A computer network is a group of computers that use common protocols to exchange information and share resources.

In the context of a computer network, a protocol is a formal description of the message formats and the rules the machines in the network follow to exchange messages. A small network that connects computers contained in a single room, floor, or a single building is called a local area network (LAN). LANs have become very commonplace, and you may have a LAN in your home. A LAN is typically owned by an individual and connects computers that are relatively close together. A wide area network (WAN) covers a large geographical distance. For example a WAN may span several cities, several states, or an entire country. Computer networks that most people use on a daily basis appear to span the globe. In reality, most computer networks consist of smaller networks, which are in turn connected together to form larger networks. An internetwork, or Internet, is formed when two networks are connected together. In an internet the networks are not connected directly, but instead are connected using a computer that is connected to each of the individual networks. This common machine is referred to as a gateway or router, and passes information between the two networks. One of the advantages of using layers is that in order to use a layer you do not need to understand how it works inside, you simply need to know what services it provides and how to ask for them. Routing refers to the process of identifying the possible paths that you may use to transmit your message, and selecting the best path based on criteria that you specify. Routing is a service provided by the network layer. Ensuring not only that the message will be successfully passed between pairs of computers, but also that the message will be received correctly at the destination, is the job of the transport layer protocol. The transport protocol keeps track of the sequencing of frames in a message, and insures that regardless of whatever bad things may happen during transmission, the receiver will get all the frames, in the correct order, without duplications. The rationale has been that once the message has been reliably transmitted between computers, possibly via a world wide web of computer connections, understanding the meaning of the message, and reacting appropriately, is the responsibility of whatever application program received the message. This approach has become known as the internet reference model . Most wired networks today use the Ethernet data link. Ethernet protocols were first developed at Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. Today the descendent Ethernet data link is standardized in the IEEE 802.3 standard. The Ethernet protocol is interesting in its simplicity and its similarity to human speech interaction in groups. Ethernet uses a CSMA/CD protocol. The full description is carrier sense, multiple access/collision detection. Each computer on an Ethernet network attaches to the same wire. This is referred to as a bus architecture; each computer can listen to all signals on the wire; thats the multiple access part. When a computer wants to send information, the protocol requires the computer to listen to whats on the wire, waiting for a quiet time, before broadcasting; thats the carrier sense part. When a computer sends its message, it also listens to its own message. If the sender hears a jumbled mess instead of a clear message, it knows that another computer must have started broadcasting at

exactly the same time; thats the collision detection part. When a sender detects a collision, the sender stops, and then waits a randomly chosen interval of time before trying again.