Local Area Networks - Computer Networking

Local Area Networks also called Lans have been a major player in industrialization of computers. In the past 20 or so years the worlds industry has be invaded with new computer technology. It has made such an impact on the way we do enterprise that it has come to be vital with an ever-growing need for improvement. Lans give an manager the ability to share facts between computers with a straightforward relatively reasonable ideas of network cards and software. It also lets the user or users share hardware such as Printers and scanners. The speed of access between the computers is lighting fast because the data has a short distance to cover. In most cases a Lan only occupies one or a group of buildings placed next to each other. For larger area need there are some other types of networks such as the Internet.

Local Area Networks - Computer Networking

Lans systems can be defined and associated in many different ways. This is the reason for the standardization for every one can have a base ground to start from. "The Lans described Herein are powerful from other types of data networks in that they are optimized for a moderate size geographic area such as a single office building, warehouse, or a campus. The Ieee 802 Lan is a shared medium peer-to-peer communications network that broadcasts facts for all stations to receive. As a consequence, it does not inherently contribute privacy. The Lan enables stations to chronicle directly using a base corporeal medium on a point-to-point basis without any intermediate switching node being required. There is always need for an access sublayer in order to arbitrate to access to the shared medium. The network is generally owned, used, and operated by a single organization. This is in inequity to Wide Area Networks (Wans) that interconnect transportation facilities in different parts of a country or are used as a social utility. These Lans are also different from networks, such as backplane buses, that are optimized for the interconnection of devices on a desk top or components within a single piece of equipment."(Ieee 802 thorough 1990) That is the thorough definition for Lans by produce of Electrical and Electronics Engineer committee 802. They are the committee used to set the thorough in workmanship and operations for technicians that set-up and accomplish maintenance on Lans systems. And straight through all the technical words what they are trying to say is a Lan is a small area network that distributes facts among computer in a small work environment unlike Wans that distribute facts across global areas. "It is ordinarily the case that Lan is owned by the same organization that owns the attached devices. For Wans, this is less often the case, or at least a vital fraction of the network assets are not owned. This has two implications. First, care must be taken in the selection of Lan, since there may be mountainous capital speculation (compared to dial-up or leased charges for wide-area networks) for both purchase and maintenance. Second, the network management accountability for a local network falls solely on the user". (Local and metropolitan area networks 1997).

The demand now is you have a thorough and you have a relationship now how do you carry on the ideas to run flawlessly?" Networks use protocols, or rules, to replacement facts though a single shared connection. These protocols forestall collisions of data caused by simultaneous transmission between two or more computers. Computers on most Lans use protocols known as Ethernet or Token Ring. An Ethernet-linked computer checks if a shared relationship is used. If not, the computer transmits data. Since computer can sense an idle relationship and send data at the same time, transmitting computers continue to monitor their shared relationship and stop transmitting if a collision occurs. Token Ring protocols pass a extra message called a token straight through the network. A computer that receives the token is given permission to send a packet of facts or, if the computer has no packet to send, it passed the token to the next computer."(Local Area Network Microsoft 2000) I know that it is involved to understand, but for the actual user the software takes care of most all of the management for you.

There are seven things that a Lans can do that you cannot with ease do with non-networked stand-alone systems. First sharing files " A Lan enables many user to share a single copy of a file stored on a central file server computer."(Introduction to Networking 1992) Transferring files "A Lan enables you to copy files from machine to machine without having to replacement floppy disks."(Understanding Data Communications 1993) access facts and files "A Lan enables whatever to run the accounting software, for example, or other application software from any of the workstations"(Introduction to Networking 1992) Share applications "A Lan enables two habitancy to use the same copy of the Microsoft Word word processing program simultaneously"(Introduction to Networking 1992) Simultaneously key data into an application. Printer sharing and electronic mail with in the system.

In conclusion the Lan has come to be vital in the modern work environment. The ever-growing need for advancement has come to be a very profitable industry in its self and it will continue to grow for a long time to come. For now we are barely skimming the possibilities and uses for this new networking technology.

Local Area Networks - Computer Networking