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COMPUTER NETWORKS AND WEB TECHNOLOGIES.

Types of Networks
Before we look at the different types of Networks let us look at the definition of the term
network.

Network – this is a set of computers and peripherals such as printers, plotters, disk drives and
modems that are linked together usually on a permanent basis so that they can communicate and
share resources and information. This could mean two computers on a desk or thousands of
computers across the globe, as in the case of the internet.

Types of Networks

Local Area Network (LAN) – a LAN describes a group of microcomputers or other workstations
connected on one site, such as a school or a block of offices for the exchange of information.
Generally, one or more computers act as a server for the purpose of sharing peripherals such as
hard disks, printers, tape backup, etc. The computers are usually connected by cables using one
of a given topology. The most commonly used topologies are Bus, Star and Ring.

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) – this is a wireless computer network that links two or
more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network
(LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory,
campus, office building, etc.
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Wide Area Network (WAN) – a WAN is similar to a LAN, but geographically spread over a
wider area. A typical example of a WAN is the internet, linking thousands of computers,
workstations and networks across the globe. The internet is a WAN because, through the use of
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), it connects lots of smaller local area networks (LANs) or
metropolitan area networks (MANs).The different segments of the WAN are connected by a
wide variety of communication media and devices (microwave, satellites, cables, telephone lines,
modems), depending on the distance between the different segments of the WAN.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) – A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that

interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic area or region larger than that covered

by local area network (LAN) but smaller than that covered by a wide area network (WAN). The

term is applied to the interconnection of networks in a city or campus into a single larger network.

Below is an example of a MAN.

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TYPES OF WIRELESS NETWORK TECHNOLOGY

• Bluetooth

Bluetooth is an open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances
from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks. It can connect
several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.

• Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)

This is a trademark of the Wi-Fi group for certified products based on the IEEE
802.11 standards (which is an organization dealing with local area networks and
metropolitan area networks). This certification warrants interoperability
between different wireless devices. Wi-Fi provides high speed wireless access
to a network or the internet. Wi-Fi provides easy access to information between
wireless devices from different manufacturing devices. Additionally, it allows different
devices to connect to the internet or communicate with one another wirelessly within a
particular area. Such devices include: personal computer operating systems, many video
games consoles, laptops, smart phones, printers, and other peripherals.

• Hotspot

A hotspot is a physical location that offers internet access over a wireless LAN
through the use of a shared internet connection and a single router.

LEVEL OF PRIVACY

THE INTERNET

We use the internet for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons include:
research, entertainment activities (watching movies, music videos, playing
games, etc.) and certainly to visit YouTube or other social media sites. Let
us now look at the definition of the term and key terms associated with the
internet.
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What is the internet?

This is the largest computer network system in the world. It is comprised of many smaller
networks connected together by a global public network.

You are familiar with the term internet, but did you know we also have what is called an
intranet and an extranet?

Intranet – This is a private network that belongs to an

organization, and is designed to be accessible
by the organizations’ members, employees or
others with authorization.

Extranet - This is when part of an intranet is made accessible to customers, partners,

suppliers or others outside a respective company.
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BASIC COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS OF A NETWORK

Types of Transmission Media (Cable/Wired Media)

This refers to the physical materials along which data travels

from one point to another. The media used is dependent on the
distance, speed and volume of data to be transmitted. For
computers that are linked by cables there are three choices:
Twisted pair, Coaxial cable and Fiber-optic cables. For
communication over long distances microwave and satellite
transmission are used.

Coaxial cables – this cable consists of a conductive cylindrical shield with a central wire or solid
core held together by an insulating material. These are the cables connected to your cable
television provider and one media used to connect computers in a local area network. They tend
to be faster and more expensive. They are used when voice and video transmission are necessary
or when large amount of data are to be transmitted.

Advantages

● Not capable of interference

● Transmission is fast
● Can accommodate digital and analog signals

Disadvantages

● Heavy and bulky

Fibre-Optic Cable – this cable is made up of tiny threads of glass tubes about the size of a
human hair. Large volumes of data can be transmitted at the speed of light through these glass
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tubes. Fibre-optic cables are extremely thin cables through which light, which is used to transmit
data passes. It also allows extremely fast and accurate transmission of large volumes of data. It
will become the communication medium of large volumes of data. It will become a
communication medium of choice replacing coaxial cables and telephone lines, if not already,
and possibly even satellite and microwave transmissions.

Advantages

● Smaller and lighter

● No interference
● Able to bend light around corner

Disadvantages

● Expensive
● Hard to install and modify

Twisted Pair – this is two insulated copper wires twisted around each other to reduce induction
(thus interference) from one wire to the other. The twists or lays are varied in length to reduce
the potential for signal interference between pairs. They are cheap and relatively slow so they are
usually used where the volume of data transmitted is small or where speed is not critical.

Advantages

● The telephone network links the entire world; therefore, data can be transmitted to almost
any place in the world.
● Cheap

Disadvantages
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● Subject to interference

Types of Wireless Transmission Media

A wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is wireless and is commonly
associated with a telecommunication network whose interconnections between nodes is
implemented without the use of wires. Wireless telecommunications networks are generally
implemented with some type of remote information transmission system that uses
electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves. Examples include:

(1) Satellite – this is man-made equipment that orbits around

the earth or the moon. It acts as a relay station in outer
space. It accepts signals beamed to it from a point on earth
and then reflects the signal to another point. It can
transmit data that includes text, voice, pictures and video.

Advantage

✔ No distance limitation

Disadvantages

● Very expensive to set up

● Not suitable for rapid exchange of data, because delays occur when data are sent
thousands of miles up into space.

(2) Microwave – These are very high frequency signals that can be
transmitted through space. In this communication channel the
medium is not a solid substance but air, itself.

Advantages

✔ Travels at the speed of light

✔ Transmits both analog and digital signal

Disadvantage
● Cannot travel around bend
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(3) Infra-red – this is a wave of light that is in the area beyond the visible part of the colour
spectrum. While it is invisible to the human eye infrared is often used to enhance
visibility when using night vision devices. There are two types of infra-red and they are:
Line-of-sight and scattered.

▪ Line of sight – for this communication there must be an

unblocked direct line between the workstation and the
transceiver. If a person walks within the line-of-sight
while there is a transmission, the information would need
to be sent again.

▪ Scattered infrared - this is a broadcast of infrared transmissions sent out in multiple

directions that bounces off walls and ceilings until it eventually hits the receiver.

Other key Terminologies

o Switch – is an electronic device that connects multiple computers together within a network.
Since the process of linking network segments is sometimes called bridging, switches are
usually referred to as bridging devices. The functions of switches primarily described as the
governance of signal flow, and they are designed with multiple ports.

o A router is a device which is designed to connect multiple networks together. Additionally, a

router forwards data packets to their destinations, based on their addresses.

o Modem

The term modem is short for modulator – demodulator and is an

electronic device that can convert digital signals into analog
signals and vice versa. For example, a modem at one computer
converts the digital signals produced by the computer to analog
signal for transmission along a telephone line. The speed of a
modem is measured in bits per second (bps). The process of
converting digital signal to analog is called modulation,
whereas the process of converting analog signal to digital signal
is called demodulation.

o Network interface card/network adapter (NIC) – A network interface card (NIC) is a

hardware component, typically a circuit board or chip, which is installed on a computer so that
it can connect to a network. Modern NICs provide functionality to computers such as support
for I/O interrupt, direct memory access (DMA) interfaces, data transmission, network traffic
engineering and partitioning.
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Types of NICs

▪ Wireless – These are NICs that use an antenna to provide wireless

reception through radio frequency waves. These are designed for Wi-Fi
connection.

▪ Wired - These are NICs that have input jacks made for cables. The
most popular wired LAN technology is Ethernet (protocol which
enable devices to communicate with each other).

▪ USB – These are NICs that provide network connections

through a device plugged into the USB port.

Key Web Technology Concepts

• World Wide Web (WWW) – this is just one component of the internet. It is basically a
collection of text and media documents called web pages, some of which are linked.

• Web Page – this is a document on the World Wide Web consisting of an HTML file and any
related files for scripts and graphics and often hyperlinked to other Web pages.

• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) – this is a markup language used to structure text
and multimedia documents used extensively on the World Wide Web. Hypertexts are
electronic documents that can contain text, tables, graphics, sounds and links to other
documents. The links are called hyperlinks. Clicking on a hypertext link transport the user
to another location on the web. This location can be on the same web page or website or a
totally different web site.

• Hyperlinks - The <a> tag defines a hyperlink, which is used to link from one page to
another. The most important attribute of the <a> element is the href attribute, which indicates
the link's destination. By default, links will appear as follows in all browsers: An unvisited
link is underlined and blue. E.g. Internet terms
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• Website – this is a set of interconnected Web pages, usually including a home page,
generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of
information by a person, group or organization. An example of a website is
www.amazon.com.

• Web server – this is a computer that delivers web pages. When a request is made to access a
website, the request is sent to the web server. The server then fetches the page and sends it to
your browser.

• Web Browser – this is a program that allows users to view and

explore information on the World Wide Web. Examples of
popular browsers are: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Chrome and
Mozilla Firefox. These browsers allow users to view graphics,
video, text and animation.

• Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – You can find information by typing in a website’s
direct address or URL into the ‘Address’ field, located at the top of the browser window. See
diagram below (figure 1).

Figure 1

A URL is a unique address (file name) obtained by each page on the World Wide Web. It is
basically the address of an internet file. For example: http://www.google.com/magazines.htm

A URL consists of several parts:

▪ Protocol (http) – The name of the Internet protocol, usually ‘http’, giving access to
the site for the downloading of a file.

▪ Server and domain name (www.google.com) – where e.g. ’www’ is the host name
(server), which is the computer on which the document is located; whereas,
’google.com’ would be the domain name for the website. The domain names are
bought from a domain name registrar.

▪ Magazines.htm – is the actual file name

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Here are some examples of the most commonly used domain names and their purpose.

Domain Purpose
name
.com Commercial
.edu Educational Institutions
.gov Government bodies
.net Computer networks
.org Other types of organisations, e.g. non-profit
organisations

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – this is a set of rules used to govern the sending and
receiving of files on the Internet. It facilitates the transfer of larger files between your hard
drive and servers connected to the internet. One of the special features of FTP is that you can
continue to download and upload files interruption, beginning where you left off.

• Upload – this is the process of reading data from a user’s computer storage and sending it to
another computer over communication channels.

• Download - this is the process whereby programs or data are transferred over
communications channels, from a computer and stored on media located at the user’s
computer.

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) – this is a protocol used to request and transmit files,
especially web pages and web page components, over the internet or other computer
network.