Computing 1.4 OCR IGCSE

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OCR GCSE Computing Unit 1.4

Types of Network

LAN (Local Area Network)

With a LAN network computers are connected together over a small geographical area such as a single building or a single site. LAN networks can be home networks, school networks, network in a shop etc. LAN has its own infrastructure of cabling and network hardware due to distance and practicalities

WAN (Wide Area Network)

With a WAN network computers are connected over a large geographical area. This could be several buildings, towns or countries. The biggest WAN would be a global collection of networks - the Internet. Wan uses external hardware and infrastructure like satellites, phone lines or the Internet.

There are two ways of setting up a network to share data and services:

Client Server

With a client server the network relies on a central server and all devices request services from the server like print services or file services. For this to work additional hardware would be needed like high end powerful servers. All files can be stored centrally on a client server and workers can access files from any computer. All computers can update central databases.

Peer-Peer

A peer to peer server is where all computers are equal status and each client can act as a client and a server. All devices can request and provide network services and no additional hardware or software is needed to set up this type of network. All files are stored on their own computers but users have to login to the same computer every time.

To remember that client server relies on a central server and a peer to peer server has an equal status think of a dictatorship and communism - Client server has a central server (dictatorship) and peer to peer