An Introduction to Local Area Networks
The simplest form of networking occurs when two computers are connected together with a cable to share data. The far-reaching networks that we use today were born from this simple but revolutionary idea.
Before the advent of networks:
Stand-alone computer systems are both expensive and hard to manage because each system must have its own resources:
When computer systems are networked, they can share:
Although networks such as the Internet connect computers throughout the world, most networks are local area networks (LANs). These are networks that are installed by organizations to share resources at one location of the organization.
Local area networks generally consist of these resources:
There are only two basic types of computer networks. All computer networks are a variation or a combination of these two types:
The choice of which network model to deploy is based on many factors:
In the peer-to-peer model, each user acts as the administrator for their own workstation. They grant the use of resources to other users by adding the other users to their local database of users and giving the other users permission to use files and hardware resources located on their computer.
A peer-to-peer network is typically implemented when:
The peer-to-peer model has some advantages:
There are also disadvantages to the peer-to-peer model:
The server-based model is generally used when there are more than 10 users on the network and is always employed for mission-critical applications. In the server-based model, the network has one or more dedicated server computers.
Network server computers:
There are many types of specialized servers. A typical LAN may be constructed of:
The server-based model has many advantages:
Disadvantages of the server-based model:
The peer-to-peer model should be chosen when:
The server-based model should be chosen when:
Email: steve.may@gwmail.maricopa.edu
Home Page: http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/mst140/
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