Networks

Networks

1. LAN

   • Local Area Network
   • On a small area, e.g: within one building
   • Computers are connected together over a small geographical area such as a single building or a single site
   • E.g: Home networks, School networks, Small shop network
   • LAN has its own infastructure of cabling and network hardware due to distance and practicalities

2. WAN

   • Wide Area Network
   • A WAN is made up of several connected LANs
   • A WAN is physically insecure becuase it is not contained within a private property
   • The devices on a WAN do not know each other's names or addresses
   • Computers are connected over a large geopraphical area. This could be several buildings/sites, town wide, county wide or evemn country wide.
   • The biggest WAN woukld be a global collection of networks
   • WAN uses external hardware and external infasturcture e.g: use of satelite,phone lines or the internet

3. A network is useful for communication between computers, and for sharing resources

4. Communicating

   • Chatting
   • Video conferencing
   • Sending e-mail
   • Playing games

5. Sharing

   • Sharing a printer
   • Sharing storage
   • Sharing files
   • Internet connection

6. Clients and Servers

   • Clients recieves sevices from a server
   • A server is normally a powerful computer, that provides services to other computers and devices on a network
   • Types of server
     • Printer Server
     • Storage Server
     • Web Server
     • Mail Server