Instructor: In this lesson,
we're going to cover Port Replicators and Docking Stations.
Now when it comes to port replicators and docking stations,
most of the time we're going to be referring to a laptop,
but some tablets and smartphones
are starting to use docking stations as well,
and we'll talk a little bit more about that
as we go through this lesson.
First, let's take a look at a port replicator.
Now if you look at the back of a standard laptop,
you have several different ports on there.
In the older laptops, you might have things
like a VGA port, a HDMI port, a DVI port,
and things like that for a graphical output,
but you may also have an RJ45 network jack on there,
or things like USB ports, USB-C ports,
1/8 inch or 3.5 millimeter audio jacks,
a power connector, and other things like that.
Now a port replicator will attach to your laptop
and allow you to replicate all of those different ports.
Now notice when we talk about a port replicator,
we are going to be using the exact same features
that we already have in our laptop.
We're just getting easier access to them
by putting them all in one place
where we can easily connect and disconnect things.
For example, I used to work with a real estate agent,
and one of her big complaints
was every time she got to the office
she had to plug a bunch of cables
into the back of her laptop,
like her monitor, her mouse, her keyboard,
her network connection, and things like that.
Well, with a port replicator, I can instantly solve
that problem for them because all of those cables
can be connected to the port replicator,
and the port replicator can then connect to the laptop
using a single connector or a USB connection
depending on the port replicator you're using.
So when you're dealing with a port replicator,
remember the whole idea here is to make your life easier
by providing you easier access to all of the ports.
In the case of that realtor, what we ended up doing
was we bought two port replicators,
and that way her office and her home office
both had a port replicator, they both had a monitor,
they both had a mouse, they both had a keyboard,
they both had their network connections,
and all of that was plugged into
each of those port replicators,
and that way they could easily grab their laptop
and go from the home office to their regular office
whenever they needed to and have all their capability
and all their connections already connected.
Now the second thing we're going to talk about
is what's called a docking station.
Now a docking station is essentially an advanced type
of port replicator because it's going to provide you
with all the capabilities your laptop already had,
but it can also give you new features as well.
For example, I've seen some docking stations
that have hard drives inside of them,
and that gives you external storage that you'll connect to
when you connect to that docking station.
In addition to that, it can also give you additional ports
and capabilities that don't already exist on your laptop.
For example, I use a docking station
when I bring my laptop to the office.
Now my laptop only has four different ports on it,
and all four of them are USB-C.
That means I don't natively already have an RJ45 connection
on my laptop to plug in a wired network cable to,
or I don't have an HDMI port
to be able to connect my external monitor,
but with my docking station,
I have all of those things and more.
So, when I get to the office, I can plug in a single cable
from that docking station over USB-C to my laptop,
and now I have access to a plethora of ports
that I can use for all sorts of different use cases.
So when you think about a port replicator
and a docking station, I want you to remember
this key distinction.
A port replicator is just going to give you a mirror image
of all the ports you already have on your laptop.
For most of us these days, that isn't really useful
because most laptops have been designed
to be as small as possible,
and they only have a few USB ports, and that's about it.
With a docking station, though, you're going to have access
to all the things your laptop already has plus more,
like additional storage, additional networking capability,
maybe an optical disc drive, like a CD, DVD,
or Blu-ray Disc, and things like that.
When you have a docking station,
you're getting more capability, not the same capabilities.
Now the last thing we need to talk about in this lesson
is smartphones and tablets.
And these days, we are seeing some smartphones and tablets
have their own docks made for them as well.
And this will allow you to turn your smartphone
or tablet, essentially, a desktop computer.
For example, one of the people on my team
has a smartphone that allows him to do this.
When he comes to the office,
he doesn't actually bring a laptop,
he brings his smartphone.
He plugs it into his dock, and that allows him to connect
to a mouse, a keyboard, and a large screen display,
and now his Android phone is now serving
as an Android computer for him,
and he can do all of his work
sitting there using just his phone.
This is a really convenient thing
if you have a phone that supports it,
but not all phones do.
Generally, this only exists
in a handful of manufacturers right now
and usually only the higher-end devices.
In his case, he's using a Samsung smartphone
that's using the Android operating system
to provide this capability.
Now the last thing I want to mention is that this distinction
between port replicators and docking stations
is fading over time, but for the exam,
I want you to remember there is a distinction.
A port replicator mirrors the port you have.
A docking station gives you additional ports.
Keep this in mind for the test,
so you don't miss any points.
But in the real world, you will often see people
use the term port replicator, docking station,
and dock all interchangeably to mean the same thing.
But for the exam, remember you need to be able
to differentiate between these two things
and when you might choose
to use each one in a given scenario.