Introduction to on-premises networks

Almost every business will have some form of an on-premises network. Even if you are a self-employed "one-man band," you are likely to have a home office that also boasts a private network environment. Your home office may look something like the following diagram:

Figure 6.1 – Home network components

In the preceding diagram, the devices on the home network communicate with each other over the Wi-Fi connection. If you send a print request from the computer desktop to the printer, then your document will get printed. This communication is made possible via the connectivity established over the Wi-Fi network. For devices to communicate with each other, they each require a unique IP address. If the IP addressing element is correctly defined, each device on the network will be able to see the other. The Wi-Fi service also connects the devices to the internet via a router/modem device that has established a...