Question

I have a dumb question, first of all sorry for that. i am learning now 7 OSI Layer models and i stumble across one thing. The Ethernet which is in the second Data Link Layer provides the end-to-end connection via LANs, right? Does it mean that even if i connect to Internet thru WiFi, somewhere my connection is running thru LANs?

Thanks

Answer 1

I am going to break my answer into points:

1.Lan is not necessary to connect to internet. You can have cable internet or internet through DSL connection etc. in which though the wire that comes and connect to your pc is the same cat5(for example) cable, there is no lan involved.

2.Internet through wireless router an be accessed in two ways:

(a)The ethernet cable from (say) a cable modem connects to your wireless router WAN port and then wireless router sends out radio waves which your laptop catches.

(b)There are many wireless routers and one cable internet connection. So the WAN port of one of the routers will connect to the cable modem(same as (a)) and from that router’s ethernet ports(usually there are 4 ethernet ports on a wireless router ), ethernet cables will connect to other routers’ ethernet ports and now these routers will send out radio waves which your pc catches.

3.Ethernet is one of the IEEE protocols(IEEE 802.3) for the data link layer. The wifi uses IEEE 802.11 standards to communicate through wireless media.