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Page 26 - Cyber Safety C-6
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    HOW DEVICES CONNECT: NETWORKS

                      Imagine  you want to  play a video  game  with your

                      friend who lives across town. You  can't  just  shout
                      to  them, right?  You  need a way to  connect.  That's
                      exactly what a network is.

                      A network is like a digital team. It's a group of two
                      or more devices  (like computers,  tablets,  phones
                      or game  consoles) that  are connected  to  share
                      information and resources.

                      Types of Networks

                      There are many different types of networks around us. Let us understand the most common ones:

                                                                   Personal Area Network (PAN)

                                                                   A Personal Area Network (PAN) is the smallest type
                                                                   of network, covering a very small area, like a room
                                                                   or even just around  you. It connects  devices  that
                                                                   are near you, such as wireless headphones syncing
                                                                   with your phone, a smartwatch connecting to your

                                                                   phone or transferring photos from your phone to your
                                                                   laptop using a cable. PANs usually use Bluetooth or
                                                                   USB connections for these tasks.

                      Local Area Network (LAN)

                      A  Local Area  Network  (LAN)  connects  devices
                      within a small area, like a home, school or office. It
                      links devices such as computers, tablets and printers,
                      allowing them to share resources. For example, your
                      home  Wi-Fi network  connects  to  your  devices  or

                      computers  in a school  lab link to  a central server.
                      LANs offer  fast speeds  and usually  use  Wi-Fi or
                      Ethernet cables.

                      Wide Area Network (WAN)

                      A Wide Area Network (WAN) is the largest type of network and can cover huge areas, such as
                      different cities, countries or even the whole world. The best example of a WAN is the Internet,
                      which connects computers across the globe. Other examples include networks that link offices
                      of a company in different countries or airline reservation systems in many cities. WANs cover
                      the biggest areas but are usually slower than LANs or MANs and use technologies like fibre optic
                      cables and satellites.

                       24   Computer Science - VI

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