Networking / Types Of Networking

NETWORKING:-

A Network consist of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources (such as Printers, CD-Roms) echange files or allow electronic communication. The computer on network may be linked through cables, telephone lines, radio wawes, satellites or Infrared light beams.

DEFINITION:-

Network is defined as "If at least one process in one computer is able to send/receive data to/from at least one process residing in a remote computer, then the two computers are said to be in network".

Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope.

The rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network are defined by communications protocols.

HISTORY OF NETWORKING:-

Before the advent of computer networks that were based upon some type of Telecommunications system, communication between calculation machines and early computers was performed by human users by carrying instructions between them. Many of the social behaviors seen in today's Internet were demonstrably present in the 19th century and arguably in even earlier networks using visual signals.

In September 1940, George Stibitz used a Teletype machine to send instructions for a problem set from his Model at Dartmouth College to his Complex Number Calculator in New York and received results back by the same means. Linking output systems like teletypewriters to computers was an interest at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) when, in 1962, J.C.R. Licklider was hired and developed a working group he called the "Intergalactic Network", a precursor to the ARPANET.

Early networks of communicating computers included the military radar system Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), started in the late 1950s.

The commercial airline reservation system semi-automatic business research environment (SABRE) which went online with two connected mainframes in 1960.

In 1964, researchers at Dartmouth developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System for distributed users of large computer systems. The same year, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research group supported by General Electric and Bell Labs used a computer to route and manage telephone connections.

Throughout the 1960s Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran and Donald Davies independently conceptualized and developed network systems which used packets that could be used in a network between computer systems.

1965 Thomas Merrill and Lawrence G. Roberts created the first wide area network (WAN).

The first widely used telephone switch that used true computer control was introduced by Western Electric in 1965.

In 1969 the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah were connected as the beginning of the ARPANET network using 50 kbit/s circuits.

Commercial services using X.25 were deployed in 1972, and later used as an underlying infrastructure for expanding TCP/IP networks.

Today, computer networks are the core of modern communication. All modern aspects of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) are computer-controlled, and telephony increasingly runs over the Internet Protocol, although not necessarily the public Internet.

TYPES OF NETWORKING:-

The three basic types of networks are:-

1. Local Area Network (LAN)

2. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

3. Wide Area Network (WAN)

Local Area Network (LAN):-

A network is said to be Local Area Network, if it is confined relatively to a small area. It is generally limited to a building or a geographical area, expanding not more than a mile apart to others computers.

LAN configuration consist of:-

• A file server – Store all of the softwares that control the network, as well as the software that can be shared by the computers attached to the network.

• A Workstation – Computer connected to the file server (Mac or PCs). These are less powerfull than the file server.

•Cabels – Used to connect the network interface cards in each computer.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN):-

Metropolitan Area Network covered larger geographic area, such as cities. Often use by local libraries & government agencies often to connect to citizens & private industries.

Wide Area Network(WAN):-

Wide Area Networks connect larger geographical areas such as LONDON , the UK, or the world. In this type of network dedicated transoceanic cabling or satellite uplinks may be used.

ADVANTAGES:-

1. Due to high speed saving of time.

2. Saving of money.

3. Minimize risk.

4. Minimize Efforts.

5. Secure Data.

6. Accessability to whole world.