NETWORKING

by
Eddons Munthali

Eddons Munthali - Computer Networks 1

Eddons Munthali - Computer Networks 2
 COMPUTER NETWORK
• A computer network is an interconnection of various
computer systems located at different places
• Two or more computers are linked together with a
medium and data communication devices for the
purpose of communicating data and sharing resources
• The computer that provides resources to other
computers on a network is known as server.
• Individual computers in the network, which access
shared network resources, are known as nodes.

Eddons Munthali - Computer Networks 3

 Networking
• Computer network A collection of computing
devices that are connected in various ways in
order to communicate and share resources
Usually, the connections are made using
physical wires or cables
However, some connections are wireless, using
radio waves or infrared signals

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 Networking
• The generic term node or host refers to any
device on a network
• Data transfer rate The speed with which data
is moved from one place on a network to
another
• Data transfer rate is a key issue in computer
networks

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 Networking
• Computer networks have opened up an entire
frontier in the world of computing called the
client/server model

15-6 Figure 15.1 Client/Server interaction

 Networking
• File server A computer that stores and
manages files for multiple users on a network
• Web server A computer dedicated to
responding to requests (from the browser
client) for web pages

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 Types of Networks
Local Area Network (LAN)
 Networks used to interconnect computers in a single room,
rooms within a building or buildings on one site
 Usually LAN links computers within a limited geographical area
because they must be connected by a cable, which is quite
expensive.
 LAN links computers, in the same area for the purpose of
sharing information.
 LAN transmits data with a speed of several megabits per
second than WAN
 People working in LAN get more capabilities in data processing,
work processing and other information exchange compared to
stand-alone computers.

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 Characteristics of LAN
1) every computer has the potential to
communicate with any other computers of
the network
2) high degree of connection between
computers
3) easy physical connection of computers in a
network
4) high data transmission rate

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 Use of LAN
1) File transfers and Access
2) Word and text processing
3) Electronic message handling
4) Remote database access
5) Personal computing
6) Digital voice transmission and storage

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 Wide Area Network
❑The term Wide Area Network (WAN) is used
to describe a computer network spanning a
regional, national or global area.
❑For example, for a large company the head
quarters might be at Cairo and regional
branches at Mansoura, Tanta , and Aswan.
❑the transmission medium used are normally
telephone lines, microwaves and satellite
links
Wide-area network (WAN) A network that connects two or more local-area
networks over a potentially large geographic distance
Eddons Munthali - Computer Networks 11
 The characteristics of WAN
• Communication Facility: For a big company
spanning over the country the employees
can save long distance phone calls and it
overcomes the time lag in overseas
communications.
• Computer conferencing is another use of
WAN where users communicate with each
other through their computer system.

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• Remote Data Entry is possible in WAN. It means sitting
at any location you can enter data, update data and
query other information of any computer attached to
the WAN
• Centralized Information: This means if the organization
is spread over many cities, they keep their important
business data in a single place. WAN permits collection
of this data from different sites and save at a single site

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 Difference between LAN and WAN
1) LAN is restricted to limited geographical area of few kilometers.
But WAN covers great distance and operate nationwide or even
worldwide.
2) In LAN, the computer terminals and peripheral devices are
connected with wires and coaxial cables. In WAN there is no
physical connection. Communication is done through telephone
lines and satellite links.
3) Cost of data transmission in LAN is less because the transmission
medium is owned by a single organization. In case of WAN the
cost of data transmission is very high because the transmission
medium used are hired, either telephone lines or satellite links.
4) The speed of data transmission is much higher in LAN than in
WAN. Few data transmission errors occur in LAN compared to
WAN.

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 Often one particular node on a LAN is set up to serve as a
gateway to handle all communication going between that
LAN and other networks
Communication between networks is called
internetworking
The Internet, as we know it today, is essentially the
ultimate wide-area network, spanning the entire globe

• Metropolitan-area network (MAN) The

communication infrastructures that have been
developed in and around large cities
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NETWORK TOPOLOGY
Star Topology
In star topology a number of workstations are directly linked to a
central node.
Any communication between stations on a star LAN must pass
through the central node.
The central node controls all the activities of the nodes.
The advantages of the star topology are:
• It offers flexibility of adding or deleting of workstations from the
network.
• Breakdown of one station does not affect entire system
The major disadvantage of star topology is that failure of the central
node disables communication throughout the whole network

Star topology
16
Eddons Munthali - Computer Networks
 Bus Topology
 In bus topology all workstations are connected to a
single communication line called bus.
 There is no central node as in star topology.
 Transmission from any station travels the length of the
bus in both directions and can be received by all
workstations.
The advantage of the bus topology is that
 It is quite easy to set up.
 If one station of the topology fails it does not affect
the entire system.
 The disadvantage of bus topology is that any break in
the bus is difficult to identify.

Bus Topology
Eddons Munthali - Computer Networks 17
 Ring Topology
 In ring topology each station is attached nearby stations on a
point to point basis so that the entire system is in the form of a
ring.
 In this topology data is transmitted in one direction only.
 Thus the data packets circulate along the ring in either
clockwise or anti-clockwise direction.
The advantage of this topology is that any signal transmitted on
the network passes through all the LAN stations.
The disadvantage of ring network is that the breakdown of any
one station on the ring can disable the entire system.

Ring Topology

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Introduction to the Internet
and Web
 Internet
• It is the largest network in the world that
connects hundreds of thousands of individual
networks all over the world.
• The popular term for the Internet is the
“information highway”.
• Rather than moving through geographical space,
it moves your ideas and information through
cyberspace – the space of electronic movement
of ideas and information.
 Internet
• No one owns it
• It has no formal management organization.
• As it was originally developed by the Department
of defense, this lack of centralization made it less
vulnerable to wartime or terrorist attacks.
• To access the Internet, an existing network need
to pay a small registration fee and agree to certain
standards based on the TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) .
 The uses of the Internet
• Send e-mail messages.
• Send (upload) or receive (down load) files
between computers.
• Participate in discussion groups, such as
mailing lists and newsgroups.
• Surfing the web.
 What is Web?
• The Web (World Wide Web) consists of information
organized into Web pages containing text and graphic
images.
• It contains hypertext links, or highlighted keywords
and images that lead to related information.
• A collection of linked Web pages that has a common
theme or focus is called a Web site.
• The main page that all of the pages on a particular
Web site are organized around and link back to is
called the site’s home page.
 How to access the Internet?
• Many schools and businesses have direct
access to the Internet using special high-
speed communication lines and equipment.
• Students and employees can access
through the organization’s local area
networks (LAN) or through their own
personal computers.
• Another way to access the Internet is
through Internet Service Provider (ISP).
 How to access the Internet?
• To access the Internet, an existing network need
to pay a small registration fee and agree to certain
standards based on the TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) reference
model.
• Each organization pays for its own networks and
its own telephone bills, but those costs usually
exist independent of the internet.
• The regional Internet companies route and
forward all traffic, and the cost is still only that of a
local telephone call.
 Internet Service Provider (ISP)

• A commercial organization with permanent

connection to the Internet that sells
temporary connections to subscribers.
• Examples:
• ???
 How to access the Web?
• Once you have your Internet connection, then
you need special software called a browser to
access the Web.
• Web browsers are used to connect you to
remote computers, open and transfer files,
display text and images.
• Web browsers are specialized programs.
• Examples of Web browser: Netscape
Navigator (Navigator) and Internet Explorer.
 Client/Server Structure of the Web

• Web is a collection of files that reside on computers,

called Web servers, that are located all over the
world and are connected to each other through the
Internet.
• When you use your Internet connection to become
part of the Web, your computer becomes a Web
client in a worldwide client/server network.
• A Web browser is the software that you run on your
computer to make it work as a web client.
 Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML)
• The public files on the web servers are ordinary
text files, much like the files used by word-
processing software.
• To allow Web browser software to read them,
the text must be formatted according to a
generally accepted standard.
• The standard used on the web is Hypertext
markup language (HTML).
 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

• HTML uses codes, or tags, to tell the Web browser

software how to display the text contained in the
document.
• For example, a Web browser reading the following line of
text:
<B> A Review of the Book<I>Wind Instruments of
the 18th Century</I></B>
• recognizes the <B> and </B> tags as instructions to display
the entire line of text in bold and the <I> and </I> tags as
instructions to display the text enclosed by those tags in
italics.
 Addresses on the Web:IP Addressing
• Each computer on the internet does have a
unique identification number, called an IP
(Internet Protocol) address.
• The IP addressing system currently in use on
the Internet uses a four-part number.
• Each part of the address is a number ranging
from 0 to 255, and each part is separated from
the previous part by period,
• For example, 106.29.242.17
 IP Addressing
• The combination of the four IP address parts
provides 4.2 billion possible addresses (256 x
256 x 256 x 256).
• This number seemed adequate until 1998.
• Members of various Internet task forces are
working to develop an alternate addressing
system that will accommodate the projected
growth.
• However, all of their working solutions require
extensive hardware and software changes
throughout the Internet.
 Domain Name Addressing
• Most web browsers do not use the IP address t locate
Web sites and individual pages.
• They use domain name addressing.
• A domain name is a unique name associated with a
specific IP address by a program that runs on an
Internet host computer.
• This program, which coordinates the IP addresses and
domain names for all computers attached to it, is
called DNS (Domain Name System ) software.
• The host computer that runs this software is called a
domain name server.
 Domain Name Addressing
• Domain names can include any number of parts separated by
periods, however most domain names currently in use have
only three or four parts.
• Domain names follow hierarchical model that you can follow
from top to bottom if you read the name from the right to the
left.
• For example, the domain name gsb.uchicago.edu is the
computer connected to the Internet at the Graduate School of
Business (gsb), which is an academic unit of the University of
Chicago (uchicago), which is an educational institution (edu).
• No other computer on the Internet has the same domain name.
 Uniform Resource Locators
• The IP address and the domain name each identify a particular
computer on the Internet.
• However, they do not indicate where a Web page’s HTML
document resides on that computer.
• To identify a Web pages exact location, Web browsers rely on
Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
• URL is a four-part addressing scheme that tells the Web
browser:

• Ayaz, A., & Yanartaş, M. (2020). An analysis on the unified theory of acceptance and
use of technology theory (UTAUT): Acceptance of electronic document management
system (EDMS). Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 2, 100032.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100032
Structure of a Uniform Resource Locators

pathname
protocol

http://www.chicagosymphony.org/civicconcerts/index.htm

Domain name filename

http => Hypertext Transfer Protocol

 HTTP
• The transfer protocol is the set of rules that the
computers use to move files from one computer to
another on the Internet.
• The most common transfer protocol used on the
Internet is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
• Two other protocols that you can use on the Internet
are the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and the Telnet
Protocol
How to find information on the Web?
• A number of search tools have been developed and
available to you on certain Web sites that provide
search services to help you find information.
• Examples:
➢ Yahoo → www.yahoo.com
➢ Excite → www.excite.com
➢ Lycos → www.lycos.com
➢ AltaVista → www/alta-vista.com
➢ MSN WebSearch → www.search.msn.com
 How to find information on the Web?
• You can find information by two basic means.
• Search by Topic and Search by keywords.
• Some search services offer both methods, others only
one.
• Yahoo offers both.
➢ Search by Topic
You can navigate through topic lists
➢ Search by keywords
You can navigate by entering a keyword or phase into
a search text box.
 INTERNET Recap
 The Internet is a network of networks
 Computer users on the Internet can contact one
another anywhere in the world
 In Internet a huge resource of information is
accessible to people across the world
 Information in every field starting from education,
science, health, medicine, history, and geography to
business, news, etc. can be retrieved through
Internet
 You can also download programs and software
packages from anywhere in the world
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 Internet - Recap
• It is the largest network in the world that
connects hundreds of thousands of individual
networks all over the world.
• The popular term for the Internet is the
“information highway”.
• Rather than moving through geographical space,
it moves your ideas and information through
cyberspace – the space of electronic movement
of ideas and information.
 Origin of Internet - Recap

• In 1969 Department of Defense (DOD) of USA started

a network called ARPANET (Advanced Research
Projects Administration Network )
• Around 1970, NSFNET (National Science Foundation
Network) was created. With the advancement of
modern communication facilities,
• By 1990 many computers were looking up to NSFNET
giving birth to Internet

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 Internet functions
▪ Internet is not a governmental organization.
▪ The ultimate authority of the Internet is the Internet
Society.
▪ This is a voluntary membership organization whose
purpose is to promote global information exchange.
▪ Internet has more than one million computers
attached to it.

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 E-mail
• E-mail stands for electronic mail.
• This is one of the most widely used features of
Internet.
• In electronic mail the data are transmitted through
Internet and therefore within minutes the message
reaches the destination may it be anywhere in the
world.
• Therefore the mailing system is excessively fast and is
being used widely for mail transfer

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 Features of E-mail
1) One-to-one or one-to-many communications
2) Instant communications
3) Physical presence of recipient is not required
4) Most inexpensive mail service, 24-hours a
day and seven days a week
5) Encourages informal communication

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 Components of an E-mail Address

• As in the case of normal mail system, e-mail is also

based upon the concept of a recipient address.
• The email address provides all of the information
required to get a message to the recipient from
anywhere in the world. Consider the e-mail ID
• john@hotmail.com

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 john@hotmail.com
• In the example above, "john" is the local
part, which is the name of a mailbox on the
destination computer, where finally the mail
will be delivered.
• Hotmail is the mail server where the
mailbox "john" exists,
• .com is the type of organization on net
• .edu Educational institutions
• .gov Government site
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 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

• File Transfer Protocol, is an Internet utility software

used to upload and download files.
• It gives access to directories or folders on remote
computers and allows software, data and text files to
be transferred between different kinds of computers.
• FTP works on the basis of same principle as that of
Client/Server.

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• FTP "Client" is a program running on your computer
that enables you to talk to, and get stuff from remote
computers.
• The FTP client takes FTP commands and sends them
as requests for information from the remote
computer or known as FTP servers.
• To access remote FTP server it is required but not
necessary to have an account in the FTP server.
• When the FTP client gets connected

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 The objectives of FTP
The basic objectives of FTP are
• to give flexibility and promote sharing of
computer programs, files and data
• to transfer data reliably and more efficiently
over network
• to encourage implicit or indirect use of remote
computers using Internet
• to shield a user from variations in file storage
systems among hosts
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 Telnet (Remote Computing)
 Telnet or remote computing is telecommunication utility
software, which uses available telecommunication
facility and allows you to become a user on a remote
computer.
 Once you gain access to the remote computer, you can
use it for the intended purpose.
 The TELNET works in a very step by step procedure. The
commands typed on the client computer are sent to the
local Internet Service Provider (ISP), and then from the
ISP to the remote computer that you have gained access.
 Most of the ISP provides facility to TELNET into your
own account from another city and check your e-mail
while you are traveling or away.

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 WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)
• WWW is the short form for the World Wide Web. It is
also commonly known as ‘The Web’.
• The WWW is hypertext based information retrieval tool.
• One can easily surf the Web by jumping from one
document to another using the links in those
documents.
• These documents can be in many formats, such as text,
graphics, animation, sound and latest is video. They may
also be a combination of all these.
• All the information on Internet are presented to the
user as a document or more popularly known as Web
Page.
• All these Web Pages are link to each other or even to
section within a Web Page. And these links are known as
Hyper Links.
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 The Web browser
 The tool used to view these Web Pages on Internet is
known as Internet browser or simply browser.
 It is a software program specifically developed to
extract information on user request from the Internet
and present them as a Web Page to the viewer
 Examples include Internet Explorer from Microsoft and
Netscape from Netscape Inc, Mozilla, Firefox

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 Internet Connections
• Internet backbone A set of high-speed
networks that carry Internet traffic
These networks are provided by companies
such as AT&T, GTE, and IBM
• Internet service provider (ISP) A company
that provides other companies or individuals
with access to the Internet

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 Internet Connections
• There are various technologies available that you can use to
connect a home computer to the Internet
– A phone modem converts computer data into an analog audio
signal for transfer over a telephone line, and then a modem at the
destination converts it back again into data
– A digital subscriber line (DSL) uses regular copper phone lines to
transfer digital data to and from the phone company’s central
office
– A cable modem uses the same line that your cable TV signals come
in on to transfer the data back and forth

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 Internet Connections
• Broadband A connection in which transfer speeds
are faster than 128 bits per second
– DSL connections and cable modems are broadband
connections
– The speed for downloads (getting data from the Internet
to your home computer) may not be the same as uploads
(sending data from your home computer to the Internet)

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 Open Systems
• Proprietary system A system that uses technologies
kept private by a particular commercial vendor
One system couldn’t communicate with another, leading to
the need for
• Interoperability The ability of software and hardware
on multiple machines and from multiple commercial
vendors to communicate
Leading to
• Open systems Systems based on a common model
of network architecture and a suite of protocols used
in its implementation

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 Firewalls
• Firewall A machine and its software that
serve as a special gateway to a network,
protecting it from inappropriate access
– Filters the network traffic that comes in, checking
the validity of the messages as much as possible
and perhaps denying some messages altogether
– Enforces an organization’s access control policy

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 Firewalls

A firewall protecting a LAN