Networking Concept A network is a set cooperatively interconnected computer for the purpose of information interchange. The
word cooperative means they should mutually agree upon to use some
communication rules, which is accomplished by the networking software. By a floppy or a CD we can share information. But it is not fast. Whereas, if it is networked then, it will be fast and easy to share data and information. Hardware: - The role of hardware in a network is to provide an interconnection between
computers. To provide this interconnection there are two necessary parts. The most important concepts in hardware are topology and architecture. Architecture: - defines how the communication will be done. The architecture of a network mainly is of two types. Broadcast: - Here communication is done by transmitting the same information to all the computers in a network and all the computers will respond to it. Point-to-Point: - The computer to which information is intended is identified first and the communication is done only to that particular computer. Topology: - defines how the computers will be physically interconnected. There are many types of topologies. Out of which popular one are a) Star topology b) Bus topology c) Ring topology d) Tree topology e) mess or Net topology etc. Note: - Ethernet Card supports only Bus Topology. Communication Medium : - Commonly used communication medium is twisted pair cable and co-axial cable for LANs, telephone lines, satellites and FDDI (Fiber-optics Distributed Data Interface) cables for WANs. Most of the times the choice of the medium depends on the following things. Viz. Distance Amount of data transfer is needed How often the transfer is needed Availability Network Adapter or Network Interface card (NIC) : - Most commonly used network adapter card is Ethernet Card. There are also other cards like Arc-Net, Serial Port Boards etc. Most of the time the choice of NIC depends on the communication medium. Communication Medium means the way actual transfer takes place. NICs know how to handle this medium. Computers know how to handle NICs and we know how to handle the computers. Software: - The next basic part of network is software. There are mainly two basic types of software. Networking Software: - It is used to provide the cooperation among the computes. Network Applications: - are used to get the benefit from the network. Two computers cooperate with one another. How? This is done by making computers follow some rules for interchanging information i.e. in what format to send, what and when to send etc. These set of rules are nothing but Protocols. Advantages of a Network: - File Transfer Information Availability Resource Sharing On-Line Transaction