REVISION MATERIAL
Unit 3: Introduction to Computer Networks
● Introduction to networks,
● Types of network: PAN, LAN, MAN, WAN.
● Network Devices: Modem, Hub, Switch, Repeater, Router, Gateway
● Network Topologies: Star, Bus, Tree, Mesh.
● Introduction to Internet, URL, W W W, and its applications
● Web, email, Chat, VoIP.
● Website: Introduction, difference between a website and webpage, static vs dynamic web page,
web server and hosting of a website.
● Web Browsers: Introduction, commonly used browsers, browser settings, add-ons and plug-ins,
cookies
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Types of network: PAN, LAN, MAN, WAN
PAN (Personal Area Network)
● Scope: Very small, typically within a range of about 10 meters.
● Purpose: Connects devices that are personal to the user, such as smartphones, laptops,
and wearable devices.
● Examples: Bluetooth connections between a phone and a headset, a laptop connected to a
printer via USB, or wireless connections between a smartphone and smartwatch.
● Typical Use Case: Used by an individual for personal use, mainly to enable data sharing
and device syncing.
LAN (Local Area Network)
● Scope: Covers a small geographic area, such as a single building or campus, typically
within a few hundred meters.
● Purpose: Connects devices within a specific area, often in a business or academic setting,
to share resources (e.g., printers, files) and enable communication.
● Examples: An office network connecting computers, printers, and servers within the
same building.
● Typical Use Case: Provides fast, reliable connectivity within a limited area and is
commonly used in homes, schools, and small businesses.
MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
● Scope: Covers a city or large campus, typically extending up to around 50 km.
● Purpose: Connects multiple LANs within a city or metropolitan area, enabling sharing of
resources across locations.
● Examples: A network connecting several branches of a university across a city or
connecting multiple municipal buildings.
● Typical Use Case: Often used by organizations and government agencies to connect
multiple sites in a metropolitan area, allowing central management and high-speed data
access.
WAN (Wide Area Network)
● Scope: Covers a very large geographic area, such as a country, continent, or even
globally.
● Purpose: Connects multiple LANs and MANs over long distances, typically using leased
telecommunication lines or satellite connections.
● Examples: The internet itself is a global WAN, as well as the network that connects
branch offices of multinational companies.
● Typical Use Case: Used to enable communication and resource sharing across long
distances, supporting global businesses, communication networks, and internet
infrastructure.
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Network Devices: Modem, Hub, Switch, Repeater, Router, Gateway
(Reference Video Link :
[Link]
rive_link)
Hub:
● Hubs are multiport unintelligent devices commonly used to connect nodes of a LAN.
● The hub contains multiple ports. A computer which intends to be connected to the
network is plugged into one of these ports.
● When the data packet reaches one port, it is copied to all the other ports of the hub and
broadcast to all the devices connected to it.
● It cannot filter data and causes traffic jams in the network.
● It is inexpensive.
Switch:
● It is a networking device used to interconnect computers or devices on a network.
● It keeps a record of MAC addresses of the devices connected to it which allows it to filter
and forward the data packet only to the intended node in the network.
● A switch does not forward signals which are noisy or corrupted. It drops such signals and
asks the sender to resend them.
Repeater:
● Repeater is a network device that receives a signal and retransmits it.
● Repeater amplifies and restores the signal for long distance transmission.
● Repeaters are required if the distance is more than 100 metres.
Modem: (Modulator Demodulator)
● Modems are used to transmit digital signals over analog telephone lines.
● At the sender side, the digital signals are converted into analog signals (ie Modulation)
and at the receiver side, the analog signals are converted into digital signals (ie
Demodulation).
Bridge:
● Bridges are used to connect two or more network segments together
● It filters the network traffic on the basis of MAC addresses.
Gateway:
● It is a device that is used to connect two or more dissimilar networks.
● Gateway is a device that provides necessary translation of data received from one
network into a format or protocol recognized by devices within the internal network.
Router:
● It is a network device that forwards or routes the data packet from source to destination
over a network using the shortest path.
● It can analyze the data being carried over a network, decide or alter how it is packaged
and sent to different computer networks.
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Network Topologies: Star, Bus, Tree, Mesh
(Reference Video Link :
[Link]
ve_link)
Network topology is the way a network is arranged, including the physical or logical description
of how links and nodes are set up to relate to each other. There are numerous ways a network can
be arranged, all with different pros and cons, and some are more useful in certain circumstances
than others.
1. Bus Topology
● A bus topology is a network setup where each computer and network device is connected
to a single cable or backbone.
● The data flows from one end of the cable to another.
● The cable has terminators at both the ends which absorb signals when the signal reaches
the end, preventing signal bounce
Advantages:
● Nodes can be connected or removed easily
● Requires less cable length
● Works well for small network
Disadvantages:
● Fault in the main cable will shut down the entire network.
● Signals become weaker if the number of nodes are more
● Terminators are required at both the ends of the backbone cable
2. Star topology
● Each communicating device is connected to a central controller called hub or switch.
● The data passes to and from the hub.
● If the data is required to be sent from one computer to another, then this can be
accomplished only by the central controller.
● LAN technology, Ethernet operates in star topology
Advantages:
● Installation and maintenance of network is easy
● Requires less cable length compared to mesh topology
● Rate of data transfer is fast
● Any problem in one node will not affect the other nodes
Disadvantages:
● Extra hardware is required for installation of the central controller.
● Any problem in the central controller makes the entire network shutdown
● If server is slow the entire network slow down
3. Mesh Topology
● Each node is connected to every other nodes in the network
● Point to point link between each dedicated node.
● No of links = n*(n-1)/2, where n is the number of nodes in the network
● Internet is an example for mesh topology
Advantages:
● Each node carries its own data through the dedicated links which eliminates the
traffic problems.
● It is robust. If one link becomes unusable, it does not affect the entire system.
● Expansion and modification is easy
● Point to point links makes fault detection more easier
● Data privacy and security
Disadvantages:
● Expensive
● Set up and maintenance is very difficult.
4. Tree Topology
● Tree topology is a structure where devices are connected hierarchically.
● Combines characteristics of both star and bus topologies
● Nodes (devices) are arranged in a tree-like structure where one central "root" node
connects to multiple secondary nodes, which can, in turn, connect to further nodes,
creating a branching structure.
Advantages:
● Fault identification is easy
● Network can be expanded by addition of secondary nodes.
Disadvantages:
● Multiple segments are connected to a central bus and hence the network depends
heavily on the bus.
● Maintenance is not easy
● The number of nodes that can be added, depends on the cable type.
5. Ring Topology
● Each node is connected to 2 other nodes.
● Signal is transmitted only in one direction along the entire network.
● Each device is incorporated with a repeater to regenerate or strengthen the signal as it
passes through all the nodes.
Advantages:
● Data is transmitted only in one direction so the transmission rate increases
● Adding or removing nodes are easy
● Easy to identify faults in the network
● Cheaper compared to star topology
Disadvantages:
● Fault in a single node can affect the entire network
● The changes made to the network affects the entire network’s performance
● Fault or break in a cable can cause failure of the entire network
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Introduction to Internet, URL, W W W, and its applications
(Reference Video:
[Link]
e_link)
● The Internet is described as a network of networks.
● All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using TCP/IP protocol
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
● How the Internet Works????
○ Devices get linked to the Internet through phone line/Mobile ISP ( Internet
Service Provider) and become part of a LAN.
○ LAN is connected to ISP using telephone line
○ ISPs then connect to larger ISPs which maintain fiber optic backbone for the
entire region.
○ Backbones around the world are connected through fiber optic cable, undersea
cable or satellite links. In this way every computer on the Internet is connected to
each other for communication and sharing of resources.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
● It is a unique identifier to locate a resource on the Internet.
● It is also known as a web address.
● Example:
[Link]
➔ https is the protocol (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) for web resources
➔ [Link] is the IP address or the domain name where the source is
located
➔ [Link] is the name of the specified html document
WWW (World Wide Web)
● It is a collection of webpages found on the Internet.
● Created by Tim Berners Lee in 1989
● It can be used for sending and receiving information over the Internet through interlinked
hypertext documents.
● WWW is based on a client server architecture where a client sends a request to the server,
server processes the request and sends the response back to the client.
● Client is the web browser and server is the web server.
Applications of www
➔ Email
➔ Chat
➔ VoIP
Email:
● Email stands for Electronic Mail
● It is a fast and efficient way to communicate with multiple users at the same time.
● It is the cheapest and fastest method to send files, images and other information across
the network.
● Features are:
○ automatic/default reply to messages
○ Auto-forward of messages
○ Send copies of messages to many people
○ Addresses can be stored and retrieved instantly
● Parts of Email:
○ Headers - Information about sender and recipients. Header contain:
■ Subject
■ Sender email address
■ Date and Time received
■ Recipient name
■ Recipient email address
○ Cc and Bcc - cc stands for carbon copy and it allows the recipients to see the
email address of everyone the message was sent to. Bcc stands for blind carbon
copy in which the email address of the recipients will not appear in the received
message.
○ Attachment - Files, documents, images or any other file type
○ Email address - Unique identifier for an email account. It has two main parts:
■ Username
■ Domain name
○ Example: [Link]
Here xyz is the username and [Link] is the domain name.
● Protocols used in email are :
○ SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - For sending and receiving email across
the Internet
○ IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) - For accessing emails on a remote
web server from a local client
○ POP3 ( Post Office Protocol 3) - To receive emails from remote server to local
mail client
Chat:
● Chat enables people to connect from anywhere in the world for live discussions.
● It is possible to send images, documents, audio and video through instant messengers,
talk to each other through an audio or video call and chat through text
● Applications such as whatsapp, skype, yahoo messenger, facebook messenger etc are
examples for instant messengers.
● Protocols used are - IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and XMPP (Extensible Messaging and
Presence Protocol)
VoIP:
● Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows us to make voice calls
using a broadband internet connection instead of a regular phone line.
● VoIP converts the voice to digital signals that can travel over the internet.
● Advantages are less cost, flexible, accessible, better voice quality etc.
● Disadvantages are lack of redundancy, internet connection is always required
● Examples: Skype, Botim, Whatsapp etc.
Website:
● It is a collection of various web pages which are related to each other through hyperlinks
● First page of a website is known as home page
● Webpages of a website are written using HTML and information is transferred through
HTTP/HTTPS protocols
Web Page:
● It is an electronic document/page designed using html.
● Hyperlinks are used to move from one webpage to another
● First page of a website is known as home page
● Each web page has a unique address that is visible on the address bar.
● There are two types of web pages - Static webpage and dynamic webpage
○ Static web page displays the same kind of information whenever a user visits.
(.html,.htm extensions)
○ Dynamic web page in an interactive web page which uses scripting languages to
display changing content on the webpage. (.php,.asp, .jsp extensions)
Web Server:
● It is a server that stores web pages
● When a client sends any request to the server, it responds to the request and displays the
requested web pages.
● Examples: Apache, Netscape etc
Web Hosting:
● Web hosting is a service provided by the company to users to create web based
applications.
● To host a website:
○ Select the web hosting service provider that provides the web server space and
related technologies.
○ Choose a domain name
○ Set up hosting environment - Create login and note down IP address
○ Upload files
○ Get domain name mapped to IP address of the web server
DNS : Domain Name System - When the address of the website is entered in the address bar,
the DNS finds out the Ip address of the server corresponding to the required domain name.
Web Browser: (Reference PPT)
● It is a software that helps in accessing the web pages.
● Examples are: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge
etc.
[Link]
%[Link]
Add Ons
● Tools which are integrated into the browser.
Plug ins
● Piece of software that acts as an add on to a web browser and gives the browser
additional functionality.
Cookies:
● Small bits of data stored as text files on a browser.
● These are used by the websites to keep track of users and enable user-specific
applications.
● It contains information about your visit to a web page, or any information that you have
volunteered.
● Cookies are created when a new web page is loaded with code to create cookies.
● By default, cookies are destroyed when the current browser window is closed.