About this interactive
What you're seeing: a drag-and-drop matching activity pairing networking devices with their primary roles, and with an OSI layer where a standard assigns one. Why it matters: knowing which device does what — and where in the stack it sits, when that is even defined — is the foundation for understanding how traffic flows through a real network. How to use it: drag each device chip to the definition bucket that describes its role; a wrong bucket flashes red and the chip returns to the tray to try again. Each round draws seven devices from a pool of thirteen, so replaying it covers different ground.
What you'll learn
- Identify the primary role of common networking devices including hub, switch, router, WAP, firewall, Layer-3 switch, protocol translation gateway, modem, NIC, load balancer, proxy, IDS, and IPS
- Match each networking device to its primary role, including the OSI layer where a standard assigns one
- Distinguish devices that share an OSI layer by their distinct functions, and distinguish an IDS from an IPS by out-of-band alerting versus inline blocking
Key terms
- Hub
- A basic Layer 1 network device that receives a signal on one port and repeats it out every other port simultaneously, creating a single shared collision domain among all connected devices. Hubs have been replaced by switches in modern networks because they waste bandwidth and cause collisions.
- Switch
- A network device that connects devices within a LAN and forwards traffic based on MAC addresses.
- Router
- A network device that forwards data packets between networks based on IP addresses.
- Wireless Access Point
WAP
- A device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi.
- Firewall
- A network security device that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing traffic based on predefined security rules.
- Layer 3 Switch
- A network switch that incorporates routing functionality, allowing it to forward traffic based on both MAC addresses and IP addresses across multiple networks.
- Default Gateway
- The router that a device uses to send traffic to destinations outside its local network.
- Open Systems Interconnection Model
OSI
- A conceptual framework that standardizes network communication into seven distinct layers.
Topics
Matching
Interactive
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