Computer networking or Data communications

Computer networking or Data communications (Datacom) is the engineering discipline concerned with the communication between computer systems or devices. A computer network is any set of computers or devices connected to each other with the ability to exchange data.[1] Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of telecommunications, computer science, information technology and/or computer engineering since it relies heavily upon the theoretical and practical application of these scientific and engineering disciplines. The three types of networks are: the Internet, the intranet, and the extranet. Examples of different network methods are:

* Local area network (LAN), which is usually a small network constrained to a small geographic area. An example of a LAN would be a computer network within a building.
* Metropolitan area network (MAN), which is used for medium size area. examples for a city or a state.
* Wide area network (WAN) that is usually a larger network that covers a large geographic area.
* Wireless LANs and WANs (WLAN & WWAN) are the wireless equivalent of the LAN and WAN.

All networks are interconnected to allow communication with a variety of different kinds of media, including twisted-pair copper wire cable, coaxial cable, optical fiber, power lines and various wireless technologies.[2] The devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g. via Bluetooth) or nearly unlimited distances (e.g. via the interconnections of the Internet[3]). Networking, routers, routing protocols, and networking over the public Internet have their specifications defined in documents called RFCs