Computer Network Tutorial

  • Last Updated : 15 May, 2023

A computer network is a collection of computers or devices connected to share resources. Any device which can share or receive the data is called a Node. Through which the information or data propagate is known as channels, It can be guided or unguided.

In this Computer network tutorial, you’ll learn basic to advanced concepts like the Basics of computer networks, data link layer, network layer, network security and cryptography, compression techniques, etc.

Recent Articles on Computer Networks

Basics :

  1. Basics of Computer Networking
  2. The Internet and the Web
  3. Internet and Web programming: Behind the scenes
  4. The New Internet | Internet of Everything
  5. Unknown facts of Networking
  6. Network goals
  7. Line Configuration in Computer Networks
  8. Transmission Modes in Computer Networks
  9. Types of Transmission Media
  10. Unicast, Broadcast and Multicast
  11. Introduction to basic Networking terminology
  12. Network Topologies
  13. Types of area networks – LAN, MAN and WAN
  14. Telecom Networks
  15. Access networks
  16. TCP/IP Model
  17. Layers of OSI Model
  18. Introduction to Active Directory Domain Service
  19. Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Networking

Data Link Layer :

  1. Local Area Network (LAN) Technologies.
  2. Computer Network | Bridges (local Internetworking device)
  3. Internetworking
  4. Framing In Data Link Layer
  5. Introduction of MAC Address
  6. MAC Filtering
  7. Multiple Access Protocols
  8. Ethernet Frame Format
  9. EtherChannel
  10. Difference between Byte stuffing and Bit stuffing
  11. Implementing Byte stuffing using Java
  12. Circuit Switching
  13. Packet Switching and Delays
  14. Circuit Switching VS Packet Switching
  15. Differences between Virtual Circuits & Datagram Networks
  16. Switching techniques: Message switching
  17. Types of switches
  18. Maximum data rate (channel capacity) for noiseless and noisy channels
  19. Hot Spot 2.0
  20. Collision Avoidance in wireless networks
  21. Traditional wireless mobile communication
  22. Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA)
  23. Collision Detection in CSMA/CD
  24. Efficiency of CSMA/CD
  25. Back-off Algorithm for CSMA/CD
  26. Controlled Access Protocols
  27. Virtual LAN (VLAN)
  28. Inter VLAN Routing by Layer 3 Switch
  29. Computer Network | Private VLAN
  30. Computer Network | VLAN ACL (VACL)
  31. Access and trunk ports
  32. Role-based access control
  33. Port security
  34. Inter-Switch Link (ISL) and IEEE 802.1Q
  35. Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP)
  36. Sliding Window Protocol | Set 1 (Sender Side)
  37. Sliding Window Protocol | Set 2 (Receiver Side)
  38. Sliding Window Protocol | Set 3 (Selective Repeat)
  39. Sliding Window protocols Summary
  40. Stop and Wait ARQ
  41. Difference between Stop and Wait, GoBackN and Selective Repeat
  42. Manchester Encoding
  43. Error Detection
  44. Hamming Code
  45. Program to remotely Power On a PC over the Internet using the Wake-on-LAN protocol.
  46. Basics of Wi-Fi
  47. IEEE 802.11 Mac Frame
  48. Efficiency Of Token Ring
  49. Token Bus (IEEE 802.4)
  50. Multiplexing (Channel Sharing)
  51. Frequency division and Time division multiplexing

>> Quiz on Data Link Layer

Network Layer :

  1. Integrated services digital network (ISDN)
  2. Introduction and IPv4 Datagram Header
  3. IP Addressing | Introduction and Classful Addressing
  4. IP Addressing | Classless Addressing
  5. IPv4 classless Subnet equation
  6. Supernetting
  7. Ipv4 Datagram Fragmentation and Delays
  8. Fragmentation at Network Layer
  9. Internet Protocol v6 | IPv6
  10. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Header
  11. Differences between IPv4 and IPv6
  12. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
  13. Longest Prefix Matching in Routers
  14. Routing v/s Routed Protocols
  15. Fixed and Flooding Routing algorithms
  16. Classes of routing protocols
  17. Types of routing
  18. Classification of Routing Algorithms
  19. Routing Protocols Set 1 (Distance Vector Routing)
  20. Route Poisoning and Count to infinity problem
  21. Redundant link problems
  22. Administrative Distance (AD) and Autonomous System (AS)
  23. Unicast Routing – Link State Routing
  24. Link state advertisement (LSA)
  25. Securing Routing Protocols
  26. Distance vector routing v/s Link state routing
  27. Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
  28. Routing Interface Protocol (RIP) V1 & V2
  29. Redistribution
  30. EIGRP fundamentals
  31. EIGRP Configuration
  32. Features of Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
  33. EIGRP cost calculation
  34. Open shortest path first (OSPF) protocol fundamentals
  35. Open shortest path first (OSPF) router roles and configuration
  36. Open shortest path first (OSPF) protocol States
  37. Open shortest path first (OSPF) – Set 2
  38. Probabilistic shortest path routing algorithm for optical networks
  39. Types of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
  40. Network address translation (NAT)
  41. Types of Network address translation (NAT)
  42. Static NAT (on ASA)
  43. Dynamic NAT (on ASA)
  44. VRRP(Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) | Introduction and configuration
  45. Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)
  46. Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)
  47. Router on a stick | Introduction and Configuration
  48. Traceroute
  49. What’s difference between Ping and Traceroute?
  50. ARP, Reverse ARP(RARP), Inverse ARP(InARP), Proxy ARP and Gratuitous ARP
  51. How ARP works?
  52. Packet flow in the same network
  53. Packet flow in different network
  54. Wifi protected access (WPA)
  55. Wifi protected setup (WPS)
  56. LiFi vs. WiFi
  57. Service Set Identifier (SSID)
  58. Access-lists (ACL)
  59. Context based access control (CBAC)
  60. Standard Access-list
  61. Extended access-list
  62. Reflexive Access-list
  63. Time based access-list
  64. AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting)
  65. AAA (authentication) configuration (locally)
  66. Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism (CRAM)
  67. Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)
  68. RADIUS
  69. TACACS+
  70. TACACS+ and RADIUS

>> Quiz on Network Layer
>> Quiz on IP addressing

Transport Layer :

  1. TCP Connection Establishment
  2. TCP 3-Way Handshake Process
  3. TCP Timers
  4. TCP Connection Termination
  5. TCP Sequence Number | Wrap Around Concept
  6. Transport Layer responsibilities
  7. Multiplexing and Demultiplexing in Transport Layer
  8. User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
  9. P2P(Peer To Peer) File Sharing
  10. Congestion Control
  11. TCP Congestion Control
  12. Congestion control techniques
  13. Leaky Bucket Algorithm
  14. Error Control in TCP
  15. TCP flags
  16. TCP | Services and Segment structure
  17. TCP Server-Client implementation in C
  18. TCP and UDP server using select
  19. Servers

>> Quiz on Transport Layer

Application Layer :

  1. Protocols in Application Layer
  2. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
  3. DNS (Domain Name Server)
  4. Why does DNS use UDP and not TCP?
  5. Address Resolution in DNS
  6. DNS Spoofing or DNS Cache poisoning
  7. Types of DNS Attacks and Tactics for Security
  8. What’s difference between http:// and https:// ?
  9. What’s difference between HTML and HTTP ?
  10. HTTP Non-Persistent & Persistent Connection | Set 1
  11. File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
  12. What are the differences between HTTP, FTP, and SMTP?
  13. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
  14. What is Local Host?
  15. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
  16. DHCP Relay Agent
  17. How DHCP server dynamically assigns IP address to a host?
  18. What’s difference between The Internet and The Web ?
  19. Simple network management protocol (SNMP)
  20. Multipurpose Internet mail extension (MIME)
  21. Computer Network | MIME Media Types
  22. Quality of Service and Multimedia
  23. Web Caching and the Conditional GET Statements

>> Quiz on Application Layer

Network Security and Cryptography :

  1. The CIA triad
  2. Introduction to Firewall
  3. Types of firewall and possible attacks
  4. Firewall methodologies
  5. Zone-based firewall
  6. Zone-based firewall (Configuration)
  7. How to setup firewall in Linux?
  8. Message Authentication Codes
  9. How message authentication code works?
  10. HMAC Algorithm
  11. Password authentication protocol (PAP)
  12. Basic Network Attacks
  13. Birthday attack
  14. Vishing (Voice Phishing)
  15. System security
  16. Private Browsing
  17. Threat Modelling
  18. DFD Based Threat modelling | Set 1
  19. DFD Based Threat Modelling | Set 2
  20. Types of Viruses
  21. Deniel of Service and Prevention
  22. Denial of Service DDoS attack
  23. Unicode
  24. RC4 Encryption Algorithm
  25. RSA Algorithm in Cryptography
  26. RSA Algorithm using Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library
  27. Weak RSA decryption with Chinese-remainder theorem
  28. How to solve RSA Algorithm Problems?
  29. Hash Functions in System Security
  30. DNA Cryptography
  31. RC5 Encryption Algorithm
  32. ElGamal Encryption Algorithm
  33. Caesar Cipher
  34. Cryptography Introduction
  35. Cryptography | Traditional Symmetric Ciphers
  36. Block cipher modes of operation
  37. Cryptography | Development of Cryptography
  38. Difference between AES and DES ciphers
  39. Transforming a Plain Text message to Cipher Text
  40. What is a cryptocurrency?
  41. Introduction to Crypto-terminologies
  42. Quantum Cryptography
  43. End to End Encryption (E2EE) in Computer Networks
  44. IP security (IPSec)
  45. What is Packet Sniffing ?
  46. Introduction to Sniffers
  47. Data encryption standard (DES) | Set 1
  48. End to End Encryption (E2EE) in Computer Network
  49. Types of Security attacks | Active and Passive attacks
  50. Types of Wireless and Mobile Device Attacks
  51. Types of Email Attacks
  52. Sybil Attack
  53. Malware and its types

>> Quiz on Network Security and Cryptography

Compression Techniques :

  1. LZW (Lempel–Ziv–Welch) Compression technique
  2. Data Compression With Arithmetic Coding
  3. Shannon-Fano Algorithm for Data Compression

Network Experiments :

  1. Let’s experiment with Networking
  2. Mobile Ad hoc Network
  3. Types of MANET
  4. Simple Chat Room using Python
  5. Socket Programming in Java
  6. C Program to find IP Address, Subnet Mask & Default Gateway
  7. Introduction to variable length subnet mask (VLSM)
  8. Extracting MAC address using Python
  9. Implementation of Diffie-Hellman Algorithm
  10. Java Implementation of Deffi-Hellman Algorithm between Client and Server
  11. Socket Programming in Python
  12. Socket Programming with Multi-threading in Python
  13. Cyclic Redundancy Check in Python
  14. Explicitly assigning port number to client in Socket
  15. Netstat command in Linux:
  16. nslookup command in Linux with Examples
  17. UDP Server-Client implementation in C
  18. C program for file Transfer using UDP
  19. Java program to find IP address of your computer
  20. Finding IP address of a URL in Java
  21. Program to calculate the Round Trip Time (RTT)
  22. Network configuration and trouble shooting commands in Linux
  23. Implementing Checksum Using Java
  24. C Program to display hostname and IP address
  25. Program to determine class, Network and Host ID of an IPv4 address
  26. Program to determine Class, Broadcast address and Network address of an IPv4 address
  27. Program for IP forwarding table lookup
  28. Wi-Fi Password of All Connected Networks in Windows/Linux

Devices :

  1. Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router and Gateways)
  2. Inside a Router
  3. Bridges (local Internetworking device)
  4. Switch functions at layer 2
  5. Collision Domain and Broadcast Domain
  6. Root Bridge Election in Spanning Tree Protocol

Misc :

  1. Onion Routing
  2. Types of Server Virtualization
  3. Cloud Computing | Characteristics of Virtualization
  4. On-premises cost estimates of Virtualization
  5. Hardware Based Virtualization
  6. Operating system based Virtualization
  7. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
  8. Image Steganography
  9. Network Neutrality
  10. Basics of NS2 and Otcl/tcl script
  11. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
  12. Cisco router modes
  13. Cisco router basic commands
  14. Backing up Cisco IOS router image
  15. Basic configuration of adaptive security appliance (ASA)
  16. Adaptive security appliance (ASA) features
  17. Default flow of traffic (ASA)
  18. Cisco ASA Redistribution example
  19. Telnet and SSH on Adaptive security appliance (ASA)
  20. Near Field Communication (NFC)
  21. Relabel-to-front Algorithm
  22. Berkeley’s Algorithm
  23. Cristian’s Algorithm
  24. Universal Serial Bus (USB) in Computer Network
  25. Type-C Port in Computer Network

FAQs on Computer Networks

Q.1 What are the types of computer network?

Answer:

  • PAN(Personal Area Network): It is the network connecting computer devices for personal use within a range of 10 meters.
  • LAN(Local Area Network): It is a collection of computers connected to each other in a small area for example school, office, or building.
  • WAN(Wide Area Network): A Wide Area Network is a large area than the LAN. It is spread across the states or countries.
  • MAN(Metropolitan Area Network): A Metropolitan area network is the collection of interconnected Local Area Networks.

Q.2 What are link and node?

Answer:

A link is a connection between two or more computers. Link can be wired or wireless between two nodes. A node is refer to any device in a network like computers, laptops, printers, servers, modems, etc.

Q.3 What is the network topology?

Answer:

Network topology is the physical design of the network, It represents the connectivity between the devices, cables, computers, etc.

Q.4 What are different types of network topology?

Answer:

There are different types of topology are given below:

  • Bus Topology
  • Star Topology
  • Ring Topology
  • Mesh Topology
  • Tree Topology
  • Hybrid

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