1. What is a Computer Network?

Computer Network is a group of computers and other computing hardware

devices connected to each other electronically through communication medium.

2. What are the advantages of computer networks?

1. Data communication is possible .
2. Resource Sharing
3. Reliability:
4. Scalability:
5. Price –Performance ratio:

3. What are the Disadvantages of Networking

1. Threat to data: A computer network may be used by unauthorized users to
steal or corrupt the data and even to deploy computer virus or worms on the
network.
2. Difficult to set up:
3.High technical skills required

4.Evolution of Networking
ARPANET (Advanced Research Agency Network):
ARPANET was the network that became the basis for the Internet. It was the
first network that came into existence in 1969, which was designed and named

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by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and US Department of
Defence (DoD). for defense applications
NSFNET (National Science Federation Network):
In mid 80’s another federal agency, NSFNET (National Science Federation
Network) created a new network which was more capable than ARPANET and
became the first backbone infrastructure for the commercial public Internet. Its
main aim was to use network only for academic research and not for any kind of
private business activity.
Internet
ARPANET + NSFNET + PRIVATE NETWORKS = INTERNET

4. What are the basic elements of a data communication system?

a). Message : It is the information to be communicated like text, pictureetc.
b). Sender (transmitter or source) : The device used for sending data
c). Receiver : The device that receives the message
d). Medium :It is the path through which message travels from sender to receive.
e) Protocol : The rules under which transmission takes place between sender
and receiver.

5.Communication terminologies:
Communication Channel (Transmission media): Is a medium through which a
message is transmitted to its intended destination. Communication channel can
be wired (Guided) or Wireless (Unguided).
Noise: It is the unwanted electrical or electromagnetic energy that lowers the
quality of the data signals.
Node: Any device that is directly connected to a computer network is called a
node.
Bandwidth:The amount of data that can be transmitted through a channel.
Bandwidth is expressed in Hz, KHz, and MHz
Data transfer rate: DTR is the amount of data in digital form that is moved from
one place to another in a given time on a network.

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Data rates are often measured in megabits (million bits) or megabytes (million
bytes) per second.
bps bits per second
Bps bytes per second
Kbps kilobits per second
KBps kilo bytes per second
Mbps megabits per second
MBps megabytes per second
Gbps giga bits per second
GBps giga bytes per second
Tbps tera bits per second
TBps tera bytes per second

Define Switching technique .Compare Circuit and PacketSwitching

Switching Techniques: are techniques for transmitting data across networks.

Different ways of sending data across the network are:

Circuit Switching:

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 First the complete end-to-end transmission path is established between the
source and the destination computers.
Then the message is transmitted through the path.
The main advantage of this technique is guaranteed delivery of the message.
Mostly used for voice communication.

Packet Switching:

Using the TCP protocol a single large message is divided into a sequence of
packets of size limits from 128 to 4096 bytes.
Each packet is independent and has the address of sender and destination.
The IP (Internet protocol) does the routing for the packets.
It keeps track of all the different routes available to the destination.
If one route is not available it finds the alternate route to the destination.

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 At the destination, the TCP protocol re-assembles the packets into the complete
message.
If any packets are lost or damaged, a request is sent to retransmit the same
message.

Transmission media or communications channel refers to the cables or links used in

networking. Basically, the transmission media or communication channels are
classified into two categories:
1. Guided Media or Wired communication Channel
o Twisted Pair Cable
o Coaxial Cable
o Optical Fibres
2. Unguided Media or Wireless communication Channel
o Microwave
o Radio Wave
o Satellite
o Infrared
o Bluetooth
. Transmission Media
Guided Media or wired communication channel
Twisted pair Cables

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 Twisted-pair cables are twisted together in pairs of two wires wrapped together in
helix form.

Types
It is also available in two types:
1. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) – have a braided wired mesh that encases each pair
of insulated wires
2. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) – comprise of wires and insulators
Used in
The twisted-pair cables are used into telephone lines, DSL lines, and LAN (Local
Area Network)s. As in LANs so it is also known as an ethernet cable.
Categories
The twisted pair cables are classified into the following categories. These
categories referred as CAT1, CAT2, and so on…
Advantages
• Reduces the crosstalk
• It is simple
• Easy to install and maintain
• It is very flexible
• It has low weight
• It can be connected easily
Disadvantages
• Unable to provide connection over long distances
• Low bandwidth
• Not suitable for broadband applications
.
Coaxial Cables

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 These cables consist of a solid wire core surrounded by one or more foil or wire
shields.
Each foil or shield is separated by some kind of plastic insulator.
Coaxial cables can be thicknet or thinnet
Used in
The coaxial cable is used in a telephone network that carries 10,000 voice
signals, digital telephone network with 600 Mbps data transfer rates, in cable
TVs, ethernet LANs and MANs.
Advantages
• Suitable for high-speed communication
• Better than twisted-pair cables
• Can be used in shared cable network
• Can be used for broadband transmission
• Offers bandwidth up to 400Mbps
Disadvantages
• Expensive than twisted pair cable
• Not compatible with twisted pair cable
Optical Fibers

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 It consist of thin strands of glass or glass like material. These cables carry light
from sources used from one end to another. The first end is considered as source
and second is considered as detector.
The light sources are LEDs or LDs. These type of cables used frequency
modulation for data transfer. These cable consists of three pieces:
1. The core – It is made up of glass or plastic that is responsible for travel of lights
2. The cladding – It is there to reflect the light back to the core
3. Protective coating – provide protection to the cable
Used in in cable TV, and high speed network transmissions.

Categories
The fiber optic cables are classified into two categories:
1. Single-mode fiber
2. Multi-mode fiber
Advantages
• Provides high-speed data transmission
• Strong and protected cables
• Provides secure transmission
• Can be used for broadband transmission
Disadvantages
• The installation process is not easy
• virtually impossible to tap
• Connection losses are more common problem
• Most expensive cables

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Unguided media or Wireless Communication Channel

The unguided or wireless communication channels referred to a wireless

connection to the network. There is no physical connection given through wires
in this channel. The connection will be done through either sensors, antenna or
any other component.
Microwave

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 This type of unguided medial is used for long distance networking. It consists of
the following components:
1. Transmitter
2. Receiver
3. Atmosphere
The microwave has a parabolic antenna mounted on towers to send a beam to
other antennas which are tens of kilometres away. As much as the tower is high,
the range is greater. With 100 meters high tower, 100 km distance range will be
achieved.
It is a line of sight transmission
Advantages
• Cheaper than cables
• Land is required to fix towers only, saves the space of land to spread the cables
• It can provide easy communication over difficult terrain
• It can communicate over oceans
Disadvantages
• Insecure connection
• The network can be affected by weather effects such as rains, thunderstorms
etc.
• Limited bandwidth
• Very high-cost maintenance

Radio Wave
It is using the radio frequency modulation for data transmission. It has two
parts:
1. Transmitter – take data or message, encode it into sine wave and transmit into a
radio wave
2. Receiver – decodes the data or message from sine wave it recieves
In radio wave both transmitter and receiver antennas to radiate and capture the
radio singal.
Travels in all directions
The advantages and disadvantages are similar as micro wave.

Satellite

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 It is just a relay system of the microwave. It provides voice, fax, data, video,
email, file transfer, and WWW internet applications. It can provide emergency
backup facility when cable communication network crushed by a disaster. In
satellite, dish functions as an antenna and the communication equipment to
transmit and receive data.
The stationary orbits placed about 22,300 miles above the earth’s surface. These
satellite act as relay system for the communication signals.
Advantages
• Covers a large area
• Best alternative of cables
• It provides good option for commercial use
Disadvantages
• Due to some technical limitations, cannot spread over large area
• over-crowding at low antennas
• High cost
• Significant probability of failure

Infrared
It uses infrared light to send data.
Eg:remotes like TV, set top box, AC, wireless speakers, automotive doors etc.
Advantages
• It is the safest mode of transmission
• Easy to reconfigure network
Disadvantages
• Short range communication
• Expensive
• Cannot penetrate obstacles

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Modem (MOdulator DEModulator) is an electronic device which converts digital
signals into analog signals for transmission over telephone lines (Modulation). At
the receiving end, a modem performs the reverse function and converts analog
signal into digital form (Demodulation) A modem can also amplify a signal so that
it can travel a long distance without attenuation.
Network Interface Card(NIC): It enables a computer to connect a network and
communicate. It can breaks up data into small units,translate the protocols , send
and receive data. It may be wired(Ethernet) or wireless(Wi-Fi)

RJ-45 (Registered Jack – 45) is an eight wired connector that is used to connect
computers on a local area network (LAN), especially Ethernet.

Ethernet card is a kind of network adapter and is also known as Network Interface
Card (NIC). These adapters support the Ethernet standard for high-speed network
connections via cables. An Ethernet Card contains connections for either coaxial
or twisted pair cables or fiber optic cable

Hub is an electronic device that connects several nodes to form a network and
redirects the received information to the destination. It has ports into which the
cables from individual computers' NICs are inserted. Hub broadcasts the

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 information all the connected nodes .It uses shared bandwidth and so traffic
congestion and is slower
Switch is an electronic device that connects several nodes to form a network .Itis
an intelligent hub redirects the received information only to the intended
node(s). ie filters data and hence faster than hub.It offers dedicated bandwidth
and hence no traffic congestion

Repeater When the data is transmitted over a network for long distances, the data
signal gets weak due to attenuation. A repeater regenerates the received signal
and re-transmits it to its destination.

Router: It can interconnect two networks of the same type using the same
protocol. It can find the best path for data packets to travel and can reduce the
amount of traffic in the network.Routes data packets through the network

Gateway: It can interconnect two different networks using the different protocols.
It can translate one protocols to other and can understand the address
structure used in different networks.Acts as an entrance to the backbone of the
network

Network Topology
Topology is the pattern of connecting computers in a network
Factors considered while choosing the appropriate topology for the network.
1. Cost
2. Flexibility add or remove or reconfigure the network layout easily.
3. Reliability Able to handle network failure
.The star topology

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 This is the most popular topology in the LAN. A central device (hub or switch) is
required to connect all the devices with cables. Each device communicates with
each other via a central device. This topology uses ethernet cable for the
network establishment. The reasons behind its popularity are:
1. Cost
2. Efficiency
3. Speed
If any problem arise at any device won’t affect the network too much except
central device. The advantages of star topology are as following:
• Easy Access – In start topology, the devices are connected with points that
access any device easily.
• Easy to add and remove nodes
• Fault Diagnoses and Correction is easy
• Simple Protocols – It accesses simple protocols in the network.
The disadvantages of star topology are as following:
• Cable Length – The star topology requires long length cables to establish a
network. All the devices require a cable to connect with a central device.
• Difficult to expand – The expansion of the network is very difficult as it has a
limited length.
• Central node dependency – The entire network is dependent on the central
node.
The bus or linear topology

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 . The bus or linear topology uses a single length cable to connect the devices.
This single length cable has a terminator at both the ends. Mostly this topology
uses coaxial cable. The data travels in both directions. The advantages of a bus
or linear topology are as follows:
• Short cable length – The bus topology uses a short cable length compared to a
star topology.
• Installation Cost – As the only single cable is used to establish a network, it will
reduce the cost of cables installation.
• Easy to extend – The extension of the network becomes very using a single
length cable with repeater over geographical distance.
• Add/Remove node – It is easy to add/remove the node in bus topology.
The bus or liner topology has following disadvantages:
• Difficult to diagnose a fault – If any problem arises, it is very difficult to
diagnose the fault in bus topology.
• If central cable fails, entire network fails
• For long distant communication repeaters are needed which causes
additional hardware cost

Tree topology

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 The tree topology is a hybrid topology a combination of bus and star topology.
In tree topology, the network shapes like a tree with different nodes connected
together. One node is connected with the different branches.
Advantages:
• Hierarchical flow of data
• Even if one network (star) fails, the other networks remains connected and
working
• It offers easy way of network expansion

Disadvantages
• Complex Access Protocola
• Expensive
• If root node fails entire network affects

Types of Networks

Example Bluetooth Office City ATMs Internet

Infrared School Cable TV

Network Protocol

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 What is network protocol?
It is the special set of rules to be followed in a network when devices in the
network communicates..

a). TCP/IP: Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

It is most important communication protocol used in Internet
Function of TCP
===============
• When data is send from one device to another, the data is broken in to small
packets by TCP and send through transmission medium
• When the packets are received by the receiving computer, TCP checks packets for
error and reassemble into original message.
• Ensures all packets reached destination
Functions of IP

.Routes the packets

>Determine the size and no: of packets

b). HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a standard protocol for transferring
web pages across Internet
HTTPS: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
Uses secure shell software which allows an encrypted session between sender and
receiver

c). FTP: File transfer Protocol is the to transfer files between computers via
internet.
Used to perform uploading and downloading of files to /from a remote server.
Eg : WsFTP ,Filezilla, Cute FTP etc..) installed in the computer helps in the easy
uploading and down loading.

d)SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

used to send emails across Internet

e)POP3(Post office Protocol version3)

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is used to read incoming emails

f)PPP(Point to Point Protocol) is a protocol used for Internet connection using

existing telephone lines(Serial lines)

g)VOIP(Voice Over Internet Protocol) is the protocol used for transmission of

voice packets across computer networks using IP instead of traditional telephone
networks.
It is aprotocol used in Video Conferencing

f)Telnet (Terminal Network)/ Remote Login

is a protocol that allows to access a remote computer and work as if your sitting in
front of the computer

Introduction To Web Services

What is URL ? What are the components of a URL?

Every network resources in the internet has a unique address known as
Uniform Resource Locator (URL). It is the Address of the website
https://www.google.com/news.html
A URL is divided in to 3 parts
a). Network protocol(scheme) like ‘https’. It enables the browser to know
what protocol is used
b). Domain Name: ( Host name/ address) is the name assigned to a server
through the DNS to identify a particular webserver. It may contain country
specific domain name like .in, .us, .au etc..generic domain name like
.com,.edu ,org,.tv,.mil, .nic.in etc..
c) File name – It is the file to be opened

. What is IP address?
It is a unique 4 part numeric address assigned to each node on a network for
unique identification of them. . It is normally expressed in “dotted decimal
Number”
Eg. 192.165.1.1

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 There are two types of IP addresses
IPV4: A 32 bit address which can identify only 4 billion devices in the net.
IPV6: A 128 bit address which can identify 4x4x4 billion devices in the net.

What is WWW?
• World Wide Web is an interconnected collection of compouter across the world
• It uses client/server model
• It is used to access any document using URL
What is web page
A document in a website is a web page .Web page is developed using HTML

What is web site

A collection of related web pages is website
Eg: google.com yahoo.com

What is web hosting?

It is transferring applications to a server machine from the client machine so
that the application can be used by other users on the Internet
FTP is used for hosting
Eg:wsftp,cuteFtp

What is web browser?

• A software that resides in client machine that send request to the server
machine
• It helps us to navigate WWW
• Web browser receives response from web server in the form of HTML page
which is then interpreted and displayed as web page

Eg:Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox,Internet Explorer

What is web server?

• A software that resides in servert machine that send response to the
request of client machine in the HTML

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 Eg:Apache Tomcat,Internet Information Server,Google Web Server

Compare HTML and XML

Hypertext mark up language is a language used to design webpages
<font color=’red’>
I love HTML
</font>
<img src=’Harvey.jpg’>

XML is Extensible Markup language used for creating documents containing

structured information

HTML XML
To design webpages To provide structured information
Built in command Can create user defined commands
Fixed meaning No fixed meaning
Fixed command set Not fixed command set

Define the term firewall.

Firewall is a feature used for Network Security. In a Network there is always danger
of information leaking out or leaking in. Firewall is a feature which forces all
information entering or leaving the network to pass through a check to make sure that
there is no unauthorized usage of the network.It can be a hardware or software or a
combination of both

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