Week 7: Network Resources

This week in our class, we covered networking and network resources.  This is a very challenging subject for me due to my lack of previous knowledge and experience in the field.  In my college studies, I have always had an interest in networking and have wanted to take a course in networking.  I am currently enrolled for the Networking Essentials course for next quarter.  I do have a very basic knowledge of networking and networking resources, but this is mainly limited to small, peer-to-peer personal networks.  Therefore, this week I was given a taste of the resources and techniques used in the networking field.  Topics covered included many networking fundamentals including network types, configurations, and topology.  Many of the hardware components required for constructing a network were also introduced and discussed.  We learned about several of the components used for addressing network resources including IP address and MAC address.  Network communication protocol such as TCP/IP were introduced and discussed including the different layers included within the OSI model.  We explored how to troubleshoot networks using several tools provided by many network operating systems.  Many of these tools are available free for download.  Our assignment for the week was to research the differences between the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) and the Domain Name Service (DNS).  This activity helped me gain a better understanding of name resolution and what each service does to accomplish this task.

As I stated before, I have had little exposure to networking and its practices.  In general, networking can be a difficult subject to understand unless it is put into practice.  Therefore, this week was a bit of a struggle for me.  There was a lot of information presented this week which made it hard to keep up.  I found myself having to reread several sections of the handouts for the week in order to understand the material.  The research paper we were assigned helped me clear up some of the confusion I had about DNS and the basic functionality of the internet.  The quiz for this week was also more difficult than usual.

Networking is the heart and soul of the Information Technology field.  Without it, IT would not have a very large footing within the world.  Let's face it, without networking, information sharing in the world would be much more slow and difficult.  In other words, networking is critical for corporate success in the modern era.  In my professional career, having networking knowledge and experience will be vital for my success.  With many corporations relying heavily on networking for information sharing, having this knowledge will help provide job security for me.  I can also use much of this week's information in my daily computing practices including troubleshooting and diagnosing network problems.