Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible, Sixth Edition

Architecture

Now that we're done with the stuff that college professors want you to know to understand networks, let's get back to the real world and look at how networks are put together. Networks link computers, but a link can take many forms, which a visit to any sausage shop will readily confirm.

With networks, computers link together in many ways. The physical configuration (something those professors call a topology), describes how computers are connected, like the sausages that squirt out of the grinder. Sausages link in a straight line, one after another. Networks are more versatile.

Moreover, by their nature, networks define hierarchies of computers. Some networks make some computers more important than others. The terms describing these ...