Introduction to Computer Networks

Computer Networks
Computer network
connects two or more
autonomous computers.

The computers can be

geographically located
anywhere.
Introduction to Computer Networks

LAN, MAN & WAN

Network in small geographical Area (Room, Building
or a Campus) is called LAN (Local Area Network)

Network in a City is call MAN (Metropolitan Area

Network)

Network spread geographically (Country or across

Globe) is called WAN (Wide Area Network)
Introduction to Computer Networks

Applications of Networks
Resource Sharing
Hardware (computing resources, disks, printers)
Software (application software)
Information Sharing
Easy accessibility from anywhere (files, databases)
Search Capability (WWW)
Communication
Email
Message broadcast
Remote computing
Distributed processing (GRID Computing)
Introduction to Computer Networks

Network Topology
The network topology
defines the way in
which computers,
printers, and other
devices are connected.
A network topology
describes the layout of
the wire and devices as
well as the paths used
by data transmissions.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Bus Topology
Commonly referred to
as a linear bus, all the
devices on a bus
topology are connected
by one single cable.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Star & Tree Topology

The star topology is the most
commonly used architecture in
Ethernet LANs.
When installed, the star
topology resembles spokes in
a bicycle wheel.
Larger networks use the
extended star topology also
called tree topology. When
used with network devices that
filter frames or packets, like
bridges, switches, and routers,
this topology significantly
reduces the traffic on the wires
by sending packets only to the
wires of the destination host.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Ring Topology
A frame travels around the ring,
stopping at each node. If a node
wants to transmit data, it adds the
data as well as the destination
address to the frame.
The frame then continues around
the ring until it finds the
destination node, which takes the
data out of the frame.
Single ring – All the devices on
the network share a single cable
Dual ring – The dual ring topology
allows data to be sent in both
directions.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Mesh Topology
The mesh topology
connects all devices
(nodes) to each other
for redundancy and
fault tolerance.
It is used in WANs to
interconnect LANs and
for mission critical
networks like those
used by banks and
financial institutions.
Implementing the mesh
topology is expensive
and difficult.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Network Components
Physical Media
Interconnecting Devices
Computers
Networking Software
Applications
Introduction to Computer Networks

Networking Media
Networking media can
be defined simply as
the means by which
signals (data) are sent
from one computer to
another (either by cable
or wireless means).
Introduction to Computer Networks

Networking Devices
HUB, Switches, Routers,
Wireless Access Points,
Modems etc.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Computers: Clients and Servers

In a client/server
network arrangement,
network services are
located in a dedicated
computer whose only
function is to respond
to the requests of
clients.

The server contains the

file, print, application,
security, and other
services in a central
computer that is
continuously available
to respond to client
requests.
Introduction to Computer Networks

Networking Protocol: TCP/IP

Introduction to Computer Networks

Applications
E-mail
Searchable Data (Web Sites)
E-Commerce
News Groups
Internet Telephony (VoIP)
Video Conferencing
Chat Groups
Instant Messengers
Internet Radio
 What is Internet ?
• It is a Global network of computers,
(servers or clients).

to exchange information.

• It is a "network of networks" that includes millions

of private and public, academic, business, and
government networks (local or Global),
linked by copper wires, wireless connections, and
other technologies.
The Internet: Then and Now
• The Internet was created by the Advanced Research Projects
Agency (ARPA) and the U.S. Department of Defense for scientific
and military communications.
• The Internet is a network of interconnected networks. Even if part
of its infrastructure was destroyed, data could flow through the
remaining networks.
• The Internet uses high-speed data lines, called backbones, to carry
data. Smaller networks connect to the backbone, enabling any
user on any network to exchange data with any other user.
• ARPANET, NSFnet, Internet
• Internetworking: the process of connecting separate networks
 Brief History of the Internet
• 1968 - DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
contracts with BBN (Bolt, Beranek & Newman) to create
ARPAnet
• 1970 - First five nodes:
– UCLA
– Stanford
– UC Santa Barbara
– U of Utah, and
– BBN
• 1974 - TCP specification by Vint Cerf
• 1984 – On January 1, the Internet with its 1000 hosts
converts en masse to using TCP/IP for its messaging
 Internet Growth Trends
• 1977: 111 hosts on Internet
• 1981: 213 hosts
• 1983: 562 hosts
• 1984: 1,000 hosts
• 1986: 5,000 hosts
• 1987: 10,000 hosts
• 1989: 100,000 hosts
• 1992: 1,000,000 hosts
• 2001: 150 – 175 million hosts
• 2002: over 200 million hosts
• By 2010, about 80% of the planet will be on the Internet
No. of Participating Hosts
Oct. ‘90 - Apr. ‘98
 Growth of Internet Hosts *
Sept. 1969 - Sept. 2002

250,000,000

Sept. 1, 2002
200,000,000
No. of Hosts

150,000,000

100,000,000
Dot-Com Bust Begins

50,000,000

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Time Period
Chart by William F. Slater, III
The Internet was not known as "The Internet" until January 1984, at which time
there were 1000 hosts that were all converted over to using TCP/IP.
Copyright 2002, William F. Slater, III, Chicago, IL, USA
Domain Name Registration
Jan. ‘89 - Jul. ‘97

April 2001: 31,000,000 Domain Names!!!

Hardware and Software of Internet

Variety of hardware and software are used to

make Internet functional.

• Modem
Device that enables computers to communicate
through phone lines.
When we start internet the our modem
communicates to modem of ISP.
 Continued…
• Computer
In addition to a modem, you need a client capable of
handling multiple data types.
• Software
Two types of software’s required to enable your PC
as an Internet PC.
• Communication software to establish
connection
• Client software for browsing, e-mail, news.

these software’s are provided with windows itself.

 Applications Of Internet
• Download programs and files
• E-Mail
• Voice and Video Conferencing
• E-Commerce
• File Sharing
• Information browsing
• Search the web addresses for access through search
engine
• Chatting and many more…
Disadvantages of Internet

• Theft of personal information such as name, address, credit

card number etc.
• Virus threats nothing but a program which disrupts the normal
functioning of your system.
• Spamming refers to receiving unwanted e-mails in bulk, which
provide no purpose and needlessly obstruct the entire system.
• Pornography This is perhaps the biggest threat related to
children’s healthy mental life. A very serious issue concerning
the Internet.

Though, internet can also create havoc, destruction

and its misuse can be very fatal,
the advantages of it outweigh its disadvantages.
Intranet
 What is Intranet ?

• Internal company or private network that uses Internet

standards (HTML, HTTP & TCP/IP protocols) &
software.
– Provide employees with easy access to
corporate information
– Used to deploy corporate applications
• Examples – policies and procedures manuals;
human resource forms; product catalogs
– Security is a concern
• Security measures include – public key security,
encryption, digital certificates, firewalls
 Intranet Security
Two levels of Security required:

• Internal
It can be imposed by Public Key Security & Encryption
Key.

• External
Through Firewall.
 What is Firewall ?
• Security device located between firm’s internal network
(intranet) & external network (internet).

• Regulates access into & out of a company’s network

based on a set of rules.

Note : needs to be upgraded from time to time to check latest

potential security problems.
 Applications of Intranet
• Sharing of company policies/rules & regulations
• Access employee database
• Distribution of circulars/Office Orders
• Access product & customer data
• Sharing of information of common interest
• Launching of personal/departmental home pages
• Submission of reports
• Corporate telephone directories
 Disadvantages

Management  A company may not have person to update their

problem Intranet on a routine basis
 Fear of sharing information and the loss of control
 Limited bandwidth for the business
Security  Unauthorized access
problem  Abuse of access
 Denial of service
Productivity  Information overload lowers productivity
problem  True purpose of the Intranet is unknown to many
employees/departments
 Hidden or unknown complexity and costs
Extranet
 What is Extranet ?
• Extranet is an Intranet for outside authorized users using
same internet technology.
• Inter-organizational information system.
• enable outsiders to work together with company’s
employees.
• open to selected suppliers, customers & other business partners
• An extension of an intranet to selected outside
business partners, such as suppliers,
distributors, and key customers
– Provide business partners with easy access to
corporate information and easy collaboration
• Security
– Critical to prevent unwanted entry into internal
systems
– Virtual private networks (VPNs) are often used to add
security to Internet communication
 Extranets (continued)
• Extranet configurations
– One company sets up a Extranet for its dealers,
customers, or suppliers
– Companies within an industry set up a collaborative
Extranet for mutual benefit
– Several companies collaborate over an Extranet for
joint venture
• Benefits include –
– Lower communication costs; better communication;
improved order entry and customer service;
improvement in business effectiveness
 Examples..
• Dealers/distributors have access to
product files such as :-
1. product specification,
2. pictures,
3. images, etc.
to answer the queries of the customer.
 Components of extranets
..
Some basic infrastructure components
such as the internet Including :-
• TCP/IP protocols,
• E-mail,
• Web-browsers,
• External business partners &
• Tele-commuting employees place order,
check status & send E-mail.
 Benefits of Extranet
• Improved quality.
• lower travel costs.
• lower administrative & other overhead costs.
• reduction in paperwork.
• delivery of accurate information on time.
• improved customer service.
• better communication.
• overall improvement in business
effectiveness.
 Disadvantages
• The suppliers & customer who don’t
have technical knowledge feel problem.
• Faceless contact.
• Information can be misused by other competitors.
• Fraud may be possible.
• Technical Employees are required.
Layered System View

Intranet Corporate members

Extranet Clients, partners, customers

Internet Global society: competitors

 TCP/IP Addresses

• Every host on the Internet must have a

unique IP address
• The IP address is a 32-bit number which
we write in dotted decimal notation
• The first part of the IP address is the
network address – the remainder is the
host ID
• A subnet mask is used to determine the
network address from a IP host address
• All hosts on the same network are
configured with the same subnet mask
 Network Address Example
Host address: 192.252.12.14
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

To obtain the network address, AND the host IP with its subnet mask:

Host IP: 11000000.11111100.00001100.00001110

Mask: 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000

Net addr: 11000000.11111100.00001100.00000000

which is:
192.152.12.0
Obtaining an Internet Network
Address
• IP network addresses must be unique, or
the Internet will not be stable
• The Internet Network Information Centre
(InterNIC) was originally responsible for
issuing Internet network addresses
• Today, the Internet Assigned Number
Authority (IANA) issues network
addresses to Information Service
Providers (ISPs)
• ISPs split networks up into subnets and
sell them on to their customers
 Domain Name System (DNS)
• IP addresses are used to identify hosts on a
TCP/IP network
• Example: 134.220.1.9
• Numbers are not ‘friendly’ – people prefer
names
• DNS is a protocol used to map IP addresses to
textual names
• E.g. www.wlv.ac.uk maps to 134.220.1.9
 DNS on the Internet
DNS names have a hierarchical structure
Example: www.wlv.ac.uk

Root Level

com net fr uk us Top-level domain

ac co Second-level
domain
aston staffs wlv

clun www ftp Server name

 Internet Email Addresses
[email protected]

Local part @ Domain name of mail server

• The Local part is the name of a special

file stored on the mail server called the
user’s mailbox
• The Domain name is resolved using DNS
• The mail server is also known as a mail
exchanger
 Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP)
The
Request Web page
Internet WWW server
(TCP/IP)
Browser app

• HTTP is the protocol used to access resources on

the World Wide Web
• A browser application is used to send a request to
the WWW server for a resource, e.g. a web page,
graphics file, audio file, etc.
• The server responds by sending the resource (a file)
to the client and closing the connection
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
• URL is the standard for specifying the whereabouts of a
resource (such as a web page) on the Internet
• A URL has four parts:

http://www.wlv.ac.uk:80/index.html

Protocol Port number Name of web page

Host
– The protocol used to retrieve the resource
– The host where the resource is held
– The port number of the server process on the host
– The name of the resource file
 URL Defaults
• A server will normally be setup to use standard
defaults
• This enables the URL to be simplified
• In the case of a Web server for example
– Default port will be 80
– Default name for home page will be index.html
• Hence the previous URL can be shortened to

http://www.wlv.ac.uk/
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/
• Protocol for copying files between client and an
FTP server
• Uses a TCP connection for reliable transfer of
files with error-checking
• Most browsers support FTP, or you can use a
dedicated FTP client program, e.g WS_FTP
• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a
lightweight version for small memory devices
 Telnet

• Telnet allows a user to run commands

and programs remotely on another
computer across the Internet
• The user runs a Telnet client program on
the local host
• A Telnet server process must be running
on the remote host
• The user must have the necessary
permissions and password to access the
remote host
 Internet Services – Web
Services
• Delivery of software components via a
web site rather than through traditional
means (disks, CDs)
• .NET – Microsoft’s new platform for XML
Web services. Integrates web sites and
programs to deliver applications.
Internet Services – World Wide
Web
• An application that uses the Internet transport
functions
• A system with universally accepted standards
for storing, retrieving, formatting, and
displaying information via a client/server
architecture
• Based on HTML - standard hypertext
language used in Web
• Handles text, hypermedia, graphics, and
sound
The World Wide Web (continued)
• Home Page - a text and graphical screen display;
first, introductory page in a web site
• Web Site - all the pages of a company or individual
• Hyperlinks - ways to link and navigate around the
pages on a web site
• Webmaster - the person in charge of a Web site
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - points to the
address of a specific resource on the Web
• Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) -
communications standard used to transfer pages
across the WWW portion of the Internet
The World Wide Web (continued)
• Browsers – graphical software that enables WWW users to
request and view web documents
• Offline Browsers – software that retrieves pages from Web
sites automatically at predetermined times

• Search Engines - programs that return a list of Web sites or

pages that match some user-selected criteria
• Metasearch Engines - automatically enter search queries
into a number of other search engines and return the results
• To be included in a search engine’s database
– Web Crawlers
– Registration
How the Internet Works

• TCP/IP

• Routing Traffic Across the Internet

• Addressing Schemes

• Domains and Subdomains

 How the Internet Works - TCP/IP

• Every computer and network on the Internet uses the same

protocols (rules and procedures) to control timing and data
format.

• The protocol used by the Internet is the Transmission Control

Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP.

• No matter what type of computer system you connect to the

Internet, if it uses TCP/IP, it can exchange data with any other
type of computer.
 How the Internet Works -
Routing Traffic Across the Internet
• Most computers don't connect directly to the Internet. Instead,
they connect to a smaller network that is connected to the
Internet backbone.

• The Internet includes thousands of host computers (servers),

which provide data and services as requested by client systems.

• When you use the Internet, your PC (a client) requests data from
a host system. The request and data are broken into packets and
travel across multiple networks before being reassembled at
their destination.
 The Operation of the Internet
• Packets of information flow between machines governed by common
rules (protocols):
– Internet protocol (IP)
– Transport control protocol (TCP)
• Internet is a packet-switching network
– Messages are decomposed into packets, containing part of
the message, plus information on the sending and receiving
machines and how the packet relates to the other packets
– Packets travel independently and possibly on different routes
through the Internet
– Packets are reassembled into the message at the receiving
machine.
How the Internet Works -
Addressing Schemes
• In order to communicate across the Internet, a computer must
have a unique address.

• Every computer on the Internet has a unique numeric identifier,

called an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

• Each IP address has four parts – each part a number between

0 and 255. An IP address might look like this: 205.46.117.104.
Where to Begin? Internet Addresses

• Because the Internet is a global network of computers

each computer connected to the Internet must have a
unique address. Internet addresses are in the
form nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn where nnn must be a number
from 0 - 255. This address is known as an IP address.
(IP stands for Internet Protocol; more on this later.)
• The picture below illustrates two computers connected to
the Internet; your computer with IP address 1.2.3.4 and
another computer with IP address 5.6.7.8. The Internet is
represented as an abstract object in-between.
• If you connect to the Internet through an Internet
Service Provider (ISP), you are usually assigned a
temporary IP address for the duration of your dial-in
session. If you connect to the Internet from a local
area network (LAN) your computer might have a
permanent IP address or it might obtain a temporary
one from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol) server. In any case, if you are connected to
the Internet, your computer has a unique IP address.
How the Internet Works -
Domains and Subdomains
• In addition to an IP address, most Internet hosts or servers have a
Domain Name System (DNS) address, which uses words.

• A domain name identifies the type of institution that owns the

computer. An Internet server owned by IBM might have the
domain name ibm.com.

• Some enterprises have multiple servers, and identify them with

subdomains, such as products.ibm.com.