A-B-C of Networking: Part-1 (Basics)

‘A’ of “Networking”

“Before Learning any new concept, make sure that we get the answer of the basic rhetorical questions such as ‘WHAT is it?’, ‘WHY do we need it?’ and ‘HOW it works?’.”

– An ideal way for understanding new concept for beginners!!!.

This blog and subsequent blogs aims to answer these basic questions regarding networking.

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NETWORKING

The term seems familiar as we use it in our day to day life but the meaning of networking must be known along with its usage. Networking as in “NET + WORK + ing” (kindly see the note below for the reason of word-distribution), can be co-related with the simple “mosquito net” that we use at our residence. The concept remains same i.e consider a mosquito net and place computers (often referred to as ‘systems’) at every intersection point of the net. Thus all systems are placed in the NET, but hold on, its NOT NETWORKING yet. This is the state where the system are just connected to each other. Now when these computers are in a state of EXCHANGING INFORMATION, i.e the system are in WORKing condition with respect to the network, then the NETWORK is ultimately created.

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MERITS

There are several benefits of networking because of which we need it for our day to day life. The benefits include:

1. DATA and KNOWLEDGE SHARING (eg: blogging, e-mail)

2. RESOURCE SHARING (eg: printers in Cyber cafe [usually there is just one printer and all system can send the print command to the single printer, one at a time])

3. STORAGE CAPACITY (eg: google drive or google photos help to upload the documents and photos respectively in the google account which reduces the storage space consumption on the physical device)

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DEMERITS

Along with benefits, there are demerits for any concept. Thus Demerits must also be taken into account such as:

1. SECURITY RISK (eg: Backdoor Trojans, Viruses etc may enter the system as the system is connected in network)

2. COST (Building a network is costly affair)

3. NETWORK FAILURE (The connection can get disrupted at any point of time due to various natural or man-made interventions)

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Having stated all the demerits, there are no demerits of the concept of Networking as such, it all depends on the person using it and the purpose of the usage.

Thus answering “WHAT is networking” and “WHY do we need networking”…

Note: A suggestion for all knowledge-seekers reading my blog, for any term that you come across which seems difficult, try to break-down the term to the lowest level possible and then try to find out its relevant meaning in day to day life and then relate it with the subject content. Might be helpful.

Thank You all.

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