Computer Networks: Everything You Need To Know

Due to the massive revolution of computers in the last 40 years, the computer has become a very powerful machine nowadays. Because of the computers’ powerfulness, they are used in different places like airplanes, transport systems, military, government, and public and private services. To use the computers in such huge organizations, they need to share data between the computers in their organization. Therefor, computer scientists have interconnected each other computers to share data and share computer equipment such as printers, scanners, etc. These systems are called computer networks. Because of the largeness of the Internet, we consider the Internet as the biggest network in this world.

Table of Contents

Most Important Circumstances of Computer Networking History

The first computer network was built in the 1950s for the U.S. military by using a modem called Bell 101 modem. A modem is used to transfer data between a computer network. Modem transfers data in computer networks by converting the data into digital signals.
The commercial airline reservation system went online with two connected mainframe computers in 1960.
In 1972 TCP/IP protocol was introduced, and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was introduced in 1974. Computer networks have been expanded because of these protocols. To transfer data between computer devices, we can use instructions. Modern computer networks use protocols to transfer data between the networks. In modern networks, computers share the data by converting data into data packets.

Computer Networks

Setting Up a Computer Network — Creating A Computer Network

As we discussed that large organizations needed to interconnect their computers together to share their resources and to make communication between each computer. So, vendors have designed special networking devices and network communication software to interconnect computers. By interconnecting the computers, authorized users to the network can share data easily and share the devices in the network such as printers, scanners, etc. A computer network is an interconnection between a group of computers to share resources and data.

Advantages Of Computer Networks.

Resource sharing – A computer network can share devices easily, such as printers and scanners. It will reduce the cost.
Clients can easily share their files and data through the network, and clients can easily send messages to each other in the network.
Data can be stored and backup on a server. So data protection is higher.

Disadvantages Of Computer Networks.

Establishing cost is very high.
Required network managers as employees to control large networks.
Hackers can be attacked to computer networks.
Lack of robustness.

We can categorize computer networks into four main parts by considering the scale of the network.

PAN – Personal Area Network
LAN – Local Area Network
MAN – Metropolitan Area Network
WAN – Wide Area Network

Let’s take a deeper look at these network types.

Personal Area Networks – PAN

A Personal Area Networks (PAN) connect few devices (two or more) within the user’s approximate area. The scale of Personal Area Network can be up to a few meters. Here are some examples of Personal Area Networks.

A person is using his Mobile Phone with a Bluetooth headphone
A laptop connected with a keyboard and a mouse.
A Pc Desktop connected with a Bluetooth speaker.

Personal Area Networks – PAN Advantages

PAN networks are less vulnerable to Network attacks. Because of this, PAN networks are secure.
There is only one user, so network traffic is slow.

Personal Area Networks – PAN Disadvantages

PAN area network limited to a very small area.

Local Area Networks – LAN

A computer network in a limited house or a building is considered a Local Area Network.
In schools, universities, small organizations, we can see these LAN networks.
The scale of Personal Area Network can be up to 100 meters – 1 kilometer.
LAN networks run at speeds of 10, 100, or more Mbps to 1 Gbps.
These LAN’s consist of desktop PC, laptops, printers, scanners, and other network equipment.

Types of lans — Types Of Local Area Networks

Most of times Ethernet protocol will be used to transmit data via these LAN networks.

Local Area Networks – LAN Advantages

In Local Area Networks, users can share their resources, and it will help to reduce the cost.

Ex: Have you ever seen workers of a bank get their daily reports by using a large printer like Printonix 8000? These printers are very expensive. So all the bank workers use one printer to print their daily working reports, and it will reduce the cost.

Users can easily access their files, such as files of the company, by using these LAN’s.
It will cost less to establish and maintain the network than WAN, MAN.

Local Area Networks – LAN Disadvantages

Must hire a network administrator to establish and maintain these networks.
The network administrator can check the personal files, so it can occur privacy problems.

Metropolitan Area Networks – MAN

Metropolitan Area Networks are larger networks than Local Area Networks.
It can be produced by connecting a few LANs together.
MANs can be public or private / data or voice owned networks.
The scale of the Metropolitan Area Network can be up to 5 km -50km. MAN networks run at speeds up to 100Mbps of speed.

Ex : A metropolitan area network based on cable TV, typically 500 to 5,000 homes.

Metropolitan Area Networks – MAN Advantages

Metropolitan Area Network provides centralized management of information.
These networks are more expensive than a WAN network.

Metropolitan Area Networks – MAN Disadvantages

Must hire a network administrator to establish and maintain these networks.
The network administrator can check the personal files so that it can occur privacy problems.
Establishing cost is higher.