a network operating system is one that allows users to communicate on a network as opposed to a standalone operating system a network os allows usernames and passwords to allow many different users to log into the same laptop separating user accounts and making sure that privacy is maintained and providing access to shared resources like printers and storage a network is formed when two or more computers are connected to each other in the modern world there are four major types of networks the local area network this connects devices that are in a small area a lan can be found in schools office buildings a personal area network here a group of connected devices near an individual user like a phone or laptop forms a network the personal area network can also be called w personal area network if there's only wireless connections involved wide area network connects devices over a large area a van can be found in multinational organizations connecting their networks and some even launching their satellite the largest one is the internet tethering connecting a host device with a broadband connection to another device in order to share the broadband connection the mobile network provider can decide whether or not to enable tethering hawa devices identified in a network that involves more than one computer ib address ipo internet protocol is a unique address that network devices use to send data to each other there are two main ip types ipv4 and ipv6 mac address a mac address is a universally unique identifier this means it's the only one of its kind in the world an example mac address is this the first half identifies the nic manufacturer and the remaining is unique to the device the device name descript a descriptive name for users to identify a computer in a network however as device names are not always unique the computers do not use it to identify a device you