Fiducia TogetherNetwork
Computers connected to share data. LAN and WAN, and the hardware between them.
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.
What it is
A network is two or more connected devices. A LAN covers one site; a WAN spans geographically separate sites and usually uses infrastructure someone else owns. Hardware includes NICs, switches, routers and access points.
Where it applies
GCSE and A Level computer science.
How it works
Topologies — star, mesh, bus — differ in cost, resilience and performance. A star fails at the central switch; a mesh has no single point of failure and costs more.
Wired versus wireless trades speed and reliability against convenience and range.
How to use it in your work
For "which topology" questions, justify on a stated criterion: resilience, cost, or ease of adding devices.
Bandwidth, number of users, interference and distance are the standard factors affecting performance. Name the ones relevant to the scenario.
Where to get help
Your teacher and your board's specification — the pseudocode and the required language differ between boards. Bitesize covers the concepts; the computer science song runs the topics.
Revise this with a song
These are ours. We write revision songs because a lot of people remember a tune when they cannot remember a page, and because revising out loud in the kitchen beats staring at a highlighter.
- The Computer Science Song The GCSE computer science topics, set to music.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.