A computer network is
a telecommunications network that connects a collection of computersto
allow communication and data exchange between systems, software
applications, and users. The computers that are involved in the network
that originate, route and terminate the data are called nodes. The
interconnection of computers is accomplished with a combination of cable
or wireless media and networking hardware.
Two
devices are said to be networked when a process in one device is able to
exchange information with a process in another device. Networks may be
classified by various characteristics, such as the media used to
transmit signals, the communications protocolsused to organize network
traffic, network scale, network topology and organizational scope. The
best-known computer network is the Internet.
Communication
protocols define the rules and data formats for exchanging information
in a computer network. Well-known communications protocols
include Ethernet, a hardware and link layer standard that is widely used
for local area networks, and the Internet protocol suite(TCP/IP), which
defines a set of protocols for communication between multiple networks,
for host-to-host data transfer, and for application-specific data
transmission formats. Protocols provide the basis for network
programming.
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