What can a Network do For You?

Ms. Silvia Ocampo

The American School of Tampico

A Computer Network

A network is a group of computers that are linked together.

A computer network can be two computers connected:

A computer network can also consist of, and is usually made for, more than two

computers:

There are two types of network: local area network (LAN)

The purpose of a networks: users can share disk

storage, software applications, files, printers,

scanners, modems, etc.

Characteristics of a Computer Network

The primary purpose of a computer network is to share resources:

You can create files and store them in one computer, then access those files from the other computer(s) connected to it

Sharing Devices

You can connect a printer (or a scanner, or a fax machine) to one computer and let other computers of the network print (or scan, or fax) to that printer (or scanner, or fax machine)

Sharing Music

You can play a CD music from one computer while sitting on another computer

Sharing Pictures

You can place a CD with pictures on one computer and let other computers access those pictures

Make Backups

You may have a computer with a CD writer or a backup system but the other computer doesn’t have it;

In this case, you can burn CDs or make backups on a computer that has one of these but using data from a computer that doesn’t have a CD writer or a backup system

Sharing DVDs

You may have a computer that doesn’t have a DVD player. In this case, you can place a movie DVD on the computer that has a DVD player, and then view the movie on a computer that lacks a DVD player

Client/Server Networking

A server controls the main hard drives and printers.

Some networks will have more than one server, enabling each server to focus on a specific job. For example, a network with two servers will

use a file server to control the hard disk and users' files and a print server to control the use of printers on the network.

The computers which access the server are referred as "clients".

Workstation

A workstation is a computer on which a person performs everyday regular assignments.

A workstation is primarily a personal computer (PC).

It can also be a laptop. Almost any modern PC can be used as a workstation and participate on a network.

Atsfileserver

Computer Lab Station

The file server

The file server deals with the security of the files it controls by checking usernames/user-Ids and passwords

The server runs regular back-up sessions in order to allow the system and files to be recovered in the event of a disaster.

It is also the file server that distributes the programs and data to the users' computer.

Characteristics of a Computer Network

All computers on a network need a network card installed to be able to communicate with the server or servers.

Each networked computer has its own address so that the file server recognizes it.

Initially networks are expensive to set up because the file server must be a high specification computer possibly with several hard disks and CD-ROM drives.