TEJ2O/3 - COMPUTER NETWORKING

A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. The purpose of a network is to share

resources and information – computers, servers, printers, scanners and other peripherals can be
connected to each other.

Computer networks can also be classified according to the hardware and software technology that is used to
interconnect the individual devices in the network, such as more commonly - Optical fiber, Ethernet,
Wireless LAN, or not so commonly - HomePNA, or Power line communication.

Ethernet uses physical wiring to connect devices. Frequently used devices include hubs, switches,
bridges and/or routers. Wireless LAN technology is designed to connect devices without wiring.
These devices use radio waves or infrared signals as a transmission medium.

A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home,
office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. Current LANs are most likely to be based
on Ethernet technology. For example, a library may have a wired or wireless LAN for users to interconnect
local devices (e.g., printers and servers) and to connect to the Internet. Computers on a LAN usually
connect to the Internet through a router which separates the LAN from the rest of the Internet.

WIRELESS CONFIGURATION WIRED CONFIGURATION

 See video on LAN configuration.

What is an IP address?

Your house has an address that you can give out to other people so they can find you and mail you stuff.
Similarly, every machine on the Internet has a unique identifying number, called an IP Address that can be
used to identify a computer on the Internet. A typical IP address looks like this:

● 216.27.61.137

To make it easier for us humans to remember, IP addresses are normally expressed in decimal format as a
"dotted decimal number" like the one above. But computers communicate in binary form. Look at the same IP
address in binary:

11011000 . 00011011 . 00111101 . 10001001

The four numbers in an IP address are called octets, because they each have eight positions when viewed in
binary form. If you add all the positions together, you get 32, which is why IP addresses are considered 32-
bit numbers. Since each of the eight positions can have two different states (1 or 0) the total number of
possible combinations per octet is 28 or 256. So each octet can contain any value between 0 and 255.
Combine the four octets and you get 232 or a possible 4,294,967,296 unique values!

Out of the almost 4.3 billion possible combinations, certain values are restricted from use as typical IP
addresses. For example, the IP address 255.255.255.255 is used for broadcasts.

Q. Who or what determines my IP address?

You are given an IP address when you become part of a network. The best example is the enormous
network called the Internet. When you turn on your computer (as long as your computer has a network
card), then your computer communicates with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and requests an IP
address. Your ISP, who is given a bank of IPs to use, gives your computer one of these addresses and off
you go.

This process uses something called DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol – to assign
addresses. So when a computer disconnects from the Internet, the address they used is essentially recycled
and could be given to another machine. This way, the chance of the ISP running out of addresses is
decreased. Under this protocol, your IP address is dynamic, meaning there is no guarantee you’ll have
the same IP from one day to the next.

Q. If I have more than one computer, does that mean I need more than one IP address?

Not necessarily. This is where a router comes in. A router has the ability to separate all of the computers
in your house from the Internet. You can think of it as a bouncer. The router sits at the door and won’t
allow people in unless they have authorization. So it protects your computers.

But that’s only one job of your router. Your router also acts as a gateway. Any computers behind the
protection of the router must connect to it in order to gain access to the Internet. This means that it is the
job of the router to use DHCP to assign IP addresses to all of the computers in your internal
network.

Router

Notice that when the outside world sees your router, it sees one address, but the computers behind the
router see another one. This is the difference between public and private addresses.

Q. What are private IP addresses?

A. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following three blocks of the IP
address space for private internets (local networks):

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

That means that the IP addresses of computers behind a router will always be in this range of
addresses and no computer outside the network can access these computers.
TEJ2O/TEJ3O – QUESTIONS ON COMPUTER NETWORKING
NETWORKING AND LANS

1. What is a computer network and why is one useful?

A computer network is a group of interconnected computers.It can share resources and

information – computers, servers, printers, scanners and other peripherals can be connected to
each other

2. What are the different ways to create a network?

Wireless configuration and wired configuration

3. What is the difference between a LAN and a WLAN?

The main difference lies in the method of connectivity and the medium used for communication

4. Can you think of any examples where a wired network would be preferred over a wireless
network? Read here.
Wired networks provide users with plenty of security and the ability to move lots of data very
quickly.
5. What is an IP address?
Every machine on the Internet has a unique identifying number
6. Do a survey of your home network, how many devices do you have connected to your
network?
Phones,printer,TV,computers,

7. What is your ISP and what speeds do you get?

Bell Canada Enterprise.Download:99.71.Upload:101.18

8. Why is there no fear that we’ll run out of IP addresses someday? (IPv4)
Many companies are gradually using IPv6.IPv6 has more than 16 billion-billion addresses.

9. What is DHCP and give an example of how a brand new computer booting for the first time
would use it with a router to get an address. Assume there are already two computers
hooked up to the router.
It is a network management protocol used to automate the process of configuring devices on IP
networks. DHCP assigns IP addresses and other network configuration parameters to each device
on the network, allowing them to communicate effectively.
The lease generation process consists of four steps:
1.Discover: The client broadcasts a query to find a DHCP server
2.Offer: The DHCP server offers an IP address to the client
3.Request: The client requests the use of the offered IP address
4.Acknowledge: The DHCP server acknowledges the request and marks the IP address as leased in
its database

10. What is a private IP address and what computers get assigned these addresses?
It is an IP address that is used within a private network and is not routable on the public internet.
Local devices,Home networks,Corporate Networks and Virtual Private Networks.

11. Complete the following online quiz and note your results in your work.

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6IsN8Mv5Hk and viewing the image for accessing a

website, summarize the steps.
Homes or businesses are connected to the rest of the online world via telephone lines, cable lines,
or satellites. The packets of code that travel through them are translated into useful information
by translators. Following the lines, we find that this information comes from servers. We use URLs
to find the information we need among millions of servers. Each server and website has a unique
URL.
13. Complete some online research on the following new technologies :

Provide three details about optical fiber technology.

High speed.Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference.Data security and reliability
Provide three details about powerline networking.
It turns the electrical wiring of a home into network cables and transmit signals to every room.
Powerline transmits data between 2MHz and 86MHz but ignores the power-based frequencies.
The overall speed typically doesn’t match wired networking, and in some cases, Wi-Fi connections.
read this last one for lols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers
OK.