What is a computer network?
A computer network consists of 2 or more computers/electronic devices that have been linked together to share data.
What are the advantages of a network?
- Communicating
- Send emails/messages over the network - Sharing
- Shared files to other devices - Saving work
- Saves files onto network storage drives - Working together
What are the four things that are needed to make a network?
- Network devices
- Send files/messages between computers, and to store files - Cables
- To join the devices together - Network software
- To make the devices work together - Rules
- Allow all parts of a network to work together
What are the four types of network topology?
- Bus
- Ring
- Star
- Mesh
What is a Bus topology?
Single cable connecting all devices
What is a Ring topology?
Devices connected in a circular fashion
What is a Star topology?
Devices connected to a central hub
What is a Mesh topology?
Every device connected to every other device
What are the advantages of Bus topology?
Simple, cost-effective
What are the advantages of Ring topology?
Equal data distribution
What are the advantages of Star topology?
Simplicity, easy fault identification
What are the advantages of Mesh topology?
High reliability, fault tolerance
What are the disadvantages of Bus topology?
Single point of failure, collision issues
What are the disadvantages of Ring topology?
Single point of failure, difficult fault isolation
What are the disadvantages of Star topology
Single point of failure, dependency on the hub
What are the disadvantages of Mesh topology?
High cabling complexity, cost
How are messages sent over the network through the packet switching method?
- A message is split into small sections called packets.
- As a packet travels across the internet, it is switched onto the clearest route.
What extra data do packets contain?
- Internet Protocol Address (IP address) of the recipients
- Sequence number of the packet
- The packets could receive in the wrong order - Total number of packets
- The receiving computer uses that info to check if any missing packets based on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) rule
What do network types depend on?
How large the area they covered geographically
What are the four types of computer networks?
- PAN (Personal Area Network) & WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network)
- LAN (Local Area Network) & WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)
- MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
- WAN (Wide Area Network)
What is a protocol?
A set of rules that say how information and data should be sent
What are the types of networking protocols?
- HTTP/HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol/Secure)
- Used by web browsers to communicate with web servers - IP (Internet Protocol)
- Handles addressing and routing of packets across networks - DNS (Domain Name System)
- Translates domain names into IP addresses - TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
- Ensure the data is delivered accurately and in the right order
What is the function of a server?
Stores and sends the computer files and messages to users
What is the function of a hub/switches?
Send the files/messages to the correct place
