In this chapter, we moved away from our own infrastructure and looked further afield into WAN. We defined a WAN, before we covered the two packet-switching technologies of X.25 and frame relays. We then discussed the benefits of using a dedicated lease line. Dial-up, and other networking methodologies that used the POTS/PSTN, such as ISDN, ATM, and xDSL, were then covered. We also discussed some characteristics of the T-carriers and their equivalents, and the OC-levels used in SONET. Finally, we finished off this chapter by covering broadband and fiber connections, satellite, and cellular.
Going through this chapter, you learned how to create broadband connections on a Windows computer, before going on to learn how to configure network properties. While the former is becoming less common, you will still come across this; the latter you will be required to configure on...