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The bus network

In a bus network all the , and printers are joined to one cable (the bus). At each end of the cable a is fitted to stop signals reflecting back down the bus.

Demonstration of a bus network connection
Figure caption,
A bus network, connecting several workstations, servers and printers

Advantages and disadvantages of a bus network

The advantage of a bus network is:

  • it is cheap to install, as it doesn't require much cable

The disadvantages of a bus network are:

  • if the main cable fails or gets damaged the whole network will fail
  • as more workstations are connected the performance of the network will become slower because of data collisions
  • every workstation on the network "sees" all of the data on the network – this is a security risk