Networking, ummm, welllll. A very large subject, I have six or seven large text
books that explain it. I will try to crunch it down to layman's terms.
Networks are different things to different people, it is not an exact science
yet. The standards are getting closer to being standard.
With that said the easiest way to explain it is think of the telephones.
Everyone has one, at home, at work, in their car, in their pocket or purse.
All these phones are tied together by wires (technically even cell phones), you
see them driving down the road, computer networks are the same. For one computer
to communicate with another computer they have to have a connection. Networking.
Like keyboards and mice they can be wired or wireless.
Wired networks use a network cable to connect. The wire can be in the wall and
you plug a connection cable to the jack or it can be on the floor (not to cool,
tripping hazard, gives the dog something to chew on).
Wireless uses a Transceiver (Transmitter/Receiver) device to communicate with
another computer.
If you have more than two computers then you will need a "hub" this applies to
either wired or wireless. You can connect two computers together using what is
known as Peer-to-Peer connection, the cable is connected from one computer to
the other computer, this requires a special type of cable.
Suppose you have two computers at home, yours and one for the misses or the
kids. You also have a cable modem. Now you have your computer connected to the
cable modem because it is for your business. The misses wants to be able to surf
and get email, what do you do? The cable modem only has one connection and you
are using it! You could get a Cat 5 cable long enough to reach from her computer
to the modem, stretched across the floor.......
Or you could Network your house! Now how do you do that in less than 15 million
words and $200?
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Networking, ummm, welllll. A very large subject, I have six or seven large text
books that explain it. I will try to crunch it down to layman's terms.
