Chapter 6 - Telecomm and Networking

Question 1

Define a Computer Network

Answer 1

A system connecting computers and other devices through communication media so that data and information can be transferred

Question 2

What is bandwidth?

Answer 2

The transmission capacity of a network (bits per second)

Question 3

What is PAN and what does it stand for?

Answer 3

Personal Area Network
A computer network used for communication among computer devices close to one person (printers, scanners, etc)

Question 4

What is LAN and what does it stand for?

Answer 4

Local Area Network
A computer network covering a small physical area (a home, an office, etc)

Question 5

What is CAN and what does it stand for?

Answer 5

Campus Area Network
A computer network made up of an interconnection of LANs within a limited geographical area

Question 6

What is MAN and what does it stand for?

Answer 6

Metropolitan Area Network
A network that connect two or more LANs or CANs but does not extend beyond the boundaries of the immediate town

Question 7

What is WAN and what does it stand for?

Answer 7

Wide Area Network
A computer network that covers a broad area

Question 8

What is an enterprise network?

Answer 8

An organizations network which is composed of interconnected multiple LANs and WANs

Question 9

What are backbone networks?

Answer 9

High speed central networks to which smaller networks connect

Question 10

What are digital signals?

Answer 10

Discrete pulses that are either on or off representing a series of bits (1s and 0s)

Question 11

What are the 3 basic functions of TCP?

Answer 11

1. Manage the movement of data packets between computers
2. Sequences the transfer of packets
3. Acknowledges the packets that have been transmitted

Question 12

What is the transmission technology that breaks up blocks of text into packets?

Answer 12

Packet switching

Question 13

Describe the following and provide an example:
Application Layer
Transport Layer
Internet Layer
Network Interface Layer

Answer 13

Application Layer: Enables the program to access the other layers (ex. HTTP)
Transport Layer: Provides communication and packet services (ex. TCP)
Internet Layer: Addresses, routes and packages data packets (ex. IP)
Network Interface Layer: Places packet on and receives them from the network medium (ex. N/A)

Question 14

What is distributed processing?

Answer 14

Dividing processing work between or among two or more computers on the same network

Question 15

What is the difference between fat clients and thin clients?

Answer 15

Fat clients: Large storage and processing power, allowing them to run local programs if the network goes down
Thin clients: May have no local storage and limited processing power

Question 16

What is the world wide web?

Answer 16

A system of universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information through client/server architecture

Question 17

What is telecommuting?

Answer 17

A work arrangement where an employee works at home or another out-of-office location

Question 18

What is crowdsourcing?

Answer 18

A process in which an organization outsources a task to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call

Question 19

What are the 3 elements of crowdsourcing? Define them

Answer 19

Outsourcing: Sourcing business needs from outside entities to achieve goals
Crowd: An undefined, non-professional group of people online
Social Webs: Web based technologies used to find the potential crowd

Question 20

What is Circuit Switching?

Answer 20

A communication method where a dedicated connection is established between two devices (ex. a phone call)

Question 21

What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?

Answer 21

IPv4 is older and uses a 32-bit address format, which limits the amount of unique addresses it can have
IPv6 is newer and uses a 128-bit address format, which allows for nearly unlimited unique addresses

Question 22

What is the default port for HTTP and HTTPS?

Answer 22

HTTP: 80
HTTPS: 443

Question 23

What is a DNS?

Answer 23

Domain Name System: Allows users to access websites using human-readable domain names instead of IP addresses