Local Area Network (LAN)

Local Area Network is a computer network which covers a small area. The are covered by Local Area Network (LAN) is limited to a college campus or an office building. It may contain a limited number of computers and other devices having an IP(Internet Protocol) address.

Ie: LAN is used to connect the computers in a small area.

That is ...


* In a college campus.

* Offices in a building.


The most important type of LAN is Ethernet.Ethernet is used
to connect personal computers.Another kind is apple Macintosh
network system. Most of these are based on Apple's AppleTalk
network system, which is built into Macintosh computers.

Node-

It is the individual computer present in the network.

Ring and Bus topology-
-----------------------

The arrangement of nodes ina network is known as topology.
We can connect computers to the LAN in two ways....

1. Ring topology

Here the computers are connected in circular shape. That is
the computers which are connected in the form of a ring.

2. Bus topology

Here nodes are connected to a straight line.


Medium of Transmission
-----------------------

They are

1. twisted-pair wire

2. coaxial cables

3. fiber optic cables

Wireless LAN is also present. Its communication media is
radio waves.

Related Topics

1. How to configure Automatic IP address from command prompt

2. How to check TCP/IP configuration of an interface from command prompt

3. An error occurred while sharing a folder over a Local Network

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