Networking Self-Teaching Guide: OSI, TCP/IP, LANs, MANs, WANs, Implementation, Management, and Maintenance

Chapter 1. Introduction to Networking

	What, exactly, is the Internet? Basically it is a global network exchanging digitized data in such a way that any computer, anywhere, that is equipped with a node called a "modem" can make a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo.
	--Dave Barry

Most of us would be lost without data networks.^[2] Just a few short years ago, when computers were first starting to make their way into the business world, data sharing would normally have to be done by copying and then carrying the data from one PC to the next.^[3] Today, the data is transferred from one user to the next in a fraction of a second. The growth that networking has undergone is remarkable. And it doesn't stop there. Every day there are new standards being proposed, new innovations being developed, and updates and changes to these being addressed.

Advances in technology are a fact of life. What needs to be considered is that any advance that requires the movement of data from one point to the next will need the services of a network to do so. This is why the world of networking has grown so much (and will continue to do so). With users transferring large amounts of data and the amount of that data growing at a exponential rate, there seems to be no end to the opportunities networks offer.

This chapter provides an introduction to networking. The intention is to provide you with a good foundation before we dive into the "nitty-gritty" of networking. In this chapter, we cover the history of networking, ...