As previous pages has said, network is used to share resources. How it does it really depend on the NOS - network operating system. Two common types of network is Peer to peer network and Client/Server network. Usually you can't see the difference in visual. But it does have a huge differences.

Peer-to-peer network

In Peer-to-peer network, there is no centralized  authority. Every one is EQUAL. That's why it call peers.  If one computer wants to access to a resource on another computer, the security on the other computer will check for access rights for that particular computer is holding the access right. In simple, they can be conclude :-

• Each user is responsible for local backup.
• Security consideration area minimal.
• A limited number of computers are involved
• Password for the same user CAN BE different on different machines.

Client/Server network

A client/server network uses a network operating system (NOS) which designed to manage the whole network from one central SERVER, and it responds with the information or permission to access to a specific resource. There are some advantages over peer-to-peer network, they are :-

• More centralized and organized
• Easier to find stuff on a centralized server
• More tighter security