TUE AUG 12 2025

this day i tried reviewing some basics of switching! Once again, since switches have never been devices i've messed with much in my previous jobs, all of the stuff i learned this day was both a refresher, and also new information i wasn't really aware of!
i've always had a bit of a rougher time understanding switching and Layer 2 communications overall, though nowadays i'm a bit better at it, i'm by no means an expert! just one of the many things i know :3

Below are the notes i took during these studies, for my own later reference:

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a hub splits the Ethernet signal like a splitter cable
Broadcast storms happen when too many computers are trying to talk at once.
Switches allow multiple computers to be able to talk at the same time without his happening.
Switches are OSI Model Layer 2 devices and the MAC addresses of network devices for identification.
Managed vs Unmanaged Switches
Unmanaged switches are completely automatic.
Managed switches can be configred.
Port Speeds - 10Mbps / 100Mbps / 1000Mbps (1Gig)
Full Duplex means a device can send and receive traffic at the same time
Half Duplex means a device can either receive or transmit traffic
Backplane determines how much total data a switch can handle
Trunk Connections allow multiple switches to be tied together
VLANs are logically separate LANs on the same switch.
VLANs can ONLY communicate between eachother via a router!
PoE - Power over Ethernet allows you to power network devices using cat5 cable
QoS - Quality of Service
Allows you to prioritize network packets so that real time communication is not interrupted by things like file transfers.
Spanning Tree Protocol is a networking protocol that helps prevent network loops!

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That's all i could internalize more or less! again this is very basic stuff, but for a tech worker who never really messed with switches before, i think this is a good base to be aware of at the very least <3

hawww!!