Evolution of Internet: TRENDNet, D-Link and Linksys - Essay Example

?Week 4_DQ Week 4 DQ The world has seen the evolution of internet since its beginning in the 1960s. When it started, internet could not handle large amount of data at a time, and the documents were mostly in the form of text. A dial up modem with an Internet speed of about 28 kbps was extremely high in the early 1980s. Currently, there are various applications with faster speeds and greater bandwidth for the internet. There is video streaming, social networking and downloading of immense files, as examples of what people can do over the internet. With the evolution of internet, devices used to support it have also developed and am outstanding example of these devices is the router. In this part of question, this paper is going to research on three companies (TRENDNet, D-Link and Linksys) selling high-speed router products. It will also compare the most powerful routers sold, as well as elaborating meaning of the term, ‘most powerful’ as with regard to routers. A router is a networking device that analyzes data and forwards it to a certain destination. To transfer the data efficiently and accurately, a lot of activity takes place inside the router. In addition to enabling most computers to go online, it enables computer networking in the most effective way (Zdnet 2012). There are different companies that manufacture high speed routers. The best examples of such companies are TRENDNet, D-Link, and Linksys which deal with high speed routers. Their routers can handle the bandwidth that one subscribes with an internet of 1 mbps connection which can go up to 12 mbps. The TRENDNet Company in California has been supporting home and business networks. Among the products TRENDNet, Company deals with are, high speed routers like TRENDnet TW100 BRV214 and TRENDnet TW100 S4W1CA, and are connected to a modem via Ethernet port (Zdnet 2012). D-link is another company which has developed technology products for two and half decades. It offers solutions for large corporations, educational and government institutions as well as home and office. The company also offers high speed routers like the D-link DI 704p and D-link DIR-130 Broadband VPN Router (Zdnet 2012). Just like the TRENDnet routers, D-link’s routers are connected to a modem via Ethernet. The third company that deals with high speed routers is Linksys, which has been providing technology solutions for long. The company has high speed routers with high performance like; Linksys E4200 dual band wireless-N router and RV042 router (Zdnet 2012). Linksys routers are slimmer than those of the other two companies. They are other software that accompanies these routers to enable the user to get the optimum benefit. High speed routers should be connected in the correct configuration order of modem, router then computer as analyzed in the Introduction to High Speed Routers (2009). The modem connects to internet provider, then the high speed router connects to the modem, and the computer connects to the high speed router. To me the most powerful router can be defined by the ability of the router to enable computer networking, the high speed in downloading files from the internet, the one which does not require antennae to tap signals. The router should also be able to connect wireless-G and wireless-N without complications, and should have the ability to set up a separate network for each band. Week 4 DQ 2 Since 1997 The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has been responsible for the administration of internet addresses and domains for parts of the Caribbean and North America including Canada and United states. The decision by the American government to have the US department of defense secede from the support for commercial internet inspired its formation (Comer 2000). One of its services is the Whois service, which can be used to determine address blocks for institutions within the United States. It can also be used to determine geographical locations of specific internet provider addresses. In this part of question, the Whois service is used to determine the IP address blocks for three Universities. It will also evaluate whether the service is reliable in determining, with certainty, the geographical location of a specific IP address. The history of Whois goes beyond the history of World Wide Web when Whois’s utility services existed. It provided network users with names, email addresses, postal addresses and any other information for other network members. With the inception of World Wide Web, the Whois service provided technical contact information for the majority of internet domains and IP numbers (Comer 2000, p. 393). In this paper, the service was used to determine the IP address blocks for the University of New York, the Columbia University and the University of Duke. However, it is extremely difficult to locate geographically the IP addresses for the selected universities. The Whois service has limited entries of all the domains although it contains a pointer for every domain to the registrar that contains the Whois database entry (Harrenstien, Stahl & Feinler 1985). Further research on the location of the universities indicates that, the New York University is located in New York province, street number 47 W 13TH ST. The University of Duke is located in Durham, North Carolina, whereas Columbia University is located in the upper Manhattan, and right in the bustle of New York City. By the use of Whois service, it was possible to track the owner of an IP address as well as their postal address. However, according to Harrenstien, Stahl & Feinler (1985, p 1), these networks could be deployed in a different location other than the one for the owning entity incase the organization has branches. The other reason as to why Whois services is not accurate in locating the geographical area is that the IP addresses determined may be associated with the wrong location, postal code, city, among other details (Comer 2000, p. 394). Moreover, addresses found may be associated with extremely broad geographic area instead of a reliable street, longitude or latitude location. Lastly, some addresses searched may not appear in the Whois database which makes it hard to map the geographical location of a specific IP address. Therefore, Whois system service works well to locate the owners of web sites but cannot be relied in locating IP location system. References Comer, D 2000, Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles Protocols, and Architectures, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Harrenstien, K, Stahl, M, & Feinler, E 1985, NICKNAME/ WHOIS, RFC-954, IETF, Viewed 23 March 2012, < http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/whois.htm>. Introduction to High Speed Routers 2009. Viewed 23 March 2012, . Zdnet 2012, Find The Right Routers, Viewed 23 March 2012, . Read More