Standards
A network is a collection of ideas, hardware, and software. The software comprises both the programs that make it work and the protocols that let everything work together. The hardware involves the network adapters as well as the wires, hubs, concentrators, routers, and even more exotic fauna. Getting it all to work together requires standardization.
Because of the layered design of most networks, these standards can appear at any level in the hierarchy; and they do. Some cover a single layer; others span them all to create a cohesive system.
Current technology makes the best small computer network a hub-based peer-to-peer design, cabled with twisted-pair wiring and running the software built in to your operating system. The big choice ...
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