San Jose Business Daily

What is the difference between networking and network programming?

What is the difference between networking and network programming? Is it the same? If no, then does networking involve programming using languages such as c++ and java? Im thinking of doing a networking course and I don't know basics in any computer languages such as C++, Java and stuff. Can the course be done w/o any knowledge of languages I mentioned above whatsoever?

Public Comments

1. Short answer: probably yes - but check with the instructor or someone familiar. see if there is a course description or any 'pre-requisite' courses or knowledge needed. Basically, networking is the physical act of connecting computers, routers, switches, wires, and other network-able components. You will need to know (or learn) some commands to control networking devices - maybe Cisco's IOS, or Windows ipconfig, netstat, ping, Linux similar controls - ifconfig, netstat, ping, traceroute, etc. Network Programming is usually writing code to run a network. - Maybe you want to ensure QOS (quality of service), maybe you want firewall rules, maybe you want to distribute patches across the network, or more likely, you want to balance resources on the network, so you take input and use that to plug into an algorithm so you can allocate more bandwidth or disk space. Most of what we think of as programming ( in C, C++, C#, Java, VB, etc..) we visualize as one end user on one computer. With network programming, you are looking at the entire network - users, hardware, capacity, timing.. and writing something with all this in mind.