Domain 2

Networking
Introduction to network
 What is a Network?

A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to

share resources (such as printers), exchange files, or allow electronic
communications.
The computers on a network may be linked through cables, telephone
lines, radio waves, satellites, or infrared light beams.
 How does a computer network work?

• Devices attached to a computer network use IP addresses that

are resolved into hostnames through a domain name system
server to communicate with each other over the internet and on
other computer networks. A variety of protocols and algorithms
are also used to specify the transmission of data among
endpoints.

• Network systems must follow certain standards or guidelines to

operate. Standards are a set of data communication rules
required for the exchange of information between devices and
are developed by various standards organizations.
Types of Networks
 Local Area Network (LAN)

- A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that is confined to a relatively small area.
It is generally limited to a geographic area such as a writing lab, school, or building.

- A LAN can be small or large, ranging from a home network with one user to an
enterprise network with thousands of users and devices in an office or school.

- A LAN comprises cables, access points, switches, routers, and other components
that enable devices to connect to internal servers, web servers, and other LANs via
wide area networks.
 Local Area Network (LAN)

- The advantages of a LAN are the same as those for any group of devices networked
together. The devices can use a single Internet connection, share files with one
another, print to shared printers, and be accessed and even controlled by one
another.

- In general, there are two types of LANs: client/server LANs and peer-to-peer LANs:

 Client-server. This model consists of many clients (or nodes) where at least one network node acts
as the central server. The clients in this model don't share resources, but request the central
server, as all the resources are installed on it.

 Peer-to-peer (P2P). Each connected device on this network behaves as the client, as well as the
server and have similar privileges. The resources of each peer are shared among the entire
network, including memory, processing power and printing. Many companies use
the P2P architecture to host memory-intensive applications, such as three-dimensional rendering,
across multiple network devices.
Local Area Network (LAN)
 Local Area Network (LAN)

What is Wired LAN?

A wired local area network is a network in which a group of linked devices are connected with a
cable connection in a single physical space (e.g., a house, office, floor of a building, or entire
building). These computer networks can be found in buildings, from a few workstations in one
office to hundreds or even thousands of devices. They are the most common means of
connecting computers and provide shared access to file servers, printers, and other services.
Wired LAN can have many different sizes, from a single-user network at home to an enterprise
network in an office or school with thousands of users and devices. This kind of network has its
own set of advantages and disadvantages.

What is Wireless LAN?

As the name implies, this type of LAN connects devices within a restricted region using high-
frequency radio waves rather than cables. Also termed as Wireless Local Networks, or WLANs,
are wireless computer networks and their users within these wireless LAN connections are free
to roam about this constrained space, which includes places like homes, offices, schools, train
stations, and so on. The most common and rather the foundation of the majority of WLANs is
Wi-Fi as standardized by IEEE 802.11.
 Local Area Network (LAN)

Difference between wired LAN and Wireless LAN

1. Wireless LAN has no medium between host devices and network devices. In Wired LAN,
there is always a cable connection.

2. Both wired and wireless connection methods can be used within a network configured with
wired connections. While in WLAN, only wireless connections are there.

3. In comparison to WLAN connections, LAN connections are more affordable and secure.
Whereas, compared to wired connections, WLAN connections are more costly and seen as less
secure.

4. Setting up a LAN is a somewhat complicated process. Ethernet cables are required to link
many network devices, such as switches and routers. But a WLAN can be configured and set up
quite easily.

5. With LANs, the weather has less of an influence and performance is good. However, the
performance of a WLAN might be affected by changes in weather.

6. A LAN's mobility is not possible in which ethernet is required for device connectivity.
Whereas, WLAN is very portable, and connecting network devices doesn't require ethernet.

8. You will find PCs, laptops, workstations, and servers connected with LAN connections while
in WLAN, you will also find PCs, laptops, and mobile devices which all use Wi-Fi standard or
hotspot technology.
 Local Area Network (LAN)

9. LAN connections are difficult to break whereas in WLAN, connectivity can be disrupted
easily.

10. Due to the increased energy required to convey signals over greater distances, WLANs are
less efficient than cable connections used in a typical wired LAN network. Wireless users will
have to wait longer for their downloads and web pages to load since wired connections
transfer information more quickly. But with the advancement in Wi-Fi technologies, this barer
of speed is diminishing but wired LANs still retain more speed with reliability with the expense
of being static networks.
Nowadays and in everyday life, you will see thousands of devices that may be smoothly
running on WLANs. A WLAN's coverage and range can also be expanded by adding one or more
repeaters. Nonetheless, compared to conventional cable LANs, wireless LANs are seen to be
less secure but nowadays they are a more common medium of network devices.
 Wide Area Network (WAN)

Wide Area Networks (WANs) connect networks in larger geographic areas.

Dedicated transoceanic cabling or satellite uplinks may be used to connect
this type of global network.

Using a WAN, schools in Florida can communicate with places like Tokyo in a
matter of seconds, without paying enormous phone bills. Two users a half-
world apart with workstations equipped with microphones and a webcams
might teleconference in real time.

A WAN is complicated. It uses multiplexers, bridges, and routers to connect

local and metropolitan networks to global communications networks like the
Internet. To users, however, a WAN will not appear to be much different than
a LAN
Wide Area Network (WAN)
 Client vs Server

What is a Client?

When we talk about a client in computer science, we are referring to a device or software program
that is used to access data or resources from another device, known as a server. Servers are
usually more powerful and have more storage than clients, as they are designed to handle large
amounts of data.
Clients can be either thick or thin. Thick clients are also known as fat clients, and they are typically
installed on a user’s machine. They tend to be more interactive and have more features than thin
clients. Thin clients, on the other hand, are web-based and run entirely from a server. They require
less processing power and memory than thick clients, which makes them ideal for use on devices
with limited resources, such as mobile devices.

What is a Server?

A server is a computer that provides resources, data, services, or programs to other computers,
known as clients. Servers can provide various services, such as file sharing, printing, email, web
hosting, backup and storage, and application hosting.
When you connect to the internet, you are generally connecting to a server. Your computer
accesses the server’s resources, which are typically stored on the server’s hard drive. The server
may also be responsible for processing your request and sending back the requested information.
For example, when you visit a website, your computer sends a request to the server that hosts the
website. The server then processes the request and sends back the requested web page.
 Client vs Server

The Difference between a Client and Server

A client is a computer that connects to a server in order to access resources or services. A server is a computer that
provides those resources or services.
The main difference between a client and server is that a client initiates communication with the server in order to
request information, while the server responds to requests from clients. Clients are typically located on user
computers, while servers are usually found in data centers.

How Clients and Servers Work Together

In computer science, the terms “client” and “server” refer to two separate but related concepts. A client is a program
that makes requests to a server. A server is a program that fulfills those requests.
For example, when you type www.google.com into your web browser, your browser is acting as a client. It makes a
request to Google’s servers for the website you’ve requested. Google’s servers then fulfill that request by sending
back the HTML code for the Google home page. Your browser then renders that HTML code into the familiar page of
text, images, and links we all know so well.
But it’s not just web browsers and websites that use this client-server model. Almost all networked applications use it
in one way or another. Email programs like Gmail and Outlook are also clients and servers. When you send an email,
your email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) acts as a client, sending a request to the email server to deliver your message.
When someone else receives that email, their email client contacts the server again to fetch the new message.
Even many desktop applications use this same basic model. For example, when you open up Microsoft Word, it
contacts a server in order to fetch any templates or macros you might need. And when you save a document, Word
sends another request to the server to save the file on its storage devices somewhere.
Client vs Server
 Metropolitan area network (MAN)

- A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that connects computers within a
metropolitan area, which could be a single large city, multiple cities and towns, or any given large area
with multiple buildings. A MAN is larger than a local area network (LAN) but smaller than a wide area
network (WAN). MANs do not have to be in urban areas; the term "metropolitan" implies the size of
the network, not the demographics of the area that it serves.

- Like WANs, a MAN is made up of interconnected LANs. Because MANs are smaller, they are usually
more efficient than WANs, since data does not have to travel over large distances. MANs may combine
the networks of multiple organizations into one, or they can be managed by a single organization.

- The size of MANs usually ranges from 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers. If all the buildings are on a single
piece of contiguous property, it may also be considered a campus network.
 Network address translation (NAT)

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a process that enables one, unique IP

address to represent an entire group of computers. In network address
translation, a network device, often a router or NAT firewall, assigns a
computer or computers inside a private network a public address. In this
way, network address translation allows the single device to act as an
intermediary or agent between the local, private network and the public
network that is the internet. NAT’s main purpose is to conserve the number
of public IP addresses in use, for both security and economic goals.
 Types of NAT

• Static NAT: Static NAT maps an internal IP address to an external one on a one-to-one
basis. This doesn’t help with the scalability of IPv4 but does make a system reachable
from outside of the network without disrupting internal addressing schemes.

• Dynamic NAT: With Dynamic NAT, a firewall has a pool of external IP addresses that it
assigns to internal computers as needed. Like Static NAT, this creates a one-to-one
mapping between internal and external IP addresses; however, these mappings are not
permanent.

• Port Address Translation (PAT): PAT is used to create many-to-one mappings between
internal and external IP addresses. The firewall uses the same IP address for multiple
systems but assigns a different TCP or UDP port to each. Since a single IP address can
have 65,535 ports associated with it, PAT allows a single external IP address to
represent thousands of devices on a private network. PAT is the application of NAT that
allows IPv4 addresses to scale.
 Networking

Network Addresses
 Internet Protocol (IP)

- An Internet Protocol (IP) address is the unique identifying number

assigned to every device connected to the internet. An IP address
definition is a numeric label assigned to devices that use the internet to
communicate. Computers that communicate over the internet or via
local networks share information to a specific location using IP
addresses.

- IP addresses have two distinct versions or standards. The Internet

Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address is the older of the two, which has
space for up to 4 billion IP addresses and is assigned to all computers.
The more recent Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) has space for trillions
of IP addresses, which accounts for the new breed of devices in addition
to computers. There are also several types of IP addresses, including
public, private, static, and dynamic IP addresses.

- Every device with an internet connection has an IP address, whether it's

a computer, laptop, IoT device, or even toys. The IP addresses allow for
the efficient transfer of data between two connected devices, allowing
machines on different networks to talk to each other.
 How Does an IP Address Work?

• An IP address works in helping the device you are using to access the
internet on, to find where the data or content is located to allow for
retrieval.

• Common tasks for an IP address include both the identification of a host

or a network, or identifying the location of a device.

• An IP address is not random.

• The creation of an IP address has the basis of math.

• The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocates the IP

address and its creation. The full range of IP addresses can go from
0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255.

• With the mathematical assignment of an IP address, the unique

identification to make a connection to a destination can be made.
IP Address Types
 IP Address Types

• Public IP Address
A public IP address, or external-facing IP address, applies to the main device people use to connect their business or home
internet network to their internet service provider (ISP). In most cases, this will be the router. All devices that connect to a
router communicate with other IP addresses using the router’s IP address.
Knowing an external-facing IP address is crucial for people to open ports used for online gaming, email and web servers, media
streaming, and creating remote connections.

• Private IP Address
A private IP address, or internal-facing IP address, is assigned by an office or home intranet (or local area network) to devices,
or by the internet service provider (ISP). The home/office router manages the private IP addresses to the devices that connect
to it from within that local network. Network devices are thus mapped from their private IP addresses to public IP addresses by
the router.
Private IP addresses are reused across multiple networks, thus preserving valuable IPv4 address space and extending
addressability beyond the simple limit of IPv4 addressing.
In the IPv6 addressing scheme, every possible device has its own unique identifier assigned by the ISP or primary network
organization, which has a unique prefix. Private addressing is possible in IPv6, and when it's used it's called Unique Local
Addressing (ULA).

• Static IP Address
All public and private addresses are defined as static or dynamic. An IP address that a person manually configures and fixes to their
device’s network is referred to as a static IP address. A static IP address cannot be changed automatically.

• Dynamic IP Address
A dynamic IP address is automatically assigned to a network when a router is set up. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) assigns the distribution of this dynamic set of IP addresses. The DHCP can be the router that provides IP addresses to
networks across a home or an organization.
 What Is IPv4?

IPv4 is the fourth version of the IP. It is one of the core protocols of the standards-based
methods used to interconnect the internet and other networks. The protocol was first
deployed on the Atlantic Packet Satellite Network (SATNET), which was a satellite network
that formed a segment of the initial stages of the internet, in 1982. It is still used to route
most internet traffic despite the existence of IPv6.

IPv4 is currently assigned to all computers. An IPv4 address uses 32-bit binary numbers to
form a unique IP address. It takes the format of four sets of numbers, each of which ranges
from 0 to 255 and represents an eight-digit binary number, separated by a period point.
 IPv4 classes

In the IPv4 IP address space, there are five classes: A, B, C, D and E. Each class has a
specific range of IP addresses (and ultimately dictates the number of devices you can
have on your network). Primarily, class A, B, and C are used by the majority of devices
on the Internet. Class D and class E are for special uses.

• Class A Public & Private IP Address Range

Class A addresses are for networks with large number of total hosts. Class A allows
for 126 networks by using the first octet for the network ID. The first bit in this
octet, is always zero. The remaining seven bits in this octet complete the network
ID. The 24 bits in the remaining three octets represent the hosts ID and allows for
approximately 17 million hosts per network. Class A network number values begin
at 1 and end at 127.

• Class B Public & Private IP Address Range

Class B addresses are for medium to large sized networks.
Class B allows for 16,384 networks by using the first two
octets for the network ID. The first two bits in the first octet
are always 1 0. The remaining six bits, together with the
second octet, complete the network ID. The 16 bits in the
third and fourth octet represent host ID and allows for
approximately 65,000 hosts per network. Class B network
number values begin at 128 and end at 191.
 IPv4 classes

• Class C Public & Private IP Address Range

Class C addresses are used in small local area networks (LANs). Class C allows for
approximately 2 million networks by using the first three octets for the network ID.
In a class C IP address, the first three bits of the first octet are always 1 1 0. And the
remaining 21 bits of first three octets complete the network ID. The last octet (8
bits) represent the host ID and allows for 254 hosts per network. Class C network
number values begins at 192 and end at 223.

• Class D IP Address Range

Class D IP addresses are not allocated to hosts and are used
for multicasting. Multicasting allows a single host to send a
single stream of data to thousands of hosts across the
Internet at the same time. It is often used for audio and
video streaming, such as IP-based cable TV networks.
Another example is the delivery of real-time stock market
data from one source to many brokerage companies.

• Class E IP Address Class

Class E IP addresses are not allocated to hosts and are not
available for general use. These are reserved for research
purposes.
 IPv4 classes

• Private IP Addresses
Within each network class, there are designated IP address
that is reserved specifically for private/internal use only.
This IP address cannot be used on Internet-facing devices as
that are non-routable. For example, web servers and FTP
servers must use non-private IP addresses. However, within
your own home or business network, private IP addresses
are assigned to your devices (such as workstations, printers,
and file servers).

• Special IP Addresses
IP Range: 127.0.0.1 to 127.255.255.255 are network testing
addresses (also referred to as loop-back addresses). These
are virtual IP address, in that they cannot be assigned to a
device.
 What Is IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6)?

IPv6 is the newest version of internet protocol formulated by the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), which helps identify and local endpoint systems on a computer
network and route online traffic while addressing the problem of IPv4 address
depletion due to prolonged internet use worldwide.

Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer protocol that allows

communication to take place over the network. Each device on the internet has a
unique IP address used to identify it and figure out where it is. At the time of the digital
revolution of the 1990s, it became apparent that the IP addresses that Internet Protocol
version 4 (IPv4) used to connect devices would not be enough to meet demand.

Therefore, the IETF set on developing the next-generation internet protocol. IPv6
became a draft standard for the IETF in December 1998, and on July 14, 2017, it was
approved as an internet standard for global rollout.
 IPv4 vs. IPv6

IPv4 has not been able to cope with the massive explosion in the
quantity and range of devices beyond simply mobile phones, desktop
computers, and laptops. The original IP address format was not able to
handle the number of IP addresses being created.

To address this problem, IPv6 was introduced. This new standard

operates a hexadecimal format that means billions of unique IP
addresses can now be created. As a result, the IPv4 system that could
support up to around 4.3 billion unique numbers has been replaced by
an alternative that, theoretically, offers unlimited IP addresses.

That is because an IPv6 IP address consists of eight groups that contain

four hexadecimal digits, which use 16 distinct symbols of 0 to 9
followed by A to F to represent values of 10 to 15.
 MAC address

• What is a MAC address

Just like each house has it's own postal address, every device connected on a network has a Media Access
Control (MAC) address, that uniquely identifies it.
The MAC address is tied to the Network Interface Controller (NIC), a subcomponent of the larger device. The NIC
is where you make your physical connection to the network, by plugging in an Ethernet cable or connecting to a
WiFi signal.

• What does a MAC address look like?

The MAC address is a 12 digit hexadecimal number that is most often displayed with a colon or hypen
separating every two digits (an octet), making it easier to read.
Example: A MAC address of 2c549188c9e3 is typically displayed as 2C:54:91:88:C9:E3 or 2c-54-91-88-c9-
e3.
 MAC address

• Can a device have more than one MAC address?

Yes. For each network interface in your device, there is a unique MAC address associated with it. So if your
laptop has both an Ethernet port and Wi-Fi built-in, you will see two MAC addresses in the system configuration.

• How do I find my MAC address?

In general, you will find MAC addresses in the system settings, general information, or
network settings/status of your device. Occasionally, the MAC address is printed on a label
affixed to the bottom of a device.
It is important to note that manufacturers sometimes use different names to describe the
MAC address, such as Hardware ID, Physical Address, Wireless ID, Wi-Fi Address, etc.

For Windows Computers

1.Press Start + R on your keyboard
2.In the Run window, type in cmd and click OK
3.At the command prompt, type ipconfig /all and hit Enter
4.The MAC address for each interface will be listed as Physical Address
• For wired interfaces, look for the term Ethernet or Gigabit in the name or description
• For wireless interfaces, look for the terms Wireless or Wi-Fi in the name or description

For Mac Computers

1.Open System Preferences
2.Click on the Network icon
3.Select the interface you wish to use, then click Advanced...
4.The MAC address is listed under the Hardware tab
 IP Address vs. MAC Address

When you analyze an IP address vs. a MAC address, you can start with the similarities. For both of
these IP address types, you are dealing with a unique identifier with an attachment to that
device.
The manufacturer of a network card or router is the provider of the MAC address, while the
internet service provider (ISP) is the provider of the IP address.

The main difference between the two is that the MAC address is the physical address of a device.
If you have five laptops on your home Wi-Fi network, you can identify each of those five laptops
on your network via their MAC address.

The IP address works differently as it is the identifier of the connection of the network with that
device. Other differences include:

 A MAC address is a 6-byte hexadecimal address while an IP address is a 4 or 16-byte address.

 A MAC address is in a data link layer, while an IP address is in a network layer.
 A third party will have a difficult time finding a MAC address, while it can easily find an IP
address.
 MAC addresses are static, while IP addresses can change dynamically
 MAC addresses and IP addresses are necessary to get a network packet to a
destination. However, no one can see your MAC address unless they are on your LAN.
Networking