Introduction to Computer Networking :- part-1.1
1.1 THE NEED TO SHARE RESOURCES
Why do we need networks? The answer is resource sharing which has become a major requirement for the user community. We need to generate and disseminate information. We also want the information to be accessible to each one of the user groups in a network. The groups may spread across a single organization or multiple organizations and at times across the globe. A few examples are in order.
. The music files that we download and upload on the Internet or from a LAN
. The emails that we send and receive around the world
• The phone calls that we make or receive using the Internet
• The blogs that we create and to which others add information
. The databases on the remote servers accessed by our desktops in the local network or over the Internet
• The video or audio conferencing that we attend to
Consider the services that are listed above or a few other similar services that you may think of yourself. You will find one common thread that binds all of them together the network; either a local network or the Internet. In all above cases, the resources are being shared and the network is the media for sharing. Therefore the prerequisite for all such services is the networking infrastructure.
All of us are regular users of networks, be it an office or a college network or the network of networks; the Internet. There may be some questions raised when we use all these services and become inquisitive about how actually these services are being provided.
Some example questions are provided in the following text.
• How could a file stored in a faraway network be downloaded to our machine? How our emails reach their intended recipients?
• How some of us have wired connections to the network while the rest have a wireless version of connections and still it works the same?
• How something which works without our knowledge, for example receipt of new data (for example a new antivirus update), is handled and by whom?
We will try to find the answers to all these questions and a few more throughout this chapter.