Computer networking is the connecting of two or more computers that allows them to share resources. It can be done between computers in a home, in a business, across a corporation, and even internationally. It can equally be defined as a method of connecting two or more computer systems together including printers and other devices.

The benefits of networking are considerable, even on a network of only three systems. In computer networking there was never a truer statement than that this is a case of advantages experienced being far greater than the sum of the parts. PC networking is, as a consequence, a rapidly evolving discipline with many exciting opportunities. Challenges that arise in networking and particularly in the Internet tend to be truly global and have the potential to impact upon millions of users.

One huge and growing impact is Internet shopping. Shopping online has grown over the last 10 years to become a huge market, and if a sales business does not today incorporate this technology use they will fall behind their competitors.

But computer networking is also producing much more subtle uses within our societies. For example, Internet technologies can be deployed to favorably condition empathic response in those who have offended against community norms out of a lack of appreciation for the effects that their criminal behavior has on other people. In other words Internet linked devices can track home prisoners to maintain their behavior, in ways that 20 years ago had not even entered the heads of science-fiction writers, to the benefit of society as a whole.

Wireless Internet technology, is the development, also known as WiFi, which is really taking over the way people access the Internet and it has become widely popular in a very short space of time. One reason for this is it allows individuals to access the Internet via a network hot spots, while traveling without the use of cables or wires. In short it releases us from the tyranny of wires and plugs!

Wireless networks are now widely used including Internet-enabled mobile phones with cellular phone networks and, within buildings, wireless networks such as Bluetooth. These are in addition to the site networks used by academic institutions and large businesses. Wireless routers must be configured immediately for security right after you set up your network. It is important to emphasis that wireless can easily also mean insecure unless users are careful to set systems up correctly.

So, do this right away, as soon as you have got the device running. You need to set a new password for the router and limit access to only those computers on your wireless network.

Informally defined "computer networking" is the foundation of the Internet. The Internet itself is easier to understand when defined as the set of users, enterprises,and content providers that are interconnected by Internet Service Providers (ISP).

From an engineering standpoint, and please forgive me for being rather "techie" here; the Internet is the set of subnets, and aggregates of subnets, which share the registered IP address space and exchange information about the reachability of those IP addresses using the Border Gateway Protocol . Computer networks may also be classified according to the network layer at which they operate according to some basic reference models that are considered to be standards in the industry such as the seven layer OSI reference model and the five layer TCP/IP model.

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