You must have heard that the world has become a global village. You can send a mail or images or anything from your place to any place in the world in just a few seconds. You are able to do this and much more because of Networking.

Networking is a well-known term and we all must have heard about it. But not all of us know about how does it work.  So here we will explain the definition, purpose, types, and benefits of computer networking.

What is networking

Networking is a process of sharing the information. In networking, information passes from its source to its receiving point and vice versa.  When the word ‘Networking’ is used with computers, it means the network of computers where two or more than two computers are connected directly or indirectly with each other.

Computer networking helps to transport and receive data from one computer to another through nodes. In a network, many computers can be connected with each other. The computer network can be limited within one office or one building or it can be wide enough to connect you globally. In computer networking, the computers can be connected be each other either through wires or without wires.

Networking in an organization can be of any types, depends on its range.

Purpose of computer networking

Behind every invention, there is some necessity. So behind the use of networking, there must be some purposes. Here we have mentioned a few of them.

Data Sharing: Data sharing was the main purpose for the establishment of computer networking. Long time back data sharing was possible through some physical mediums like a floppy drive only. Floppy drive used to be a storage device which was big in size and small in storage capacity. Data transfer from one computer to another was not that easy. So connecting all computers with each other was a better option at that time.

Nowadays we have pen drives which are small in size but huge in data capacity. But still, computer networking is a better option for data sharing because as the capacity of storage increases in so the size of our data has increased.

While sharing data within the network helps to keep the data secure and free from viruses.

Resources Sharing: Networking also helps with resources sharing. Printer sharing is the best example of resources sharing through computer networking.  In any organization, it is not possible to attach a printer to every computer. So recourse sharing within the computer network comes as the solution to this problem. When the printer is on sharing than any user within that network can take the printouts of his/her documents easily. Like printers, scanner, the high-speed copier can also be used as shared resources in networking.

Internal Communication: Computer network also makes the internal communication easy and fast.  Emails are the biggest communication medium, especially in the corporate world. With a networking, the user gets the e-mail within the same network immediately. With a quick communication, the team can share their ideas and suggestion with each other without any physical meeting.

Read – What Are Peripheral Devices of a Computer?

Types of computer networking

Types of computer networking based on technology

Here are the two primary types of computer networking.

• Wired Networking
• Wireless Networking

Wired Networking:  Wired networking requires a physical medium to connect two or more than two computers and other devices together. In most of the wired technologies, Ethernet cables are used to transfer the data from its sending point to its receiving point.  In wired networking technology computers are not directly connect with other. A different device is used for this and all the computers are connected to this device. For small wired computer network, the router is used and for a larger computer network, a switch is used.  A larger network may have more than one switches and routers.

Wireless Networking: As its name shows, in this type of networking no wire is used to connect the computers and other devices. Radio waves are used in wireless networking to connect the devices with each other. Nowadays wireless networking is used more in public places. When you connect your PC, Laptop or Mobile with WiFi, you basically use a wireless networking. Connecting your Laptop or Mobile with a Hotspot is also an example of wireless networking.

Types of computer networking based on its area

On the basis of area, computer networking can be divided into following types.

LAN: Local area network (LAN) covers a smaller area. LAN is usually a private network. In today’s scenario, LAN can offer the Data speed of a Gigabyte. For small commercial and working area LAN is used. It is easy to design and maintained LAN. LAN is usually a wired network but this can be possible in wireless networking.

CAN: Campus Area Network (CAN) is larger than LAN. As its name shows, it covers a bigger geographical area than LAN. It is usually established within the university.

MAN: Metropolitan area network (MAN) is larger than LAN and CAN. It is complicated to design and maintained. MAN can be a private network. But it is costlier if maintained privately. It offers good speed but not as great as LAN. It can be either be wired or wireless network. It is most commonly used in banks and railways. Its range can be 5 km to 50-60 km.

WAN: Wide area network  (WAN) covers a larger geographical area. The fault tolerance of a WAN is lesser than MAN, CAN, and LAN. A group of many LANs can form a WAN. The Internet is a WAN. It can be wired or wireless both. It is difficult to design a WAN.

Benefits of Computer Networking

Computer networking has made our life much better. Let’s know how.

• Earlier we used to write the letters to communicate with our loved ones. Time changed and we moved from landline phones to mobiles. Now to have a communication with someone sitting far from your location is not a time taking task anymore. Email, WhatsApp, chat, video call, there are so many options to connect you with your loved ones.
• Maintaining business remotely has become really easy.
• Fetching money from ATM, cashless money transitions are two of few luxuries that we enjoy because of networking.
• Because of networking only, we can watch many entrainment programmes and live matches on our

The bottom line

We all will agree on this point that computer has made our life easy but here we must admit that computer networking has made it even easier. When we make some change in our data from a small institute it gets a change in its headquarters as well. How hassle free our life has become.

Networking has brought many benefits and a few challenges as well. Like if one computer in the network has got some virus attacks then there are many chances that other computers within the network may also get infect with it. But when networking offers us so much then we can have a little precaution to save our data.