What is a computer network?
In the Information Technology (IT) domain, networking means the ability of two or more devices to be able to communicate and exchange data with each other. In the early days of computing, computers were unable to talk to each other and were standalone systems. Their functionalities were very limited. As the technology advanced, the need for communication between devices grew. In its simplest form, two computers that connect with each over a medium form a network. This medium is the link through which these devices talk with each other. As we proceed, you will see that things become very complicated very quickly in computer networks:
Figure 3.1 – The simplest form of a network – two interconnected computers
As you will see in the following chapters, most modern-day computer networks are not built like this. For your computer to talk to other computers, it will need as many links as it has computers, and this can quickly...
