LAN, WAN & MANs

A network consists of multiple computers connected using some type of interface, each having one or more interface devices. The primitive computers were the self contained devices in which the data was confined in it. The only way to transfer the data from one machine to another was to take the data in a storage device and send it across the machine. So, this necessity led to invention and development in the networks. In a computer network, the autonomous computers are interconnected and are able to communicate with each other. Networks enable the sharing of data among groups of computers and their users.

LAN, WAN & MANs

Local Area Networks (LANs) is confined to a fairly small geographic area. The clients and servers on a LAN are connected to the same channel, and are typically in the same building or in neighbouring buildings. The Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) spans a wider area than LAN and Wide Area Networks (WANs) spread over a large geographic area, such as a country or a state.

Routers, Bridges & Backbone

The facilities on most LANs are very powerful. Most organizations do not wish to have small isolated islands of computing facilities confined to the buildings. They want to extend facilities over a wider area so that groups can work without having to be located together. Two or more LANs can be connected with specialized devices called Routers and bridges. Bridge connects LANs of the same type but, router is a more intelligent component that can interconnect many different types of computer network. Then, we can have Backbone Networks, which are high-bandwidth channels that typically connect LANs with each other, and are often referred to as backbones.

Network Protocols

A protocol is more like a language that can be shared by many people. If all the people would like to use the same language, the protocol becomes a standard.  The same is applicable with networks. Most networks have one feature in common that they transmit information by breaking the original information into a set of messages (called packets), transmitting these packets sequentially, and then reassembling these packets back into the original information.

Internet

Internet is a network connecting many computer networks and based on a common addressing system and communications protocol.