{"id":11108,"date":"2011-07-28T01:06:32","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T01:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/computer-networking\/"},"modified":"2017-06-08T14:11:53","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T14:11:53","slug":"computer-networking","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking","title":{"rendered":"Computer Networking"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_computer_networking_mean\">What Does Computer Networking Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Computer networking is an engineering discipline that aims to study and analyze the communication process among various computing devices or computer systems that are linked, or networked, together to exchange information and share resources.\n<\/p>\n<p>Computer networking depends on the theoretical application and practical implementation of fields like computer engineering, computer sciences, information technology and telecommunication.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_computer_networking\">Techopedia Explains Computer Networking<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A router, network card and protocols are the essential pillars upon which any network is built. Computer networks are the backbone of modern-day communication. Even public switched telephone networks are controlled by computer systems; most telephonic services are also working with IP.\n<\/p>\n<p>The increasing scope of communication has led to much advancement in the networking field and in its relative industries like hardware, software manufacturing and integration. As a result, most households have access to one or more networks. There are three broad network types:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Local Area Network (LAN): Used to serve a small number of people located in a small geographical space. Peer-to-peer or client server networking methods can be employed. <\/li>\n<li>Wide Area Network (WAN): Formed to connect a computer with its peripheral resources across a large geographical area. <\/li>\n<li>Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)\/Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN): Formed without the use of wires or physical media to connect hosts with the server. The data is transferred over radio transceivers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Computer Networking Mean? Computer networking is an engineering discipline that aims to study and analyze the communication process among various computing devices or computer systems that are linked, or networked, together to exchange information and share resources. Computer networking depends on the theoretical application and practical implementation of fields like computer engineering, computer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[241,236,219,248],"class_list":["post-11108","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-computer-science","definitioncat-network-management","definitioncat-networks","definitioncat-networking-hardware"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Computer Networking? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Computer Networking and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Computer Networking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Computer Networking and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-08T14:11:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Computer Networking\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-28T01:06:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-08T14:11:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking\"},\"wordCount\":228,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/25598\/computer-networking\",\"name\":\"What is Computer Networking? 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