Computer networking is the linking of network devices and computers with each another to provide the data communications and sharing the network resources like printer, scanner, modem, CD/DVD and internet access. A computer network may be interconnected with the UTP/STP cables, coaxial cables, fiber optics and wirelessly through the radio waves. Today, no business can be worked effectively without the data communications within the organization. A network may be designed by different layouts known as topologies.
The common most topologies include star, hub, mesh, hybrid and ring. Star topology is one of the most common topology in Ethernet based local area network. There are some specialized rules and standards and based on for these standards, the devices communicate with each another.
For these specialized standards and agree up ways is known as protocols. TCP/IP is the protocol suite that contains of the multiple communication protocols like as TCP, IP, SMTP, FTP, DHCP, LDAP, PPP, Telnet and many others. TCP/IP works together and it is the most common communication protocol for the LAN, WAN and internet. The communications on of the internet is based on the IP addresses, which is a part of the TCP/IP stack. No computer on the internet and in the LAN/MAN/WAN can communicate without a unique IP address.
Networking and data communications provides by the flexibility, easy of work and communications with each another and today every kind of business in the world, which involves with more than one computer, required any computer network. A network could be setup by using the following things.
- Computer with any Windows/Linux operating system installed.
- Every computer requires for a unique LAN card, which must be properly installed and configured.
- Ethernet cable with the RJ-45 to connectors at both ends.
- A Router, Switch or hub.
The other devices are bridges, transceivers, terminal servers and gateways and they could be setup according to our requirements.
There are three types of the computer network i.e. LAN, MAN, WAN, CAN, GAN and PAN and each network either be a peer to peer or client server network. In a client/server network model, a centralized domain controller is used to control the entire computer network. It provides the services for the clients like logon authentication, printer access, centralized data storage, scanner access, user management, resources management, DHCP, DNS, FTP and internet access.
To communicate with another computer, each computer should support the same protocol and the TCP/IP is the most commonly used protocol in a computer network. Internetwork is a type of computer network which connects the two or more different networks. There are 3 main types of the internetwork i.e. intranet, extranet and internet.
