Computer Networks

Benefits of Networking

• Sharing devices like printers saves money.
• Site licences are likely to be cheaper than buying several standalone licences.
• Files can easily be shared between users.
• Network users can communicate by email.
• Security is good, users cannot see other users' files unlike on stand-alone machines.
• Data is easy to backup as all the data is stored on the file server.
• Single password per user instead of per device.

Drawbacks of Networking

• Purchasing the network cabling and file servers can be expensive.
• Managing a large network is complicated, requires training and a network manager usually needs to be employed.
• If the file server breaks down the files on the file server become inaccessible.
• Viruses can spread to other computers throughout a computer network.
• There is a danger of hacking, particularly with WANs.

Types of Network

Local Area Network

Local Area Networks (Also known as "LAN") is a form of networking that allows devices to communitcate to eachother and networks, LAN is connected via an Ethernet cable then connected to a server or a router to connect to a network or another device. LAN is connected by Ethernet Cables, these are made up of coxial cable in different types. This, for a long time, was the only way to connect a computer as they used to have where they would connect to a mainframe and then a computer would be connected by Ethernet cable to the mainframe, making it a Local Area Network.

Wide Area Network

A wide area network (WAN) is a collection of local area networks (LAN) over a geographical area. An example of a WAN is the internet.