This is the first post in a series of Computer Networking. Here, we will be talking about the basics of a computer network.
What is a computer network?
A connection of 2 or more computers can be can be termed as a computer network. A computer network is nothing but an aggregation of interconnected links between different types of devices.
The devices can be of any type - a smartphone, a desktop, workstation, routers, etc. A network may consist of servers and routers. Routers have the sole purpose of facilitating movements in a network. Server is where applications, files etc. are stored. Any computer can be a server, if it serves something to the rest of the network. A client station is any computer that requests information from a server. There is another model of networks which does not follow the client-server model as described here. This type of network is called as a peer-to-peer network, which is a network connecting hosts where each host has the capability to share files and other resources on the network. On a peer-to-peer network, any host can simultaneously act as a server as well as a client, by accessing resources and files from other hosts, and sharing its own files on the network for other hosts.
The primary goal of a network is to enable sharing of information and allowing communication across regions. Each computer connected to a network has access to shared resources on that network. These resources can be in the form of hardware, such as printers, or files and data. The use of networks for sharing resources has led to reduced cost of maintaining individual resources or copies for each computer.
A good network is one which is reliable, secure and efficient. Reliability of a network refers to its guarantee of zero failure of the network while it is in use. Security is very important in a network as resources are being shared and files are being transferred which could contain confidential or private information. Efficiency refers to several performance metrics and measures such as speed of network, capacity etc.
A network will typically comprise of the following basic components:
- Sender: The host computer that sends information over the network
- Receiver: The host computer that receives information from the network
- Transmission Medium: The channel through which the sender and receiver are communicating
- Protocol: The rules that define the communication between sender and receiver
- Message: The information that is being passed between a sender and a receiver over the network
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
