Computer networking or data communication is a most important part of the information technology. Today every business in the world needs a computer network for smooth operations, flexibly, instant communication and data access. Just imagine if there is no network communication in the university campuses, hospitals, multinational organizations and educational institutes then how difficult are to communicate with each other. In this article you will learn the basic overview of a computer network. The targeted audience of this article is the people who want to know about the network communication system, network standards and types.

A computer network is comprised of connectivity devices and components. To share data and resources between two or more computers is known as networking. There are different types of a computer network such as LAN, MAN, WAN and wireless network. The key devices involved that make the infrastructure of a computer network are Hub, Switch, Router, Modem, Access point, LAN card and network cables.

LAN stands for local area network and a network in a room, in a building or a network over small distance is known as a LAN. MAN stands for Metropolitan area network and it covers the networking between two offices within the city. WAN stands for wide area network and it cover the networking between two or more computers between two cities, two countries or two continents.

There are different topologies of a computer network. A topology defines the physical layout or a design of a network. These topologies are star topology, bus topology, mesh topology, star bus topology etc. In a star topology each computer in a network is directly connected with a centralized device known as hub or switch. If any computer gets problematic in star topology then it does not affect the other computers in a network.

There are different standards and devices in computer network. The most commonly used standard for a local area network is Ethernet. Key devices in a computer network are hub, switch, router, modem and access point etc. A router is used to connect two logically and physical different networks. All the communication on the internet is based on the router. Hub/Switch is used to connect the computers in local area network.

Hopefully, in this article you may have learnt that what a computer network is, how important it is in our lives, what are different network devices, standards, topologies and communication types.