WHAT IS A COMPUTER NETWORK?

Network are groups of computers,printers and other devices that are connected together with cables or with wireless connection in a LAN or modems and telecommunication lines in a WAN,information travels over the cables,allowing usars to exchange documents and data with each other,print to the same printers and generaly share any hardware or software that is comeded to the network.For example,three people in a depardment can write a report to gether or work with the same spreadsheets or databases,Networks allow people to exchange email and transfer files from are computer to another,each computer,printer or other device that to the network is called a node,networks can have tens,thousands or even millions of rodes.

The'heart' of the network is the server.Most networks include one or more computers that are designated as file servers.A file server is a computer whose hard disk is accessible to other computers on the network.Its job is to 'serve' data and program piles to these other machines via cables or other network comections.When there is a dedicated file server,the other computers are usually called either modes or works stations.