Networking Hardware: an interactive networking course

Networking Hardware is an interactive networking course about the boxes and cables that connect devices. Its 26 short sections cover network cards and MAC addresses, hubs and switches and how a switch learns, routers, default gateways and NAT, wireless access points and Wi-Fi standards, modems and the home router box, firewalls, network topologies, the OSI model and choosing cables.

It opens with four computers on a switch whose MAC address table fills in frame by frame, so you can watch a switch stop flooding once it has learned where everyone is.

What the networking course covers

Inside one network

Every device has a network interface card with a unique MAC address. A hub repeats every frame to every port, so frames collide; a switch learns which MAC address is on which port and sends each frame only where it needs to go. Our what is a MAC address guide covers MAC addresses in detail.

Between networks

A router joins different networks, reading IP addresses and a routing table to send each packet towards its destination. Your computer sends anything for another network to its default gateway, the home router, which also uses NAT to share one public address between every device in the house. The home router box usually holds a modem, router, switch, access point, firewall and DHCP server in one case.

Wireless, shapes and layers

Wi-Fi uses the 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands: lower bands reach further through walls, higher ones carry more data. Topologies describe a network's shape, and the OSI model splits networking into seven layers, with cables at layer 1, switches at layer 2 and routers at layer 3.

Try a question from the course

A MAC address is six pairs of hexadecimal digits, usually written with colons, such as 3C:22:FB:9A:41:07. Each pair uses only 0 to 9 and A to F. So 3C:22:FB:9G:41:07 is not valid: G is not a hexadecimal digit.

Now check a new address, then press Mark to check your answer in the course.

Who this course is for

• GCSE and A-level computing students revising network hardware, topologies, protocols and layers.
• Anyone setting up a home or small office network who wants to know what each box does.
• Beginners heading for IT support or networking certificates, who want the hardware basics first.

What you need to know first

Nothing formal. Knowing what binary and hexadecimal are helps with MAC addresses; the Binary, Hexadecimal & Decimal course covers both.

How long it takes

There are 26 sections and most take a few minutes. Learners without a plan can open two sections of a course a day, in order, so the whole course takes 13 days. A plan removes the daily limit and lets you go straight to any topic, such as Wi-Fi or the OSI model. Our how does the internet work guide puts the hardware in the wider picture.

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