What a network is
🏠The everyday picture
A colony's internal lanes connect every house, so neighbours can visit each other. The main gate connects the colony to the city's roads. Inside the colony is your local network; the city roads are the internet.
📘What it really is
- A network is two or more devices connected so they can exchange data.
- A LAN (Local Area Network) covers one home, office or building: your laptop, phone, smart TV and printer.
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A WAN (Wide Area Network) spans cities or countries. The internet is the largest WAN: a network of networks connecting billions of devices.
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Data travels in small chunks called packets. A photo is split into many packets, sent separately, and put back together at the other end.
🖱️Try it
Count the devices connected to your home Wi-Fi: phones, laptops, TVs, speakers, cameras. Most routers show this in their app or admin page. Each one is a member of your LAN.
✅Quick check
Your printer and laptop are on the same Wi-Fi. When you print, does the document go through the internet?
Show the answer
No. It travels across your local network (LAN) only.
Why is data split into packets instead of sent in one piece?
Show the answer
Small pieces share the network fairly, can take different routes, and only the lost pieces need resending.