Basic Networking Concepts

A network is a configuration of computers that exchange information, such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet. Computers in a network may be quite different. They may come from a variety of manufacturers and, more likely than not, have major differences in their hardware and software. To enable different types of computers to communicate, a set of formal rules for interaction is needed. These formal rules are called protocols. Different protocol families for data networking have been devel-oped for UNIX systems. The most widely used of these is the Internet Protocol Suite, commonly known as TCP/IP. This protocol suite has been used as the basis for the Internet, a vast worldwide network connecting computers of many different types (the Internet is discussed in Chapter 10).