Networks

What is computer network?

A computer network is composed of multiple computers connected together for the purpose of communication, sharing data and resources, etc.
The computers in a network may be linked through cables, telephone lines, radio waves or infrared light beams.

Advantages of computer network:

• Communication - People use networks to communicate with each other by exchanging messages and information. We can take the example of a whatsapp group, video conferencing software like imo, skype, google duo, etc. In this type of software each all of us are connected with each other sharing our ideas, thoughts, discussing some topics, etc.
• Sharing of hardware resources - Networking of computers enables users to share hardware resources like scanners, printers, etc. Eg. Suppose there are two computer systems in your house if you want to give print then you need a printer. So what would you do, you will buy two printers for the two computer, no you will not do this because printers are not cheap. Your printing work can be done by only one printer if you connect it through a network. You might have heard about wireless printer, if you have a wifi enable laptop, computer, tablet or mobile then you can give printing command from any of the device. You can connect the printer with your two computers using wire, like LAN cable. So this is called sharing of hardware resources. 
• Sharing of software - Software on a network can be shared with many people. Eg you have brought a new computer from a market and urgently you have to make a presentation on your laptop and you don’t have much time to install the MS Office software so what will you do? You will use Google Slides through the internet. You have to connect to the internet and in your browser you have to write Google Slides and from there you can make any type of presentation. So this is the example of sharing of software. You can make online document, spread sheet, presentation, convert word document to pdf, etc.
• Preserving Information - Preserving means to save the data or information for longer time. Our data in phone or laptop is not secured it might get deleted or your hard disk might get damaged due to some problem or your phone or laptop get stolen. In that case you cannot recover the data. Due to this problem many people getting use to save the data online which is called cloud storage. Many software companies are there which provide the facility of online storage, like Google drive of Google, One Drive of Microsoft, iCloud of Apple, Micloud of Xiaomi, etc.
• Cost effectiveness - Sharing of these hardware or software resources reduces the cost of purchasing the hardware or software. Like in the above eg i have mentioned about sharing a printer with two or more computer.
• Redundancy - A network reduces the need for hard copies of all documents. By sharing files over the network. Like you have booked a train ticket for going on vacation so you don't have to print the train ticket, your ticket will automatically come in your mobile inbox or e-ticket in you email. You can show that e-ticket to the train ticket collector. Another example is that you can submit your assignment through email as many times you are asked to submit.