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military Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) radar system using the Bell 101 modem. In the late 1950s, a network of computers was built for the U.S.Computer networking was influenced by a wide array of technology developments and historical milestones. Ĭomputer networks support many applications and services, such as access to the World Wide Web, digital video, digital audio, shared use of application and storage servers, printers, and fax machines, and use of email and instant messaging applications.Ĭomputer networking may be considered a branch of computer science, computer engineering, and telecommunications, since it relies on the theoretical and practical application of the related disciplines.
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Network addresses serve for locating and identifying the nodes by communication protocols such as the Internet Protocol.Ĭomputer networks may be classified by many criteria, including the transmission medium used to carry signals, bandwidth, communications protocols to organize network traffic, the network size, the topology, traffic control mechanism, and organizational intent. Hostnames serve as memorable labels for the nodes, rarely changed after initial assignment.
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They are identified by network addresses, and may have hostnames. The nodes of a computer network can include personal computers, servers, networking hardware, or other specialized or general-purpose hosts. These interconnections are made up of telecommunication network technologies, based on physically wired, optical, and wireless radio-frequency methods that may be arranged in a variety of network topologies. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes.
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