Internal Network Connections
The cabling inside the LAN is expensive to install or upgrade. However it remains for many years and ordinarily provides substantially more bandwidth than any justifiable internet access does. The internet connection on most DSL or coax connections is a few mbps and a T1 is 1.45 mbps. On the other hand many organizations have internal backbones of 40,000 mbps (a bundle of 4 ten gigabit connections)! While there isn’t nearly this much bandwidth available to communicate with the internet, there are plenty of uses for it between desktops and servers the business operates just for internal users. Novice users sometimes mistakenly think that an upgrade on the internal network will increase performance of the internet access despite it already being a substantial speed difference.
twisted pair -Ethernet
Colloquially called Ethernet, it is also called twisted pair, 10 base-t, 100 base-t , or gigabit Ethernet. This is by far the most common way to plug a network connection into a computer. It is a copper based unshielded cable with 8 wires twisted to make a cord coated in plastic. This has been released over time as 10, 100, and 1,000 mbps (gigabit) speeds. This will eventually be replaced with fiber optic cabling which in the long run is expected to provide higher speeds. New runs from the wiring closet to the wall jacks probably should be done with fiber optics although twisted pair is still currently cheaper. There is a distance restriction that the cable (including closet patch, cable run, and user patch cables) not be more than 100 meters in length.
fiber optics
There is more than one standard thickness for cabling. In the long term this will surpass the capabilities of Ethernet, and considering that internal cabling is reran infrequently, this should be installed rather than copper wiring. It is normally used in multimode (dwdm) fashion meaning that multiple signals are sent down the fiber at slightly different angles. This provides significantly more capacity than single mode fiber optics but has a distance restriction. Cabling between wiring closets (trunks) is usually fiber optics. Fiber optics has significantly greater distance restriction than copper.
token ring
Token ring is a legacy networking technology from IBM. It is used in speeds of 4, 16, and occasionally 100 mbps. Despite having lower speeds than copper twisted pair Ethernet or fiber optics technology, it operates much less efficiently as it forces the traffic to be transmitted to multiple computers and back to the original sender to validate integrity. Only after original pc has validated the transmission has been received exactly can the rest of the transmission continue. The hardware is now very hard to find and therefore expensive. It should be upgraded to fiber optic cabling for improved speed and performance.
Wireless 802.11x
There are frequent releases of this standard named 802.11 (number), the current release in wide use is 802.11 G. There are some serious security risks to using this carelessly at any firm. For example it may be possible to hack a business network from their parking lot. However it is very cheap to install because there is a lot less cabling to run. In general it also operates at a slower speed than wired cables do. It is convenient to connect two buildings or for laptop users to move around without any physical cabling. This is sometimes used to grant internet access to contractors, vendors, and potential customers with appropriate safeguards. When used to connect two buildings directional antennas and a higher bandwidth standard are usually used. It is not normally available as a form of internet access although some businesses and cities do offer it for the convenience of there customers and citizens respectively.
As you can see there are many different standards for communications. They all work differently but ultimately have much longer lifecycles than the rest of the computer industry. Each generation tends to be a much more significant improvement than the previous compared with other areas of the computer industry. These all provide some type of connectivity even if it is just to the headquarters to use that internet access.
Please continue on to: Internet access options for businesses