Local Area Network

A local area network (LAN), also known as the LAN, is a computer link that the user uses to interconnect different computers in limited access areas such as homes, schools, computer laboratories, or office buildings using network as the medium. The explanatory features of LANs, in comparison to Wide Area Networks (WANs), comprise of their small geographical areas and non-inclusion of rented telecommunication wire lines.

Token Ring , ARCNET and the other technology criteria have been used in the previous times, but Ethernet above twisted pair cabling and Wi-Fi are the most corporate technologies presently used to build the LANs.

Primarily LAN cabling had been established on several ranks of coaxial wires. Shielded twisted combination was initially used in ‘IBM's Token Ring LAN execution’. StarLAN, in 1984, exhibited the prospective of simple unguarded twisted pair by making use of Cat3 cable—the same cable is used for the telephone wiring as well. This steered to the growth of 10Base-T and regulated cabling which is still the base of most marketable LANs today. Generally, a LAN network works through Gigabit Ethernet cabling to the switch (wired router), then the router linking is connected to the wireless router.

As cabling is not possible everywhere and every time, Wi-Fi has thus become very common nowadays, in residential grounds, and some other locations where support for smartphone and laptop is important.