Networking 101: Understanding the Data Link Layer

"Ethernet switches, as they're called now, began life as a "bridge." Traditional bridges would read all Ethernet frames, and then forward them out every port, except the ones they came in on. They had the ability to allow redundancy via STP, and they also began learning which MAC addresses were on which port. At this point, a bridge then became a learning device, which means they would store a table of all MAC addresses seen on a port. When a frame needed to be sent, the bridge could look up the destination MAC address in the bridge table, and know which port is should be sent out."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Linux to Windows and Back Again With Samba(Aug 15, 2008)
• 10 quick tips to make Linux networking easier(Aug 15, 2008)
• Networking 101: Understanding Layers(Aug 13, 2008)
• Networking 101: Subnets Realized (Including IPv6)(Aug 07, 2008)
• Networking 101: Understanding Subnets and CIDR(Jul 31, 2008)
• Networking 101: Understanding IP Addresses(Jul 25, 2008)