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Introduction to Networking
Lecture 3
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What is a Network?
A network consists of 2 or more computers
connected together, and they can communicate and
share resources.

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LAN and WAN
Local Area Network (LAN)
Small network, short distance
A room, a floor, a building
Limited by no. of computers and distance covered
Usually one kind of technology throughout the LAN
Serve a department within an organization
Examples:
Network inside a lab
Network inside your home
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Wide Area Network (WAN)
A network in which computers are separated by great
distances, typically across cities or even continents.
WANs are mostly Interconnected LANs.
WAN
University
Your home
Any other
Country
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Hubs vs. Switches
The hub receives the message and
forwards them to all computers connected
to it.
Not too secure, but cheap.
The switch pays attention to the packets
and makes a list of the sender addresses
and makes a table. When a packet comes
along whose destination address is in the
table the packet only goes to that port.
Switches are now much more common than
hubs.