Network Devices

A computer network is a digital communications network which allows nodes to share resources

Router

• Its sole purpose is to connect devices outside of a LAN. It operates on the networking layer of the OSI model (Layer 3) of the OSI model.

Switch

• A switch is a network device used to connect multiple devices (or nodes) within a Local Area Network (LAN). It operates on the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model.

Firewall

• A firewall is a network security device which is responsible for monitoring and control the network traffic based on configured rules.

• They can be placed 'inside' the network and 'outside' the network. Meaning, the firewall can filter traffic before it reaches the router, or after it has passed through the router.

• Firewalls are known as ‘next-generation firewalls’ when they include more modern and advanced filtering capabilties.

• Host-based firewalls are software applications that filter traffic entering and exiting a host machine, like a PC.

• Network firewalls are hardware devices that filter traffic between networks.