3.3 NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Whenever you have more than one computer being used at the same location, networking them together makes a lot of sense. You transfer files between them quickly and easily, you can also share expensive resources like laser printers, hard disc arrays, backup tape drives, scanners, internet connections, operating system, multimedia a S/W and so on.

A network may comprise of multiple computers connected through interface, as a Network Interface Card (NIC) and appropriate networking software that provides the server or client functionality. The third component besides NIC and network is communication media for carrying data from one machine to another machine.

Usually networks are categorized in two main categories which are:

  • · Cline/Server based network
  • · Peertopeer network

In a server based network, there are computers which work as providers of services such as file service or mail service. The computers providing the service are called servers machine and the computers that request and use the service are called client machine. The server kind of machine is supposed to be most powerful than the client machine.

In a peertopeer network, various computers on the network can act both as clients and servers. For instance, many Microsoft Windows based computers will allow file and print sharing. These computers can act both as a client and a server and are also referred to as peers. Many networks are combination of peertopeer and server based networks. The network operating system uses a network protocol to communicate on the network to other computers. A Network Operating System (NOS) includes Windows NT, Novell Netware, Unix, Linux and others.

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