Introduction
A computer network is a collection of active computing devices that are linked together. It is also a collection of computers and other equipment linked together through communication devices.
The network’s devices can be placed in any topology or geometric arrangement. These devices are the network’s nodes. Topology is point-to-point, with two computers connected via direct cable.
Types of Networks
Network has six (6) major types of networks namely.
- Personal Area Network (PAN).
- Local Area Network (LAN).
- Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).
- Wide Area Network (WAN).
PAN
PAN stands for Personal Area Network. It is a computer network that connects computer devices close to one person. The finest example of this PAN is the printer. A PAN has a range of 30 to 40 feet (8-10 meters). It may be connected to a computer through USB or fire-wire.
LAN
Local Area Network (LAN) is commonly used to connect two or more computers to share or link with one another, particularly in areas where multiple computers share a single printer.
The LAN, on the other hand, only covers a small geographical region, such as an office, a house, or a school. It is built with Ethernet technology. For example, a school could have a laboratory with a wired or wireless LAN that allows users to connect local devices (printers and servers).
MAN
MAN stands for Metropolitan Area Network. It is used to connect several computers inside a metropolis. For example, Owerri, Awka, and others. A Metropolitan Area Network is built by connecting routers, switches, and hubs.
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WAN
WAN stands for Wide Area Network. This network is utilized in situations when several computers are spread across a large geographical region (for example, from city to city or nation to country – Canada – Nigeria). It frequently makes use of data transmission services supplied by common carriers such as telephone companies.
The Server (Client)
Server LANs have a significantly wider range than peer-to-peer networks. The file is the most often used server. The file server frees up hard drive space on all client workstations and provides a single location to store data for access.
According to the preceding description, we have mail servers that transmit and distribute email, web servers that host Internet sites, database servers, and printer servers.
Client/server LANs can range in complexity from reasonably basic networks to networks with thousands of client workstations and several servers that require an entire team dedicated to maintaining the network operational.
Advantages of a server
- Accessibility: The accessibility of the server is remote and can connect multiple platforms.
- Interoperability: All elements (client/network/server) work together.
- Centralized: The security is controlled through the server.
- Flexibility: Advance technology can easily be integrated into the system.
- All components can be included individually as needs increase.
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Disadvantages of a server
- More capital is required.
- The maintenance of the server will require a staff to ensure efficient operation.
- Network operations will stop when the server goes down.
Intro to Internet
The Internet is a network made up of various domestic, academic, commercial, and government networks that convey diverse data and services such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, interconnected web pages, and other World Wide Web (WWW) resources.
What exactly is the Internet?
The internet, sometimes known as “The NET,” is a network of networks via which any individual who is connected to the internet may easily obtain information.
It also serves as a worldwide computer network, linking other networks and devices (computers) from industries, colleges, and other industrial organizations. It is a global network that connects millions of computers, and it connects more than 200 nations to share information, news, commodities, and ideas.
This is the most widely used global network, mostly for online commerce, education, and social interaction, as well as addressing user demands. The operator has the authority to determine which internet or local services are provided to global society.
The internet offers a variety of access points, most of which are online services, such as America, which provides certain internet services. Access can also be obtained through a commercial internet service provider.
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History of the internet
Although the majority of people have only heard of the Internet in the last 20 years or so, its origins can generally be found in the late 1950s. The United States established the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in February 1958 in an effort to retake the technical lead after the USSR’s Sputnik satellite launch. The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik series of robotic spacecraft missions.
The first of them, Sputnik 1, sent the first artificial object into orbit around the planet. It was launched on October 4, 1957, as part of the International Geophysical Year, and it proved that utilizing man-made satellites to study the upper atmosphere was feasible.
The United States was horrified by the unexpected launch of Sputnik 1 and the catastrophic failure of its first two Project Vanguard launch attempts. In response, the country launched many early satellites, including Explorer 1, Project Score, and Courier IB. These all occurred during the time known as the “cold war.”
The United States Air Force hired the Rand Corporation in 1962, during the height of the Cold War, to conduct a study on how to keep control of its missiles and bombers after a nuclear assault. A communication network, however, might continue to work even if only one of its components went down.
After the commissioning of RAND and almost two years of study, RAND employed Paul Baran, who submitted what is today known as the RAND proposal. Bara’s goal was to eliminate a single point of failure or weakness. To this end, Baran made the suggestion that the network be designed with multiple data paths to provide fault tolerance should any one path suffer a failure.
Crucial to Baran’s network design was the concept of pack-switching. Baran’s idea was to break the large stream of Data into small chunks known as Packets. Each packet contains a destination, address, etc. One can decide whether to send a message to a computer automatically.
Further to his proposal, RAND cited several benefits of using pack-switch technology, which include the following:
- Error recovery: When a packet fails to arrive at a destination, the particular lost packet can be resent without resending the entire message.
- Traffic optimization: Data can be routed over the best route at a given time moment, which can enhance communication speeds.
- No single point of failure: Accept the creation of a reliable network that can last.
It is the crisis encountered that led to the creation of the Advance Research Project Agency (now Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) renamed in 1972.
A contract to build a computer network was given to the company Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) in 1969 by ARPA, a division of the Department of Defence (DOD). This network was used to connect researchers at Universities with defense contractors, researchers, scientists, and military contractors so that they can share information and resources.
NSFnet: ARPANET remained in existence until 1989 when the Department of Defense decommissioned it and transferred all of its sites to the National Science Foundation (NSF), forming a network of other networks linking the government, the military, universities, and business.
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Furthermore, between 1969 and 1983, minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers made up the networks. This network has file transfer capabilities, electronic mail, and mailing list service.
The pack-switching system allows the creation of a Data highway that could handle a large amount of data including voice, text, video, etc.
The computer equivalent of a map and a time stamp were added to each data packet to ensure that it was transmitted to the correct location and that the reviewer could determine when the transmission began. The message would be reconfigured from the packet components at its destination such that either a machine or a person could interpret it.
Advantages of the Internet.
- It can make learning more accessible.
- It brings world information to one’s doorstep.
- It can remove the physical boundaries of the classroom, reduce class scheduling restraints, and offer easy access to a searchable database and a vast array of other worldwide resources.
- It is the cheapest global way of advertising (institution, business, or government facility)
- It is the easiest way of researching for information.
- The internet is one of the fastest message senders.
- It is also available for marketing.
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Disadvantage of internet
- It corrupts the minds of the youths, in the sense that some youths go to the internet to watch sex films, i.e. pornography, instead of searching for information.
- Wastage of finance. Some students waste their money on the internet by watching films, pop music, football, etc. which don’t matter as much as their studies.
- It provides room for piracy, whereby some new film programs etc. are free for download, thereby resulting in copying the exact work of others.
Features of internet
Accessibility
It’s a global network connecting millions of computers, and more than 200 countries are linked to exchanges of information, news, goods, and opinions. It connects faster and is the top 50 network of all.
More than 5000 computers can connect to the internet at a time, not determining the largest computer that connects to it.
Flexibility
It is a global computer network, connecting other networks and devices (computers) from factories, universities, and other industrial organizations.
Also, it makes the job easy i.e. if you want to translate the word “Internet” to Chinese, you don’t need to look for a Chinese to translate it, but rather you go to your “Google Translate” for the best choice.
Connectivity
By transmitting, connecting, and sharing networks from universities, companies, and businessmen, the connectivity of the internet remains faster. (i.e connecting your phone to the computer and sharing data from a government facility to a university).
Cost
A global network of all, the internet still has the cheapest cost rate in the world. You can share one million pieces of information using the internet, but guess how much it will cost you as a consumer, just only a few megabit (MB) to be used.
Benefits of the Internet
- The internet is a significant learning resource and an effective way of communicating.
- The ability to learn and investigate independently
- Teachers can also use the internet to increase their options for curriculum in a time-efficient manner.
- Both directly and indirectly, the development of Internet infrastructure has an influence on the economy.
- Small businesses may locate their clients anytime, anywhere in the world, while large corporations can interact with staff, partners, and suppliers all over the world.
- There will be an increase in demand for wireless devices, computer and home network equipment, software applications, and other equipment as internet penetration rises.
- The internet helps individuals connect with one another. In this way, rural clinics and hospitals can have access to the same medical expertise that is available in the most sophisticated urban hospitals.
- The main instrument for enabling governmental operations and engagement with the public and industry is e-government.
- Interactive features are available on more advanced Web pages, allowing visitors to comment on the page’s content.
Communication Services
Email is a vital communication tool that is accessible over the Internet. Prior to the development of the Internet, the idea of exchanging electronic text messages between individuals in a manner akin to mailing letters or memoranda was already in existence. Email attachments are used to send documents, photos, and other types of information. Several email addresses can be included as CC recipients in emails.
The development of the Internet has made it feasible for yet another widely used communication service, internet telephony. VoIP, or voice-over-internet protocol, refers to the standard protocol used for all Internet communication. Early speech programs for personal computers that resembled walkie-talkies gave rise to the concept. Numerous VoIP systems have evolved recently to match the simplicity and practicality of a regular phone.
Because the Internet moves the voice transmission, VoIP can be free or considerably less expensive than a typical phone call, especially over long distances and for people with always-on Internet connections like cable or ADSL. VoIP is becoming a viable alternative to traditional phone service. Interoperability across carriers has increased, and it is now easy to call or receive conversations from a regular telephone. There are simple, low-cost VoIP network adapters available that eliminate the need for a personal computer.
Communication
Communication is the way to share information between two parties. What is shared includes the data, programs, images, and sound. The program is located on the computer system, now called workstations or servers.
Model of Communication
Communication setup can be represented as shown below.
The Communication Function
The communication function carried out by a computer involves the transmission of data from one computer to another. The geographical distance between the two computers may be of arbitrary length. The most common computer devices used for communication within two computers are the modem and the network interface card.
Interaction through World Wide Web (WWW)
Although the phrases internet and World Wide Web—or simply the web—are sometimes used interchangeably, they do not mean the same thing. The main application that billions of people use on the Internet is the World Wide Web, and it has significantly transformed their lives. The Internet does provide a variety of different services, though. The Web is a massive collection of text, graphics, and other materials that are logically connected by hyperlinks and identified by Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).
Services, servers, other databases, and the documents and resources they can offer are all symbolically identified by URIs.
HTTP
The primary access protocol for the World Wide Web is called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is another protocol that web services use to connect and transmit data and business logic across software systems.
Hyperlinks
Users can access hyperlinks included in online pages to move between web pages using World Wide Web browser software like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple’s Safari, and Google Chrome. These documents may also include any mix of computer data, including interactive elements that run as the user interacts with the page, audio, video, images, and text.
Games
Games, office programs, animations, and scientific simulations are all examples of client-side software. Users worldwide have simple, rapid access to a massive and diversified quantity of online material through keyword-driven Internet research utilizing search engines such as Yahoo! and Google. In comparison to printed media, books, encyclopedias, and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has permitted large-scale information decentralization.
Individuals and organizations may now broadcast ideas and information to a potentially vast audience online at a much lower cost and time delay thanks to the Web. There is minimal initial cost to publishing a web page, a blog, or constructing a website, and many free services are accessible.
Publishing and maintaining sizable, expert websites with appealing, varied, and current content is still a challenging and expensive endeavor. Web logs or blogs, which are primarily used as quickly updateable online diaries, are used by many people, certain businesses, and organizations. Some businesses encourage employees to share advice in their areas of expertise in the hopes that customers will be pleased by the professional insight and free information and be drawn to the business as a consequence.
Microsoft is one company that uses this strategy, with its product creators posting personal blogs to attract attention for their work. Collections of personal web sites offered by major service providers continue to be well-liked and have advanced significantly.
Although newer services from companies like Facebook and Twitter today have enormous followings, older ones like Angelfire and GeoCities have been there since the early days of the Internet. Rather from only acting as web page hosts, these businesses frequently position themselves as social network services.
E-commerce, or the direct sale of goods and services via the Internet, is still expanding, and advertisements on prominent websites may be quite profitable.
A typical web page was kept in finished form on a web server in the 1990s when the Web was developing, formatted in HTML, and ready for transmission to a web browser in response to a request. The process of building and delivering web pages has evolved into one that is dynamic, resulting in adaptable design, layout, and content.
Websites are frequently built using content management systems with minimal material at first. Using editing sites created for that purpose, contributors to these systems—who may be paid personnel, members of an organization, or the general public—fill underlying databases with material while casual users view and read this information in HTML format. The process of taking freshly entered material and making it available to the target visitors may or may not include editorial, approval, and security processes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the internet is a global network of all, designed to help share information worldwide, from universities to businesses, industries, organizations, etc.
It was first built in the United States of America as the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in February 1958.
…1962, at the depth of the Cold War, the United States Air Force commissioned the Rand Corporation to do a study on how it could maintain command and control over its missiles and bombers after a nuclear attack.
