In the late 1960’s as large college universities and several research labs gained an ever increasing amount of computers, the need for interconnections that worked at high-speed was great, and the pressure was on. It was not until the mid 1970’s that an answer to the demand was created, they called it LAN.
LAN stands for Local-Area Network, with the ability to cover small areas, such as a home or office or group of buildings (schools, warehouse, etc.), LANs have higher data-transfer rates, smaller range and do not require licensed telecommunication lines as opposed to WAN (Wide-Area Network). ARCNET and Token Ring were two LANs that were widely used in the past. Ethernet and Wi-Fi are two of today’s most common LANs.
A LAN is an important component to gamers. By setting up a LAN, gamers can link together their computers and play with or against their friends. Games, such as “Diablo II” and “S.O.C.O.M.”, allows gamers to cooperate together in a team while either on line or while their computers are connected by LAN.Games, such as “Unreal Tournament” and “Starcraft”, allow gamers connected by the internet or a LAN to work as a team or to compete against each other.computers are usually linked by what is known as a Cat-5 cable to a HUB; and the HUB acts like a mediator. The Cat-5 cable connects to the back of the computer through the Ethernet port on the Network card, network adapter, LAN adapter or NIC (Network Interface Card). A network card operates on both the physical layer and the data link layer; it allows a low-level addressing system, using Mac Addresses, also known as an IP address, and physical access to the networking medium (the HUB). Not all LANs are the same; some use cables while others are wireless.
While other network technology exists, since the mid 1990’s, the Ethernet network card has been leading the crowd, due to low cost and easy integration and use. A unique 48-bit serial number is on every Ethernet network card, stored in the ROM; the serial number is your computers Mac address. The Mac address for every computer must be unique; otherwise only one computer with a given Mac address could be on line and connected to the LAN at a time. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is responsible for each unique Mac address getting assigned to vendors of interface controllers; this is so no two network cards share the same Mac address.
At one point network cards were expansion cards that had to be plugged into the motherboard. Most new computers have the network card built into the motherboard; some may even have two ports built in so the computer can be connected to multiple networks. Some companies have started using optical fiber instead of Cat-5 cables or USB cords, because optical fiber is immune to electromagnetic interference. Optical fibers are made of glass or plastic, instead of metal, and carry light along their full length. The electrical signals sent along the optical fiber degrade less during transfer than signals sent along metal wires (Cat-5 cables and USB cords).
By: Victor Epand
Posts Tagged ‘Wide Area Network’
Discovering Your Local Area Network
January 9th, 2010What Is The Real Difference Between LAN And WAN Computer Network Infrastructures?
January 8th, 2010
Although a business shouldn’t be confused on what the differences are between Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) … too often those entrusted with finding a bandwidth solution for their business aren’t clear on these basic tenets of overall computer network infrastructure. If not completely understood it affects the quality and accuracy of the final decision. So … it’s important to get it right.
So …. in the interest of clarity here’s the real differences between LAN and WAN:
LAN – A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a local area, like a home, office, or group of buildings in close proximity to each other. Current LANs are most likely to be based on switched IEEE 802.3 Ethernet, or on Wi-Fi technology running at 10, 100 or 1,000 Mbit.
In general a local area network is made up of devices in local proximity to each other and has finite distance limitations. The LAN can be either wired or wireless but is only at a single location.
WAN – A wide area network or WAN is a computer network covering a broad geographical area. Contrast with personal area networks (PANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs) or local area networks (LANs) that are usually limited to a room, building or campus. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet.
A wide area network (WAN) is comprised of multiple LANs connected to each other across distances. And example would be a corporate office connected to each of its satellite offices. This method of interconnection is handled via a third-party carrier — i.e. Qwest provides the wiring connecting two locations together.
WANs are used to connect local area networks (LANs) together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private. Others, built by Internet service providers, provide connections from an organization’s LAN to the Internet. WANs are most often built using leased lines. At each end of the leased line, a router connects to the LAN on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other. Leased lines can be very expensive. Instead of using leased lines, WANs can also be built using less costly circuit switching or packet switching methods. Network protocols including TCP deliver transport and addressing functions. Protocols including Packet over SONET, MPLS, ATM and Frame relay are often used by service providers to deliver the links that are used in WANs. X.25 was an important early WAN protocol, and is often considered to be the “grandfather” of Frame Relay as many of the underlying protocols and functions of X.25 are still in use today (with upgrades) by Frame Relay.
For professional help in finding just the right LAN or WAN solution for your business applications …. use the no cost assistance available through DS3-Bandwidth.com.
By: Michael Lemm
Computer Network – Comprehensive View – Part 2
November 13th, 2009
Wireless networks located in multiple categories, depending on the size of the physical area that can be covered by network.
The following types of wireless network meet the needs of multiple users:
* Wireless personal – Area network (PAN).
* Wireless Local Area network (LAN).
* Wireless Metropolitan-Area network (MAN).
* Wireless Wide – Area network (MAN).
This is using the expansion all major cables for wired networks (such as LAN or WAN) used for years before it enters the wireless network.
Each type of wireless network has the advantages of complementary meet multiple requirements. The following paragraphs explore each type of wireless networks in a concise manner.
Wireless networks (PANS):
The area of wireless networks is a relatively short (up to 50 feet) and most of their effectiveness to meet the needs of a small room or in the cargo area. PANS networks is the performance of the average of data rate of up to (2MBPS). Imperatives followed these advantages for the replacement of cables in many cases.
PAN wireless network includes a person synchronize personal PDA with his laptop computer or personal computer. In a similar, PAN wireless network can provide radio communication to the printer. The advantage of the abolition of knots in the wire when using this type of computer is very useful, where the initial installation of the equipment is easy.
Wireless networks (LANS):
Networks wireless LANs provide high performance within and around office buildings and labs, and homes often have the users in these areas laptop computers, personal computers, PDA screens and processors to support large applications. LANS meet the requirements of communication for these types of computers effectively.
For example, in the work it can be installed the wireless LAN network to provide mobile access to the common applications of laptops. This type of system, the user can, while far from his office, take advantage of network services from the conference rooms and other rooms. That allows staff to be more effective while working away from their offices and more cooperative with each other.
Wireless networks LANS provide the performance levels enable applications to operate smoothly. For example, the wireless network LAN users can easily see e-mail attachments or a large scale video server of the invisible with data rate up to (54 MBPS). Wireless LAN network can meet only networks with the limits of web applications a house or office.
Wireless networks (MAN’S):
MAN’S wireless network includes areas with the size of cities.
Wireless Service Providers (WISPs) Provide wireless networks in cities and remote areas in order to provide homes and firms for wireless communications. Wireless networkings MAN provides the positive benefits and are appropriate when it is impractical to install a traditional wired communications such as (DSL and cable modem). Wireless networks WANS are effective when the right path for the cable systems have made it not possible or too expensive.
Wireless networks (WAN’S):
MAN networks known as mobile wireless applications cover a large area, such as state or continent. Because of the economic side, the operator is able to do remote deployment of the operational infrastructure of the wireless network MAN in order to provide relatively inexpensive long-distance communication for a lot of consumers. It is possible to distribute the costs of such a deployment across multiple users. It provides low fees -subscription.
By: Shrif S Kassem
