Networks

Networks

1. WAN

   • Stands for Wide Area Network

2. LAN

   • Stands for Local Area Network

3. Advantages

   • You can use the same username and password on every computer to access the same files

4. Disadvantages

   • Really tricky to manage
   • Networks can add up to become very expensive
   • Networks can be really easy to hack, and then all of the files are accessible to the hacker on one computer
   • If one of the computers gets a virus then it will spread to all of them

5. Topology

   • Bus
     • Advantages
       • Cheap to install
     • Disadvantages
       • High chance of failure
       • High chance of collisions
       • It slows down as more computers are added
   • Star
     • Disadvantages
       • It is expensive to install
       • It depends on a switch
     • Advantages
       • Low chance of failure
       • No collisions
       • Fast
   • Ring
     • Disadvantages
       • It is expensive to install
       • It depends on a switch
     • Advantages
       • Low chance of failure
       • No chance of collisions
       • Fast

6. Network Addressing

   • An IP Address is a unique value assigned to every computer on a network, used to identify it
   • Messages on a network have an IP address attached, which is how a computer knows whether or not to keep the message
   • The Internet is a huge network with more devices than it’s possible to assign a unique address to
   • Unique addresses are assigned to businesses and houses
   • These houses and businesses run their own mini-network inside with different IP Addresses