Chapter 5: Configuring Serial Connections and WAN Links
In This Chapter
Working with the telephone company’s connection options
Examining WAN technologies and connection options
Setting up a basic serial connection to support a WAN connection
In Book IV, Chapter 1, I state that the key reason for using WANs is that you are using a network infrastructure you do not own. This chapter focuses on setting up Wide Area Network (WAN) links for your network. Many people use serial links to implement their WAN and Internet connections, but a moving trend is to implement fiber, Ethernet, or other connections directly at their routers. After discussing the types of links you can implement for WAN connections, I show you how to configure the serial connection.
After reading this chapter, you will appreciate the available WAN connection technologies, as well as how to configure them. I examine the role of the telephone company, and the general types of interfaces you can obtain from the telephone company. In each region, you are likely to find that the local telephone company has tried to implement newer and faster connection types, which, if you are in luck, means that just by plugging in a ...
