THE BENEFITS OF NETWORKS
INTRODUCTION
This report will discuss the benefits of Networks. I will be discussing how networks help in the way of 1.) Communication, 2.) Centralised and standardised services and 3.) Sharing resources. This report will weigh up the good and bad points of networks. 1.) COMMUNICATION
Communication is easier and faster on a network. To give someone a file from one stand-alone computer to another you would have to save the information onto a floppy disc and put the disc into the other person computer to see the information. With a network you could send that person the file as an attachment on an E-mail. E-mails are sent in seconds and is there for a faster way of communicating than Sneakernet, which is basically said as this because you would have to shove your trainers on and run to the person to give them a file or whatever if they were far away.
On a network you can communicate with someone on-line and they can chat back to you giving a reply to what you have just said in no time. Chat rooms on the Internet are used so that each room has a certain topic, which is talked about, in the room or each room is for certain gender and age etc. The advantages of this are that you can talk to someone by typing in what you want to say and a reply can be given.
Bulletin boards are used in a way that there are different subjects to go to and once you are there you can send an E-mail about that subject which is then available for others to read, The E-mails that others have sent in can be read by anyone as well.
Video conferencing can also be done on the net. Video conferencing is done in a way that two places use a computer, the Internet, a PC camcorder, microphone and speakers on either end so that they can see each other and hear each other on either end. The advantage is that a conference can be don with the two computers communicating from far away.
2.) CENTRALISED AND STANDARDISED.
In a network the information can be standardised in one place so the advantage of this is that all the information can be retrieved from that place when it is needed.
Another advantage of centralising is that a lot of information can be stored on a network, which means that a lot of information can be retrieved from the place that the files are centralised.
One benefit of Software being stored in a centralised place is so that the software for the computers doesn't have to be loaded on all the computers for it to be used as it can be retrieved from any of the computers from the centralised place.
The benefits of standardising are that the same software package can be used on each computer so that you can use data on every one of the computers.
3.) SHARED RESOURCES
The main advantage of networking is that you can share hardware, software and information. This means that one of the advantages of sharing resources is that because the hardware is shared there will be very big hard drives so there is masses of space to save information on.
One of the advantages of sharing resources is that you can work as a team. Sharing the resources means that people can share software, hardware and information.
CONCLUSION
The disadvantages are that if the computer gets a virus then all the computers could stop running properly or not work at all. It is more expensive than using a stand-alone computer because you have to buy all the physical transmission media for the computers to be linked. If the file server or print server goes down then the whole of the system would go down.
I have come to the conclusion that there are more advantages than disadvantages of using networks. This is because with communication you can communicate faster, easier and be able to get a response quickly. Centralising and standardising means that you can retrieve software from the file server all the time, the same software can be used on each computer and that the software doesn't need to be put on each computer. Sharing resources means that people can share hardware like the printer instead of having a printer per computer, the software can be loaded on all the computers from the file server, and information can be shared. The benefits of networks out weigh the limitations.
