About Networks

About Networks

1. LAN

   • Stands for Local area network
   • a network contained in a single geographical location
     • Or organisation

2. WAN

   • Stands for Wide Area Network
   • A network over a large area or multiple organisations

3. Advantages

   • Computers can communicate
   • easier to access files
   • uploading data is easier

4. Disadvantages

   • Computers on a network could get infected by a virus
     • Viruses can spread
   • higher risk of whole network being infected y a virus
   • Security issues
   • Expensive
   • More room for error
   • Harder to manage
   • easily hacked

5. Topologies

   • Ring topology
     • computers connected to each other and communication goes in one direction
     • cheap
   • Bus topology
     • One cable where all devices attach to
     • High chance of collisions
   • star Topology
     • computers are connected to a central switch
     • switch directs the traffic to the apropriate computers

6. IP adresses

   • Its a unique value assigned to every computer, used identify
   • If the message is the computers IP address than it keeps the message
     • If the message isn't the computers IP address it deletes it or passes it on.
   • The IP address is a 32 bit binary value
     • This means its made up of 32 1s and 0s
   • When the format of Ip adresses came out in 1983 4 billion adresses seemed more than enough but it wasnt .
   • Only external IP adresses need to be unique (an adress to each house or business)
   • Internal IP addresses dont need to be unique for they are not directly accessible
   • 225 is the biggest number that can be represented in 8 binary bits