Characteristics of a Computer Network

The primary purpose of a computer network is to share resources:

• You can play a CD music from one computer while sitting on another computer
• You may have a computer with a CD writer or a backup system but the other computer doesn’t have it; In this case, you can burn CDs or make backups on a computer that has one of these but using data from a computer that doesn’t have a CD writer or a backup system
• You may have a computer that doesn’t have a DVD player. In this case, you can place a movie DVD on the computer that has a DVD player, and then view the movie on a computer that lacks a DVD player
• You can connect a printer (or a scanner, or a fax machine) to one computer and let other computers of the network print (or scan, or fax) to that printer (or scanner, or fax machine)
• You can place a CD with pictures on one computer and let other computers access those pictures
• You can create files and store them in one computer, then access those files from the other computer(s) connected to it