• Faster application performance ensures that a business effectively renders quality services to its employees and customers. WAN optimization is essential to businesses that are using network applications at its headquarters to stay in touch with branches at remote locations through WAN. WAN optimization enhances the application performance by techniques like bandwidth management, caching, compression, and Protocol optimization and significantly accelerates application performance.

    Benefits
    Improves Productivity

    Slow speed of application performance really hampers the employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Use of WAN optimization techniques accelerates the applications over the WAN, speeds up the data transfer and reduces the end-user application response time. This in turn makes transactions faster thereby leveraging the employee productivity. WAN optimization reduces the time taken to complete repetitive operations and helps in increasing employee productivity.

    The employees waiting for long time to get a transaction done or download a file can not give prompt service to the customers and it results in unsatisfactory customer experience. By eliminating the network problems and reduced throughput, the remote employees can access the network applications that are installed on other locations at a faster rate. Accelerating the applications over the WAN also helps the mobile workers making it easy for them to cater their services to consumers.

    Reduces Bandwidth Cost
    Using WAN optimization techniques like bandwidth management/QoS, caching, compression, and Protocol optimization can significantly reduce the usage of bandwidth which in turn pulls down the network costs.
    •    In Bandwidth Management, limits are set on network applications as to how much bandwidth they can use. This ensures maximum utilization of existing bandwidth by critical applications without providing additional bandwidth, saving considerable amount of money.
    •    In Caching, the copies of important files are stored in multiple locations. The users need not have to download these large files every time thereby reducing the bandwidth utilization.
    •    Protocol optimization decreases the transmission delays thereby increasing overall speed of transmission and transaction response.
    •    Compression techniques help to reduce size of the data thus saving time of transmission. Compression helps to send data in a faster way thus increasing reducing load on communication links.
    •    Compression and caching together help keep the communications link uncongested and reduces queuing delays.
    All these factors reduce bandwidth usage which in turn reduces cost. WAN optimization allows users to access WAN applications at speeds similar to a LAN.

    WAN optimization accelerates application performance by eliminating issues like redundant file transmissions, chatty protocols, network latency, packet loss etc. WAN optimization ensures consolidation of IT infrastructure of the business at remote locations thereby ensuring higher productivity at remote offices. Using WAN optimization, the businesses can reduce remote office infrastructure cost by effectively centralizing applications, data storage, and server at data centers.

    WAN optimization techniques increases transaction speed, improves productivity, and reduces bandwidth cost enabling businesses to be competitive and focus on newer markets. WAN optimization implementation helps businesses to get excellent ROI on their investments by reducing bandwidth costs and improving overall productivity.

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  • Since Microsoft released Windows for Workgroups, networking has become quite easy and very commonplace for most home computer users.  Everything that is needed to set up a home network is built right into the computer’s operating system which was installed in the machine.  All you have to do is turn it on and set it up.  If you happen to have Windows 95/98 setting up a network is a snap!

    A home network is, simply put, a made up of set of hardware and also a set of software that will allow computers to communicate with each other.  A home network enable File sharing or using the same printer or other input and outputs instead of buying one for each available computer.

    A home network functions in almost the exact same way as that used by a private businesses when a LAN or Local Area Network is created.  Designations, or IP addresses, as well as some that are catchy phrases that humans will remember are called host names and they know who everyone is as well as where everything is. Let’s say that 10.1.1.5 or Computer Jack sends a file to 10.1.1.6 or Computer Jill.  The hardware and software must cooperate with each other in order to know where and how to send the file from Jack to Jill.

    This idea is much the same as that used by the post office.  There is an address associated with each home.  A letter that is sent from one home is routed to another by using that address.  Putting the return address on the letter is very important so the person knows where to respond. Also, if the letter gets lost, it will be sent back to the return address.  If there is no return address it just goes to the dead letter office.   Home computer networks work in much the same way.

    The routing data is also known as ‘an envelope’.  This surrounds the data or the words on the letter. A home network comes in two main types:  cabled and wireless. In a cabled network different wire bundles which are known as Ethernet cables with connectors on each end plug into either a network interface card, or NIC, in the printer, fax, computer or into a switch/router.  Hubs or switches are simplified devices that allow physical connections between the components of a network.

    A wireless network operates in much the same way.   The main difference is that there is no need for cables.  Small devices known as transceivers send and retrieve information by radio signals. Let’s say that you want two computers within a home network to both be able to print on the same printer.  Where would you even start to do something like that?  You can make this happen in two possible ways.  In one set up, the printer is physically attached to one of the computers.  The alternate set up connects the printer to the network and not to any individual computer;

    With this first arrangement, the printer is called local, but shareable.  It is possible to allow a remote computer to print to the locally attached device.  Computer-Jack then just shares the printer by using software of the hosting system, Computer Jill. In most typical cases nowadays, the printer has its own NIC.  It is then attached to a router or switch by way of Ethernet cables or a wireless transceiver.  Then each computer on the network is able to ‘see’ the printer as a device that the computer can use.

    Scanners, fax machines and other computers operate in pretty much the same way.  Every device receives an address and a name.  Software on the device allows it to be configured so that its function is accessible to multiple computers on the same network.




    By: Joseph Nyamache

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  • In the past, most people had just a single computer in their home and nothing else. Access to the Internet was based on dial-up modems which were connected directly with a serial cable on the home computer. No Local Area Network was needed. With the advancement of technology and the acceptance of modern high speed broadband connectivity at homes, necessitates that home appliances should be networked to facilitate online access and to also communicate and share information between them.

    What I mean when I say home appliances is home computers, next generation game consoles, printers, scanners, network attached storage, etc. All those appliances need to share information between them over a Local Area Network, but also need to have high-speed access to the Internet. To achieve that, you will need to set-up a home network. With a home network you basically build a LAN, either wired or wireless, over which networked devices communicate between them inside the home, and also share a common internet connection.

    The heart of a home network is a broadband router. This is usually an integrated wired-wireless device which enables you to build a home LAN using either Ethernet Network cables or a Wi-Fi wireless connection. This router shares the internet connection with your devices.

    Once you have your network in place, you have limitless opportunities to attach whatever you need to your network. Things such as laptops, desktops, gaming consoles, servers, print servers, etc After you finally connect all your devices to your router, you can do whatever you like to share data between them.




    By: Alex Smith

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