IP | XII | INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER NETWORK | 2022-23

Introduction to Networks:
• A computer network is an interconnection among two or more computers or computing
devices which allows computers to share data and resources among each other.
Types of Networks
• various types of computer networks ranging from network of handheld devices (like
mobile phones or tablets) connected through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth within a single room
to the millions of computers spread across the globe.
• computer networks are broadly categorised as:
• LAN (Local Area Network)
• MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
• WAN (Wide Area Network)
• PAN
❖ Local Area Network (LAN):
▪ It is a network that connects computers, mobile phones, tablet, mouse, printer, etc.,
placed at a limited distance.

▪ Connected with wires, Ethernet cables, fibre optics

or Wi-Fi
▪ LANs provide the short-range communication with
the high-speed data transfer rates
▪ Can be extended up to 1 km
▪ Data transfer from 10 Mbps to 1000 Mbps (Mbps-
Megabits per
Second)
❖ 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.
▪ Data transfer rate is less than LAN
▪ E.g.: Cable TV Network, Cable based broadband internet
▪ Can be extended up to 30-40 kms
▪ many LANs are connected together to form MAN
❖ Wide Area Network (WAN)
▪ connects computers and others LANs and MANs, which are spread across different
geographical locations of a country or in different countries or continents
▪ The Internet is the largest WAN that connects billions of computers, smartphones and
millions of LANs from different continents.

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❖ PAN (Personal Area Network): A PAN is a network of local devices for personal
network. A PAN can be set up using guided media (USB cable) or unguided media
(Bluetooth, Infrared).

Network Devices:
To communicate data through different transmission media and to configure networks with
different functionality, we require different devices like Modem, Hub, Switch, Repeater, Router,
Gateway, etc.
Modem:
▪ stands for ‘MOdulator DEMolulator
▪ device used for conversion between analog signals and digital bits.
▪ The modem at the sender’s end acts as a modulator that converts the digital data into
analog signals. The modem at the receiver’s end acts as a demodulator that converts the
analog signals into digital data for the destination node

Ethernet Card
▪ Also known as Network Interface Card (NIC card in short) is a network adaptor used to
set up a wired network.
▪ interface between computer and the network
▪ Ethernet cable connects the computer to the network through NIC.
▪ Data transfer between 10Mbps to 1 Gbps
▪ Each NIC has a MAC address, which helps in uniquely identifying
the computer on the network.
Repeater
▪ Data are carried in the form of signals over the cable
▪ Signals lose their strength beyond 100 m limit and become weak.
▪ The weakened signal appearing on the cable is regenerated and put back on the cable by a
repeater
Hub
▪ An Ethernet hub is a network device used to connect different devices through wires.
▪ Data arriving on any of the lines are sent out on all the others.
▪ The limitation of hub is that if data from
two devices come at the same time, they
will collide

Types of Hub-
Passive Hub: This type of does not amplify or boost the signal. It does not
manipulate or view the traffic that crosses it. Active Hub: It amplifies the
incoming signal before passing it to the other ports.
Switch
▪ Like a hub, a network switch is used to connect multiple computers or communicating
devices.
▪ When data arrives, the switch extracts the destination address from the data packet and
looks it up in a table to see where to send the packet. Thus, it sends signals to only
selected devices instead of sending to all.
▪ can forward multiple packets at the same time
Router
▪ A network device that can receive the data, analyse it and transmit it to other networks.
▪ Compared to a hub or a switch, a router has advanced capabilities as it can analyse the
data being carried over a network, decide or alter how it is packaged, and send it to
another network of a different type.
▪ A router can be wired or wireless.
▪ A wireless router can provide Wi-Fi access to smartphones and other devices.
▪ Wi-Fi routers perform the dual task of a router and a modem/switch ▪ It connects to
incoming broadband lines, from ISP (Internet Service Provider), and converts them to
digital data for computing devices to process.

Gateway
▪ A gateway is a device that connects dissimilar networks (Networks with different
software and hardware configurations and with different transmission protocol).
▪ also maintain information about the host network's internal connection paths and the
identified paths of other remote networks.
▪ it can be implemented as software, hardware, or a
combination of both because network gateway is placed at
the edge of a network and the firewall is usually
integrated with it.

Network Topologies
▪ The arrangement of computers and other peripherals in a
network is called its topology. Some common topologies are
as follows:
1 Mesh Topology
▪ each communicating device is connected with every other device in the network
▪ can handle large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes can
transmit data simultaneously
▪ if any node gets down doesn’t affect other nodes
▪ secure than other topologies as each cable carries different
data
Disadvantages:
▪ wiring is complex and cabling cost is high in creating such
networks
 ▪ there are many redundant or unutilised connections
2 Ring Topology
▪ each node is connected to two other devices, one each on either
side
▪ The link in a ring topology is unidirectional
▪ Failure of one node breaks down the network
3 Bus Topology
▪ each communicating device connects to a transmission medium,
known as bus
▪ data transmitted in both directions
▪ data can be received by any of the
nodes of network
▪ single backbone wire /bus used to
connect computers so cheaper and easy
to maintain Disadvantages:
▪ less secure
▪ less reliable
4 Star Topology
▪ each communicating device is connected to a central node, which is a networking device
like a hub or a switch
Advantages:
Easy to troubleshoot very effective, efficient and fast
A single node failure does not affect the entire network.
Fault detection and removal of faulty parts is easier.
In case a workstation fails, the network is not affected.
Disadvantages: -
Difficult to expand. Longer cable is required.
The cost of the hub and the longer cables makes it expensive over others.
In case hub fails, the entire network stop
working.
5 Tree or 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.
Features of Tree Topology
▪ Ideal if workstations are located
in groups.
▪ Used in Wide Area Network.
Advantages of Tree Topology
▪ Extension of bus and star topologies.
▪ Expansion of nodes is possible and easy.
▪ Easily managed and maintained.
The Internet
▪ it 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.
▪ also consists of networking devices such as routers, switches, gateways, etc.
 ▪ The Internet provides a capability so powerful and general that it can be used for
almost any purpose that depends on information, and it is accessible by every
individual who connects to one of its associated networks.
Applications of Internet:
Following are some of the broad areas or services provided through Internet:
• The World Wide Web (WWW)
• Electronic mail (Email)
• Chat
• Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
The World Wide Web (WWW)
• It is an ocean of information, stored in the form of trillions of interlinked web pages and
web resources
• a British computer scientist invented the revolutionary World Wide Web in 1990 by
defining three fundamental technologies that lead to creation of web:
• HTML — Hyper Text Markup Language
▪ language which is used to design standardised Web Pages so that the Web contents
can be read and understood from any computer across the globe
• URI — Uniform Resource Identifier
▪ unique identifier to identify a resource located on the web
• URL: - URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is nothing more than
the address of a given unique resource on the Web or address of a website. The
URL is an address that matches users to a specific resource online, such as
webpage.
• Example- http://www.cbse.nic.in

• HTTP — The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

▪ set of rules which is used to retrieve linked web pages across the web
▪ more secure and advanced version is HTTPS.
Electronic Mail (Email)
• It is one of the ways of sending(SMTP) and receiving message(s)(POP3) using the
Internet.
• can be sent anytime to any number of recipients at anywhere
• 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.

Chat
• Chatting or Instant Messaging (IM) over the Internet means communicating to people at
different geographic locations in real time through text message(s).
• With ever increasing internet speed, it is now possible to send image, document, audio,
video as well through instant messengers. I
• Applications such as WhatsApp, Slack, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk,
Facebook Messenger, Google Hangout, etc., are examples of instant messengers.
VoIP
• Voice over Internet Protocol - allows us to have voice call (telephone service) over the
Internet
 • VoIP works on the simple principle of converting the analogue voice signals into digital
and then transmitting them over the broadband line.
These services are either free or very economical
• VoIP call(s) can be received and made using IP phones from any place having Internet
access.
Advantage of VoIP:
 Save a lot of money.
 More than two people can communicate or speak.
 Supports great audio transfer.
 Provide conferencing facility.
 can transfer text, image, video along with voice
Disadvantages of VoIP:
 Reliable Internet connection required.
 No location tracking for emergency calls.

Website
• A website in general contains information organized in multiple pages about an
organization.
• website can be created for a particular purpose, theme or to provide a service
• collection of web pages related through hyperlinks, and saved on a web server
Purpose of a Website
• to make the information available to people at large
• helps to communicate with people in a specific, transparent and userfriendly manner
• common purposes for which websites are designed are listed below:
• Selling products and delivering services
• Posting and finding information on the internet
• Communicating with each other & Entertainment purposes
• Disseminating contents and software
Web Page
• A web page (also referred to as a page) is a document on the WWW that is viewed in a
web browser.
• structure of a web page is created using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS
(Cascaded Style Sheet).
• The first page of the website is called a home page
❖ Static and Dynamic Web Pages
• A static webpage is one whose content always remains static, i.e., does not change for
person to person , are generally written in HTML, JavaScript and/or CSS and have the
extension .htm or .html.
• a dynamic web page is one in which the content of the web page can be different for
different users , can be created using various languages such as JavaScript, PHP,
ASP.NET, Python, Java, Ruby, etc.
• Difference between Static and Dynamic webpage: -
• Difference between Website and Webpage: -
Website Webpage

1. A collection of web pages which are A document which can be displayed in a web
grouped together and usually connected browser such as
together in various ways, often called a Firefox, Google Chrome,
"web site" or simply a "site." Opera, Microsoft Internet Explorer etc.
2. Has content about various entity. Has content about single entity.
3. More development time is Less development time is required.
required.
4. Website address does not depend Webpage address depends on
on Webpage address. Website address.

Web Server
• Used to store and deliver the contents of a website to clients such as a browser that
request it. A web server can be software or hardware.
• The server needs to be connected to the Internet so that its contents can be made
accessible to others.
• The web browser from the client computer sends a request (HTTP request) for a page
containing the desired data or service. The web server then accepts, interprets, searches
and responds (HTTP response) to the request made by the web browser.

❖ Web Hosting: -
▪ online service that enables user to publish website or web application on the
internet. When user sign up for a hosting service, basically rent some space on a
server on which user can store all the files and data necessary for website to work
properly.
• A server is a physical computer that runs without any interruption so that website is
available all the time for anyone who wants to see it.

Web Browser:
▪ software application that helps us to view the web page(s).
▪ Helps to view different contents retrieved from different web servers on the internet
 • Mosaic was the first web browser
developed by the National Centre for
Supercomputing Application (NCSA).
• Mozilla Firefox is an open source web
browser which is available free of cost
and can be easily downloaded from the
Internet.

❖ Browser Setting
• Every web browser has got certain settings that define the manner in which the browser will
behave. These settings may be with respect to privacy, search engine preferences,
download options, auto signature, autofill and autocomplete feature, theme and much
more.
Add-Ons and Plug-ins
▪ Add-ons and plug-ins are the tools that help to extend and modify the functionality of the
browser.
▪ Both the tools boost the performance of the browser, but are different from each other.
▪ A plug-in is a complete program or may be a third-party software. For example, Flash
and Java are plug-ins. A Flash player is required to play a video in the browser. A plug-in
is a software that is installed on the host computer and can be used by the browser for
multiple functionalities and can even be used by other applications as well.
▪ an add-on is not a complete program and so is used to add only a particular functionality
to the browser. An add-on is also referred to as extension in some browsers
❖ Cookies
 A cookie is a text file, containing a string of information, which is transferred by the
website to the browser when we browse it.
 This string of information gets stored in the form of a text file in the browser.
 The information stored is retransmitted to the server to recognize the user, by identifying pages that
were visited, choices that were made while browsing various menu(s) on a particular website.

TRANSMISSION MEDIA
● A transmission medium can be anything that can carry signals or data between the source (transmitter)
and destination (receiver). In data communication, transmission media are the links that carry messages
between two or more communicating devices.
● Transmission can be classified as guided or unguided.
● In guided transmission, there is a physical link made of wire/cable through which data in terms of signals
are propagated between the nodes. These are usually metallic cable, fiber-optic cable, etc. They are also
known as wired media.
● In unguided transmission, data travels in air in terms of electromagnetic waves using an antenna. They
are also known as wireless media.
Wired media : Highest speed Fiber optic cable (5 to 10 km)
Wireless media : Satellite