As with a shared file, you can tell when a printer is shared because a hand appears under the icon. A network topology describes the way in which a network is connected. There are three common network topologies. The first topology is called bus topology. In this design, all nodes have a unique address and connect to a central trunk.
Any node can put information onto the network.
Information put onto the network must contain destination address information to ensure the data can be delivered to its intended location. Each network node ignores data that is not intended for its unique address. The second type of configuration is called ring topology. Each network card in the ring network has a signal repeater built into it so that data not intended for that station can be repeated to the next node in the chain. Data is passed from node to node in this way until it reaches its intended destination.