The most widely used operating system on PCs is Microsoft 's Windows which comes close to Apple's operating system in user-friendliness. A form of Unix known as Linux is also used in some of the computer science labs. These computers usually run less user-friendly operating systems requiring memorization of commands. Computer networking is the ability of computers to connect to each other via wires, infrared signals, and other means. This allows rapid sharing of data, as well as the ability of multiple computers to work on the same problem at the same time.
Ethernet is the most commonly used technology for joining computers together on small networks.
For example, the Bowdoin campus network uses ethernet to connect all of the systems and computers on campus. This is how computers on the campus network are configured to communicate with each other using the ethernet based network. These devices are connected between a computer and a telephone line, and allow the computer to use the phone line as a temporary network. The screeching noises you will hear if you try and pick up the phone while a computer is using a modem are the audio versions of the 1's and 0's that computers communicate in. Modems are slowly being replaced by a variety of faster means of connecting.