Читать книгу Networking All-in-One For Dummies - Lowe Doug, Doug Lowe - Страница 22

In a small network such as the one that was shown in Figure 1-1, a wireless router combines the function of firewall, router, switch, and WAP. This arrangement is fine for very small networks, but when you exceed the wired switch capacity of the wireless router, you’ll need additional components.

Figure 1-2 shows a network with a separate switch to connect multiple computers. Here, you can see that the wireless router connects to both the Internet and the switch. Several computers have wired connections to the switch, and wireless devices connect via the WAP that’s built in to the Wi-Fi router. The wireless router also provides the firewall function.

FIGURE 1-2: A network with a wireless router and a switch.

Figure 1-3 shows a more complicated setup, in which the WAP is separated from the router. Here, the router with its built-in firewall connects to the Internet and to the switch. As before, several computers have wired connections to the switch. In addition, the WAP has a wired connection to the switch, allowing wireless devices to connect to the network.

FIGURE 1-3: A network with a separate firewall router, switch, and WAP.

In Chapter 3 of this minibook, you see examples of more complicated arrangements of these basic network components.