Interconnect Hardware Review: Hubs, Switches, Routers Our design includes hubs, switches, and routers in the infrastructure. In this section we will provide a quick overview of these devices. Network hubs, switches, and routers all do the job of connecting computers. A network hub connects computers to each other, but it is designed without any real understanding of the information that is transferred through the hub. what is transferring Network hubs are typically used in a private network (without Internet access). Hubs are pretty dumb about how they transfer data: a data packet received by one connected device is broadcast to all other connected devices. Network bandwidth is split among all connected computers, meaning the more computers connected to a hub, the slower the connection. Hubs should be used sparingly for this reason. A network switch also connects computers to each other, but unlike a hub. When a switch receives a data packet, it is smart enough to know which computer or device the packet is intended for and sends it accordingly. A network router is different from both a switch and a hub. Routers primarily route data packets to other networks. They provide interfaces between external and internal networks (for example, the Internet and LAN). A router usually contains other functions such as firewall, traffic monitoring, VPN and other services. Security Analysis According to the SciTechConnect blog [1], “In today's network infrastructures, it is critical to understand the fundamentals of basic security infrastructure. Before any computer is connected to the Internet, planning must be done to ensure that the network is designed securely. Many of the attacks... are in the middle of the paper... the network is safe. VPN uses special software to use the public Internet to provide remote users with secure access to your organization's network. We recommend the use of VPN for remote access to the DEM intranet for all authorized users. No remote access to the DEM intranet should be provided to anyone not using a VPN.4. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS): An IDS is a software, hardware, or combination network device that monitors and inspects all incoming and outgoing network traffic. An IDS performs pattern matching to identify attack indicators or suspicious activity. Compare this to a firewall, which inspects all outgoing and incoming traffic to make sure that types of connections that are not permitted are initiated. To summarize, we recommend the use of WPA-2 Enterprise protocols, remote access VPN, firewall, proxy server, and IDS for the DEM network.