Chapter 3

7. How do local area networks (LANs) differ from metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), and backbone networks (BNs)?

A LAN is comprised of a small network connection within an organization locally via either a coax, fiber-optic or an Ethernet cable. A LAN is also used for information sharing within the network and LANs may also be connected to other networks such as a print network.

A MAN is larger network connection that covers a geographical region such as a city. More than company may be connected to the WAN. A MAN is comprised of multiple LANs that will link the internet services to a WAN.

A WAN is a wide area network; this can include an entire state, multiple cities. A WAN is comprised of many network connections, LANs, MANs, and BNs. A WAN is used to transmit data from a distance using the LANs, MANs, and BNs.

BNs are used to connect different pieces of a network to transmit data through the LAN or other sub network of an organization. This can either be within the same building, LAN, or across different buildings in the city, MAN, or even further.

14. Explain how a message is transmitted from one computer to another using layers.

There are 7 layers that a message must first pass through before is sent and received. The first layer, that a message has to be sent through, is the application layer which is where the message application is being used on. The next layer is the presentation layer which encrypts and decrypts the data format. The session layer creates a session between the users and creates and enforces rules for the session. The next layer is the transport layer which obtains the address (IP) of the user and breaks down the data into smaller packets and makes sure that the packets have been received and eliminates any duplicates. The network layer is responsible for taking the message that has been created by the application layer and breaks it into smaller messages. It then takes the messages and determines...