular node.

Different W3C World Wide Web Consortium node types and descriptions:

Document represents the entire document (the root-node of the DOM tree)

DocumentFragment represents a "lightweight" Document object, which can hold a portion of a document

DocumentType provides an interface to the entities defined for the document

ProcessingInstruction represents a processing instruction

EntityReference represents an entity reference

Element represents an element

Attr represents an attribute

Text represents textual content in an element or attribute

CDATASection represents a CDATA section in a document (text that will NOT be parsed by a parser)

Comment represents a comment

Entity represents an entity

Notation represents a notation declared in the DTD

Node object

A node object is represented by a single node in a tree. It can be an element node, attribute node, text node, or any type that is described in section "node type". All objects can inherit properties and methods for dealing with parent and child nodes, but not all of the objects have parent or child nodes. For example, with text nodes that cannot have child nodes, trying to add child nodes results in a DOM error.

Objects in the DOM tree may be addressed and manipulated by using methods on the objects. The public interface of a DOM is specified in its application programming interface (API). The history of the Document Object Model is intertwined with the history of the " browser wars" of the late 1990s between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, as well as with that of JavaScript and JScript, the first scripting languages to be widely implemented in the layout engines of web browsers.

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A node is a basic unit of a data structure, such as a linked list or tree data structure. Nodes contain data and also may link to other nodes. Links between nodes are often implemented by pointers. Nodes are often arranged into tree structures. A node represents the information contained in a single data structure.

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A card that is put into an expansion slot on a computer to allow it to connect to other devices wirelessly.

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Definition of: wireless adapter

A device that adds wireless connectivity to a laptop or desktop computer. All of the adapters below are available as external USB modules as well as PCI or PCI Express (PCIe) cards that plug into an empty slot on the motherboard. See PCI and PCI Express.

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi adapters provide connectivity to the local area network (LAN) in the home or office. Typically used to add Wi-Fi to desktop computers, they can also retrofit older laptops that never came with Wi-Fi. See Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

Cellular (3G, 4G)
Cellular wireless adapters, also called "cellular modems," "air cards," "broadband adapters" or "broadband cards," deliver the same 3G and 4G wireless service that smartphones use. See wireless broadband and cellular modem.

Bluetooth
Bluetooth provides short range transmission between the computer and a mouse or keyboard. See Bluetooth.

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wireless adapter Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia

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Definition of: wireless adapter A device that adds wireless connectivity to a laptop or desktop computer. All of the adapters below are available as external USB modules as well as PCI or PCI Express (PCIe) cards that plug into an empty slot on the motherboard. See PCI and PCI Express.

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Connects two or more networks together either wirelessly or through wired connections

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A type of hub that enables the transfer of data between computers in a network by

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A common connection point for several devices in a network, allows the transfer of frames, which is delivered to all other computers connected to the hub

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What is a Network Hub? Webopedia Definition

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A common connection point for devices in a network. Hubs serve as a central connection for all network equipment and handles a data type known as frames.

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A card that allows a computer to connect to a network

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A network interface card (NIC) is a circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network.

A network interface card provides the computer with a dedicated, full-time connection to a network. Personal computers and workstations on a local area network ( LAN) typically contain a network interface card specifically designed for the LAN transmission technology

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See also: PCMCIA card, WAN interface card, network interface unit, converged network adaptor

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What is network interface card (NIC)? - Definition from WhatIs.com

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A network interface card (NIC) is a circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network. A network interface card provides the computer with a dedicated, full-time connection to a network.

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A computer designed to process requests and deliver data to other computers

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A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to another computer over the internet or a local network. A well-known type of server is a web server where web pages can be accessed over the internet through a client like a web browser. However, there are several types of servers, including local ones like file servers that store data within an intranet network.

What Does a Server Do in a Computer Network?

Although any computer running the necessary software can function as a server, the most typical use of the word references the enormous, high-powered machines that push and pull data from the internet.

Most computer networks support one or more servers that handle specialized tasks. As a rule, the larger the network in terms of clients that connect to it or the amount of data that it moves, the more likely it is that several servers play a role, each dedicated to a specific purpose.

The server is the software that handles a specific task. However, the powerful hardware that supports this software is also called a server. This is because the server software that coordinates a network of hundreds or thousands of clients requires hardware that's more robust than computers for consumer use.

Common Types of Servers

While some dedicated servers focus on one function, such as a print server or database server, some implementations use one server for multiple purposes.

A large, general-purpose network that supports a medium-sized company likely deploys several types of servers, including:

Web server:A web server show pages and runs apps through web browsers. The server your browser is connected to now is a web server that delivers this page and the images on it. The client program, in this case, is a browser like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari. Web servers are used for many tasks in addition to delivering simple text and images, such as uploading and backing up files online through a cloud storage service or online backup service.

Email server:Email servers send and receive email messages. If you have an email client on your computer, the software connects to an IMAP or POP server to download your messages to your computer, and an SMTP server to send messages back through the email server.

FTP server:FTP servers move files through File Transfer Protocol tools. FTP servers are accessible remotely using FTP client programs, which connect to the file share on the server, either through the server's built-in FTP capabilities or with a dedicated FTP server program.

Identity Server:Identity servers support logins and security roles for authorized users.

Hundreds of specialized server types support computer networks. Apart from the common corporate types, home users often interface with online game servers, chat servers, and audio and video streaming servers, among others.

Some servers exist for a specific purpose but aren't necessarily interacted with in any meaningful way. DNS servers and proxy servers are some examples.

Types of Network Servers

Many networks on the internet employ a client-server networking model that integrates websites and communication services.

An alternative model, called peer-to-peer networking, allows all the devices on a network to function as either a server or client on an as-needed basis. Peer networks offer a greater degree of privacy because communication between computers is narrowly targeted. However, due in part to bandwidth limitations, most implementations of peer-to-peer networking aren't robust enough to support large traffic spikes.

Understanding Server Clusters

The word cluster is used broadly in computer networking to refer to an implementation of shared computing resources. Typically, a cluster integrates the resources of two or more computing devices that could otherwise function separately for some common purpose (often a workstation or server device).

A web server farm is a collection of networked web servers, each with access to content on the same site. These servers function as a cluster conceptually. However, purists debate the technical classification of a server farm as a cluster, depending on the details of the hardware and software configuration.

Computer Servers at Home

Because servers are software, people can run servers at home, accessible either to devices attached to their home network or devices outside the network. For example, some network-aware hard drives use the Network Attached Storage server protocol to allow different PCs on a home network to access a shared set of files.

Plex media server software helps users view digital media on TVs and entertainment devices regardless of whether the data exists in the cloud or on a local PC.

If your network is set up to allow port forwards, you can accept incoming requests from outside your network to make your home server act as a server from a big company like Facebook or Google (where anyone can access your resources).

However, not all home computers and internet connections are suitable for lots of traffic. Bandwidth, storage, RAM, and other system resources are factors that affect how large of a home server you can support. Most home operating systems are also void of server-related features.

More Information on Servers

Since uptime is critically important for most servers, servers aren't designed to shut down but instead run 24/7. However, servers sometimes go down intentionally for scheduled maintenance, which is why some websites and services notify users of scheduled downtime or scheduled maintenance. Servers might also go down unintentionally during something like a DDoS attack.

A web server that reports an error due to downtime-whether intentional or not-might do so using a standard HTTP status code.

When a web server takes down information permanently, or even temporarily, you might still be able to access those files if a third-party service archived it. Wayback Machine is one example of a web archiver that stores snapshots of web pages and files stored on web servers.

Large businesses that have multiple servers don't typically access these servers locally, like with a keyboard and mouse, but instead by remote access. These servers are also sometimes virtual machines, meaning that one storage device can host multiple servers, which saves physical space and money.

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What Is a Server in Computer Networking?

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A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to another computer over the internet or a local network. A well-known type of server is a web server where web pages can be accessed over the internet through a client like a web browser.