A few weeks ago, I attended the annual Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in New York City, and sat in on a session called “Network Fundamentals for Audio Engineers,” which was presented by Patrick Killianey of Yamaha Pro Audio. Killianey used the familiar home network as a basis for explaining the basics, explaining that, “You do not need to be an IT professional to run a network any more than you needed to become an electrical engineer to solder.”
The session covered everything from IP addresses and subnet masking to VLANs and trunks, discussing some things that make you go hmmmm, such as why are subnet masks usually “255.255.x.x.”
We everything hopping on to the network, I thought it would be useful to share this information with residential integrators, and Killianey has a series of videos on YouTube that cover the exact content of the AES presentation, with the exception of network topology (VLANs, trunks, and lag), which he says he will be adding soon.
The beginning of the first video takes a minute to explain why audio engineers need to understand network basics, but after that it is all information any one who works with a network can use.
Some thing may be a refresher for you, and others brand new information — I hope you find these videos useful.
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway
Part 3 – Reserved LAN Ranges and Reserved IP Addresses
Part 4 – The Router: NAT, Firewall, DMZ, Port Forwarding and VPN
