Computer Networking

In simple terms, Computer Networking is a sub-field of Computer Systems which specialises in the connection of two or more computers together. Computers use standardized protocols to effectivly communicate to each other, like TCP and UDP, TCP prioritizes the integraty of the transferred data, and UDP prioritizes sending as much data as possible in a small amount of latency.

Early Networks

Computer Networks started with academic and military porpuse, connecting together American universities over a wide physical space, the earliest example of this is ARPANET.

ARPANET

ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, though now known as DARPA), a project that had the porpuse of connecting American universities University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, Kahlert School of Computing and The International Augmentation Research Center, to be able to share computer resources with eachother, like files.

Recent Use

Computer Networkings have taken a place in people's every day life, going from interesing concept in the early to mid 1990s, to wide available comodity in the early 2000s, to necessity in the late 2010s and early to mid 2020s. Computer Networkings are used for more than just exchange of scientific data, like research papers, it is used for the wide exchange of information from one computer user, being a human, super intenligent artificial agent, or automated program.

TCP/IP Suite

The TCP/IP suite offers a smth smth smth IP v4 = 0.0.0.0 - 255.255.255.255 smth smth smth standard IP range which are pre-allocated for XYZ like 172.16.X.X and 127.X.X.X

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Understanding Computer Networks

Computer Networking is a very wide subject, it spans over Domain Name System for tying computers to a name, Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP for serving web pages in HTML, DHCP for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and others.

Networking Equipment

Dedicated networking equipment is highly recommended for making your own network, as it is efficient, specialized and robust, though, if none is in hands, re-using an old computer is also an option.

Some of the most crucial Networking equipment are Switches, for connecting computers and some other equipment together over relatively short distances, like across a few rooms, depending on the type of cable you use, Routers to route data from one network to another, as computers aren't allowed to just connect to other networks directly, a Router is required, a Client, being a user or a server, someone whom will use the network to exchange data, and a Wireless Access Point, which allows the clients and other wireless devices, like another WAP itself, to connect to it, without the need of wires over a small distance, suffering something called signal attenuation or loss the further far the connected device goes from the Wireless Access Point.

Switch

A switch allows multiple computers to be connected by routing packages.

Router

A router connects multiple computer networks by forwarding packages

Client

A client is the end user, they send and receive packages.

WAP

A WAP or Wireless Access Point, allows wireless devices to connect to the network.