Week 3 posting - Ethernet

 In our day to day lives ethernet has become a staple to all users and can be found across most homes. Not only is it used for connecting computers in a local area network (LAN), but it is also used to connect devices to the internet which is considered to be the largest Wide Area Network (WAN).

I never realized until I started taking networking classes that ethernet cables have been around for a very long time. Today you can get ethernet cables to deliver speeds of up to 40 GB/s. I always assumed that ethernet cables were used to strictly connect devices to the internet and never thought about how they are used in a network setting.  With that in mind, I was surprised at first when I found out that there were ethernet cables that could allow up to 40 GB/s speeds because the internet doesn’t go that fast. It makes total sense now though that businesses, especially data centers, could benefit from extremely high speed of data transfer inside their networks.