Introduction to Computer Networking
Computer Networking can be defined as an engineering discipline which involves the interaction between computer devices and computer systems. Computer networking can also be considered as a discipline of computer science, computer engineering, telecommunications and information technology.
Computer networking deals with practical and theoretical applications of kinds of scientific and engineering disciplines. Therefore, it can be said that computer networking is a broad science that brings together the application and practical handling of various computer operated systems.
Primarily there are three kinds of computer networks namely Internet, Intranet and Extranet. These computer networks provide different kinds of communications between different computers and enable them to share different kinds of data with each other.
The different kinds of methods that connect different computers are:
- Local Area Network (LAN) which is a network that is constrained to a small geographic area for example a computer network within a building.
- Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) which is used for medium sized area for example to be used within a city or a state
- Wide Area Network (WAN) is usually a larger network that covers a large geographic area.
- Wireless LANs and WANs (WLAN and WVAN). These are wireless equivalents of LAN and WAN but in the wireless form
All networks are connected to each other via different kinds of media. These media allow communication to be done in different ways. These media include twisted-pair copper wire cable, coaxial cable, optical fibre, power lines and various wireless technologies. The devices related to these computer networks can be installed easily and can be operated within a few meters or with unlimited distances depending on the range within which these systems need to be installed.
Computer networks have proved to be very useful for various insurance companies, railways, hospitals, banks and other organisations that need real time processing and need to make a huge number of transactions so that they can interact and communicate with each other with help of these various networks.
Computer networks need to be installed with precision and accuracy. It is with the help of computer networks that one is also able to share devices such as printers and CD-ROM. For example, one user on the floor can be connected to another computer by means of the network. The CD-ROM or the printer needs to be configured on both computers by the operating system. This system of computer networking has reduced cost on the printer or CD-ROM.
Mainly, the network is responsible for sending data to each other. In this case, the computers have equal processing power and the information is also distributed across all computers equally. If however, there is a case where there is at least one computer in the network that has more data and processing power, then this computer is called the server. And the relationship between this server and the other less powerful computers is known as the client-server relationship. The internet is also built over the same mechanism.
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