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From Ethan Castanon
- 1 -IST-SEW
NetworkingConcepts
Skills for the Electronic WorkplaceStephen Carr, smcarr@ist
Copyright
©
1998 IST SEW
Permission to use this document for non-commercial purposes, in original or modified form, is granted, provided that the original source of the document is acknowledged as Skills for the Electronic Workplace, Information Systems and Technology, University of Waterloo.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................2THE STRUCTURE OF NETWORKS...................................................................................................2
.............................................................................................................2H
Local Area Networks (LANs).............................................................................................................2Wide Area Networks (WANs) and the Internet....................................................................................3Your Privileges on the Network .........................................................................................................3
............................................................................................................5P
................................................................................................................8E
Attachments......................................................................................................................................9Configuring an Email Client Program...............................................................................................9 Junk Mail and Other Unwanted Mail...............................................................................................10
Remote File Systems........................................................................................................................11 Remote File Transfers.....................................................................................................................12 Remote Log-ins...............................................................................................................................12 Internet Service Providers and Dialing In from Home......................................................................12
............................................................................................................12E
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Introduction
Networks connect computers together. Advantages of networking include communication with other users,sharing resources such as printers and software, centralization of software and account maintenance, andmobility of users.This course will introduce the basic concepts necessary to make effective use of a networked computingenvironment. The majority of these concepts are independent of the type of computer workstation or itsoperating system.The technical side of computer networking is pretty complicated, and descriptions of it are littered withacronyms. The purpose of this course is to demystify the workings of a network as much as possible. Sincemost networking applications require some user configuration, we will focus on the common applicationsand the terms that average users are likely to encounter.
The Structure of Networks
Layers, Levels, Hierarchies
When we talk about networks (and many other computing concepts as well), we discover that most thingsare organized in a “layered” or hierarchical fashion. The purpose of this section is to provide an overviewof how networks work, particularly the Internet. Let’s start by looking at the hierarchy of networksthemselves.
Hierarchy of Networks
The Internet consists of interconnected sub-networks. Let’s look at the hierarchy of networks.
LocalWorkstationLANWAN / Internet
Figure 1: Hierarchy of Networks
Local Area Networks (LANs)
If we connect a
computer workstation
to its neighbour in the next office to share a printer we end up witha
local area network (LAN)
. Often, a local area network consists of connected computers of a similar type
- 3 -IST-SEW(i.e., using the same operating system) which are located in a limited geographical area. The WaterlooPolaris network on campus is an example of a (rather large) PC LAN. The purpose of a LAN is usually topool the computing resources of a group of users. This pooling allows for cost savings such as is achievedby providing centralized printing. The other main advantage of a LAN is to provide centralizedadministration services for the users, such as software installation and maintenance, automated back-ups of files, network security (passwords), etc.More generally a LAN is a network such as the
campus network
as a whole which connects computers of various types, and various sub-networks (including Waterloo Polaris), within a small geographical area.The network supports various campus-wide functions such as the financial system database, the dial-inmodem pool, centralized data processing functions, etc. The campus network is much more diversified interms of its functions than a homogeneous LAN, and individual users generally only have access to a smallsubset of these functions.
Wide Area Networks (WANs) and the Internet
A Wide Area Network (WAN) connects networks of computers of various types over a widegeographical area. The world-wide Internet is the largest possible example of a WAN. The campusnetwork provides a link to the Internet
remote sites linked by data communications over the globaltelecommunication system.
Your Privileges on the Network
It is important to realize that you have different privileges at different network “levels”. For example,you generally have quite a bit of latitude to modify your local workstation as you please. Your office areaLAN may allow you access to some shared network drives and printers, but not others. (Your network administrator is the person who configures your LAN). Although you probably have access to theInternet, you generally have very limited privileges to do anything other than collect information (read-only access). However, if you save that information locally on your workstation, you can then modifyyour local copy.It is essential that you recognize which files (and disk drives) are local to your workstation and which arebeing made available to you over the network. This distinction is important because it relates to datasecurity
whether or not the files are being backed up or whether they are accessible by people otherthan you. The location of disk and files is not always obvious, since remote disk drives can be “mounted”by your workstation to look and behave just like local drives. Also, some operating systems such asWindows98 blur the distinction between local and remote files even further by integrating Web browsingtools into the file management software.
Layered Communication Protocols
So, how do the many different kinds of computers that make up the Internet communicate with each other?Diplomats from different countries rely on standard diplomatic protocols in order to communicate withoutmisinterpretation. Similarly, computers on the Internet share information according to agreed upon
protocols
(communication rules) which allow them to correctly route and interpret the transmittedmessages. The particular set of protocols that define the Internet is called the
TCP/IP protocol suite.
TheTCP/IP protocol suite is designed in layers, each successively lower layer providing a library of morefundamental functions required by more and more applications.Technically, there are seven layers in the protocol suite, but for the purposes of this course, and for clarityof understanding, we will simplify the discussion by talking about just four layers: the applications layer,the transport layer, the network layer, and the data-link layer. These layers roughly correspond (if you lumptogether the middle two layers) to the programs, operating system and hardware layers of your computerworkstation, respectively.Each protocol layer relies on the protocols provided by the layers beneath it. The figure below summarizesthe layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite.
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