COMPUTER NETWORK

Introduction
Two digital devices are said to be interconnected if they are capable of exchanging information or
data sharing or share resources.

Tanenbaum defines a network as ‘an interconnected collection of autonomous computers’.

Need for Networking:

i. Resource sharing: The aim is to make all programs, data and peripheral devices available
to anyone on the network irrespective of the physical location of the resources and the
user.
ii. Reliability: A file can have copies on two or more different machines, so if one of them is
unavailable due to some reason (like hardware crash), the other copies could be used.
For military, banking, air reservation and many other applications it is of great
importance.
iii. Cost factor: Personal computers have better price/performance ratio than micro
computers. So, it is better to have PC’s one per user, with data stored on one shared/ file
server machine.
iv. Communication Medium: Using a network, it is possible for any user, working far apart,
to prepare any report/document of the company. The changes at one end can be
immediately noticed at another end and hence it speeds up co-operation among them.

Types of architecture:
i. Peer to Peer architecture: In this architecture, each and every computer acts as both
requestor and responder(Client and Server).
ii. Client-Server architecture: In this architecture, there is a dedicated machine that is
completely devoted as service provider(Server) and rest of the devices are the request
generator(Client).

Elementary Terminologies of Network:

Nodes/Client: It is also known as workstations. The nodes are the devices attached to the network
and that gives the request for providing the services to the server. If there is no node, then there
would be no network at all.

Server: A server is service provider for the nodes who sends the request for providing services. A
network can have more than one server also. Each server has a unique name on the network and all
the users of network identify the server by its unique name.

Types of Servers:

a. Non-dedicated: These servers can act as both service requestor as well service provider
b. Dedicated: These servers are completely dedicated for service providing.

Types of Network:
On the basis geographical spread, the network is classified into four categories:

i. LAN(Local Area Network):This type of network is confined to a localised area(i.e small

office, a building or a factory) The purpose of a LAN is to serve its users in resource
 sharing like sharing of softwares, hardwares etc. LAN users can share data, information,
programs, printer, hard-disk etc. The range of LAN is upto 1000 mtrs.
ii. MAN(Metropolitan Area Network): This type of network is accessible within a city
having the range upto 10-20 kms. For example, cable TV networks that are spread over a
city.
iii. WAN(Wide Area Network): The network spread across countries or that can establish
network between two continents are known as WAN. A WAN is a group of computers
that are separated by large distances and tied together. It can even be a group LANs that
are spread across several locations and connected together to look like one big LAN. The
WANs link computers to facilitate fast and efficient exchange of information at lesser
costs and higher speed.
iv. PAN(Personal Area Network): A personal area network is the interconnection of
information technology devices within the range of an individual person, typically within
the range of 10 meters. You can use this type network to transfer files including email,
digital photos and music etc. form your portable devices such as mobile and tablets to
PC and vice versa.

Transmission Media/ Transmission medium/Communication Channel:

By transmission media or communication channel of network, it is meant that the connecting cables
or connecting media are being talked about. The cables that connect two or more
workstations/nodes are communication channels.

The communication channel is classified in two categories:

i. Guided media/Wired media: It includes cables.

a. Twisted Pair cable: The most common form of wiring in data communication
application is the twisted pair cable. As a Voice Graded Medium(VGM), it is the basis
for most internal office telephone wiring. It consists of two identical wires wrapped
together in a double helix.
Problem can occur due to differences in the electrical characteristics between the
pair (e.g. length, resistance, capacitance etc). For this reason, LAN application will
tend to use a higher quality cable known as data graded medium (DGM)
The twisted pair cable reduces crosstalk, which is the bleeding of signal from one
wire to another and which can corrupt signal and cause network errors.

b. Co-axial cable: This type of cable consists of a solid wire core surrounded by one or
more foil or wire shields, each separated by some kind of plastic insulator. The inner
core carries the signal and the shield provides the ground. The coaxial cable has high
electrical properties and is suitable for high speed communication. It is widely used
for television signals. In the form of (CATV) cable, it provides a cheap means of
transporting multi-channel television signals around metropolitan areas. It is also
used by large corporations in building security systems.
 c. Optical Fiber cable/Fiber optics: Optical fibers consists of thin strands of glass or
glass like material which are so constructed that they carry light from a source at
one end of the fiber to a detector at the other end. The light sources used are light
emitting diodes(LEDs) or laser diodes(LDs) The data to be transmitted is modulated
onto the light beam using frequency modulation techniques. The signals can then
picked up at the receiving end and demodulated. The bandwidth of the medium is
potentially very high.

The fiber cable consists of three pieces:

1. Core: The glass or the plastic through which the light travels
2. Cladding: It is covering of the core that reflects light back to the core
3. Protecting Coating: It protects the fiber cable from hostile environment.

ii. Unguided media/wireless media: It includes waves through air, water or

vaccum.
a. Microwave(Terrestrial Microwave): Microwave signals are used to transmit data
without the use of cables. It is very much similar to radio and television signals and
are used for long distance communication. The microwave transmission consists of a
transmitter, receiver and the atmosphere.
In microwave communication, a parabolic antennas are mounted on towers to send
a beam to other antenna placed at tens of kilometres away. The higher the tower,
the greater the range.
b. Radiowave: In this media radio frequency is used, that’s why it is termed as
radiowave transmission. It is preferably used in hilly areas where, wired media
cannot be installed because digging or hanging the cables is difficult. One more
reason is frequent occurrence of natural calamities that leads to repetitive
installation of wires, if used.
 c. Satellite: Satellite communication is special case of microwave relay system. It uses
the synchronous to relay the radio signal transmitted from ground station.
In satellite communication the earth station consists of a satellite dish that functions
as an antenna and communication equipment to transmit and receive data from
satellite passing overhead.
d. Infrared: This type of transmission uses infrared light to send data. You can see the
use of this type of transmission in everyday life- TV remotes, automotive garage
doors, wireless speakers etc.
The infrared light transmits data through the air and can propagate throughout a
room.
e. Laser: The laser transmission requires direct line of sight. It is unidirectional like
microwave, but has much higher speed than microwave. It requires a laser
transmitter and photo-sensitive receiver at each end. This type of transmission is
point -to-point, typically between buildings.
But lasers have a certain disadvantage, which is: It can be adversely affected by
weather.

Network Topology:
The pattern of interconnection of nodes in a network is called the Topology.

The selection of topology for a network cannot be done in isolation as it affects the choice of media
and the access method used. There are a number of factors to consider in making this choice, the
most important of which are mentioned below:

i. Cost: For a network to be cost effective, one would try to minimize installation cost. This
may be achieved by using well understood media and also, to a lesser extent, by
minimizing the distances involved.
ii. Flexibility: Because the arrangement of furniture, internal walls etc in offices is often
subject to change, the topology should allow for easy reconfiguration of the network.
This involves moving existing nodes and adding new ones.
iii. Reliability: Failure in a network can take two forms. Firstly, an individual node can
malfunction. This is not nearly as serious as the second type of fault where the network
itself fails to operate. The topology chosen for the network can help by allowing the
location of the fault to be detected and to provide some means of isolating it.

Following are the topologies discussed:

a. Bus Topology or Linear topology: This topology consists of a single length of the
transmission medium (cables) onto which the various nodes are attached. The topology is
used in traditional communication network where the host at the one end of the bus
communicates with several terminals attached along its length.
The transmission from any station travels the length of the bus, in both directions and can
be received all other stations.
Advantages:
 Short Cable Length
 Resilient Architecture
 Easy to extend

Disadvantages:

 Fault Diagnosis is difficult

  Fault isolation is difficult
 Repeater configuration
 Nodes must be intelligent

b. Ring Topology: In this topology, each node is connected to two and only two neighbouring
nodes. Data is accepted from one of the neighbouring nodes and is transmitted onwards to
another. Thus data travels in one direction only, from node to node around the ring.
Advantages:
 Short length
 No wiring closet space is required
 Suitable for Optical fiber cable

Disadvantages:

 Node failure causes network failure

 Difficult to diagnose faults
 Network reconfiguration is difficult

c. Star Topology: This topology consists of a central node to which all of the other nodes are
connected by a single path. It is the topology used in most existing information networks
involving data processing or voice communication.
Advantages of Star topology:
 Ease of service
 One device per connection.
 Centralized Control/Problem Diagnosis
 Simple access protocols

Disadvantages of the Star Topology:

 Long Cable Length

 Difficult to expand
 Central node dependency
iv. Tree Topology: A variation of bus topology is the tree topology. The shape of the
network is that of an inverted tree with the central root branching and sub branching to
extremities of the network.

Transmission in this topology takes place in the same way as in the bus topology. In both
cases, there is no need to remove packets from the medium because when a signal
reaches the end of the medium, it is absorbed by the terminators
v. Mesh Topology: In this topology, each node is connected to more than one node to
provide an alternative route in the case the host is either down or too busy.
The mesh topology is excellent for long distance networking because it provides
extensive back-up, rerouting and pass-through capabilities. Communication is possible
between any two nodes on the network either directly or by passing through. The mesh
topology is commonly used in large internetworking environments with star, ring and
buses attached to each node. This is also ideal for distributed networks.
Network Devices:

i. Modem: A modem is a computer peripheral device that allows you to connect and
communicate with other computers via telephone lines.
Modem converts digital signals to A/F(Audio Frequency) tones which are in the
frequency range that the telephone lines can transmit and also it can convert
transmitted tones back to digital information.

ii. Rj-45: it stands for Registered Jack-45. Rj-45 is an eight-wire connector, which is
commonly used to connect computers on the local area networks I,e LANs especially
Ethernets. Ethernet uses either bus or star topology and supports data transfer rates up
to 10Mbps.

iii. Ethernet Card: An Ethernet card contains connection for either coaxial or twisted pair
cables(or both), If it is designed for coaxial cable, the connection will be BNC(Bayone-
Neill-Concelman). If it is designed for twisted pair, it will have a RJ-45 connection.
Ethernet card is inserted in its on the motherboard. Usually Ethernet Cards are
 purchased separately from a computer, but these days many computers include an
option for pre-installed Ethernet card.

iv. Hub: It is a hardware device to connect several computers together. A hub that contains
multiple independent but connected modules of network and inter-networked
equipment. It is also known as Concentrator. In star topology, twisted pair wire is run
from each workstation to a central concentrator.

Hubs can be either Passive or Active.

a. Active Hub: It electrically amplify the signal as it moves from one connected device
to another. Active concentrators are used like repeaters to extend the length of a
network.
b. Passive Hub: It allow the signal to pass from one computer to another without any
change.
v. Switch: It is a device that is used to segment networks into different subnetworks called
subnets or LAN segments., Segmenting the network into smaller subnets, prevents
traffic overloading in a network.

A switch is responsible for filtering i.e transforming data in a specific way and forwarding
packets between LAN and segments. Switch supports Packet Protocol.
vi. Repeater: It is a device that amplifies a signal being transmitted on the network. It is
used in long network lines (distance more than 100 mtrs). which exceeds the maximum
rated distance for a single run.
Over distance, the cables connecting a network loses the signal transmitted. If the signal
degrades too much, it fails to reach the destination. Or if it does arrive, the degradation
of the message makes it useless. Repeaters can be installed along the way to ensure that

data packets reach their destination.

vii. Bridge: A bridge is a device that establishes an intelligent connection between two Local
area networks with the same standard but with different types of cables. Bridges are
smart enough to know which computers are on which side of the bridge, so they only
allow those messages that need to get to the other side to cross the bridge.

viii. Router: A router is a network device that is used to separate different segments in a
network to improve performance and reliability. A router works like a bridge but can
handle different protocols. A Router differs from a bridge in a way that former uses
logical addresses and the latter uses physical addresses.
 IP(Internet Protocol): 192.168.0.1
MAC(media access control): 26:A6:56:12:B4:32

Manufacturer’s Id Custormer’s ID

ix. Gateway: A Gateway is a network device that connects dissimilar network. It establishes
an intelligent connection between a local area network and external networks with
completely different structures.

x. Wifi-Card: A WIFI card is either an internal or external local area network adapter built-
in wireless radio and antenna. The most common WIFI cards are used in desktop
computers are PCI -Express WIFI cards made to fit the PCI-Express card slots on the
motherboard.
 The benefit of using WIFI card in a desktop computer is that it allows you to setup your
workstation or home office without considering the proximity or availability of hard
line(Cable) network access.

Differences between Hub and Switch:

Hub Switch
It repeats the incoming traffic to all connections
It sends only to appropriate connections
It offers single lane connection, hence either It establishes two-lane communication,
send or receive at a time facilitating send and receive at the same time
It shares the bandwidth among its connections It does not share bandwidth, each connection
gets full bandwidth.
It is an inexpensive choice It is expensive than hub
Introduction to Internet, URL, WWW, and its applications- Web, email, Chat, VoIP.

INTORDUCTION TO INTERNET: Internet is a network of networks.

Or Internet is a worldwide network of computer networks.

Web Browser: A web browser is an application that navigates through World Wide Web and
displays web pages.

Website: It is a collection of web pages and is a location on net server.

Web Address: Each website has a unique address called URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

Web Pages: The pages where the actual information/content is stored.

URL and Domain Names:

The Internet structure of World Wide Web is built on a set of rules called Hypertext Transfer
Protocol(HTTP) and a page description language called Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) . HTTP
uses internet addresses in a special format called a Uniform Resource Locator(URL).

URL looks like:

type://address/path

e..g http://www.chinmayabokaro.org /student/login.aspx

Here, http: specifies the type of server, www.chinmayabokaro.org is the address of the server and
student/login.aspx is the path/location of the file login.aspx
Domain Name: A URL specifies the distinct address for each resource on the Internet. An Internet
address is character based is called Domain Name. The naming scheme by which servers are
identified is also known as the Domain Name System.

Some most common Domains are:

Domain ID Affiliation Remarks

com Commercial for commercial firms
edu Education for educational firms
gov Government for government organisations
net Network Resources for ISPs/networks
org Usually non-profit for NGOs and other non-profit
organisations organisations
co Company for listed companies
biz Business for Business
tv Television for television companies and
channels
mil Military for Military

In addition to it, a two-letter abbreviation indicating the country name may be used

e.g.

au Australia in India
dk Denmark fr France
ca Canada jp Japan
nz New Zealand uk United Kingdom

WWW and its Applications:

WWW stands for World Wide Web: It is a set of protocols that allows us to access any type of
documents on the internet through a naming system based on URLs. WWW also specifies a way- the
hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)- to read, receive and send the documents over the internet. With
these standard protocols of WWW in place, one can setup a server and construct hypertext
documents with links in them that point to the documents on the server.

WWW attributes:

i. user-friendly
ii. Multi-media documents
iii. Hypertext and Hyperlinks

Applications of WWW:

i. WEB: WWW is also known as Web.

ii. Email: Electronic-Mail
iii. Chat: It is a type of conversation done on internet
iv. VoIP: It stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

Website: Introduction, difference between a website and webpage, static vs dynamic web page,
web server and hosting of a website.
 Web Browsers: Introduction: A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is an application
software for accessing information on the World Wide Web. When a user requests a web page from
a particular website, the web browser retrieves the necessary content from a web server and then
displays the page on the user's device.

Commonly used browsers: Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox,
Safari, Opera.

Browser settings:

Browser Settings for use with Blackboard

Browsers Settings

Internet
Explorer Enable Cookies: Tools > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced > Check "Override Automatic
(PC only) Cookie Handling (accept 1st party; Prompt 3rd party)" and check the option to always accept
session cookies. OK and OK back to browser.

Enable Javascript: Tools > Internet Options > Security Tab > Internet > Custom Level > Scroll
down to Scripting and enable "Active Scripting," "Allow Programmatic clipboard access," "Allow
status bar updates via script," "Allow websites to prompt for information ...," and "Scripting of
Java applets".
OK back browser.

Enable Status bar: View > Toolbars > Check "Status Bar".

Get New Page Each Visit: Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > in Browsing history
section, click the Settings button > select "Every time I visit the webpage." OK and OK back to
browser.

Pop-up Blocker Settings: Tools > Pop-up Blocker > Pop-up Blocker Settings ... > Add
ucmo.edu and ucmo.blackboard.com > Close back to browser.

Trusted Sites: Tools > Internet Options > Security > Trusted sites > Sites > Uncheck "Require
server verification for all sites in this zone"

Add ucmo.edu and blackboard.com > Close and OK back to browser.

Discussion Board Issues: Tools > Internet Options > Security Settings > Custom Level > scroll
down to Miscellaneous and set “Launching programs and files in an IFRAME” to Prompt. OK and
OK back to browser.

Mozilla NOTE: for Mac OS X browsers, access preferences via the Application Menu (ex.
Firefox Firefox>Preferences).
(PC and
Mac) Enable Cookies: Tools > Options > Privacy > History pane: Use custom settings for history >
Cookies > select “Accept cookies from sites” and "Accept third-party cookies." OK back to
browser.

Enable Javascript: Tools > Options > Content > check the “Enable Javascript” box. OK back to
browser.
 Get new page each visit: Tools > Options > Privacy > History pane: Use custom settings for
history > select "Clear history when Firefox closes.“ Click Settings and select "Cache.” OK and
OK back to browser.

Popup Blocker Settings: Tools > Options > Content > Click the “Exceptions” button next to
Block Pop-up Windows > Add ucmo.edu and ucmo.blackboard.com > Click Allow and Close. OK
back to browser.

Clear Browser Cache: Tools > Clear Recent History > Select Cache. OK back to browser.

NOTE: for Mac OS X browsers, access preferences via the Application Menu (ex.
Chrome>Preferences).

Enable Cookies: Settings > Show advanced settings > Privacy > Content Settings... > Cookies
> check "Allow local data to be set.." OK and close Settings tab back to browser.

Enable Javascript: Settings > Show advanced settings > Privacy > Content Settings... >
Javascript > check “Allow sites to run Javascript”. OK and close Settings tab back to browser.

Google Get new page each visit: Settings > Show advanced settings > Privacy > Content Settings... >
Chrome Cookies > Select "Keep local data only unitl I quit my browser” OK. Close Settings tab back to
(PC and browser.
Mac)
NOTE: This will also clear your cookie each time the browser is closed. Unfortunately, Chrome
doesn't have a mechanism to automatically clear only the cache. You could alternatively just
routinely clear the browser cache (instructions provided below).

Popup Blocker Settings: Settings > Show advanced settings > Privacy > Content Settings... >
Pop-ups > Click the “Manage exceptions” button > Add ucmo.edu and ucmo.blackboard.com >
set behavior to "Allow." OK and close Settings tab back to browser.

Clear Browser Cache: History > Clear browsing data: Select "the beginning of time" from the
"Obliterate..." drop down, Select "Emtpy the cache" and click the Clear brwosing data button.
Close Settings tab back to browser.

All Settings: Safari Menu > Preferences > click Security icon > Check: Enable Plugins, Java, &
Javascript.
Safari
(Mac Only) Clear checkbox on "Block Popup Windows."

Accept Cookies > select "Only From Sites I Visit."

Add-ons and plug-ins: In computing, a plug-in (or plugin, add-in, addin, add-on, or addon) is a
software component that adds a specific feature to an existing computer program. When a program
supports plug-ins, it enables customization.

Applications support plug-ins for many reasons. Some of the main reasons include:

 to enable third-party developers to create abilities which extend an application

 to support easily adding new features
  to reduce the size of an application
 to separate source code from an application because of incompatible software licenses.

Cookies: Cookies are text files with small pieces of data — like a username and password — that are
used to identify your computer as you use a computer network. The purpose of the computer cookie
is to help the website keep track of your visits and activity. This isn’t always a bad thing. For
example, many online retailers use cookies to keep track of the items in a user’s shopping cart as
they explore the site. Without cookies, your shopping cart would reset to zero every time you clicked
a new link on the site. That would make it difficult to buy anything online!