A vast majority of people understand how to utilize the Internet today thanks to the wide accessibility of technology. There is, however, a reason why most of those same people pay for someone to install, monitor, and maintain their ability to connect online. It takes someone with an expert knowledge of network hardware – the devices and equipment that make the entire experience possible – to consistently do the job right. Here’s a look into several devices that are found at home and in the office:

Home Network

Now more than ever, people are relying on their home networks for the various occasions that they need to connect to the Internet. This includes streaming movies and television, playing video games with friends, browsing social media, and working from home. A typical home network does not include many devices, but on average will consist of a modem, router with or without Wi-Fi, and potentially a network switch.

  • Modems are the boxes responsible for connecting one’s home network to the Internet after receiving and translating signals from an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
  • Routers are the boxes that allow all devices, wired or wireless, to use the Internet pulled from the modem simultaneously through a local area network (LAN).
  • Wi-Fi is a wireless network technology that communicates with the Internet through multiple signals sent from a device to a router. Often, Wi-Fi is integrated with a router directly.
  • Network Switches are boxes that connect to routers, providing additional Ethernet ports for wired devices.

Corporate Network

On a corporate network, you'd find similar devices to a home network. You might even find them bundled together in the same box, or with other features such as firewalls, VPN gateways, or Hardware Security Modules (HSM).

  • Firewalls are security devices in charge of monitoring network traffic to either allow or prevent data from passing through depending on specific security protocol.
  • VPN Gateways are devices (typically routers) that can link communication from one virtual private network (VPN), say in an office, to another remote VPN, say at home.
  • Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are cryptographic processing devices that can store, manage, and process digital keys, encrypt and decrypt digital signatures, and more.

You might also find other devices that perform tasks like deep packet inspection (DPI) or ones that do network address translation (NAT).

  • Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is when network packets are properly filtered to prevent spam or viruses from hiding from a system’s security measures or firewall.
  • Network Address Translation takes place when a firewall provides a private network with a public address.

Finally, corporate networks can have private domain name servers, file servers, web servers, backup servers, application servers, or mail servers.

  • Private Domain Name Servers collect information regarding domain names and IP addresses.
  • File Servers store internal files for all those with proper authorization to a computer network.
  • Web Servers manage HTTP requests for Internet connection.
  • Backup Servers store copies of data separate from the original files or database in case of an emergency such as data corruption or deletion.
  • Application Servers run web and desktop applications.
  • Mail Servers transfer incoming and outgoing emails from one email address domain to another.

Q-Net Security Protects It All

Now that you have a better understanding of what network hardware is, it’s time you learned more about how to properly protect it. Q-Net Security produces our own type of hardware that provides the strongest drop-in security for your existing critical infrastructure. Instead of offering a replacement, we’re simply positioned on top of your current network to create an impenetrable network segment.

Specifically, the Q-Box weighs less than a kilogram and connects directly in line with a computer, server, IoT element, or network device. This hardware system delivers quantum compute-resistant encryption, is decentralized for robustness, and renders network nodes invisible to attackers.

For more information, please visit www.qnetsecurity.com or contact us today at [email protected].