COMPUTER NETWORK AND SECURITY NOTES

Basics of Computer Networking

Last Updated : 16 May, 2024
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Computer Networking is the practice of connecting computers together to enable
communication and data exchange between them. In general, Computer Network is a
collection of two or more computers. It helps users to communicate more easily. In
this article, we are going to discuss the basics which everyone must know before
going deep into Computer Networking.

Computer Networking

How Does a Computer Network Work?

Basics building blocks of a Computer network are Nodes and Links. A Network Node
can be illustrated as Equipment for Data Communication like a Modem, Router, etc.,
or Equipment of a Data Terminal like connecting two computers or more. Link in
Computer Networks can be defined as wires or cables or free space of wireless
networks.
The working of Computer Networks can be simply defined as rules or protocols
which help in sending and receiving data via the links which allow Computer
networks to communicate. Each device has an IP Address, that helps in identifying a
device.
Basic Terminologies of Computer Networks
 Network: A network is a collection of computers and devices that are
connected together to enable communication and data exchange.
 Nodes: Nodes are devices that are connected to a network. These can
include computers, Servers, Printers, Routers, Switches, and other devices.
 Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules and standards that govern how data is
transmitted over a network. Examples of protocols include TCP/IP, HTTP,
and FTP.
 Topology: Network topology refers to the physical and logical arrangement
of nodes on a network. The common network topologies include bus, star,
ring, mesh, and tree.
 Service Provider Networks: These types of Networks give permission to
take Network Capacity and Functionality on lease from the Provider.
Service Provider Networks include Wireless Communications, Data
Carriers, etc.
 IP Address: An IP address is a unique numerical identifier that is assigned
to every device on a network. IP addresses are used to identify devices and
enable communication between them.
 DNS: The Domain Name System (DNS) is a protocol that is used to
translate human-readable domain names (such as www.google.com) into IP
addresses that computers can understand.
 Firewall: A firewall is a security device that is used to monitor and control
incoming and outgoing network traffic. Firewalls are used to protect
networks from unauthorized access and other security threats.
Types of Enterprise Computer Networks
 LAN: A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that covers a small area,
such as an office or a home. LANs are typically used to connect computers
and other devices within a building or a campus.
 WAN: A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a network that covers a large
geographic area, such as a city, country, or even the entire world. WANs are
used to connect LANs together and are typically used for long-distance
communication.
 Cloud Networks: Cloud Networks can be visualized with a Wide Area
Network (WAN) as they can be hosted on public or private cloud service
 providers and cloud networks are available if there is a demand. Cloud
Networks consist of Virtual Routers, Firewalls, etc.
These are just a few basic concepts of computer networking. Networking is a vast and
complex field, and there are many more concepts and technologies involved in
building and maintaining networks. Now we are going to discuss some more concepts
on Computer Networking.
 Open system: A system that is connected to the network and is ready for
communication.
 Closed system: A system that is not connected to the network and can’t be
communicated with.
Types of Computer Network Architecture
Computer Network falls under these broad Categories:
 Client-Server Architecture: Client-Server Architecture is a type of
Computer Network Architecture in which Nodes can be Servers or Clients.
Here, the server node can manage the Client Node Behaviour.
 Peer-to-Peer Architecture: In P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Architecture, there is not
any concept of a Central Server. Each device is free for working as either
client or server.
Network Devices
An interconnection of multiple devices, also known as hosts, that are connected using
multiple paths for the purpose of sending/receiving data or media. Computer networks
can also include multiple devices/mediums which help in the communication between
two different devices; these are known as Network devices and include things such as
routers, switches, hubs, and bridges.

Network Devices

Network Topology
The Network Topology is the layout arrangement of the different devices in a
network. Common examples include Bus, Star, Mesh, Ring, and Daisy chain.
 Network Topology

OSI Model
OSI stands for Open Systems Interconnection. It is a reference model that specifies
standards for communications protocols and also the functionalities of each layer. The
OSI has been developed by the International Organization For Standardization and it
is 7 layer architecture. Each layer of OSI has different functions and each layer has to
follow different protocols. The 7 layers are as follows:
 Physical Layer
 Data link Layer
 Network Layer
 Transport Layer
 Session Layer
 Presentation Layer
 Application Layer
Protocol
A protocol is a set of rules or algorithms which define the way how two entities can
communicate across the network and there exists a different protocol defined at each
layer of the OSI model. A few such protocols are TCP, IP, UDP, ARP, DHCP, FTP,
and so on.
Unique Identifiers of Network
Hostname: Each device in the network is associated with a unique device name
known as Hostname. Type “hostname” in the command prompt(Administrator Mode)
and press ‘Enter’, this displays the hostname of your machine.
 HostName

IP Address (Internet Protocol address): Also known as the Logical Address, the IP
Address is the network address of the system across the network. To identify each
device in the world-wide-web, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
assigns an IPV4 (Version 4) address as a unique identifier to each device on the
Internet. The length of an IPv4 address is 32 bits, hence, we have 2 32 IP addresses
available. The length of an IPv6 address is 128 bits.
In Windows Type “ipconfig” in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’, this gives us
the IP address of the device. For Linux, Type “ifconfig” in the terminal and press
‘Enter’ this gives us the IP address of the device.
MAC Address (Media Access Control address): Also known as physical address,
the MAC Address is the unique identifier of each host and is associated with its NIC
(Network Interface Card). A MAC address is assigned to the NIC at the time of
manufacturing. The length of the MAC address is: 12-nibble/ 6 bytes/ 48 bits Type
“ipconfig/all” in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’, this gives us the MAC
address.
Port: A port can be referred to as a logical channel through which data can be
sent/received to an application. Any host may have multiple applications running, and
each of these applications is identified using the port number on which they are
running.
A port number is a 16-bit integer, hence, we have 2 16 ports available which are
categorized as shown below:
Port Types Range

Well known Ports 0 – 1023

 Port Types Range

Registered Ports 1024 – 49151

Ephemeral Ports 49152 – 65535

Number of ports: 65,536

Range: 0 – 65535
Type “netstat -a” in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’, this lists all the ports
being used.

List of Ports

Socket: The unique combination of IP address and Port number together is termed a
Socket.
Other Related Concepts
DNS Server: DNS stands for Domain Name System. DNS is basically a server that
translates web addresses or URLs (ex: www.google.com) into their corresponding IP
addresses. We don’t have to remember all the IP addresses of each and every
website. The command ‘nslookup’ gives you the IP address of the domain you are
looking for. This also provides information on our DNS Server. \
Computer Security – Overview
Last Updated : 24 Aug, 2022
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Computer security refers to protecting and securing computers and their related data,
networks, software, hardware from unauthorized access, misuse, theft, information
loss, and other security issues. The Internet has made our lives easier and has provided
us with lots of advantages but it has also put our system’s security at risk of being
infected by a virus, of being hacked, information theft, damage to the system, and
much more.
Technology is growing day by day and the entire world is in its grasp. We cannot
imagine even a day without electronic devices around us. With the use of this growing
technology, invaders, hackers and thieves are trying to harm our computer’s security
for monetary gains, recognition purposes, ransom demands, bullying others, invading
into other businesses, organizations, etc. In order to protect our system from all these
risks, computer security is important.

Types of computer security

Computer security can be classified into four types:
1. Cyber Security: Cyber security means securing our computers, electronic devices,
networks , programs, systems from cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are those attacks that
happen when our system is connected to the Internet.
2. Information Security: Information security means protecting our system’s
information from theft, illegal use and piracy from unauthorized use. Information
security has mainly three objectives: confidentiality, integrity, and availability of
information.
3. Application Security: Application security means securing our applications and
data so that they don’t get hacked and also the databases of the applications remain
safe and private to the owner itself so that user’s data remains confidential.
4. Network Security: Network security means securing a network and protecting the
user’s information about who is connected through that network. Over the network
hackers steal, the packets of data through sniffing and spoofing attacks, man in the
middle attack, war driving, etc, and misuse the data for their benefits.

Types of cyber attack

1. Denial of service attack or DOS: A denial of service attack is a kind of cyber

attack in which the attackers disrupt the services of the particular network by sending
infinite requests and temporary or permanently making the network or machine
resources unavailable to the intended audience.
2. Backdoor: In a backdoor attack, malware, trojan horse or virus gets installed in our
system and start affecting it’s security along with the main file. Consider an example:
suppose you are installing free software from a certain website on the Internet. Now,
unknowingly, along with this software, a malicious file also gets installed, and as soon
as you execute the installed software that file’s malware gets affected and starts
affecting your computer security. This is known as a backdoor.
3.Eavesdropping: Eavesdropping refers to secretly listening to someone’s talk
without their permission or knowledge. Attackers try to steal, manipulate, modify,
hack information or systems by passively listening to network communication,
knowing passwords etc. A physical example would be, suppose if you are talking to
another person of your organization and if a third person listens to your private talks
then he/ she is said to eavesdrop on your conversation. Similarly, your conversation
on the internet maybe eavesdropped by attackers listening to your private
conversation by connecting to your network if it is insecure.
4. Phishing: Phishing is pronounced as “fishing” and working functioning is also
similar. While fishing, we catch fish by luring them with bait. Similarly, in phishing, a
user is tricked by the attacker who gains the trust of the user or acts as if he is a
genuine person and then steals the information by ditching. Not only attackers but
some certain websites that seem to be genuine, but actually they are fraud sites. These
sites trick the users and they end up giving their personal information such as login
details or bank details or card number etc. Phishing is of many types: Voice phishing,
text phishing etc.
5. Spoofing: Spoofing is the act of masquerading as a valid entity through
falsification of data(such as an IP address or username), in order to gain access to
information or resources that one is otherwise unauthorized to obtain. Spoofing is of
several types- email spoofing, IP address spoofing, MAC spoofing , biometric
spoofing etc.
6. Malware: Malware is made up of two terms: Malicious + Software = Malware.
Malware intrudes into the system and is designed to damage our computers. Different
types of malware are adware, spyware, ransomware, Trojan horse, etc.
7. Social engineering: Social engineering attack involves manipulating users
psychologically and extracting confidential or sensitive data from them by gaining
their trust. The attacker generally exploits the trust of people or users by relying on
their cognitive basis.
8. Polymorphic Attacks: Poly means “many” and morph means “form”, polymorphic
attacks are those in which attacker adopts multiple forms and changes them so that
they are not recognized easily. These kinds of attacks are difficult to detect due to
their changing forms.

Steps to ensure computer security

In order to protect our system from the above-mentioned attacks, users should take
certain steps to ensure system security:
1. Always keep your Operating System up to date. Keeping it up to date reduces the
risk of their getting attacked by malware, viruses, etc.
2. Always use a secure network connection. One should always connect to a secure
network. Public wi-fi’s and unsecured networks should be avoided as they are at risk
of being attacked by the attacker.
3. Always install an Antivirus and keep it up to date. An antivirus is software that
scans your PC against viruses and isolates the infected file from other system files so
that they don’t get affected. Also, we should try to go for paid anti-viruses as they are
more secure.
4. Enable firewall. A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access
to/from a computer or even to a private network of computers. A firewall can be either
in hardware, software or a combination of both.
5. Use strong passwords. Always make strong passwords and different passwords for
all social media accounts so that they cannot be key logged, brute forced or detected
easily using dictionary attacks. A strong password is one that has 16 characters which
are a combination of upper case and lower case alphabets, numbers and special
characters. Also, keep changing your passwords regularly.
6. Don’t trust someone easily. You never know someone’s intention, so don’t trust
someone easily and end up giving your personal information to them. You don’t know
how they are going to use your information.
7. Keep your personal information hidden. Don’t post all your personal information
on social media. You never know who is spying on you. As in the real world, we try
to avoid talking to strangers and sharing anything with them. Similarly, social media
also have people whom you don’t know and if you share all your information on it
you may end up troubling yourself.
8. Don’t download attachments that come along with e-mails unless and until you
know that e-mail is from a genuine source. Mostly, these attachments contain malware
which, upon execution infect or harms your system.
9. Don’t purchase things online from anywhere. Make sure whenever you are
shopping online you are doing so from a well-known website. There are multiple
fraud websites that may steal your card information as soon as you checkout and you
may get bankrupt by them.
10. Learn about computer security and ethics. You should be well aware of the safe
computing and ethics of the computing world. Gaining appropriate knowledge is
always helpful in reducing cyber-crime.
11. If you are attacked, immediately inform the cyber cell so that they may take
appropriate action and also protect others from getting attacked by the same person.
Don’t hesitate to complain just because you think people may make your fun.
12. Don’t use pirated content. Often, people try to download pirated movies, videos or
web series in order to get them for free. These pirated content are at major risk of
being infected with viruses, worms, or malware, and when you download them you
end up compromising your system security.

Sample Questions

Question 1. What are the types of computer security?

Solution:
Computer security is of four types:
 Cyber Security
  Information Security
 Application Security
 Network Security
Question 2. What is Cyber security?
Solution:
Cyber security means securing our computers, electronic devices, networks,
programs, systems from cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are those attacks that happen
when our system is connected to the Internet.
Question 3. What is social engineering?
Solution:
Social engineering attacks involves manipulating users psychologically and
extracting confidential or sensitive data from them by gaining their trust. The attacker
generally exploits the trust of people or users by relying on their cognitive basis.
Question 4. What steps can be taken to ensure computer security?
Solution:
 Always keep your Operating System up to date.
 Always use a secure network connection.
 Always install an Antivirus and keep it up to date.
 Enable firewall.

Question 5. What is an antivirus? Name some antivirus software.

Solution:
An antivirus is software that scans your PC against viruses and isolates the infected
file from other system files so that they don’t get affected. Also, we should try to go
for paid antiviruses as they are more secure.
Some of the antivirus are: Quickheal, Norton, F-secure, Kaspersky.

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