TCP/IP Guide

Network Structural Models and Client-Server and Peer-to-Peer Networking

I mentioned in my discussion of the advantages of networking that networks are normally set up for two primary purposes: connectivity and sharing. If you have a network with a number of different machines on it, each computer can interact with another's hardware and software, which enables you to perform a variety of tasks. How this is actually done depends to a large degree on the overall design of the network.

One very important issue in network design is how to configure the network for the sharing of resources. Specifically, the network designer must decide whether or not to dedicate resource management functions to the devices that constitute it. In some networks, all ...