Internet and Its Uses · 4 question types
Past paper frequency (2018 to 2024)
This topic accounts for approximately 7% of your exam marks.
Network topologies, protocols (HTTP, TCP/IP, FTP, DNS) and network hardware appear consistently.
A computer network is two or more computing devices connected together so they can share data and resources.
A network can be as small as two phones paired by Bluetooth, or as huge as the global internet linking billions of devices. Networks are usually grouped by their size and scope:
| Type | Stands for | Scope | Typical example |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAN | Local Area Network | A single building or site | A school's network; a home Wi-Fi network |
| WAN | Wide Area Network | A large area, possibly worldwide | The internet itself; a company's offices linked across cities |
| PAN | Personal Area Network | A few metres around one person | Bluetooth headphones paired with a phone |
| MAN | Metropolitan Area Network | A whole city or large campus | A city-wide municipal network |
This topic focuses on how networks are built and addressed: the hardware that connects devices, the addresses that identify them, the topologies that lay them out, and the protocols that control how they talk.