What is computer networking?

                                              Network technology,

All news media constantly showing different types of combat equipment like Land to Land missiles, Land to Air missiles, Air to surface missiles, Laser weapons, Russian missile s 400 etc, due to recent Indo China border dispute. Also, news reported on the recent threat of Cyberwarfare from China. 

Referring to this because of the technological revolution happened and we are observing those warfare equipments. You can refer my earlier blog on this, Defence system with artificial intelligence. 

It’s not that only technology advancement going in the defence sector, but it’s also happening in our social life, like our mobile gadgets, 3G, 4G, 5G, Artificial intelligence, IoT, Robotic etc.  

Advanced computer or laptops we are using in every step of our ​​life, we are using these through the internet or connecting through a network secured network. All organizations, research centres, defence are using many computers for their workforce for their day-to-day work. All Computers, Laptops are connected internally for different types of purpose through networking. 

This post is about " computer networking "  or data networking and will be sharing more details on networking in coming articles.


When multiple computers connected through a networking device which are connected to each other for sharing data transmission, utilizing different communication channel, it is called Network or  Data Networking. Multiple computers are connected through this networking.

Entire process of connecting two or more computers and networking device with each other is called networking. In other words, the entire procedure of creating and using such a computer network is called Networking.

How to make this data network? 

To make a network, you will be requiring network hardware devices, software, cabling and transmission link. However, you can also make such network wired or wireless, for sharing data and information with any individual or group. Creating of this entire network is called data networking. All the networking devices interconnected between them through a broad spectrum of telecommunication network technologies, this can be physically wired, or through optical connectivity, or using radio-frequency methods which arranged through a variety of network topologies. 

All network topologies are a combination of such connectivity as per the requirement. These devices of a computer network classified like, personal computers (PC), servers, networking hardware devices like Router, Switches etc.

For their identification, we define hostname, network address named IP address. Hostname are for identification of server, computer and IP address for locating and identifying network devices, computers using communication protocol, like internet protocol for local network devices identifications purpose. For computer networking, applications services also require depending upon the utility, like computer operation system (OS), security applications, messaging application, communication applications etc. and other applications for communicating and security etc. As per industry utilization point of view, there is a different type of networks are there, like Telephone network, Mobile network and Computer network or data network. 

What are those network devices?

Below the list of some basic hardware devices using for data networking:

Definition of HUB,

Earlier HUB was used as a network device to connect multiple computers for networking locally. This is also called Network Hub. All common networking device used to connect in a segment or part of a LAN. Each Hub having multiple ports connected with computer and when any packet reaches in a HUB port, it copies all the ports so that all the LAN segments connected in that particular hub can see this packet.  HUB does not have management facility like a switch and also speed was an issue, so it was replaced by a switch. Presently switch is used instead of HUB.  

Definition of Switch,

Switch is called network switch,  which is a device that forwards and filters frames between ports, based on the destination devices MAC address in each frame, its also do packet switching. Switch is different from a hub because it only forwards the frames to the physical ports involved in the communication rather than all ports connected. Switch can be defined as a multi-port bridge. It learns from associate physical ports to MAC addresses by finding the source addresses of received frames. In case of unknown destination targeted, the switch broadcasts to all ports. Switches normally have multiple ports, it can facilitate a star topology for devices, and cascading additional switches. It can filter the data between the ports according to the MAC address from the packet information. As switch having multiple ports and ability to stores the MAC address (Media Access control address) of all ports in a table to send data directly to that port according to MAC address.

Switch called intelligent device as it does not copy the data nearer to the ports. Multiple switches can be placed in a network as a stack interconnected between them for increasing the port capacity to connect multiple devices, like Laptop, desktops etc..as per requirement.

Definition of Router

It’s also a networking device, it requires to forward data between network devices connected. Router generally used to connect different network, its called layer three device. Router works like traffic guiding device.  Data always transmit in this network in packet form, to send over this packet through the router will be required to define the traffic as per its packet destination address.  

The packet of information is forwarded from one router to another with a defined packet destination address through a network then an internetwork is formed post data reaches its destination address.  When packets of information goes through the router, the router first reads the network address of that particular information to find out its destination and transfer it to the next network to send the destination device. 

Definition of Firewalls,

Firewall is a security device to protect the network. As a network security system, its used to monitor network traffic packet, allow and block as per the rules or policy defined or configured. Firewall isolate the internal network from the external network and provide security.  Its prevent unauthorised access and act as a barrier for unsafe traffic and allow safe traffic Firewall is very essential for all network connected with the internet or external network. As you know presently there is a threat from China for cyberattack. Firewall is one of the essential network protection device to protect from such cyber-attack (Read Cybersecurity) .  

What are the types of network?

Multiple different types of networks are there, which are using for different requirement. Below are some details of different types of network:

What is LAN?

local area network or LAN is a group of devices connected together through switch ports in one physical location like an office building, or home. This can be small or large depending upon the node or computer requirement. It’s can be for a home network with one user to an enterprise network with thousands of users and devices. Irrespective of size, LAN switch to connects devices that are in a single or in a limited area. However, a wide area network (WAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN) covers larger geographic areas, WANs and MANs connect many LANs together.

What is PAN?‍

Personal Area Network is a data network for interconnecting computer devices for an individual person's workplace. Its provides data transmission among different devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and personal digital assistants. There are also wireless personal area networks.

What is HAN?
 

A home area network uses in a home environment, its connects devices inside home, like personal computers, tablets, smartphones, printers, TVs and other devices.

What is WAN?

 

A wide area network (WAN) is not a small network in a single area. Its a large network, connected through a telecommunication network  to extend over a large geographical area, which is a primary purpose of this network. This telecommunication connectivity called leased line circuits which need to connect network devices like router, or firewall through modem or directly depend upon the interface protocol of the  type of telecommunication link connectivity. 

Business, education and government units use wide-area networks to for transferring data to staff, students, clients, buyers and suppliers from various locations across the world. 

What is CAN?
 ‍

CAN full form is Campus Area Network, A campus network is an extended LAN scattered in different building in the same area or nearby area. You can imagine a university campus having 3-4 building with there separate LAN and all those buildings connected internally through fibre or cable depend up distance. In CAN mainly high-end manageable LAN switch used.

What is MAN?
‍

MAN, the full form is Metropolitan Area Networks, It is a larger network than LAN, and is smaller than WAN Network. As an example, all the schools, colleges or offices in a city can be connected to their network. And it is used to make a large network by connecting many LANs.

What is GAN?

‍Full form of GAN is Global Area Network.  Many Wide Area Networks and many other networks create GAN. It is used over a larger network and it is not directly connected to any network is a worldwide network that connects networks all over the globe, such as the internet. A GAN is a network used to support a Wireless LAN, Satellite Coverage Area. It covers a large Geographical Area.

Conclusion :

Through data networking transferring of data is very easy from one computer to another computer. It’s not only for computer to computer data transfer work but its also used to do critical analysis, controlling of the remote device using the data network.

How many types of network connections are there? 

Different types of network connections or topology are there. This defines how network devices are connected to each other. Topologies are used to connect computers, through a ring topology which is the most common type, because of network device ethernet supporting the internet, local area networks and wide area networks.

Find below topologies that are used to create networks:

What is Bus Topology?

In this topology, one main cable connects every computer in the network. All devices like workstations, printers, laptops, servers etc., are connected to the main cable. When using this bus topology, signals of the sending computer, travels the cable length in both directions from the sending computer. 

  The sending signal travels through the main cable up to the end of the cable length and returns in the direction it came from after bounce at the end, which is known as signal bounce. Signal bounce sometimes create problems in the network due to collision. When another signal is sent on the cable at the same time, the two signals will collide which create collision and its drastically reduce the performance of the data network.  

What is Star Topology?

A network device which is centrally placed and connects a cable to each computer with that one in the network in a star topology. 

In this topology each computer in the network has an independent connection to the centre device of the network, in case of anyone connection goes down it will affect the rest of the network. However, multiple cables need to connect in this kind of network.  

What is Ring Topology?

This is similar like Bus topology. It uses a main single cable with the last nodes connected to each other so the signal can circle through the network to find its receiver. 

Signal travels several times to find its destination device even when the network node is not working properly. The device has an internal ring topology and has places for cable to plugin. A collapsed ring has a central node which is a hub, router or switch. Every computer in the network has its separate own cable to plug into the device. It involves cabling closet, where all computers are connected to the nearer of the switch.

What is Wireless Networks?

Like wired network, there is a wireless network which has different protocols to work. Wireless technologies have grown and become much more popular. 

Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies now become a favourite choice for building computer networks. One of the main reasons for this is that wireless networks can easily support different types of wireless gadgets which becomes popular nowadays, such as smartphones and tablets. Mobile networking is now an important thing and having growing demand.

What is Network Protocols?

All computer and network devices communicate with each other using network protocol.   It’s another way to define a group of computers that supports the protocol defined. In-network different protocols which support different applications.  Protocols that are often used is TCP/IP, which is most common on the internet and network. 

In this post tried to explain what is basic Computer Networking or data networking and what are the primary devices require for networking like HUB, Switch, Router and Firewall. 

However other devices like bridge, repeater and other essential devices will update in the next article.  As it’s a very basic level of description I hope you have liked this post very much and request you to share this post with your friends and at the same time subscribe my blog so that all my new posts on technology update can reach you immediately. Thanks for visiting The Blog-insider.