QA SESSION 5
BASIC OF COMPUTER NETWORKING
NETWORKING
A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources (such as printers
and CDs), exchange files, or allow electronic communications. The computers on a network may be
linked through cables, telephone lines, radio waves, satellites, or infrared light beams.An excellent
example of a network is the internet.
Local Area Networks(LAN)
A local area network (LAN) is a collection of devices connected together in one physical location, such as
a building, office, or home. A LAN can be small or large, ranging from a home network with one user to
an enterprise network with thousands of users and devices in an office or school.
Wide Area Network(WAN)
Wide-area network (WAN) is a collection of local-area networks (LANs) or other networks that
communicate with one another. A WAN is essentially a network of networks, with the Internet the world's
largest WAN.
Metropolitan Area Network(MAN)
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that is larger than a single building local area
network (LAN) but is located in a single geographic area that is smaller than a wide area network (WAN).
IP AND MAC ADDRESS
IP Address
An IP address, or Internet Protocol address, is a series of numbers that identifies any device on a network.
Computers use IP addresses to communicate with each other both over the internet as well as on other
networks.There are 2 types of ip addresses:IP4 and IPV6.IPv4 is a 32-bit address, whereas IPv6 is a
128-bit hexadecimal address.
IP address again classified into five A, B, C, D, and E. Each class has a range of valid IP addresses. The
value of the first octet determines the class. IP addresses from the first three classes (A, B and C) can be
used for host addresses. The other two classes are used for other purposes – class D for multicast and
class E for experimental purposes.
IP Address is a 32 bit binary address written as 4 numbers separated by dots.The 4 numbers are called as
octets where each octet has 8 bits.The octets are divided into 2 components- Net ID and Host ID.
IP address is again classified into 2
1. Public ip address
2. Private ip address
IPV6 Address
An IPv6 address is a 128-bit alphanumeric value that identifies an endpoint device in an Internet Protocol
Version 6 (IPv6) network. IPv6 is the successor to a previous addressing infrastructure, IPv4, which had
limitations IPv6 was designed to overcome.
MAC ADDRESS
A MAC address is responsible for local identification and an IP address for global identification. A MAC
address consists of 12 hexadecimal digits, usually grouped into six pairs separated by hyphens. MAC
addresses are available from 00-00-00-00-00-00 through FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF.
NETWORKING DEVICES
● HUB
● SWITCH
● ROUTER
● ACCESS POINT
HUB
A network hub is a node that broadcasts data to every computer or Ethernet-based device connected to it.
A hub is less sophisticated than a switch, the latter of which can isolate data transmissions to specific
devices. Network hubs are best suited for small, simple local area network (LAN) environments.
SWITCH
Switch is a network device that connects other devices to Ethernet networks through twisted pair cables. It
uses packet switching techniques to receive, store and forward data packets on the network. The switch
maintains a list of network addresses of all the devices connected to it.On receiving a packet, it checks the
destination address and transmits the packet to the correct port. Before forwarding, the packets are
checked for collision and other network errors. The data is transmitted in full duplex mode
ROUTER
A router is a network layer hardware device that transmits data from one LAN to another if both networks
support the same set of protocols. So a router is typically connected to at least two LANs and the internet
service provider (ISP). It receives its data in the form of packets, which are data frames with their
destination address added. Router also strengthens the signals before transmitting them. That is why it is
also called repeater
NETWORK DEPLOYMENT IN REAL WORLD
UNICAST VS MULTICAST VS BROADCAST
A Unicast communication is from one device on the network to another device on the network.
A MultiCast communication is from one device on the network to many, but not all, devices on the
network.
Broadcast communication is from one device on the network to all devices on the network.
DHCP-DYNAMIC HOST CONTROL PROTOCOL
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a network management protocol used to dynamically
assign an Internet Protocol (ip) address to any device, or node, on a network so they can communicate
using IP. DHCP automates and centrally manages these configurations rather than requiring network
administrators to manually assign IP addresses to all network devices. DHCP can be implemented on
small local networks, as well as large enterprise networks.
APIPA-AUTOMATIC PRIVATE IP ADDRESSING
Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) is a feature in operating systems (such as Windows) that
enables computers to automatically self-configure an IP address and subnet mask when their DHCP
server isn’t reachable. The IP address range for APIPA is 169.254.0.1-169.254.255.254, with the subnet
mask of 255.255.0.0.When a DHCP client boots up, it looks for a DHCP server in order to obtain network
parameters. If the client can’t communicate with the DHCP server, it uses APIPA to configure itself with
an IP address from the APIPA range. This way, the host will still be able to communicate with other hosts
on the local network segment that are also configured for APIPA.
PING-PACKET INTERNET GROPER
A ping (Packet Internet or Inter-Network Groper) is a basic Internet program that allows a user to test and
verify if a particular destination IP address exists and can accept requests in computer network
administration.
