NETWORKS

NETWORKS

1. Advantages

   • You will only have to write something up once because you caan then share it.
   • You can share resources like printers and wifi connection.
   • You can share logins so it will be shared on every device.

2. Disadvantages

   • Networks are expensive to set up.
   • If one computer gets a virus, it will spread to all of them.
   • You need expertise to set them up because they are complicated.

3. Types of network

   • WAN
     • This stands for wide area network.
       • It's a network that spans a large geographical area.
   • LAN
     • It stands for Local Area Network.
       • This is a network contained in a single geographical loaction.

4. Topologies

   • Bus Topology
     • Advantages
       • Cheap to install
     • Disadvantages
       • High chance of failure
       • Lots of collisions
       • slows when more devices are added
   • Star Topology
     • Advantages
       • Low chance of failure
       • No collisions
     • disadvantages
       • Expensive
       • Depends on a switch
   • Ring Topology
     • Advantages
       • Cheap to install
       • No collisions
     • Disadvantages
       • high chance of failure
       • difficult to expand

5. IP Address

   • A unique value assigned to every computer on the network to identify it.
   • Messages on a network have an IP Address so a computer knows if it should keep the message or not
   • They need to be unique because if two different computers had the same IP address, a message could go to both or the wrong on.

6. The Internet

   • Giant mesh of computers
   • A cost is assigned to each connection
     • Algorithms are used to find the lowest cost
   • Split into small chunks called packets
     • Each packet is sent along the lowest cost route
     • They are re-assembled on the other side