Introduction to

Computer Networks,
Internet, WWW, e-mails
COURSE: BBA.LLB SECOND YEAR SEM IV (2022-2023)
SUBJECT: ICT AND LEGAL RESEARCH
Introduction
We are living in a connected world. Information is being produced, exchanged, and traced across
the globe in real time. It's possible as almost everyone and everything in the digital world is
interconnected through one way or the other.
What is a network?
A group of two or more similar things or people interconnected with each other is called
“network”.

Some of the examples of network in our everyday life includes:

Social network
Mobile network
Network of computers
Airlines, railway, banks, hospitals networks
What is a computer network?
A computer network is an interconnection among two or more computers or computing devices.
Such interconnection allows computers to share data and resources among each other.
A basic network may connect a few computers placed in a room. The network size may vary
from small to large depending on the number of computers it connects.
A computer network can include different types of hosts (also called nodes) like server, desktop,
laptop, cellular phones etc.
What is a computer network?
Apart from computers, networks include networking devices like switch, router, modem, etc.
Networking devices are used to connect multiple computers in different settings. For
communication, data in a network is divided into smaller chunks called packets. These packets
are then carried over a network. Devices in a network can be connected either through wired
media like cables or wireless media like air.
In a communication network, each device that is a part of a network and that can receive,
create, store or send data to different network routes is called a node. In the context of data
communication, a node can be a device such as a modem, switch, router, smart phone, a
printer, a computer or a server.
Importance of computer networks
Interconnectivity of computing devices in a network allows us to exchange information
simultaneously with many parties through email, websites, audio/video calls, etc.
Network allows sharing of resources.
For example, a printer can be made available to multiple computers through a network; a
networked storage can be accessed by multiple computers. People often connect their devices
through hotspot, thus forming a small personal network.
Types of Network

WAN
MAN
LAN
PAN
Types of Network: Explained
1. PAN ( Personal Area Network)
It is a network formed by connecting a few personal devices like computers, laptops, mobile
phones, smart phones, printers etc. All these devices lie within an approximate range of 10
metres.
A personal area network may be wired or wireless.
For example, a mobile phone connected to the laptop through USB forms a wired PAN while two
smartphones communicating with each other through Bluetooth technology form a wireless
PAN or WPAN.
Types of Network: Explained
2. Local Area Network (LAN)
It is a network that connects computers, mobile phones, tablet, mouse, printer, etc., placed at a
limited distance. The geographical area covered by a LAN can range from a single room, a floor,
an office having one or more buildings in the same premise, laboratory, a school, college, or
university campus.

3. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is an extended form of LAN which covers a larger
geographical area like a city or a town. Cable TV network or cable based broadband internet
services are examples of MAN. This kind of network can be extended up to 30-40 km.
Sometimes, many LANs are connected together to form MAN.
Types of Network: Explained
4. Wide Area Network (WAN)
Wide Area Network connects computers and other LANs and MANs, which are spread across
different geographical locations of a country or in different countries or continents. A WAN
could be formed by connecting a LAN to other LANs via wired/wireless media. Large business,
educational and government organizations connect their different branches in different
locations across the world through WAN.
Network Topology
The arrangement of computers and other peripherals in a network is called its topology.
Common network topologies are Mesh, Ring, Bus, Star, Tree and Hybrid.
Choice of topology for a computer network depends on multiple factors such as-
Desired performance of the system
Costs of components and services required to implement the network
Availability of communication lines
Desired reliability of the system
Network Topology
1. Star Topology
In star topology, each communicating device is connected to a central node. The central node
can be either a broadcasting device means data will be transmitted to all the nodes in the
network, or a unicast device means the node can identify the destination and forward data to
that node only.
Network Topology
Advantages:
1. It is cost effective.
2. IF any node other than host node fails, remaining nodes are unaffected.

Disadvantage:
The system crucially depends on the host node. If it fails, entire network will fail.
Network Topology
2. Ring Topology
In ring topology , each node is connected to two other devices, one each on either side, as
shown in the figure below. The nodes connected with each other thus forms a ring. A node
receives data from one of its two adjacent nodes. If the data is for its use, it utilizes it, otherwise
the node merely passes it to the next node.
Network Topology
Advantages:
1. It works well where there is no central node required.
2. It is more reliable than star topology because communication is not dependent on a single
central node. If a link between any node fails or of any node fails, alternate routing is possible.

Disadvantages:
1. In a ring network, communication delay is directly proportional to the number of nodes in a
network. Hence, addition of new nodes in a network increases communication delay.
2.It requires a more complicated control software than star network.
Network Topology
3. Bus Topology
In bus topology, each communicating device connects to a transmission medium, known as bus.
Data sent from a node are passed on to the bus and hence are transmitted to the length of the
bus in both directions. That means, data can be received by any of the nodes connected to the
bus.
Network Topology
Advantages:
1.Addition of new nodes is easy.
2. It works excellently in a tiny network.

Disadvantage
1.If the shared communication line fails, entire network fails.
2.For large networks, it is not suitable.
3.If we add new devices to the bus topology network, it would affect the network and slow
down.
Network Topology
4. Mesh Topology
In this networking topology, each communicating device is connected with every other device in
the network as shown in Figure below. Such a network can handle large amounts of traffic since
multiple nodes can transmit data simultaneously.
Network Topology
Advantages:
1.It is very fault tolerant. If one node in the network goes down, the rest of the nodes can still
communicate with each other.
2.All nodes in a mesh network have a dedicated connection to every other node in the network.
This means that there is no single point of failure and the network can continue to operate even
if one node fails.
3. Faster connectivity.

Disadvantages:
1.It is more expensive.
2. Installation and configuration is difficult.
Network Topology
5. Tree Topology
It has a root node and all other nodes are connected to it forming a hierarchy. It is also known
as hierarchial topology. It is an extension of star and bus topology.
Network Topology
Advantages:
1. Expansion of nodes is possible and easy.
2. Error detection is easily done.
3. Easily managed and maintained.

Disadvantages:
1. Costly.
2. Heavily cabled.
Network Topology
5. Hybrid Topology
It is a hierarchical topology, in which there are multiple branches and each branch can have one
or more basic topologies like star, ring and bus. Such topologies are usually used in WANs where
multiple LANs are connected. Those LANs may be in the form of a ring, bus or star.
Network Topology
Advantages:
1. Reliable as error detecting and trouble shooting is easy.
2. Effective
3. Flexible.
4. Scalable as the size can be increased. As the network grows, additional nodes can be added to the
network without having to reconfigure the entire network.

Disadvantages:
1. Costly.
2. Complex in design.
3. Heavily cabled
The Internet
The Internet is the global network of computing devices including desktop, laptop, servers, tablets,
mobile phones, other handheld devices as well as peripheral devices such as printers, scanners, etc.
In addition, it also consists of networking devices such as routers, modems, switches, gateways, etc.
Today, smart electronic appliances like TV, AC, refrigerator, fan, light, etc., can also communicate
through the Internet. The list of such smart devices are always increasing e.g., drones, vehicles, door
lock, security camera, etc. The Internet is evolving everyday.
The Internet is evolving everyday. Computers are either connected to a modem through a cable or
wirelessly (Wi-Fi). A modem, be it wired or wireless, is connected to a local Internet Service Provider
(ISP) who then connects to a national network. Many such ISPs connect together forming a regional
network and regional networks connect together forming a national network, and such country-wise
networks form the Internet backbone. The Internet today is a widespread network, and its influence
is no longer limited to the technical fields of computer communications. It is being used by everyone
in the society as is evident from the increasing use of online tools for education, creativity,
entertainment, socialization and e-commerce.
Applications of Internet
Following are some of the broad areas or services provided through Internet:
• The World Wide Web (WWW)
• Electronic mail (Email) etc
The World Wide Web (WWW)
The World Wide Web (WWW) or web in short, is an ocean of information, stored in the form of
trillions of interlinked web pages and web resources. The resources on the web can be shared or
accessed through the Internet.
Earlier, to access files residing in different computers, one had to login individually to each
computer through the Internet. Besides, files in different computers were sometimes in
different formats, and it was difficult to understand each other’s files and documents. Sir Tim
Berners-Lee — a British computer scientist invented the revolutionary World Wide Web in 1990
by defining the following fundamental technologies that lead to creation of web:
i) HTML
Ii)URL/URI
HTML – HyperText Markup Language. It is a language which is used to design standardized Web
Pages so that the Web contents can be read and understood from any computer. Basic structure
of every webpage is designed using HTML.

URI – Uniform Resource Identifier. It is a unique address or path for each resource located on the
web. It is also known as Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Every page on the web has a unique
URL.
Examples are:
https://main.sci.gov.in/
https://ecourts.gov.in/ecourts_home/
E-mail
Email is the short form of electronic mail. It is one of the ways of sending and receiving
message(s) using the Internet. An email can be sent anytime to any number of recipients at
anywhere. The message can be either text entered directly onto the email application or an
attached file (text, image audio, video, etc.) stored on a secondary storage. An existing file can
be sent as an attachment with the email, so no need to type it again.
To use email service, one needs to register with an email service provider by creating a mail
account. These services may be free or paid. Some of the popular email service providers are
Google (gmail), Yahoo (yahoo mail), Microsoft (outlook), etc. However, many organisations
nowadays get customised business email addresses for their staff using their own domain name.
For example, [email protected].
E-mail
Following are some of the common facilities available for an email user:
1. Creating an email, attaching files with an email, saving an email as draft for mailing later. Creating
email is also termed as composing.
2. Sending and receiving mail. Same email can be sent to multiple email addresses, simultaneously.
3. Sending the copy of mail, as carbon copy (cc) or blind carbon copy (bcc).
4. Forwarding a received email to other user(s)
5. Filtering spam emails
6. Organizing email in folders and sub folders
7. Creating and managing email ids of the people you know.
8. Setting signature/footer to be inserted automatically at the end of each email
9. Printing emails using a printer or saving as files.
10. Searching emails using email address or email subject text
Other benefits of Internet
Online Communication
Software sharing
Exchange of views on topics of common interest
Posting of information of general interest
Marketing and promotions
Customer support services
Online journals, magazines, books, encyclopedias, dictionaries
E-commerce
Online web casting