Create a Computer Network Diagram

Quick reference

• 00:03 Another great use of Visio is creating a computer network.
• 00:07 So let's go into Visio again.
• 00:10 And we're going to use a different template this time, so
• 00:12 I'll pick on More Templates.
• 00:14 And then if I scroll down, you can see there's many, many uses of Visio.
• 00:19 You can use any of these templates.
• 00:22 But here's one that's called the Basic Network Diagram.
• 00:25 So I'm going to click on that.
• 00:27 Now, you can use this one and it'll kind of fill that one in for you.
• 00:31 Or you could use this one and it would fill it in,
• 00:34 and it would look exactly like that.
• 00:36 So it gives you a great head start.
• 00:38 But let's go ahead and use the blank one again.
• 00:40 And I'll pick on Create.
• 00:42 Now, because we use that template, then we have computers and monitors as a stencil.
• 00:50 We have network and peripherals as a stencil, okay?
• 00:54 So then, we could just start adding the shapes in.
• 00:56 So, I'm looking at the computers and monitors, and
• 01:00 I'm looking at the network and peripherals.
• 01:03 So let's start with the server.
• 01:06 So I'll pick up the server and drag it in.
• 01:09 So maybe there's going to be a router that goes with the server.
• 01:14 So the router and the server will be together, okay?
• 01:19 Now, I'd like to connect those.
• 01:21 So of course, we'll use our connector tool.
• 01:23 I'll pick on Connector and just drag it from one to the router.
• 01:27 Good.
• 01:28 Whenever you're done with the connector tool,
• 01:30 you go back to the pointer tool, of course.
• 01:32 Now, along with the server, I want some computers to be connected on to that.
• 01:38 Now, I just used the word connect, so I'm going to go ahead and
• 01:41 pick on the connector tool and just kind of turn that on, so
• 01:44 things will be automatically connected.
• 01:47 So let's go back to Computers and Monitors now.
• 01:49 Then, we're going to start adding the PCs into the network.
• 01:54 So I'll pick up PC, just drag it here.
• 01:57 Now, I want that to be connected to the server, right?
• 02:02 So I'll just pick up that, the connected one, just drag it to the server over here.
• 02:07 Good.
• 02:09 So one thing I can do is maybe copy that a few times.
• 02:13 So in a previous lesson we talked about copying the shapes.
• 02:17 So I'm going to go ahead and pick on the Pointer Tool.
• 02:20 I'm going to move my mouse to the computer shape.
• 02:24 Before I drag it, I'm going to hold down my Ctrl key.
• 02:27 So I'll hold down Ctrl and drag it.
• 02:29 And there is how I just made a copy of that computer shape.
• 02:32 So I'm just going to move my mouse to the computer and hold down my Ctrl key and
• 02:37 drag it.
• 02:38 Good. I'm going to keep on doing that.
• 02:43 And then I can always connect those in just a second.
• 02:48 So I'm just holding down the Ctrl key and
• 02:50 just added some computers to the network here, right?
• 02:53 Now, of course, if I want those to be lined up, I can use those guidelines.
• 02:57 And then these should all be lined up.
• 02:59 Now, watch how we're going to connect all those to the actual server.
• 03:02 So I'm actually going to click on this line,
• 03:04 because I'm not sure if that's correct or not.
• 03:06 I'm going to delete that line.
• 03:08 So in this case, I'll pick on the connector tool and
• 03:11 just start connecting the computers to the server, right?
• 03:15 Pick on this one and drag the connector tool to the server.
• 03:19 This one, good.
• 03:21 This one.
• 03:22 And then this one, this one, and this one.
• 03:28 So we started off with the network template as we made the new diagram.
• 03:35 And then that brought us to Computers and Monitors stencil.
• 03:38 And also, brought us the Network and Peripherals stencil.
• 03:42 And then you can see I'm going to go back to the pointer tool.
• 03:45 But look at all the great icons that you have, even users,
• 03:50 digital cameras, telephone, the hub, right?
• 03:54 The screens.
• 03:55 There's a projector even.
• 03:57 You have some great shapes within these stencils.
• 04:01 And then you would see how we would drag them into the diagram to make our computer
• 04:05 network.

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