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andwidth is now as important as crude oil. Without oil, we

have no cars or factories, and basically, the economy stops. Oil is the fuel of
the industrial world's economies. And network bandwidth is the oil of the
twenty-first century. Without it--or when it's in short supply--our net-
works come to a grinding halt. If you think we're exaggerating, or you don't
agree at all, just try shutting down a part of your network at work and watch
the wars begin. Department will turn against department, friend will turn
against friend--people will stop at nothing to get their computers up and
running on the network, much like the chaos that would result if a Middle
Eastern country were to refuse us our oil. Sure, if we have oil but no band-
width, we can drive our cars and heat our homes, but we wouldn't be able
to use the Internet. And without the Internet, we'd have to get into our cars
and drive everywhere, among other inconveniences. Not a nice thought.

So, can we have bandwidth and world peace all at the same time? Yes. By

creating a sound, hierarchical network that follows the Cisco three-layer
model, you too can be a Nobel laureate at home and on the job.

This chapter will help you understand the different contention media

available. Contention networks are first come, first served, or what we call
Ethernet. This course covers only contention media because it runs at least
50 percent of the networks in the world, if not much more.

Cable Media

o know when and how to use the different kinds of cable media, you

need to understand what users do on the corporate network. The way to find
this information is to ask questions. After that, you can use monitoring
equipment to really see what is going on inside the network cabling. Before

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