Networks

Networks

1. Disadvantages

   • Very expensive to run
   • Higher risk of being hacked
   • Hard to set up
   • If one cable is broken the entire system crashes

2. Types of networks

   • WAN
     • Wide Area Network
     • A network in a large area or multiple organisations
   • LAN
     • Local Area Network
     • A network in a small area or a single organisation

3. Advantages

   • Files can be accessed from any computer on the network
   • Share printers and internet
   • Use the same login details anywhere on the network

4. Topologies

   • Bus
     • Disadvantages
       • High chance of failure
       • Lots of collisions
       • Slows down when more computers are added
     • Advantages
       • Cheap
   • Star
     • Advantages
       • low chance of failure
       • No collisions (fast)
     • Disadvantages
       • Expensive
       • If switch breaks the whole system goes down
   • Ring
     • Advantages
       • Cheap
       • No collisions
     • Disadvantages
       • High chance of failure
       • Hard to expand

5. IP Addresses

   • A unique value assigned to every computer on a network, used to identify it
     • There are more computers on the internet than IP addresses that exist so unique ones are assigned to businesses and houses
     • IP addresses range from 0.0.0.0. to 255.255.255.255. So there are 4,228,250,625 unique IP addresses

6. The Internet

   • The internet is a mesh network
   • There are multiple routes between nodes
   • It is impossible for the internet to crash as there is always another route
   • when exporting big chunks of data it is split into packets