Networking Introduction

In this basic network tutorial you will find basic introduction to data communication and general overview of the communication devices, tcp/ip suite, communication cabling, basic topologies, and wireless communication technology. Computer networking means sharing of data and resources between two or more computers with a medium such as Ethernet cable, leased lines, router and even air. Networking is a most widely used field of the computer technology. A computer network is comprised of two or more wired or wireless connected computers. A simple computer network is made up of two connected computers. All the computers in a network can access, share the data and resources with each other. A computer network is generally categorized into the three main types such as LAN (Local area network), MAN (Metropolitan area network) and WAN (Wide area network). A number of the standards are involved into the certain steps of the data communication and on these standards certain communication devices have been developed.

In the computer age, no organization can work perfectly without a computer network. The concept and working of the whole internet is due to the computer networking. A computer network is a basic need for any organization to share data and resources on the small to big level such as banks, insurance companies, universities, colleges, multinational companies, corporate offices and small businesses etc. The network is made up of different components, protocols, devices, topologies and mediums such as cables, routers, leased lines and air. Following is the basic overview of each of the basic networking components.

TCP/IP Suite

TCP/IP is a suite of the protocols. Many protocols are the part of this protocols suite such as TCP (transmission control protocol), IP (internet protocol), FTP (File transfer protocol), HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol), DNS (Domain name service), DHCP (Dynamic host configuration protocols), PPTP (Point to point tunneling protocol) and many other communication protocols. The communication on the internet is carried out by the TCP and IP protocol. In LAN and WAN networking TCP/IP protocols play major role in the communication. An IP protocol ensures the error free delivery of the data to its destination by a device known as router.

Additionally, every communication device on the internet and on the local network requires a unique identifier, which is known as a IP address. An IP address is 32 bits, four octets address that is having a decimal value from 0 to 255. There are three major classes of the IP address such as Class A, Class B and Class C. A typical IP address looks like this form 100.100.1.50 that is four octets that are separated by the periods.

Topologies

Topology means the physical design and layout of the network or how the network devices, computers and components are arranged. There are some basic topologies of a computer network such as star, mesh, ring, bus, hybrid and tree. The most commonly used topology of a computer network is a star topology. In the star topology, all the computers are connected to a central device known as a hub or switch. Data in a network passes through the central devices and then directed towards the destination computers. The failure of one computer does not affect the working of the other computers however, the failure of the hub or switch results in halting all the network communication i.e no communication can occur without the hub or switch.

Network Devices

There are a large number of devices that are involved in the whole communication process. These devices include hub, switch, router, gateway and NIC cards. These communication devices play an important role in the overall data communication process. The communication on the internet is carried out by a device known as a Router. The main function of the router is to route the data (traffic) to its destination. Router has the IP addresses of the sending and receiving computers also router has the capability of finding the best shortest path to the destination and hence provides the faster secure delivery of the data. Different communication devices with different features are being developed by a large number of the vendors such Cisco, Intel, Nortel, DLink, Paradyne, Dell, 3COM, Alcatel, Fibronics, Triticom, Nextgen, Motorola and many others.

Cabling

A computer network can be formed wireless or cabled. In a cabled network, there are a certain types of the cables required depending on the type of the network. The most commonly used cables are the UTP/STP (unshielded twisted pair/shielded twisted pair) Ethernet cables also known as CAT5 cables. In the CAT5 cables, there are eight cables and four pairs. Each cable is twisted with its corresponding cable and thus forms a pair. From these eight cables, there are two major types of cables are formed known as straight over cable and cross over cable. A straight over cable is used to connect a computer with a hub or switch and a cross over cable is used to connect the computers with each other and to connect the communication devices with each other such as routers, switches and hubs.

Types of Networking

There are two basic types of the computer networking such as peer to peer and client/server communication. In the peer to peer communication, there is no central server and all the computers fall in the same workgroup and no central domain is exist. Such type of networking can be seen in the home or small offices where no computer server or domain controller is required. In the client/server networking model, a centralized server acts as a domain controller and it controls all the client computers in the network. All the client computers depend on the server (domain controller) for logon access, data, internet access, printer, scanner, CD-ROM, critical updates of the distributed applications and all the other data and shared resources. If the server gets corrupted or destroyed, the access of the client machines to the server stops and communication can exist from the client to the server or vice versa.