BSIT220

NAT (Network Address Translation) and PAT (Port Address Translation) are two vital technologies we were essentially forced into adopting to overcome the shortcomings of IPv4 addresses. When IPv4 came out, it used a 32-bit system of numbers to represent a unique device id, sort of like a house address which gave us about 4.3 billion addresses to work with. However, when the internet started gaining popularity, everyone and their mother started claiming IP addresses left and right and created an issue where we would quickly be running out of addresses. To combat this, NAT and PAT were developed which allow one IP external Address to be used by several (potentially tens of thousands) internal private devices at once. PAT works in combination with NAT by assigning a port number to any traffic leaving the LAN and keeping note of it. NAT then changes the private internal IP address to the single public address assigned by the ISP and appends the port information from PAT to the IP packet...

Hello again everyone! One of the topics we discussed this week was the many different versions of Ethernet and how they can be transmitted from device to device. I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss my humble fiber ethernet transmission setup. As I mentioned in week 1, I have a small networking setup where I use a 10 gig SFP+ switch from Unifi to provide 10 gig switching for all the computers in the rack. I also recently purchased two fiber SFP+ modules for that switch that I use to send a 10 gig link up to my room to another 2.5G switch that has a 10 gig SFP+ port in it for uplink. Of course that connection is VERY overkill for any of my networking needs, but interestingly, the 10 gig SFP+ module wasn’t that much more expensive than the 1 gig, so I figured I may as well get it and I could use it elsewhere later if I needed. Here you can see the rack in my room with the LC fiber connection from port 5 to the SFP+ tranceiver in the switch.  The other visible MPO co...

For this week’s blog post, I want to ask a question about some statements I read in chapter 2 of the textbook. The first statement is on page 62 and states: “Although all fiber connectors must be installed in pairs, the ST and SC connectors traditionally have unique ends.” My question comes from my personal experience with optical connectors. The first example I have that doesn’t seem to align with the above statement is our home internet is a fiber connection provided by Windstream, and the fiber that comes in the home is a single SC connector. The second statement is on the same page, immediately following the previous one and states: “The LC and MT-RJ connectors are always duplex, meaning both the send and receive cables are attached.” The counter-example I have for this one is I have a device at home (see image or product page: https://shop.fibercommand.com/products/ethernet-to-fiber-converter ) that’s designed to convert ethernet to fiber, and back to ethernet on the other s...

Hello everyone, my name is Ryan Bryngelson. I am enrolled in the BSIT220 course at Bellevue University and throughout the course, I will be posting to this blog weekly to share some of my findings of the IT world as it relates to networking. To share a little about me, I don’t quite know the reason it started but I have shown an interest in anything electrical basically since the day I was born. Some of my earliest memories include being fascinated with the light above our apartment door when I was 1-2 years old and taking apart the family computer when I was 12. As I recognize some of your names from my other classes this semester and I’ve already told these stories there I’ll spare them here for your sake. I don’t have much experience with the advanced networking skills that I would like to build, but my current home network setup should hopefully allow me to experiment with any topics I learn about in this class. It consists of a 1 gig link to our ISP handled by a Unifi Dream ...