In this blog will give you a basic idea about networks and tell you why networks are so important in the computer world. This article included basic ideas about what is a network, types of networks, client-server networks, peer-to-peer networks, network services and networking devices.
Table of Contents
What Is Network
When two or more devices connect to share resources, and information, exchanging files through a wired or wireless medium is known as NETWORK. The network is a collection of computers, networking devices, servers, etc for data transfer. And the connected devices in a network are within the restricted area. The most common word for the internet is a network of networks.
Types of Networks are –
- PAN(Personal Area Network)
- LAN(Local Area Network)
- MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)
- WAN(Wide Area Network)
Personal Area Network(PAN)
Personal Area Network as the name says personal which means private to a person. PAN is a network that includes the interconnection of devices like computers, tablets, mobile phones, etc that are in the workspace of an individual. The range of the personal area network is within 10 meters (30 feet ).
Types of Personal Area Network
Wireless PAN – Connection is established through signals such as Bluetooth, and ZigBee in Wireless PAN.
Wired PAN – Connection is established with cables or wires such as USB(Universal Serial Bus)
Local Area Network(LAN)
Local Area Network is a network within a small area like a building, complex, laboratory etc. LAN is providing connection over a school building, its range is less than a kilometre. Like in an office, many computers are connected with printers and scanners. This is the simplest example of the LAN network. The data rate of LAN is 4 to 16 Mbps. Normally the speed of LAN is 100 or 1000 Mbps.
Advantages of LAN –
Local area networks can be shared by computer resources like printer DVD- ROM hard- disks etc. This can reduce the cost of hardware purchases significantly. The same software can be used over the network instead of purchasing a new licensed software for each Client. Data and messages can be easily transferred over networked computers.
- A single hard disk of the server computer can easily store the data of all network users.
- A single internet connection can be shared among all LAN users with the help of a Local area network.
Metropolitan area network (MAN) –
A metropolitan area network is a network that is spread over a small area like any college campus or city. This network is larger than the LAN network because the Local area network is mostly spread over a single building and smaller than WAN because wide area networks connect different organisations with each other which is located over a long distance. It gives high-speed connectivity. Its range is in terms of Mbps.
Wide area network (WAN)
A wide area network is a computer network that is spread over a large geographical area. It is a type of connection that may connect one LAN network to another LAN with the help of a telephone line or radio wave. It may be bounded over a limited organization or country.
It is a highly expensive and high-speed technology. Its design and maintenance is very difficult. Two types of WAN are
- Switched WAN
- Point-to-point WAN
Because of long-distance transmission, there can be more noise and error occurring in WAN.
Advantages of WAN –
It helps us to connect over large geographical areas like state or country. So different organisations located over a long distance area can communicate easily.
Disadvantages of WAN-
The cost of Initial setup investment and maintenance is very high. Due to wide area coverage, there are more errors and network issues occurred. Compared to other networks it offers lower security. It is time-consuming to resolve these issues because of more wired and wireless technologies.
Network administrators and skilled technicians are needed here.
Client-server networks
It is defined as the relationship between cooperating programs in an application, made up of clients initiating requests for services and servers assigned that function or service.
Network segments, servers, and computers like resources can be added to a client-server network without any consequential obtrusion.
A client-server system has independent nodes.
Peer-to-peer network
Peer to peer network system is defined as a simple network of computers. It was found in the late 1970s. There is no central server in the network because every node acts as a server. Peer-to-peer network allows the sharing of a huge amount of data.
It is described basically into three levels.
First, level– A peer-to-peer network is basic and needs a USB to create a network between two systems.
Second is– In between the first and third level which included the involvement of copper wires to connect more than two systems.
And third one is– that It is an advanced level that involves the software to establish the protocols in order to manage numerous devices across the internet.
Network services
It is an application that provides data storage that runs at the network application layer and above. Network services provide manipulation, presentation, communication or another capability that is often implanted using a client-server or peer-to-peer architecture based on application layer network protocol.
When multiple computers are connected with each other or a hub computer then it provides a networked computer environment.
Many shared files and utilities from a central location or hub location can be accessed by the computers in network services.
Maintenance of servers is also a type of network service.
Types of network services are –
- User management
- Printing
- System Administration
DNS is an example of a network service that translates domain names to Internet protocol (IP) addresses and Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) to assign networking configuration information to the network host.
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Networking devices
Networking devices are the devices that are used to connect computers, printers, fax machines and other electronic devices to the networking system. This is a networking hardware that is used for communication and interaction between hardware on a computer network. This is a medium of transferring data in a safe, secure and fastest manner over different networks. It can be an inter-networking or intra-networking type. Examples of network devices are hub, switch, router, bridge, gateway, modem, repeater, access point etc.
In this article, I have included the very basic ideas about networks and can be very helpful for you. Hope you like my article and if you like it then please share it, thank you.
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