Computer Networking FAQ's

Computer networking is the system of connecting two or more computers and computer devices in order to share data. Both the hardware and software take important roles in building an ideal network, suitable for the purpose. You can have a small home network supported by LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN spreading over a whole country. In fact, the World Wide Web is the world’s largest public WAN (Wide Area Network). There are a few computer networking FAQs you may like to know as put forth below -

Q1. What is a topology in networking?
Topology is the set of rules that govern the setup of a network. Ethernet is the most popular topology in use today. It consists of computers and peripherals cabled together in specific ways. Ethernet is cheaper, faster, and easy to use and set up. There are two types of Ethernet – Standard and Fast Ethernet.

Q2. What is a bit and what is a byte?
Both bit and byte expresses the rate at which digital data is transmitted over a network connection. However, a bit is a single numeric value that encodes a single unit of digital data. It can be either '1' or '0'. A byte is a series of bits. Usually, eight bits are equal to one byte.

Q3. What is client/server networking?
Clients and servers perform specific functions on a network. While client devices request and receive information over the network, a server device hosts the information, databases, or applications that are shared over the network. When we talk of client/server networking, we mean a network design that uses both clients and servers.

Q4. How can we measure network speed?
The speed of a computer network is normally measured in units of bits per second (bps). Since, modern networks support very large numbers of bits per second, it is easier to express these quantities in kilobits, megabits, or gigabits.

1 Kbps = 1 kbps = 1 kilobit per second = 1,000 bits per second
1 Mbps = 1,000 Kbps
1 Gbps = 1,000 Mbps

Q5. What is an intranet?
An intranet is also a LAN but it is a private network designed for using within an organisation. A simple intranet network design may have an internal email system or a message board. In the sophisticated ones, you can add on one or more Web site portals. Intranet facilitates communication between people and improves knowledge sharing.

Q6. What is the IP - the Internet Protocol?
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) are two distinct network protocols. TCP/IP expresses network communications. TCP is the transport that is used to deliver the data across IP networks.

Q7. What is the difference between a hub and a switch?
The final piece you need to put your network design together is a hub. It is used to gather groups of PCs together at a central location. The switch is actually a higher-performance alternative to a hub.

Q8. What is a port and what are port numbers?
A port number identifies both a computer as well as the zone within that computer where network communication happens. The IP address of one’s computer is a unique number you can use to reach him on the Internet.

With the answers to these basic computer networking FAQs in place, you may now try to delve deeper into computer networking!