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History. Computer 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. Computer networking was influenced by a wide array of technological developments and historical milestones.
Ethernet ( / ˈiːθərnɛt / EE-thər-net) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). [ 1] It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3. Ethernet has since been refined to support higher ...
Wi-Fi ( / ˈwaɪfaɪ /) [ 1][ a] is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves. These are the most widely used computer networks, used globally in home and ...
Networking cable is a piece of networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable , optical fiber cable , and twisted pair cables, are used depending on the network's topology ...
Router (computing) A router[ a] is a computer and networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks, including internetworks such as the global Internet. [ 2][ 3][ 4] A router is connected to two or more data lines from different IP networks. When a data packet comes in on a line, the router reads the network address ...
A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, Ethernet switch, and, by the IEEE, MAC bridge[ 1]) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destination device. A network switch is a multiport network bridge that uses MAC addresses to forward data ...
Software-defined networking ( SDN) is an approach to network management that enables dynamic and programmatically efficient network configuration to improve network performance and monitoring in a manner more akin to cloud computing than to traditional network management. [ 1] SDN is meant to improve the static architecture of traditional ...
A network interface controller ( NIC, also known as a network interface card, [ 3] network adapter, LAN adapter and physical network interface[ 4]) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. [ 5] Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged into a computer bus.