What is a LAN?

Answer 1

LAN is a Local Area Network A LAN is the short abbreviation for Local Area Network. In a LAN you usually have many computers connected together using ehternet, Wifi, etc. The computers in Lan have the ability to share resources such as printers, scanners, hard drive space, and an internet connection. The inter net is also a network but a much larger scale LAN usually refers to a small network like the computers in one house, company, school, etc. Answer A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic place, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines. Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair cabling, and Wi-Fi are the two most common technologies currently, but ARCNET, Token Ring and many others have been used in the past. The ITU-T G.hn standard provides a way to create a high-speed (up to 1 Gigabit/s) Local area network using existing home wiring (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables). Answer: A local area network (LAN) consists of two or more computers connected together in a building or home using software and hardware. A LAN is contrasted to a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, which covers a large geographic area. In a LAN, there is a main computer or server, and remote computers called clients. By creating a LAN in the home or office, computers on the LAN can share files, resources, and if desired, an Internet connection.

A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that is confined to a relatively small area. It is generally limited to a geographic area such as a writing lab, school, or building.

Computers connected to a network are broadly categorized as servers or workstations. Servers are generally not used by humans directly, but rather run continuously to provide "services" to the other computers (and their human users) on the network. Services provided can include printing and faxing, software hosting, file storage and sharing, messaging, data storage and retrieval, complete access control (security) for the network's resources, and many others.

Workstations are called such because they typically do have a human user which interacts with the network through them. Workstations were traditionally considered a desktop, consisting of a computer, keyboard, display, and mouse, or a laptop, with with integrated keyboard, display, and touchpad. With the advent of the tablet computer, and the touch screen devices such as iPad and iPhone, our definition of workstation is quickly evolving to include those devices, because of their ability to interact with the network and utilize network services.

Servers tend to be more powerful than workstations, although configurations are guided by needs. For example, a group of servers might be located in a secure area, away from humans, and only accessed through the network. In such cases, it would be common for the servers to operate without a dedicated display or keyboard. However, the size and speed of the server's processor(s), hard drive, and main memory might add dramatically to the cost of the system. On the other hand, a workstation might not need as much storage or working memory, but might require an expensive display to accommodate the needs of its user. Every computer on a network should be appropriately configured for its use.

On a single LAN, computers and servers may be connected by cables or wirelessly. Wireless access to a wired network is made possible by wireless access points (WAPs). These WAP devices provide a bridge between computers and networks. A typical WAP might have the theoretical capacity to connect hundreds or even thousands of wireless users to a network, although practical capacity might be far less.

Nearly always servers will be connected by cables to the network, because the cable connections remain the fastest. Workstations which are stationary (desktops) are also usually connected by a cable to the network, although the cost of wireless adapters has dropped to the point that, when installing workstations in an existing facility with inadequate wiring, it can be easier and less expensive to use wireless for a desktop.

Local area network. Simpy put a LAN covers a small area such as one site or in one building, eg a school or a college.

where a WAN, as an example is the "Internet" or a simple example; all of one banks cash machines across the country.

A LAN can be part of a WAN i.e. a school network is connected to the internet (WAN).

A computer network limited to a relatively small local area (e.g. a single residence or office) as opposed to a large wide area (e.g. internet). A LAN may or may not be connected to an external WAN, or may or may not be connected to other LANs without being connected to a WAN.

Answer 2

it allows for many local computers say in an office to share information on 1 server, 1 internet connection, 1 printer/fax/copier etc.... instead of supling all data to all pc's and a printer for each machine.... hope this helps a little

Answer 3

A LAN is a Local Area Network, for example in your house or the computers that are connected at work. It is different from a WAN, or Wide Area Network, which is where a computer or a LAN is hooked up to the internet.

Answer 4

A computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings. However, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN).

Most LANs connect workstations and personal computers. Each node(individual computer ) in a LAN has its own CPU with which it executesprograms, but it also is able to access data and devices anywhere on the LAN. This means that many users can share expensive devices, such aslaser printers, as well as data. Users can also use the LAN to communicate with each other, by sending e-mail or engaging in chat sessions.

There are many different types of LANs Ethernets being the most common forPCs. Most Apple Macintosh networks are based on Apple's AppleTalk network system, which is built into Macintosh computers.

Preventive and proactive methods can increase efficiency and save money for you. LAN-Link managed services gives you:

• A more efficient process
• Lower technology costs
• Enhanced security & device protection
• Comprehensive reporting and history

Answer 5

A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small groups of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic area, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.

ARCNET, Token Ring and other technologies have been used in the past, but Ethernet over twisted pair cabling, and Wi-Fi are the two most common technologies currently in use.

History

As larger universities and research labs obtained more computers during the late 1960s, there was an increasing pressure to provide high-speed interconnections. A report in 1970 from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory detailing the growth of their "Octopus" network[1][2] gives a good indication of the situation.

Cambridge Ring was developed at Cambridge University in 1974[3] but was never developed into a successful commercial product.

Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973-1975,[4] and filed as U.S. Patent 4,063,220. In 1976, after the system was deployed at PARC, Metcalfe and Boggs published their seminal paper, "Ethernet: Distributed Packet-Switching For Local Computer Networks."[5]

ARCNET was developed by Datapoint Corporation in 1976 and announced in 1977.[6] It had the first commercial installation in December 1977 at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.[7]

[edit]

Standards evolution

The development and proliferation of CP/M-based personal computers from the late 1970s and then DOS-based personal computers from 1981 meant that a single site began to have dozens or even hundreds of computers. The initial attraction of networking these was generally to share disk space and laser printers, which were both very expensive at the time. There was much enthusiasm for the concept and for several years, from about 1983 onward, computer industry pundits would regularly declare the coming year to be "the year of the LAN".[citation needed]

In practice, the concept was marred by proliferation of incompatible physical Layer and network protocol implementations, and a plethora of methods of sharing resources. Typically, each vendor would have its own type of network card, cabling, protocol, and network operating system. A solution appeared with the advent of Novell NetWare which provided even-handed support for dozens of competing card/cable types, and a much more sophisticated operating system than most of its competitors. Netware dominated[8] the personal computer LAN business from early after its introduction in 1983 until the mid 1990s when Microsoft introduced Windows NT Advanced Server and Windows for Workgroups.

Of the competitors to NetWare, only Banyan Vines had comparable technical strengths, but Banyan never gained a secure base. Microsoft and 3Com worked together to create a simple network operating system which formed the base of 3Com's 3+Share, Microsoft's LAN Manager and IBM's LAN Server - but none of these were particularly successful.

During the same period, Unix computer workstations from vendors such as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, Intergraph, NeXT and Apollo were using TCP/IP based networking. Although this market segment is now much reduced, the technologies developed in this area continue to be influential on the Internet and in both Linux and Apple Mac OS X networking-and the TCP/IP protocol has now almost completely replaced IPX, AppleTalk, NBF and other protocols used by the early PC LANs.

[edit]

Cabling

Early LAN cabling had always been based on various grades of coaxial cable, but IBM's Token Ring used shielded twisted pair cabling of their own design, and in 1984 StarLAN showed the potential of simple Cat3 unshielded twisted pair-the same simple cable used for telephone systems. This led to the development of 10Base-T (and its successors) and structured cabling which is still the basis of most LANs today. In addition, fiber-optic cabling is increasingly used.

[edit]

Technical aspects

Switched Ethernet is the most common Data Link Layer implementation on local area networks. At the Network Layer, the Internet Protocol (i.e. TCP/IP) has become the standard. Smaller LANs generally consist of one or more switches linked to each other-often at least one is connected to a router, cable modem, or ADSL modem for Internet access.

Larger LANs are characterized by their use of redundant links with switches using the spanning tree protocol to prevent loops, their ability to manage differing traffic types via quality of service (QoS), and to segregate traffic with VLANs. Larger LANs also contain a wide variety of network devices such as switches, firewalls, routers, load balancers, and sensors.[9]

LANs may have connections with other LANs via leased lines, leased services, or by tunneling across the Internet using virtual private network technologies. Depending on how the connections are established and secured in a LAN, and the distance involved, a LAN may also be classified as metropolitan area network (MAN) or wide area networks (WAN)

Answer 6

A Local Area Network is a connection between computers in a small physical area.

Answer 7

LAN stands for Local Area Network and is implemented within a single geographical area. Example - Computers in a class room etc.

Answer 8

Local Area Network.

Answer 9

pass