Computer network explained

A computer network is a telecommunications network that enables sharing of resources and information. Nodes in a network are connected with each other using either cable or  wireless media and use a system of digital rules for data exchange. Data is transferred in the form of a packet, a formatted unit of data.

Since you are reading this on the Internet, your computer is a part of the biggest network in the world – the Internet. If you have access to the Internet at home, your devices  are part of a LAN (Local Area Network). Here is how a simple LAN looks like:

In the picture above you can see that the computer is connected to the router which is then connencted to the Internet. The computer can send and receive data on the Internet using Internet protocols such as HTTP and DNS.

To connect two computers together, we would use a device called a switch. Switches serve as a central point to which all computers on a network connect to: