COMPUTER NETWORK

We can define a Computer Network as a set of two or more connected computers to share information
and other resources. The computers in a network can share:

 Data, Information, Files

 Software
 Hardware (printers, disk, modems) etc.

ADVANTAGES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

Following are some important advantages of computer networks:

1. Data and Information Sharing

People can share common information with the help of computer network.

2. Software Sharing

Different software can be shared with the help of computer networks.

3. Hardware Sharing

Different hardware can be shared with the help of computer network. For example, if there are five
computer users in an office, we can save cost by using only one printer with the help of computer
networking. In a computer network, only one computer will manage all printing needs of the computer
users in a small office. In addition, we can share other hard ware devices like hard disks, CD-Rom Drives,
modems, routers and scanners etc.

4. Money Saving

We can save a lot of money by using computer networking, because of sharing the same software and
hardware in a network.

5. Internet Sharing

We can buy only one DSL internet connection and share it with in whole organization with the help of
computer networking.

6. Easy Communication within Organization

We can send and receive messages and files through network. In this way, a file can be moved to one
place to another within an organization without the need of a physical worker to take and carry the files
to a destination. With the help of a command in a computer we can transfer file within seconds from
one room to another.
7. Easy Communication outside Organization

We can send and receive emails and share files with other people outside organization using internet.

Types of Network

1) LAN (Local Area Network)

LAN stands for Local Area Network. It covers a small area. Most LANs are used to connect computers in
a single building or group of near buildings. A network contained within a relatively small area, such as a
classroom, school, or single building, is commonly referred to as a local area network.

Hundreds or thousands of computers may be connected through LAN. LANs are used in office buildings,
college or university campus etc. Local Area Networks can transfer data at a very high speed. Data
transmission speeds of LAN are 1 to 100 megabits per second.

Following are examples of LAN:

1. LAN is used in a computer lab to connect computers. The students can share software, files and data
in the lab. They can send messages to each other with the help of Local area network.

2. In Internet cafe, many computers can be connected through LAN - local area network. These
computers can share single connection of Internet. This saves a lot of money.

3. Local Area Network can be used in an office to share common data and a network printer and any
other software or hardware.

4. A local area network in a digital library can provide access to centralized collection of digital books for
many readers using different computers in library building.

2) MAN (Metropolitan-Area Network)

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that covers an area of the size of a city. A network that
spans the distance of a typical metropolitan area is sometimes referred to as a metropolitan area
network. So, a MAN is larger than a local area network but it is smaller than a WAN. A MAN is optimized
for a larger geographical area than a LAN, ranging from several blocks of buildings to entire cities. MANs
can use communications channels of moderate-to-high data transfer rates. It may use fiber Optic cable
for fast speeds.

A MAN typically includes one or more LANs but cover a small area than WAN. A MAN often acts as a
high-speed network.

Examples of MAN or Metropolitan Area Network:

1. Mobile phones systems often use MAN to broadcast the mobile data in the form of radio waves.

2. Many local ISPs manage MAN with the help of cable modems within a city.

3. Local cable TV networks also uses MAN technologies to transfer mobile data through radio waves.

3) WAN (Wide Area Network)

WAN stands for wide area network. It covers a large area. A network covering a larger area than a single
city is classified as a wide area network.WAN connects computers in different cities, countries and
continents. So, Wide Area Networks are used to transfer data over very long distances across cities,
countries or even in whole world. WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks
together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in
other locations.

Computers in WAN are often connected through leased lines telephone lines. They can also be
connected through satellites. Transmission rate of WAN is 56 kbps to 45 Mbps. WAN is expensive than
LAN. WAN is not as fast as LAN. There is a possibility of error in data transmission due to very long
distance they cover. The largest WAN is the Internet. With the help of internet, we can send our data in
any part of the world.

Examples of WAN

In air line ticketing system, many offices of an air line company can be joined together using WAN. A
person can get a ticket from any office in the country.

A bank with many branches in different cities can connect its branches through WAN. The customer can
use his account from any branch.

Network Topology

Network topology is the shape of the network. It is the physical layout of connected devices in a
network. It tells us how a network will look like.

Network Topology ( Definition 2): The way in which the connections are made among all the network
entities is called the topology of the network.

Network Topology ( Definition 3):Network topology specifically refers to the physical layout of the
network, e.g., the location of the computers and how the cable is run between them.

Network Topology ( Definition 4):The physical topology of a network refers to the configuration of
cables, computers, and other peripherals.
The characteristics of a network depend upon the network topology selected.

Types of network topology

Different network topologies are as follows:

1. Bus Topology

2. Ring Topology

3. Star Topology

4. Tree Topology

5. Mesh Topology

1. Bus Topology

Bus topology is the simplest network topology. In bus topology, all computers in network are connected
to a common communication wire. This wire is called BUS. Terminators are used at both ends of wire.

2. Star Topology

Star Topology is the most popular and widely used network topology in local area networks. In star
topology, all computers are connected with a central device known as HUB or Switch. Now-a-days Hubs
are often replaced by Fast Network Switches. The sender computer sends data to the hub. The hub
sends it to the destination computer. So, all data communication is managed through HUB or Switch.

Note: The major difference between a Networking Hub and Networking Switch is that HUB sends data to
all computers, and the destination computer will accept it while other computers will not. On the other
hand, Switch sends data only to the destination computer. Therefore, switch can reduce network traffic
and hence provides fast transmission speed.
3. Ring Topology

In Ring topology, each computer is connected to the next computer such that last computer is
connected to the first. Every computer is connected to next computer in the ring. Each computer
retransmits what it receives from the previous computer. Suppose, computer A needs to send data to
computer D. Now the computer A sends data to computer B. As computer B is not the destination
computer, so it will retransmit data to computer C. Finally, Computer C will transfer data to computer D,
the destination computer. When a node sends a message, the message is processed by each computer
in the ring. If a computer is not the destination node, it will pass the message to the next node, until the
message arrives at its destination.

4. Tree Topology

Tree topology is the combination of two topologies: bus and star topology. A tree topology combines
the characteristics of bus and star topologies. It consists of groups of computer connected as star
topology. These groups are then connected to a central communication medium (bus cable).

5. Mesh Topology

In a mesh topology, every device on the network is physically connected to every other device on the
network. Therefore, data can be sent on several possible paths from source computer to destination
computer. Mesh topology is more reliable with better performance. It is mostly used in wide area
networks where reliability is important.

Network Protocol

A network protocol can be viewed as a common network communication standard, which is used to
define a method of exchanging data over a computer network. Network protocols define rules and
conventions for communication between different devices, participating in a computer network.

1. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): TCP is a popular communication protocol which is used for
communicating over a network. It divides any message into series of packets that are sent from
source to destination and there it gets reassembled at the destination.

2. Internet Protocol (IP): IP is designed explicitly as addressing protocol. It is mostly used with TCP.
The IP addresses in packets help in routing them through different nodes in a network until it
reaches the destination system. TCP/IP is the most popular protocol connecting the networks.

3. User Datagram Protocol (UDP): UDP is a substitute communication protocol to Transmission

Control Protocol implemented primarily for creating loss-tolerating and low-latency linking
between different applications.

4. Post office Protocol (POP): POP3 is designed for receiving incoming E-mails.

5. Simple mail transport Protocol (SMTP): SMTP is designed to send and distribute outgoing E-
Mail.
 6. File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP allows users to transfer files from one machine to another.
Types of files may include program files, multimedia files, text files, and documents, etc.

7. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP): HTTP is designed for transferring a hypertext among two
or more systems. HTML tags are used for creating links. These links may be in any form like text
or images. HTTP is designed on Client-server principles which allow a client system for
establishing a connection with the server machine for making a request. The server
acknowledges the request initiated by the client and responds accordingly.

8. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): HTTPS is abbreviated as Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol Secure is a standard protocol to secure the communication among two computers one
using the browser and other fetching data from web server. HTTP is used for transferring data
between the client browser (request) and the web server (response) in the hypertext format,
same in case of HTTPS except that the transferring of data is done in an encrypted format. So it
can be said that https thwart hackers from interpretation or modification of data throughout the
transfer of packets.

9. Telnet: Telnet is a set of rules designed for connecting one system with another. The connecting
process here is termed as remote login. The system which requests for connection is the local
computer, and the system which accepts the connection is the remote computer.

10. Gopher: Gopher is a collection of rules implemented for searching, retrieving as well as
displaying documents from isolated sites. Gopher also works on the client/server principle.

Some Other Protocols

Some other popular protocols act as co-functioning protocols associated with these primary protocols
for core functioning. These are:

 ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)

 DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

 IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol)

 SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)

 RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol)

 RLP (Resource Location Protocol)

 RAP (Route Access Protocol)

 L2TP (Layer Two Tunnelling Protocol)

 PPTP (Point To Point Tunnelling Protocol)

  SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

 TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)

1. Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to regenerate the signal over the same
network before the signal becomes too weak or corrupted so as to extend the length to which the signal
can be transmitted over the same network. An important point to be noted about repeaters is that they
do not amplify the signal. When the signal becomes weak, they copy the signal bit by bit and regenerate
it at the original strength. It is a 2 port device.

2. Hub – A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub connects multiple wires coming from different
branches, for example, the connector in star topology which connects different stations. Hubs cannot
filter data, so data packets are sent to all connected devices. In other words, collision domain of all
hosts connected through Hub remains one. Also, they do not have the intelligence to find out best path
for data packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage.

Types of Hub

 Active Hub:- These are the hubs which have their own power supply and can clean, boost, and
relay the signal along with the network. It serves both as a repeater as well as wiring centre.
These are used to extend the maximum distance between nodes.

 Passive Hub :- These are the hubs which collect wiring from nodes and power supply from active
hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network without cleaning and boosting them and can’t
be used to extend the distance between nodes.

 Intelligent Hub :- It work like active hubs and include remote management capabilities. They
also provide flexible data rates to network devices. It also enables an administrator to monitor
the traffic passing through the hub and to configure each port in the hub.

3. Bridge – A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add on the functionality of
filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of source and destination. It is also used for
interconnecting two LANs working on the same protocol. It has a single input and single output port,
thus making it a 2 port device.

4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design that can boost its efficiency(a large
number of ports imply less traffic) and performance. A switch is a data link layer device. The switch can
perform error checking before forwarding data, that makes it very efficient as it does not forward
packets that have errors and forward good packets selectively to correct port only. In other words,
switch divides collision domain of hosts, but broadcast domain remains same.

5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their IP addresses.
Router is mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect LANs and WANs together and have a
dynamically updating routing table based on which they make decisions on routing the data packets.
Router divide broadcast domains of hosts connected through it.

6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two networks together that may
work upon different networking models. They basically work as the messenger agents that take data
from one system, interpret it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways are also called protocol
converters and can operate at any network layer. Gateways are generally more complex than switch or
router.

7. MODEM- It is Short for modulator/demodulator, a modem is a hardware device that allows a

computer to send and receive information over telephone lines. When sending a signal, the device
converts ("modulates") digital data to an analog audio signal, and transmits it over a telephone line.
Similarly, when an analog signal is received, the modem converts it back ("demodulates" it) to a digital
signal.

History of internet

This Internet Timeline begins in 1962, before the word 'Internet' is invented. The world’s 10,000
computers are primitive, although they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They have only a few
thousand words of magnetic core memory, and programming them is far from easy.

Domestically, data communication over the phone lines is an AT T monopoly. The 'Picturephone' of
1939, shown again at the New York World's Fair in 1964, is still AT&T’s answer to the future of
worldwide communications.

But the four-year old Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense, a
future-oriented funder of ‘high-risk, high-gain’ research, lays the groundwork for what becomes the
ARPANET and, much later, the Internet.

By 1992, when this timeline ends,

 the Internet has one million hosts

 the ARPANET has ceased to exist

 computers are nine orders of magnitude faster

 network bandwidth is twenty million times greater

IP address

An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. IP
stands for "Internet Protocol," which is the set of rules governing the format of data sent via the
internet or local network.
 In essence, IP addresses are the identifier that allows information to be sent between devices on
a network: they contain location information and make devices accessible for communication.
The internet needs a way to differentiate between different computers, routers, and websites.
IP addresses provide a way of doing so and form an essential part of how the internet works.

IP address is a string of numbers separated by periods. IP addresses are expressed as a set of

four numbers — an example address might be 192.158.1.38. Each number in the set can range
from 0 to 255. So, the full IP addressing range goes from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255.

Difference between Private and Public IP addresses

Private IP address of a system is the IP address which is used to communicate within the same
network. Using private IP data or information can be sent or received within the same network.

Public IP address of a system is the IP address which is used to communicate outside the
network. Public IP address is basically assigned by the ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Difference between Private and Public IP address:

PRIVATE IP ADDRESS PUBLIC IP ADDRESS

Scope is local. Scope is global.

It is used to communicate outside the

It is used to communicate within the network. network.

Private IP addresses of the systems connected in a Public IP may differ in uniform or non-
network differ in a uniform manner. uniform manner.

It works only in LAN. It is used to get internet service.

It is used to load network operating system. It is controlled by ISP.

It is available in free of cost. It is not free of cost.

 PRIVATE IP ADDRESS PUBLIC IP ADDRESS

Private IP can be known by entering “ipconfig” on Public IP can be known by searching

command prompt. “what is my ip” on google.

Range:

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255,

172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255, Range:

Besides private IP addresses, rest are
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 public.

Example: 192.168.1.10 Example: 17.5.7.8

Subnet Mask
Every device has an IP address with two pieces: the client
or host address and the server or network address. IP
addresses are either configured by a DHCP server or
manually configured (static IP addresses). The subnet
mask splits the IP address into the host and network
addresses, thereby defining which part of the IP address
belongs to the device and which part belongs to the
network.
Class A, B, and C networks have natural masks, or default
subnet masks:
 Class A: 255.0.0.0
 Class B: 255.255.0.0
 Class C: 255.255.255.0

Subnet Mask Calculation Formula

However, since you cannot actually put your thumb over the number in
practice, there is a clever way to do it.

Since the IP address is in binary form, it will be combined with yet

another binary number, using the Boolean AND operation. This is the subnet mask
calculation formula.

According to the AND operation, you only get a 1 when both inputs are 1. Otherwise,
other combinations of inputs give you a 0.

The mask created this way is 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000, which

is 255.255.255.0 in decimal.

So, for example, if we wanted to mask the address 11.1.1.21, we would combine it
with 255.255.255.0 using the AND operation.

11.1.1.21 is a Class A address with

the binary form 00001011.00000001.00000001.00010101

If you place the two as below:

00001011.00000001.00000001.00010101
AND

11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000

Combining the corresponding digits in each number shows you that the address on
top will stay exactly as it is with the exception of the last part, which will be 0. When
you AND 0 with any other number the output is always 0.

Our masked IP address will, therefore, be 11.1.1.0.

Finding the Number of Hosts

Finding the number of host computers from that logic now becomes easy. We know
that the components equivalent to 0 will always be the masked nodes.

So let us take the example of the most common mask on networks, which
is 255.255.255.0. In binary, this is a 32-digit address. Twenty-four of those digits
are 1s and 8 digits, which correspond to the 0 at the end, are 0s.

Network Address and Broadcast Address

Now, the 8 binary digits that have been masked can take on any one of 2^8 values
or 256 values. There are two values out of these 256 that cannot be assigned to a
network host. These are the network address and the broadcast address. Therefore,
the actual number of available hosts is 254.

If you want to find the subnet mask for your address, head over to the command
prompt on a Windows computer and type in the command ‘ipconfig/all’ If you’re on
a UNIX system, head over to the terminal and type in the command ‘ifconfig’.

1. Outlook Express is email client.(Browser, search engine, none)

2. Which organization defines the web standards ?

World wide web consortium(Microsoft corporation, IBM, Apple)

3. What does .com domain represent?

Commercial domain(Educational domain, Network, none)
4. How can you create an email link?
<mail href=”xxx@yyy”>,<a href=”xxx@yyy”>,<a
href=”mailto:xxx@yyy>,<mail>xxx@yyy</mail>
5.Parts of an email address
User name: abc
Symbol;@
 Domain: yahoo
Top level domain: .com
Country code: np
5. If a class B network on the Internet has a subnet mask of 255.255.248.0, what is the
maximum number of hosts per subnet?

3) If a class B network on the Internet has a subnet mask of 255.255.248.0,

what is the maximum number of hosts per subnet?
(A) 1022
(B) 1023
(C) 2046
(D) 2047
Answer (C)
The binary representation of subnet mask is
11111111.11111111.11111000.00000000. There are 21 bits set in subnet. So
11 (32-21) bits are left for host ids. Total possible values of host ids is 2^11 =
2048. Out of these 2048 values, 2 addresses are reserved. The address with all
bits as 1 is reserved as broadcast address and address with all host id bits as 0
is used as network address of subnet.
In general, the number of addresses usable for addressing specific hosts in
each network is always 2^N – 2 where N is the number of bits for host id.