A computer network is a set of computers
connected together for the purpose of sharing
resources. The most common resource shared
today is connection to the Internet. Other shared
resources can include a printer or a file server.
The Internet itself can be considered a computer
network.
Network media is the actual path over which an
electrical signal travels as it moves from one
component to another. I want to explain the
common types of network media, including
twisted-pair cable, coaxial cable, fiber-optic
cable.
Twisted Pair Cable
Twisted pair cable is can use for telephone
communication and can cable ethernet
networks. A pair of wires that can transmit data.
When electronic signal through a wire, that
create small magnetic field around a wire. When
place two wire together, the magnetic fields are
opposite of each other. So, two magnetic fields
are disappear. They can distory any magnetic
fields outside. There are two type of twisted pair
cable, unshielded twisted pair (UTP)and
shielded twisted pair (STP).
UTP Cable
UTP cable is used for various networks. This
cable include eight copper wires covered by an
insulating material. UTP cable canceling
effective of electromagnetic interference (EMI)
and radio frequency interference (RFI). UTP
cable is install using the Registered jack (RJ 45)
connector. The RJ-45 has eight wire connector.
UTP cable is used to connect local-area
network(LAN).
Advantages of UTP cable
UTP cable has many advantages. The cable
size is small (approximately 0.43 cm) and easy
to install. This cable price is less than other type
of network cable. UTP has no wiring ducts as
other network cable. It can be most important to
consider when installation a network in a
building.
Disadvantages of UTP cable
Twisted pair cable has also disadvantages.
However, UTP cable is more avoid electrical
noise and interference than other network
cables. UTP cable transmit short signal than
coaxial cable and fiber optic cable.
Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable is made of outer hollow conductor
and inner wire made of two conducting element.
The center of a cable is made of copper wire.
Copper wire has surrounding by flexible
insulation. Metallic foil is coted over the
insulating called second layer. Second layer is
reduce the amount of outside interference.
Coaxial cable is support 10 to 100 mbps of
transfer rate. Coaxial cable is little expensive
than UTP cable. However, coaxial cable can
cheaper in physical bus topology. Coaxial cable
can cabled long distant than UTP cable. Twisted
pair cable can run 100 meters(328 feets). Using
coxial cable, distance is 500 meters(1640 feets).
Fiber optic cable
Fiber optic cable can carry more data in longer
distance with light signal than electrinic signal
carry coxial cable. Fiber optic cable can run
100km(60 miles) without amplifing the light
signal. Fiber optical can be used medium for
telecommunication and networking because it is
more flexible than other cable. Light transmition
through the fiber due to reflection within the
material.
Advantages of fiber optic cable
Can run long distance in lower cost
Can carry more data
No sparks
Cable weight is light
Storng to electronic interference
Disadvantages of fiber optic cable
Disadvantages of fiber optic cable is cost and
durability. That cable is more expensive the
other cable.
Hub - is one of the basic icons of networking
devices which works at physical layer and hence
connect networking devices physically together.
Hubs are fundamentally used in networks that
use twisted pair cabling to connect devices.
They are designed to transmit the packets to the
other appended devices without altering any of
the transmitted packets received. They act as
pathways to direct electrical signals to travel
along. They transmit the information regardless
of the fact if data packet is destined for the
device connected or not.
Ethernet Hubs
It is a device connecting multiple Ethernet
devices together and makes them perform the
functions as a single unit. They vary in speed in
terms of data transfer rate. Ether utilizes Carrier
Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detect
(CSMA/CD) to control Media access. Ethernet
hub communicates in half-duplex mode where
the chances of data collision are inevitable at
most of the times.
Switches - are the linkage points of an Ethernet
network. Just as in hub, devices in switches are
connected to them through twisted pair cabling.
But the difference shows up in the manner both
the devices; hub and a switch treat the data they
receive. Hub works by sending the data to all the
ports on the device whereas a switch transfers it
only to that port which is connected to the
destination device. A switch does so by having
an in-built learning of the MAC address of the
devices connected to it. Since the transmission
of data signals are well defined in a switch
hence the network performance is consequently
enhanced. Switches operate in full-duplex mode
where devices can send and receive data from
the switch at the simultaneously unlike in half-
duplex mode. The transmission speed in
switches is double than in Ethernet hub
transferring a 20Mbps connection into 30Mbps
and a 200Mbps connection to become
300Mbps. Performance improvements are
observed in networking with the extensive usage
of switches in the modern days.
bridge - is a computer networking device that
builds the connection with the other bridge
networks which use the same protocol. It works
at the Data Link layer of the OSI Model and
connects the different networks together and
develops communication between them. It
connects two local-area networks; two physical
LANs into larger logical LAN or two segments of
the same LAN that use the same protocol.
Brouters - are the combination of both the bridge
and routers. They take up the functionality of the
both networking devices serving as
a bridge when forwarding data between
networks, and serving as a router when routing
data to individual systems. Brouter functions as
a filter that allows some data into the local
network and redirects unknown data to the other
network.
Gateway is a device which is used to connect
multiple networks and passes packets from one
packet to the other network. Acting as the
gateway between different networking systems
or computer programs, a gateway is a device
which forms a link between them. It allows the
computer programs, either on the same
computer or on different computers to share
information across the network through
protocols. A router is also a gateway, since it
interprets data from one network protocol to
another.
Network cards also known as Network Interface
Cards (NICs) are hardware devices that connect
a computer with the network. They are installed
on the mother board. They are responsible for
developing a physical connection between the
network and the computer. Computer data is
translated into electrical signals send to the
network via Network Interface Cards.
Network protocols define a language of
instructions and conventions for communication
between the network devices. It is essential that
a networked computer must have one or more
protocol drivers. Usually, for two computers to
interconnect on a network, they must use
identical protocols. At times, a computer is
designed to use multiple protocols. Network
protocols like HTTP, TCP/IP offer a basis on
which much of the Internet stands.
Modem - is a device which converts the
computer-generated digital signals of a
computer into analog signals to enable their
travelling via phone lines. The modulator-
demodulator or modem can be used as a dial
up for LAN or to connect to an ISP. Modems can
be both external, as in the device which
connects to the USB or the serial port of a
computer, or proprietary devices for handheld
gadgets and other devices, as well as internal; in
the form of add-in expansion cards for
computers and PCMCIA cards for laptops.
LAN and designed for small physical areas such
as an office, group of buildings or a factory.
LANs are used widely as it is easy to design and
to troubleshoot. Personal computers and
workstations are connected to each other
through LANs. We can use different types of
topologies through LAN, these are Star, Ring,
Bus, Tree etc.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
It is basically a bigger version of LAN. It is also
called MAN and uses the similar technology as
LAN. It is designed to extend over the entire city.
It can be means to connecting a number of
LANs into a larger network or it can be a single
cable. It is mainly hold and operated by single
private company or a public company.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
It is also called WAN. WAN can be private or it
can be public leased network. It is used for the
network that covers large distance such as
cover states of a country. It is not easy to design
and maintain. Communication medium used by
WAN are PSTN or Satellite links. WAN operates
on low data rates.
Wireless Network
It is the fastest growing segment of computer.
They are becoming very important in our daily
life because wind connections are not possible
in cars or aeroplane. We can access Internet at
any place avoiding wire related troubles.. These
can be used also when the telephone systems
gets destroyed due to some calamity/disaster.
WANs are really important now-a-days.
Inter Network
When we connect two or more networks then
they are called internetwork or internet. We can
join two or more individual networks to form an
internetwork through devices like routers
gateways or bridges.
A network address is any logical or physical
address that uniquely distinguishes a network
node or device over a computer or
telecommunications network. It is a
numeric/symbolic number or address that is
assigned to any device that seeks access to or
is part of a network.
Dynamic IP addresses
Dynamic IP addresses are acquired from a
DHCP server, and they may change from time to
time. You can provide dynamic IP addresses to
the computers on your network by configuring
one or more DHCP servers. The DHCP server
must be assigned a static IP address.
Static IP addresses
A static IP address does not change. It is
assigned by the network administrator, and it is
manually entered into the properties for the
network adapter that is on a server or on a client
computer. A static IP address does not require
that a DHCP server is running on the network.
Bus Topology
Bus networks (not to be confused with the
system bus of a computer) use a
common backbone to connect all devices. A
single cable, the backbone functions as a
shared communication medium that devices
attach or tap into with an interface connector. A
device wanting to communicate with another
device on the network sends a broadcast
message onto the wire that all other devices
see, but only the intended recipient actually
accepts and processes the message.
Ethernet bus topologies are relatively easy to
install and don't require much cabling compared
to the alternatives. 10Base-2 ("ThinNet") and
10Base-5 ("ThickNet") both were
popular Ethernet cabling options many years
ago for bus topologies. However, bus networks
work best with a limited number of devices.
If more than a few dozen computers are added
to a network bus, performance problems will
likely result. In addition, if the backbone cable
fails, the entire network effectively becomes
unusable.
Ring Topology
In a ring network, every device has exactly two
neighbors for communication purposes.
All messages travel through a ring in the same
direction (either "clockwise" or
"counterclockwise"). A failure in any cable or
device breaks the loop and can take down the
entire network.
the illustration below, partial mesh networks also
exist in which some devices connect only
indirectly to others.

To implement a ring network, one typically uses

FDDI, SONET, or Token Ringtechnology. Ring
topologies are found in some office buildings or
school campuses.

Star Topology

Many home networks use the star topology. A

star network features a central connection point
called a "hub node" that may be a network
hub, switch or router. Devices typically connect
to the hub with Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Ethernet.

Compared to the bus topology, a star network

generally requires more cable, but a failure in
any star network cable will only take down one
computer's network access and not the
entire LAN. (If the hub fails, however, the entire
network also fails.)

Tree Topology

A tree topology joins multiple star topologies

together onto a bus. In its simplest form, only
hub devices connect directly to the tree bus, and
each hub functions as the root of a tree of
devices. This bus/star hybrid approach supports
future expansion of the network much better
than a bus (limited in the number of devices due
to the broadcast traffic it generates) or a star
(limited by the number of hub connection points)
alone.

Mesh Topology

Mesh topology introduces the concept of routes.

Unlike each of the previous topologies,
messages sent on a mesh network can take any
of several possible paths from source to
destination. (Recall that even in a ring, although
two cable paths exist, messages can only travel
in one direction.) Some WANs, most notably the
Internet, employ mesh routing.

A mesh network in which every device connects

to every other is called a full mesh. As shown in