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What is the difference between a bit and a byte?
Q. The terms bits and bytes are common in computer networking. Both terms refer to digital data transmitted over a network connection. For example, bits and bytes both can hold network addresses or port numbers. So what's the difference?
A. A bit is a single numeric value, either '1' or '0', that represents a single unit of digital information. A byte is a sequence of bits; usually eight bits equal one byte.
For example, in network addressing, IP addresses contain 32 bits or 4 bytes. The bits encode the network address so that it can be shared on the network. The bytes divide the bits into groups. Consider the IP address 192.168.0.1, that is encoded with the following bits and bytes:
11000000 10100100 00000000 00000001
Bits are grouped into bytes to increase the efficiency of computer hardware, including disks and memory.
What is the difference between bps and Bps?
Q. "Is there any difference between bps (small 'b') and Bps (capital 'b')?"
A. The term "bps" specifies network bandwidth in bits per second. The term "Bps" specifies network bandwidth in bytes per second.
What is client/server networking?
Q. "What is the difference between a client and a server, and what is client/server networking?"
A. Clients and servers are devices that perform specific functions on a network. Client devices normally request and receive information over the network. Mobile computers and most desktop PCs operate as clients. A server device hosts files, databases, Web sites, or other applications. Server devices often feature higher-powered processors, more memory, and larger disk drives than clients.
The term client/server refers to any network design utilizing clients and servers. Web, FTP, email, DNS and many other database applications are client/server designs. Client/server networks can be built on the Internet, on intranets, or in homes.
The main alternative to client/server networking is peer-to-peer networking, where network devices all perform equivalent functions.
What is the difference between a hub and a switch?
Q. "What is the difference between a hub and a switch? Which one is better for my network?"
A. A switch is effectively a higher-performance alternative to a hub. People tend to benefit from a switch over a hub if their home network has four or more computers, or if they want to use their home network for applications that generate significant amounts of network traffic, like multiplayer games or heavy music file sharing. In most other cases, home networkers will not notice an appreciable difference between a hub and switch (hubs do cost slightly less).
Technically speaking, hubs operate using a broadcast model and switches operate using a virtual circuit model. When four computers are connected to a hub, for example, and two of those computers communicate with each other, hubs simply pass through all network traffic to each of the four computers. Switches, on the other hand, are capable of determining the destination of each individual traffic element (such as an Ethernet frame) and selectively forwarding data to the one computer that actually needs it. By generating less network traffic in delivering messages, a switch performs better than a hub on busy networks.
