Components that are used to install the network software, and network components in a computer system are the basic components of a computer network. There are basically two types of computer network components 1, Hardware components and 2, software components. A computer system is made up of multiple hardware and software components, and the function of these components is to send the data and information from one system to another in order to make communication easy between the systems, for an established network these components are very important. The top five hardware components are server, client, transmission medium, and connecting device, and the operating system and protocols are the software components.

Let’s understand the top five hardware components:

3.Servers

These Servers manage the resources of the network and are high configuration networks. These installed servers give the users access to network resources, Servers can be database servers, or printer servers.  In other words, we can say that the server saves, process, and send all the information. Mostly the server is used for retrieving the information by clients. Each and every organization needs servers. Most people don’t know, that their desktop and laptop can work as a server when it is connected to the internet or network. A computer system is made up of multiple components, computers are further categorized as servers and clients. A server is a system that offers its services to others, same like a file server provides a space to store the files.

2.Clients:

Clients are the Computers that are requested and receive the services from servers to access and use the network resources. If we talk in computing terms a server is a computer program that provides functionality to other devices called clients.
The client is a piece of hardware needed in a computer system to communicate with the server. a server may offer a service to numerous customers simultaneously. Typically, a client shows the data that the server sends or performs certain tasks that the server or the client sends.

The client, which might be a computer or the server exchange data across a network connection. Frequently, the server is a web server, mail server, file server, or application server.

Peers

In a workgroup network, peers are computers that offer and receive services from one another.

3.Transmission media:

Data is transported between devices in a network using a transmission medium as the conduit. There are two types of transmission mediums: guided media (such as coaxial cable and fiber optic cables) and unguided media (such as microwaves and infrared radiation). The Internet is a worldwide network that can connect any one device to another through series, hubs, and routers. In other words, transmissions are the physical channels that transfer data from the computer network to the end device.

4.Network Interface cards

A network interface card is a circuit or hardware that allows the computer to connect with the network. The NIC doesn’t need any software and drivers to let the computer access the Network. These NICs are inserted and placed in card slots of the motherboard. There are two types of cards inserted in PCI slots PCI & NICs. These cards come with a built-in Ethernet port. Apart from this, there are USB NICs as well in which these cards can be plugged into the computer.

There are two types of NICS:

1.Wired NIC

This NIC card IS present in the motherboard of the computer system, a wired NICs needs a network cable to provide access to the network in other words cables and connectors are used to transfer any type of data.

2.Wireless NIC

Wireless NICs are used by desktops and laptops because they do not have any internal NIC, mainly there are two types of external network cards that are wireless and USB based.

3.Connecting Devices

Connecting Devices are a connection between the networks and computers by binding these network media together let’s have a look at some main connecting devices:

1.Router

A router is a device that is used to connect a network with the system and modifies the flow of the data between the network. The function of the router is to send the network traffic to the right destination depending on the data packet. The responsibility of the router is to transfer packets to the other networks. The router not only sends the data packets from one network to another but also saves and maintains the record of multiple IP addresses and Networks.  Each device has a different network address and the router matches the destination address of a packet to the destined device on the network. There are Multiple types of routers.

2.Bridges

Networks are linked together by bridges. The network signals can be strengthened by utilizing a bridge when two networks are adjacent to one another (for example, when there are two computers placed in the same building). A bridge converts an incoming network signal into an outgoing signal that is then sent to another interface. Bridges are comparatively cheap and easy which is why they are employed in small enterprises and home networking.

3.Hubs

It is a device that connects multiple networks it is also called switches, a hub connects computers keyboards, and printers and allows multiple connections. Hub is a simple device without any intelligence and configuration capability, it’s only a connection point. Hub receives the signal from the device and forwards the same signal to all other networks. Also, there are some other different types of hubs. 

4.Switches

A switch is an intelligent bridge where two LAN segments are connected

It automatically understands the MAC address of the connected nodes. When a frame is received on a port it searches for the Mac address and sends the frame to the suitable port.

A switch never saves the whole frame in its memory it only saves the header, this is why a switch is different from Hub.

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