What Are the Different Types of Networks?

Video Transcript

"I'm Jonathan Ayres with Network for Success and today we have the question what are the different types of networks? First of all, let's think about what is a network. A network is a group that talks to each other. So you could have a network of people in a room and everybody would be talking to each other, or you could have computers hooked together. Once they were hooked together and talking to each other they would be on a network. This would usually be done by cables but it could also be done wirelessly. And they would all have to have a common agreement on how they're going to talk to each other. Usually done by something called addressing. But what are the different types of networks? Well, there are three basic types that we know about in common usage today and the first one is called peer to peer. A peer to peer network is a network of computers that are connected together by cables or wirelessly to talk to each other and each one exists in and of itself, in other words it's its own self-contained unit, nobody tells it what to do, it doesn't have any rules other than here I am, and I have information. If that peer to peer computer wants to share information with someone else there has to be an agreement and you have to make decisions to cause the information to be shared with other computers. The second type of computer network we have is what's called client server. Now this type of a network is a network where we have a bunch of computers connected together and a master computer called a server. This server will stand also out on the network and provide various types of information including applications that everybody can access. So it will be a common place that everybody goes to and they can get documents or leave documents that other people can get, sharing information or they can get applications off of this server. Now the third type of network that we have is what's called a client server application. And this application server is to be used in a network where there are a lot of computers that want to use an application such as Microsoft Word. And instead of having Microsoft Word exist on everybody's computer right across the network, you only have it exist on this application server, so when you want to do a Microsoft Word document you'll still have an icon on your desk that looks like Microsoft Word that you click on, but instead of having that program that resides on your computer, it's going to reside on an application server that will be in another room somewhere. This will allow you to use the application but it provides extra safety for the company or whoever is going to be using the network."