By: Maitrik N Jani,

PGT Computer Science

Sainik School Balachadi
 ▪ What is a Network?
When two or more entities (people/things) are
connected with each other through any
medium is said to be a Network.
Example: Human Network / Friend Circle
▪ What is a Computer Network?
In a network, two or more computers are
connected in a way so that they can share their
resources like printer, CD, hard disk etc.
A Computer network is a network of computers
which share information and resources from
each other.
Such networks can be connected via cable,
telephone line, radio waves, satellite, infrared
etc.
▪ Resource Sharing – Storage, Software, Printer,
Internet etc.
▪ Enhanced Communication – File Sharing,
Messaging, Voice Call, Video Call etc.

▪ Complex
▪ Costly
▪ Unstable services if network is not well
managed
▪ Dependency on Central System for Software
and Data
▪ File Security
▪ Host / Nodes – Computers attached to the Network (a.k.a Workstations
▪ Server – A computer that facilitates the sharing of data, software or
hardware resources on the network. “Facility provider”.
▪ Client – Host that uses the facilities provided by the Server.
▪ Network Hardware – Special Hardware devices that does various
roles for the smooth functioning of the Network. For eg: NIC, Hub,
Switch, Router etc. (Will be explained later under Network Devices
topic)
▪ Communication Channel – The medium through which the 2 systems
interact. Types: Wired and Wireless. (Will be explained later under
Transmission Media topic)
▪ Software – The software layers which governs the flow of data to the
right node and other networking tasks.
▪ Network Services – Applications that provide Functionalities over a
network : DNS (Domain Name System), File Sharing, VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol), etc.
 WAN
Wide Area Network

MAN
Metropolitan Area
Network

LAN
Local Area Network

PAN
Personal Area
Network
Peer-to-Peer Network Client/Server Network
▪ Standalone PCs makes the ▪ Clients use Server for the
network. resources.
▪ No central control over ▪ Server controls security of
security the network
▪ No central control over the ▪ Server manages the network.
network Needs a team to manage
server.
▪ Clients are not dependent on
a central server ▪ Clients are dependent on
Server
▪ Slow machines makes Slow
network ▪ Server can be upgraded for
more services.
▪ No central data backup
▪ Centrally data is backed up
US Dept of Defense made the first Network of Computers.
▪ It was made Strictly for
Academic and engineering
research.
▪ It was a crucial link between
ARPANET and the
commercial networks that
served as the early public
internet’s foundation.
▪ Used Ethernet which
enabled the data transfer
through telephone lines.
▪ In 1990s, ARPANET, NSFnet
and other private networks
were connected which
resulted into Internet.
▪ PCs are connected to small LANs and then they are
connected to the Internet Backbone through
Gateways.
▪ Gateways coordinates between different network
languages, hardware and software used by different
networks.
▪ Backbone is central interconnecting structure that
connects one or more networks just like the trunk of
a tree or the spine of a human body.

▪ HOW INTERNET FUNCTIONS:

▪ Internet uses TCP/IP as communication protocol

Each Packet is All packets are sent Packets are received Packets are
At source computer,
numbered to the address of at destination rearranged in the
msg is broken into
serialwise e.g. 1, destination computer in random same order and msg
packets
2,3.. computer order. is obtained

▪ TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) – For Packets

▪ IP – Internet Protocol – For Handling Addresses
▪ The ways in which the data is transmitted
across network comes under Switching
Techniques.
▪ 1. Circuit Switching: A complete physical
connection is established between sender
and receiver before the communication
startsand then it stays on until the data is
completely transferred. Eg: Telephone.
▪ 2. Message Switching: Store and Forward
principle. There are switching offices in the
network which receives the data from the
sender and then it looks for the free link and
forwards the data to the next office and so on
till the data is delivered to the receiver. Block
size of the data is not fixed.
▪ 3. Packet Switching: Message is divided into
Packets and these are randomly transferred to
any path available to the receiver. Here the
upper limit of the size of packet is fixed.
1. Data Channel: Medium used to Carry information
2. Baud: Unit of measurement for the information carrying
capacity of the channel. (bps)
3. Bits Per Second (bps): Speed of data transfer
a) Bytes Per Second (Bps):
b) kbps: kilo bits per second (Small k denotes Kilo bits)
c) Kbps: kilo bytes per second (Capital K denotes Kilo Bytes)
4. Bandwidth: Difference between highest and lowest frequency.
More the bandwidth, more amount of data can be transmitted.
▪ A transmission medium is a physical path between the
transmitter and the receiver i.e. it is the channel through which
data is sent from one place to another.
▪ It is also referred to as Wired or Bounded
transmission media.
▪ Features:
▪ High Speed
▪ Secure
▪ Used for comparatively shorter distances
▪ Types:
1. Twisted Pair Cable
2. Coaxial Cable
3. Optical Fibre Cable
▪ It consists of 2 separately insulated conductor wires wound
about each other.
▪ Generally, several such pairs are bundled together in a
protective sheath.
▪ They are the most widely used Transmission Media.
▪ Twisted Pair is of two types:
1. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP):
This type of cable has the ability to block interference and does not
depend on a physical shield for this purpose. It is used for
telephonic applications.
2. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP):
This type of cable consists of a special jacket to block external
interference. It is used in fast-data-rate Ethernet and in voice and
data channels of telephone lines.
▪ It has an insulated copper wire in the middle surrounded by
braided copper mesh followed by an outer insulation.
▪ Cable TVs and analog television networks widely use Coaxial
cables.
▪ It can transport significantly more data than Twisted Pair Cable.
▪ The braided mesh of copper helps to shield from
electromagnetic interference.
▪ It uses the concept of reflection of light through a core made up
of glass or plastic.
▪ The core is surrounded by a less dense glass or plastic covering
called the cladding.
▪ It is used for transmission of large volumes of data.
▪ It is immune to corrosion and electromagnetic interference.
▪ It is difficult to install and maintain.
▪ It is expensive but more durable.
▪ It is also referred to as Wireless or Unbounded
transmission media.
▪ No physical medium is required for the transmission
of electromagnetic signals.
▪ Signals travel through air and picked up by
appropriate antennas.
▪ Features:
▪ Signal is broadcasted through air
▪ Less Secure
▪ Used for larger distances
▪ Types:
1. Infrared Waves
2. Radio Waves
3. MicroWaves
▪ These are easy to generate and can penetrate through buildings.
▪ The sending and receiving antennas need not be aligned.
▪ Frequency Range:3KHz – 300GHz.
▪ Insecure. Gets affected by whether.
▪ Low frequency, hence less data can be transmitted.
▪ AM and FM radios, cordless phones, Bluetooth, mobile phones,
Wi-Fi, etc. uses Radiowaves for transmission. (30 cms to 60 kms)
▪ It is a line-of-sight transmission i.e. the sending and receiving
antennas need to be properly aligned with each other.
▪ The distance covered by the signal is directly proportional to the
height of the antenna. (Over 100 Kms)
▪ Frequency Range:1GHz – 300GHz.
▪ These are majorly used for mobile phone communication and
television distribution.
▪ Insecure. Gets affected by whether.
▪ Expensive to install and maintain.
▪ High frequency, hence more data can be transmitted.
▪ It is used for very short distance communication (<= 5 metres).
▪ It requires clear line-of sight.
▪ They cannot penetrate through obstacles.
▪ This prevents interference between systems.
▪ Frequency Range:300GHz – 400THz.
▪ It is used in TV remotes, wireless mouse, keyboard, printer, etc.
▪ It is the layout of the network.
▪ It tells the ways you can connect peripherals and nodes in a
network.
▪ Types:
▪ It is simplest topology.
▪ All computers are connected by a single cable using interface
connectors. (BNC - Bayonet Neill-Concelman connector)
▪ This is central cable works as a backbone of the network and is
known as Bus, Hence the name of the topology.
 ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
▪ Easy to install ▪ Limited nodes can be
connected
▪ Cheap due shortest cable
length ▪ Over-dependency on
central cable
▪ Ideal for small networks
▪ Terminators are must
▪ Maintenance cost is high
▪ Troubleshooting is tough
▪ It is the most prevalent topology.
▪ All computers & network devices are connected separately to a
central device (a hub, switch, router or computer).
▪ RJ45 connectors are used.
 ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
▪ Performs better ▪ If central device fails then
entire network fails
▪ Overall performance
depends on central device’s ▪ Quite Expensive
performance
▪ No of nodes and
▪ Centralised management performance of network
depends on the central
▪ Single node failure doesn’t
device
affect the network
▪ Troubleshooting is simple
▪ All nodes are connected in a hierarchical manner.
▪ Combines Bus and Star topologies.
 ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
▪ Troubleshooting is simple ▪ Main bus failure can
disconnect entire network
▪ Single node failure doesn’t
affect the network ▪ Maintenance becomes
tough once the nodes
▪ Setting up is easy
increases
▪ Scalability and accessibility
depends on the cable type
▪ All the nodes are connected in a circular manner.
▪ Each node gets connected to adjacent nodes.
▪ Data travels in only one pre-determined direction.
 ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
▪ Small cable segments are ▪ Failure of single node
needed to connect two brings down the whole
nodes network
▪ Ideal for optical fibres as ▪ Troubleshooting is difficult
data travels in only one as many nodes may have to
direction be inspected before faulty
one is identified
▪ Very high transmission
speeds possible ▪ Difficult to remove one or
more nodes while keeping
the rest of the network
intact
▪ Nodes are connected with various nodes.
▪ More Cable length required hence costly.
▪ Reliable as there are more paths for data to travel.
▪ Full Mesh – All nodes are connected to each other
▪ Partial Mesh – Not all nodes are connected to each other.
▪ These are hardware components that connect digital equipment
to the network.
▪ Devices covered in our Syllabus:
1. Modem
2. RJ-45 Connector
3. Ethernet Card
4. Hub
5. Repeater
6. Switch
7. Router
8. Gateway
9. Wi-Fi Card
▪ MODEM stands for Modulator-Demodulator
▪ It converts digital signals into analog signal and vice-versa

▪ Types: 1. Internal 2. External

▪ RJ-45 stands for Registered Jack 45.
▪ It is an 8 wire network cable connector. 4 sets of twisted pair cable.
▪ It looks similar to some other cables connector as well which you
would have seen. For example: RJ-11 which is a 4 wire connector.
▪ It is the network adaptor responsible for establishing physical
connection between computers.
▪ Also known as NIC (Network Interface Card).
▪ It is either added to PCI slot (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
or installed on the motherboard itself.
▪ It contains MAC (Media Access Control) Address which is a unique
6 byte or 48 bits physical address. It is given by the manufacturer.
▪ Speed may range from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps
▪ It connects multiple computers or networking devices to form a
network segment.
▪ It is a small rectangular box containing multiple RJ-45 sockets/ports.
▪ It spreads the service in all the ports equally just like a water pipe
having 4 taps.

▪ Types:
1. Active Hubs: It amplifies the signal and sends.
2. Passive Hubs: It does not amplifies the signal, it just sends signal.
▪ It amplifies the incoming signal and forwards the same.
▪ Its purpose is to extend the range of the network.
▪ Types:
1. Analog Repeaters: It only amplify a signal
2. Digital Repeaters: It can reconstruct the signal also.
▪ It is similar to hub but it has more functionalities than hub.
▪ Hub is a broadcasting type device but Switch has more features
regarding security and port specific service.
▪ Switch can be bigger in size as well, 5 to 48 ports.
▪ Nowadays hubs are not used much and are replaced by Switches.
▪ Connects two or more computer networks to the ISP (Internet
Service Provider).
▪ It manages traffic between the networks by forwarding data
packets to their intended IP addresses.
▪ It allows multiple devices to use the same internet connection.
▪ It also strengthens the signals before transmitting them.
▪ It maintains Routing Tables. A router reads its routing table to
decide the best available route the packet can take to reach its
destination quickly and accurately.
▪ It is an internetworking device which connects dissimilar
networks working on different protocols.
▪ These are network’s entry and exit points.
▪ These generally are computer with multiple NICs connected to
different networks.
▪ It can be entirely software based as well.
▪ Mostly the router does the job of gateway as well.
▪ Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a Wireless Local Area Network which
uses radio waves for connecting multiple electronic devices.
▪ Wi-Fi Cards are small, easily portable cards that allows wireless
connectivity.
▪ These can be internal and external as well. Internal are installed on
motherboard and external are USB dongles.
▪ A protocol is a set of rules that governs how computers on a
network communicates with one another.
▪ It governs:
1. Access method
2. Permissible physical topologies
3. Cabling kinds
4. Data transfer speed
▪ Protocols in our Syllabus:
1. HTTP, HTTPS
2. FTP
3. TCP/IP
4. PPP
5. SMTP
6. POP3
7. TELNET
8. VoIP
▪ Stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol
▪ Determines how different programs exchange data over the internet
▪ It is the standard protocol used by World Wide Web (WWW).
▪ It determines how message are formatted and transmitted, and what
actions the web servers and browsers should take in response to the
various commands.
▪ Hypertext is a system in which various files, images, sounds and text
are linked to each other.
▪ Observe the URL (http://www.example.com).
▪ HTTPS – Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, a variant for HTTP.

HTTP HTTPS
• Insecure. • Secure.
• Data is not encrypted • Data is encrypted before sending
• Eavesdropping is very easy. • Eavesdropping is not easy.
▪ Stands for File Transfer Protocol
▪ It allows two computers to exchange files over the internet.
▪ Uploading a file to a server or Downloading a file from it uses this.
▪ It works on Client-Server architecture.
▪ Stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol
▪ These are two separate protocols which works in pair.
▪ TCP is responsible for breaking the original data into small packets
and adds serial number to it at Source Computer.
▪ IP is responsible for taking the packets to the Destination Computer.
▪ TCP is again responsible to re-arrange the packets at destination to
generate the original data.
▪ TCP also ensures all the packets are delivered to the destination.
▪ Stands for Point-to-Point Protocol
▪ It allows dial-up connections to the internet and is widely used by
ISPs.
▪ It is a standard way of transporting multi-protocol datagrams across
point-to-point links.
▪ Using PPP, home users can avail Internet connection over telephone
lines.
▪ Stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
▪ It is used to only send email not in receiving emails.
▪ For receiving the emails IMAP/POP3 are used.
▪ It is a series of commands that authenticates and directs transfer of
electronic mail.
▪ Stands for Post Office Protocol 3.
▪ It is used to download email when connected without being
“online”.
▪ It downloads and stores the emails to the PC.
▪ Storage capacity of emails is only limited by the size of your hard
disk.
▪ IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) – It doesn’t download
message to computer, but it stores the emails on the server.
▪ It is used in Remote Login.
▪ It allows users to communicate via TCP/IP network with other
machines.
▪ Client software uses telnet protocol on one PC and interact with
server application on the remote machine.
▪ It is text based communication channel.
▪ It is unencrypted hence it is not secure.
▪ Stands for Voice over Internet
Protocol
▪ It allows you to make voice
communication over the internet.
▪ Instead of using telephone lines,
the data is transferred digitally in
packets across Internet Protocol
(IP).
▪ It allows users to communicate over
great distances over the globe
without incurring STD/ISD
expenses.
▪ Web services are client and server applications that
communicate via HTTP of the WWW.
▪ Internet and WWW are different. Internet is the huge network
and WWW is collection of webpages linked together found on
the internet.
▪ WWW was created by Tim Berners Lee in 1989 for exchanging
information over network.
▪ WEB ARCHITECHTURE: Web is a two – tiered architecture.
1. A web browser display information contents
2. Web server that transfers information to the client
▪ Stands for Hypertext Markup Language
▪ Tags are used to describe the structure and layout of webpage.
▪ It makes the content browser friendly.
▪ HTML was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in late 1991 but was
not released officially, which was published in 1995 as HTML 2.0.
▪ HTML5 is the latest evolution of the standard that defines HTML.
 ▪ Stands for Extensible Markup Language
▪ It is like HTML but the tags are not predefined, rather you can
define your tags. This makes it self-descriptive language.
▪ XML is Platform Independent and Language Independent. It
allows us to exchange data between heterogeneous system.
▪ Data from programs like MySQL can be taken and converted
into XML and that can be shared with other programs.

▪ Difference between HTML & XML

HTML XML
• Tags are predefined. • Tags are user-defined.
• Focus is on describing & • Focus is on presenting data
transferring data.
• Case Insensitive. • Case Sensitive
• Ordering of tags must be correct. • Ordering of tags is immaterial
▪ Although websites are stored on a Web Servers and the identity of any
Web Server is its IP address. But it is very difficult to remember all the IP
addresses, hence the nicknames are given to these IP addresses called
Domain Names.
▪ For example: google.com
▪ Generic Domain Names:
▪ .com – commercial business
▪ .edu – educational institutes
▪ .gov – government agencies
▪ .net network organizations
▪ .org Organizations(nonprofit)
▪ Country Specific Domain Names:
▪ .in – india
▪ .au – australia
▪ .ca – canada
▪ .ch – china
▪ .nz – new zealand
▪ .pk – pakistan
▪ .jp – japan
▪ .us – united states of America
▪ Every website has its unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to
identify the web server.
▪ URL has various parts. It needs to given in the address bar of the
browser. For e.g. http://www.google.com
▪ This URL gets decoded into its corresponding IP Address by the DNS
(Domain Name System) Server.
▪ The basic format of URL is : type://address/path
▪ A website is a collection of web pages
and related content that is identified by
a common domain name and
published on at least one web server.
▪ For example: google.com,
youtube.com
▪ All publicly accessible websites
collectively constitute the world wide
web.
▪ Websites are broadly of two types:
▪ STATIC WEBSITE : It is used to display
information without any interaction with
user or web server. Eg.: Blogs
▪ DYNAMIC WEBSITE: It allows user
interaction with web site and can
communicate with web server again and
again. Eg.: Google, YouTube
▪ A web browser is a software application for accessing information on
the World Wide Web.
▪ Web Browser act as a client to send request to server, once web
server process the request and returns the response, the same will be
displayed on the web browser.
▪ There are many popular web browsers available like : Google
Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari etc.
▪ A web server is a computer that runs websites.
▪ The basic objective of the web server is to store, process and deliver
web pages to the users.
▪ Web server and client communicate with the help of HTTP protocol.
▪ Web server returns the requested page to client with response code
like 404 ( if requested page not found), 200 ( if requested page
found) etc.
▪ It is a service which allows individual or organization to make their
web site accessible through world wide web.
▪ Websites are hosted on a Web Server.
▪ Once hosted, anybody can access the website using Internet.
▪ To Host a website, we require DOMAIN NAME, WEB SPACE which we
need to register.
▪ Web Hosting provides various services like – FTP upload, Email
account, website building tool, databases etc.
❑ OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Model
❑ Generations of Mobile Communication