We connect many different kinds of devices
to our wired and our wireless networks.
In this video, will give you an overview
of these network devices.
If you're using a phone in a modern office,
you're probably using a voice over IP phone.
This is different than the older style phones
that we used to have that were analog telephones based
on a POTS service.
This POTS refers to the Plain Old Telephone Service
that we would commonly use to connect to our telephone
provider.
Voice over IP is a relatively complex technology,
but having that voice communication
can be incredibly important, especially
if your business relies on that voice communication.
From a networking perspective, all of our voice over IP phones
are network devices.
We would plug them directly into the ethernet connections.
Very often, they are powered from the ethernet connection
using POE, or Power Over Ethernet.
Because these devices are individual computers,
they would perform the same DHCP process to obtain an IP address
and communicate over the network to the voice over IP call
managers.
Another challenge for the system administrator
is not only making sure that the computers are connected
to the network, but that the printers are properly
connected to the network.
This is a printer that provides either color
or black and white output.
And it's usually printing out documents, photos,
or other types of output.
We might also be connecting an AIO device to the network.
This is an All-in-One device that not only provides
printing, but it can also be a scanner, a copier, and a fax
machine.
The type of connectivity you'll have for your printer
will vary depending on the manufacturer.
So this device might be connected to the network using
802.11 wireless, it might be a wired ethernet connection,
or it may be plugging into a print server or a computer
using USB or a Bluetooth connection.
In many offices, you would gain access to a room
or through a locked door using a card reader like this one.
This uses a proximity reader to recognize when
a smart card is brought nearby.
And if the person holding that smart card
is allowed access to the room, this card reader
will unlock the door.
We could also have a similar access control
device that is looking at a fingerprint or retina
to be able to provide biometric authentication.
These biometric readers aren't usually
storing a picture of your fingerprint,
they're instead storing a mathematical representation
of the fingerprint.
And next time you use that finger to open the door,
it performs that same mathematical function
to see if those fingers match.
These devices are usually connected to the network
through ethernet and they usually
obtain an IP address using DHCP or through a static assignment.
If you have cameras monitoring your facility,
then you're probably using CCTV, or Closed Circuit Television.
These are cameras that can provide advanced capabilities
such as motion recognition so you don't have to constantly
be watching the camera.
Instead, the camera will tell you when there's any motion.
You might also have these devices
identify object detection or be able to identify a license
plate or a person's face.
Most of the time you have multiple cameras
that are all connected back to a central recording device
and you're storing that video for long periods of time.
These multiple cameras are usually communicating back
to these surveillance systems over your ethernet network.
And you're usually accessing the cameras
through an IP address that's been assigned to the camera.
This provides you with the ability
to view many cameras at once, and usually is providing
high-definition visibility.
Another important network device in our organization
is the HVAC.
This is the Heating, Ventilation,
and Air Conditioning system.
These are very complex systems that
deal with the heating and cooling of our environments.
And usually these have been designed and engineered
by someone who focuses on heating and cooling.
We'll usually connect all of our HVAC sensors and management
stations together over our ethernet network, which
means we can sit at one central management station
and manage all of the heating and cooling
for the entire organization.
Through the years, we've begun extending the capabilities
of these network connections to devices that originally didn't
have a network connection.
These are Internet of Things devices, or IoT devices.
So you might have appliances such as refrigerators
or the speakers that we're using connecting to the network,
usually over a wireless connection.
In your home, you may even have thermostats and other type
of temperature controls connected
to your wireless network.
And you might also have doorbells or garage door
openers that are IoT devices.
Since these IoT devices could be a security risk,
many organizations will segment all of these IoT devices
onto their own networks.
And many times at home, you can provide this functionality as
well through a guest network on your wireless router.
Large-scale industrial systems have their own way
of networking called SCADA.
This is Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems.
You might also hear this referred
to as ICS, or Industrial Control systems.
This means that you can have a central computer that's
managing all of these systems.
So organizations such as power generation, manufacturing,
or refining that has these large industrial systems
can manage this through a centralized network connection.
We're usually receiving real-time information
from these devices over the SCADA network,
and we're able to control them from this central management
console.
As you can imagine, with systems as important
as power generation, you'll want to have a SCADA network that
is completely separate from any other network connection.
This really requires extensive segmentation
on the network to ensure that you have the safest data
network possible.