Computer Networks
A computer network consists of two or more computing devices that are connected in order to
share the components of your network (its resources) and the information you store there, as
shown in Figure 1.1. The most basic computer network (which consists of just two connected
computers) can expand and become more usable when additional computers join and add their
resources to those being shared.
A Computer network is a collection of computers and devices connected together via
communication devices and transmission media.
Sharing of devices such as printer and scanner
Sharing of program/software
Sharing of files
Sharing of data
Sharing of information
Sharing of single high speed internet connection
A Metropolitan Area Network is a high speed network that connects local area networks in a
metropolitan area such as city or town and handles bulk of communication activity across the
region.
A MAN typically includes one or more LAN but covers a smaller geographic are than a
WAN
A wide area network is a network that covers a large geographical area such as country or the
world.
WAN combines many types of media such as telephone lines, cables and radio wave. A WAN
can be one large network or can consist of two or more LAN’s connected together
The internet is the worlds largest WAN
Network architecture is the overall design of a computer network that describes how a computer
is configured and what strategies are being used. It is also known as network model or network
design.
Bridges
A bridge is a computer networking device that builds the connection with the other bridge
networks which use the same protocol. It works at the Data Link layer of the OSI Model and
connects the different networks together and develops communication between them. It connects
two local-area networks; two physical LANs into larger logical LAN or two segments of the
same LAN that use the same protocol.
Apart from building up larger networks, bridges are also used to segment larger networks into
smaller portions. The bridge does so by placing itself between the two portions of two physical
networks and controlling the flow of the data between them. Bridges nominate to forward the
data after inspecting into the MAC address of the devices connected to every segment. The
forwarding of the data is dependent on the acknowledgement of the fact that the destination
address resides on some other interface. It has the capacity to block the incoming flow of data as
well. Today Learning bridges have been introduced that build a list of the MAC addresses on
the interface by observing the traffic on the network. This is a leap in the development field of
manually recording of MAC addresses.
Routers
Routers are network layer devices and are particularly identified as Layer- 3 devices of the OSI
Model. They process logical addressing information in the Network header of a packet such as
IP Addresses. Router is used to create larger complex networks by complex traffic routing. It has
the ability to connect dissimilar LANs on the same protocol. It also has the ability to limit the
flow of broadcasts. A router primarily comprises of a hardware device or a system of the
computer which has more than one network interface and routing software.
Functionality:
When a router receives the data, it determines the destination address by reading the header of
the packet. Once the address is determined, it searches in its routing table to get know how to
reach the destination and then forwards the packet to the higher hop on the route. The hop could
be the final destination or another router.
Routing tables play a very pivotal role in letting the router makes a decision. Thus a routing
table is ought to be updated and complete. The two ways through which a router can receive
information are:
Static Routing: In static routing, the routing information is fed into the routing tables manually.
It does not only become a time-taking task but gets prone to errors as well. The manual
updating is also required in case of statically configured routers when change in the topology of
the network or in the layout takes place. Thus static routing is feasible for tinniest environments
with minimum of one or two routers.
Dynamic Routing: For larger environment dynamic routing proves to be the practical solution.
The process involves use of peculiar routing protocols to hold communication. The purpose of
these protocols is to enable the other routers to transfer information about to other routers, so
that the other routers can build their own routing tables.
Gateways
Gateway is a device which is used to connect multiple networks and passes packets from one
packet to the other network. Acting as the ‘gateway’ between different networking systems or
computer programs, a gateway is a device which forms a link between them. It allows the
computer programs, either on the same computer or on different computers to share information
across the network through protocols. A router is also a gateway, since it interprets data from one
network protocol to another.
Others such as bridge converts the data into different forms between two networking systems.
Then a software application converts the data from one format into another. Gateway is a viable
tool to translate the data format, although the data itself remains unchanged. Gateway might be
installed in some other device to add its functionality into another.
Network card
Network cards also known as Network Interface Cards (NICs) are hardware devices that connect
a computer with the network. They are installed on the mother board. They are responsible for
developing a physical connection between the network and the computer. Computer data is
translated into electrical signals send to the network via Network Interface Cards.
They can also manage some important data-conversion function. These days network cards are
software configured unlike in olden days when drivers were needed to configure them. Even if
the NIC doesn’t come up with the software then the latest drivers or the associated software can
be downloaded from the internet as well.
Switches
On the surface, a switch looks much like a hub. Despite their similar appearance, switches
are far more efficient than hubs and are far more desirable for today’s network environments.
Figure 3.4 shows an example of a 32-port Ethernet switch. If you refer to Figure 3.2, you’ll
notice few differences in the appearance of the high-density hub and this switch.
As with a hub, computers connect to a switch via a length of twisted-pair cable. Multiple
switches are often interconnected to create larger networks. Despite their similarity in
appear-ance and their identical physical connections to computers, switches offer significant
opera-tional advantages over hubs.
As discussed earlier in the chapter, a hub forwards data to all ports, regardless of whether the
data is intended for the system connected to the port. This arrangement is inefficient; how-
ever, it requires little intelligence on the part of the hub, which is why hubs are inexpensive.
Rather than forwarding data to all the connected ports, a switch forwards data only to the
port
on which the destination system is connected. It looks at the Media Access Control (MAC)
addresses of the devices connected to it to determine the correct port. A
MAC address
is a
unique number that is stamped into every NIC. By forwarding data only to the system to
which the data is addressed, the switch decreases the amount of traffic on each network link
dramatically. In effect, the switch literally channels (or
switches
, if you prefer) data between the
ports. Figure 3.5 illustrates how a switch works.
Network bus topology
The first type of network topology is called a bus, in which nodes are strung together in a line.
The key to understanding how a bus topology works is to think of the entire network as a single
cable, with each node “tapping” into the cable so it can listen in on the packets being sent over
that cable.
In a bus topology, each node looks at each packet to determine whether the packet is intended for
it. If so, the node claims the packet. If not, the node ignores the packet.
If the cable in a bus network breaks, the entire network is effectively disabled. Obviously the
nodes on opposite sides of the break can’t continue to communicate with each other because data
can’t span the gap created by the break. But even those nodes that are on the same side of the
break will be unable to communicate with each other, because the open end of the cable left by
the break disrupts the proper transmission of electrical signals.
Star Topology
In a star topology, each network node is connected to a central device called a hub or a switch.
Star topologies are commonly used with LANs.
If a cable in a star network breaks, only the node connected to that cable is isolated from the
network. The other nodes can continue to operate without interruption — unless, of course, the
node that’s isolated because of the break happens to be the file server.
You should be aware of the somewhat technical distinction between a hub and a switch. Simply
put, a hub doesn’t know anything about the computers that are connected to each of its ports. So
when a computer connected to the hub sends a packet to a computer that’s connected to another
port, the hub sends a duplicate copy of the packet to all its ports.
In contrast, a switch knows which computer is connected to each of its ports. As a result, when a
switch receives a packet intended for a particular computer, it sends the packet only to the port
that the recipient is connected to.
Strictly speaking, only networks that use switches have a true star topology. If the network uses a
hub, the network topology has the physical appearance of a star, but is actually a bus. That’s
because when a hub is used, each computer on the network sees all the packets sent over the
network, just like in a bus topology.
In a true star topology, as when a switch is used, each computer sees only those packets that were
sent specifically to it, as well as packets that were specifically sent to all computers on the
network (those types of packets are called broadcast packets).
A network firewall protects a computer network from unauthorized access. It might be a
hardware device, software program, or a combination of the two.
Network firewalls guard an internal computer network against malicious access from the outside,
such as malware-infested websites or vulnerable open network ports. You can find them
anywhere a network is used, like at home, school, business, or even an intranet.
A network firewall may also be configured to limit access to the outside from internal users, as in
the case of parental controls or workplace locks, both of which commonly prevent access to
gambling and adult websites, among many other content types.
A firewall is a network security device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and
decides whether to allow or block specific traffic based on a defined set of security rules.
Firewalls have been a first line of defense in network security for over 25 years. They establish a
barrier between secured and controlled internal networks that can be trusted and untrusted
outside networks, such as the Internet.
A firewall can be hardware, software, or both.
The internet is a network of computers, which links many different types of computers all over
the world. ARPANET () was the first WAN and had only four sites in 1969.
1)Electronic Mail(E-Mail):- This facility allows the user to send a mail(message) to another
internet user in any part of the world in a real time manner.
2) File Transfer Protocol(FTP):- Allow user to move a file from one computer to another on the internet
3)Telnet:- Allow a user to log into a another computer somewhere on the internet.
4) WWW Stands for "World Wide Web." It is important to know that this is not a synonym for the
Internet. The World Wide Web, or just "the Web," as ordinary people call it, is a subset of the Internet.
The Web consists of pages that can be accessed using a Web browser. The Internet is the actual network
of networks where all the information resides. Things like Telnet, FTP, Internet gaming, Internet Relay
Chat (IRC), and e-mail are all part of the Internet, but are not part of the World Wide Web. The Hyper-
Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the method used to transfer Web pages to your computer. With
hypertext, a word or phrase can contain a link to another Web site. All Web pages are written in the
hyper-text markup language (HTML), which works in conjunction with HTTP.
On line communication
Software sharing
Exchange of views on topics of common interest
Posting of information of general interest
Organization promotion
Product promotion and feedback about products
Customer support service
On line journals, magazines, Encyclopedia and dictionary
On-line shopping