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TechKnowSurge Catalog Videos What are End Devices?
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What are End Devices?

End devices are the source or destination points of network communication, including desktops, laptops, tablets, printers, phones, and video conferencing systems.

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About this video

End devices are the hardware components that sit at the edges of a network, functioning as either the source or destination of network traffic. All network infrastructure — switches, routers, cabling, and related equipment — exists fundamentally to provide connectivity between these devices. Common examples include desktops, laptops, and tablets used for productivity and internet access, as well as printers that receive print jobs sent across the network. End devices also extend into communication and media applications. VoIP phones transmit voice calls as data over the same network infrastructure used for other traffic, and many modern smartphones share similar capabilities. Video conferencing systems represent another category, enabling real-time video communication between users on the same or different networks. Regardless of their function, all end devices share the same defining characteristic: they are the points where network communication originates or terminates.

What you'll learn

What's covered

End Devices

Aligned to

Cisco CCST Networking
3.3 Describe endpoint devices
1.1 Identify the fundamental conceptual building blocks of networks
Cisco CCST IT
3.3 Examine basic end-device connectivity to the network
Cisco CCNA
1.1 Explain the role and function of network components

Key terms

End Device
A device at the edge of a network that acts as the source or destination of network communication, such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, printer, or IP phone.
Server
A computer or program that provides services or resources to other devices, known as clients, over a network.
Endpoint
Any device that connects to a network, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and IoT devices.

Transcript

What End Devices Are

These are all examples of end devices. They're either the starting or ending of communication, the source or destination of the communication across the network, and they serve different purposes.

End devices are the devices at the end of the network — everything is set up really to provide networking for these end devices. So really it is either the source or the destination of where the traffic is going. For instance, let's say this device right here is speaking to this server right here. Both of these are end devices, because this is the source and this is the destination.

Examples

These are all examples of end devices. I have a desktop over here, a laptop, a tablet. These would be all things that I'd pull up documents and edit documents on, perhaps browse the internet, go to social media. So I would be doing these functions on these end devices.

Same thing if I sent a print job to a printer — this would be an end device as well.

If I'm taking a phone call, this is an end device, especially if you're talking about a voice over IP system. A voice over IP system would be like a regular phone that would send traffic over these data communications. And there are some functions on your regular cell phone that can act very similarly.

Also, I have video here, so we can take video across with these end devices, or maybe there's some sort of video conferencing that we're using.

These would be all examples of end devices that we connect to our network so that we can perform functions. They're the source or destination of the communication.

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