Chapter 1: Computer Networks Overview

Let us start our lectures with the following question:

Why wait a week for that letter from Germany to arrive by regular mail when it could appear instantaneously through computer networks?

Data communications and networking are changing the way we do business and the way we live. Businesses today rely on computer networks and internetworks (e.g., the Internet).

Data communications and networking enable the exchange of data such as text, audio, and video from all points in the world. We want to access the Internet to download and upload information quickly and accurately and at any time.