Computer Network

A computer network is any set of computers or devices connected to each other with the ability to
exchange data. Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of telecommunications,
computer science, information technology and/or computer engineering since it relies heavily upon the
theoretical and practical application of these scientific and engineering disciplines. The three types of
networks are: the Internet, the intranet, and the extranet. Examples of different network methods are:

 Local area network (LAN), which is usually a small network constrained to a small geographic
area. An example of a LAN would be a computer network within a building.
 Metropolitan area network (MAN), which is used for medium size area. examples for a city or a
state.
 Wide area network (WAN) that is usually a larger network that covers a large geographic area.
 Wireless LANs and WANs (WLAN & WWAN) are the wireless equivalent of the LAN and
WAN.

All networks are interconnected to allow communication with a variety of different kinds of media,
including twisted-pair copper wire cable, coaxial cable, optical fiber, power lines and various wireless
technologies. The devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g. via Bluetooth) or nearly unlimited
distances (e.g. via the interconnections of the Internet). Networking, routers, routing protocols, and
networking over the public Internet have their specifications defined in documents called RFCs

Network topology

The network topology defines the way in which computers, printers, and other devices are connected,
physically and logically. A network topology describes the layout of the wire and devices as well as the
paths used by data transmissions.

Network topology has two types:

 Physical
 Logical

Commonly used topologies include:

 Bus
 Star
 Tree (hierarchical)
 Linear
 Ring
 Mesh
o partially connected
o fully connected (sometimes known as fully redundant)

The network topologies mentioned above are only a general representation of the kinds of topologies used
in computer network and are considered basic topologies
LAN

A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that connects computers and devices in a
limited geographical area such as home, school, computer laboratory, office building, closely
positioned group of buildings, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to
wide area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic
area, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.

ARCNET, Token Ring and other technologies have been used in the past, but Ethernet over
twisted pair cabling, and Wi-Fi are the two most common technologies currently in use.

A local area network is a network that spans a relatively small space and provides services to a
small number of people.

A peer-to-peer or client-server method of networking may be used. A peer-to-peer network is

where each client shares their resources with other workstations in the network. Examples of
peer-to-peer networks are: Small office networks where resource use is minimal and a home
network. A client-server network is where every client is connected to the server and each other.
Client-server networks use servers in different capacities. These can be classified into two types:

1. Single-service servers
2. Print servers

The server performs one task such as file server, while other servers can not only perform in the
capacity of file servers and print servers, but also can conduct calculations and use them to
provide information to clients (Web/Intranet Server). Computers may be connected in many
different ways, including Ethernet cables, Wireless networks, or other types of wires such as
power lines or phone lines.

The ITU-T G.hn standard is an example of a technology that provides high-speed (up to 1 Gbit/s)
local area networking over existing home wiring (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables).
WAN

A wide area network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose
communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries ). This is in contrast with
personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or
metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific
metropolitan area (e.g., a city) respectively.

A wide area network is a network where a wide variety of resources are deployed across a large
domestic area or internationally. An example of this is a multinational business that uses a WAN
to interconnect their offices in different countries. The largest and best example of a WAN is the
Internet, which is a network composed of many smaller networks. The Internet is considered the
largest network in the world. The PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) also is an
extremely large network that is converging to use Internet technologies, although not necessarily
through the public Internet.

A Wide Area Network involves communication through the use of a wide range of different
technologies. These technologies include Point-to-Point WANs such as Point-to-Point Protocol
(PPP) and High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC), Frame Relay, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer
Mode) and Sonet (Synchronous Optical Network). The difference between the WAN
technologies is based on the switching capabilities they perform and the speed at which sending
and receiving bits of information (data) occur.
VPN

A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network that uses a public telecommunication
infrastructure such as the Internet to provide remote offices or individual users with secure
access to their organization's network. It aims to avoid an expensive system of owned or leased
lines that can be used by only one organization.

It encapsulates data transfers between two or more networked devices which are not on the same
private network so as to keep the transferred data private from other devices on one or more
intervening local or wide area networks. There are many different classifications,
implementations, and uses for VPNs.

Virtual Private Networks reduce network costs because they avoid a need for many leased lines that
individually connect to the Internet. Users can exchange private data securely, making the expensive
leased lines redundant.

A VPN works by using the shared public infrastructure while maintaining privacy through security
procedures and tunneling protocols such as the Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP). In effect, the
protocols, by encrypting data at the sending end and decrypting it at the receiving end, send the data
through a "tunnel" that cannot be "entered" by data that is not properly encrypted. An additional level of
security involves encrypting not only the data, but also the originating and receiving network addresses.
Network Security

In the field of networking, the specialist area of network security consists of the provisions and policies
adopted by the network administrator to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification,
or denial of the computer network and network-accessible resources.

Network security starts from authenticating the user, commonly with a username and a
password. Since this requires just one thing besides the user name, i.e. the password which is
something you 'know', this is sometimes termed one factor authentication. With two factor
authentication something you 'have' is also used (e.g. a security token or 'dongle', an ATM card,
or your mobile phone), or with three factor authentication something you 'are' is also used (e.g. a
fingerprint or retinal scan).

Once authenticated, a firewall enforces access policies such as what services are allowed to be
accessed by the network users.Though effective to prevent unauthorized access, this component
may fail to check potentially harmful content such as computer worms or Trojans being
transmitted over the network. Anti-virus software or an intrusion prevention system (IPS) help
detect and inhibit the action of such malware. An anomaly-based intrusion detection system may
also monitor the network and traffic for unexpected (i.e. suspicious) content or behavior and
other anomalies to protect resources, e.g. from denial of service attacks or an employee accessing
files at strange times. Individual events occurring on the network may be logged for audit
purposes and for later high level analysis.

Communication between two hosts using a network could be encrypted to maintain privacy.

Honeypots, essentially decoy network-accessible resources, could be deployed in a network as

surveillance and early-warning tools as the honeypot will not normally be accessed. Techniques
used by the attackers that attempt to compromise these decoy resources are studied during and
after an attack to keep an eye on new exploitation techniques. Such analysis could be used to
further tighten security of the actual network being protected by the honeypot.