Local area network (LAN)

What is Local area network?

The local area network is an interconnection of small devices covering shorter distances or areas. it’s utilized in home offices or schools to share common resources like printers, internet, memory, etc. Moreover, it’s used for chatting between PC users using LAN based applications. The technology through which computer devices, mobile phones, and printers connect through each other and have the capability to transfer data among them known as a network. The networking is of two types. wired networking and wireless networking

How Local Area Network works:

In basic LAN (Local Space Network), computers are connected by local area network cables mistreatment router or hub. There are 2 basic forms of LAN viz. wired LAN and Wireless LAN. Wired LAN uses 100BASE-T and 1000BASE-T standards. Wireless LAN uses frequency for transmission and covers larger distances on the far sidewalls and floors and uses IEEE 802.11 standards for implementation. supported distance lined, the laptop networks are divided into 3 main elements viz. LAN, MAN, and WAN. Among these sorts, LAN has the lowest coverage up to a pair of miles(or 2500 meters) and knowledge rates (10/100/1000 Mbps) LAN are usually fashioned mistreatment simply 2 computers connected along with mistreatment network card or multiple computers connected mistreatment Hub/Router. There might even be an electronic computer on the LAN used for the sharing of files and folders among LAN users.

User-end devices: The laptops, desktop PC’s, smartphones, Mac, printers, servers, these are all the user-end types of equipment in LAN. These devices can be connected through cables knowns as ethernet cables or can be connected through without wires known as the wireless access point (WAP).

How to setup LAN:

To set up a LAN, we need different components.

Hubs: The communication devices used to communicate from one end to another end during ethernet implementation known as hubs.

Switches: Switches are also used for communication but they are better and cheap as compared to hubs.

Cables: The maximum often used sort of cable used to connect a LAN is four twisted-pair unshielded cables, frequently called Ethernet cable. Twisted pair cables designed for Ethernet use are rated for the speeds they are able to afford to assist over the most supported distance. Other than studying the writing at the jacket it could be difficult to recognize what sort of twisted-pair cable you’re dealing with. And till you get to CAT-five it isn’t always usually dependable to anticipate beneficial writing at the jacket.

CAT-3: CAT-3 can only provide 10Mbps as ethernet and even it is not effective at this speed. It is not used as an ethernet cable. It is only used for telephone and other types of cabling.

CAT-4: CAT-4 can only provide speed up to 100mbps ethernet but is not reliable because it doesn’t show good performance on long distance. In fact, CAT-4 shows good performance on long-distance as compared to CAT-3 on telephones. Because crosstalk between the pair create a problem using CAT-3

CAT-5: CAT-5 can provide speed up to 100 Mbps. It works very well on a short distance and provides speed up to 1000 Mbps

CAT-5e: CAT-5e can provide speed up to 1000 Mbps. It works very well on a long distance and provides speed up to 100 Mbps.CAT-5e is better than CAT-5.

CAT-6: CAT-6 is one of the best to provide 1000 Mbps on long distances.

If we compare the price mostly CAT5 is equal to CAT-5e in the market nowadays. Both have the same price in the market. However, CAT-6 is 10% more expensive than CAT-5e.

CAT-6 is a large wire and has an advantage when it is used with high power over Ethernet, then the probability of loss of power in the cable is very small.

Setup of LAN:

Connect a computer and switch using the ethernet cable. Insert the cable on the ethernet port/Rj45 port on the switch. The ethernet port/RJ45 port is also available on the backside of the computer. Insert the other end of the cable on this back port of the computer. Connect all computers with the switch using the cable. And insert both ends of the cable on the ethernet port/Rj45 port of the computer and switch. After setting up the connection between switch and computers, it is necessary to assign an IP address to the computer to communicate.

The following steps are required to assign an Ip address.

Enter run + r on desktop
Enter the command on run ncpa.pl
Right-click on ethernet icon and select properties
Select internet protocol version 4
Select the manually IP address option
Enter the IP address
Click on the subnet mask, it automatically detects the subnet mask of the entered IP address
Then press ok and close

If you don’t know the IP address then follow the following commands.

Enter run + r on desktop
Enter cmd on the run
A terminal will open. Enter ipconfig or ipconfig/all on the terminal.

After following all these steps your LAN setup is successfully done.

Advantages of local area network:

Hardware resources sharing: With the implementation of LAN, we can share the resources of storage devices, compact disc drive (CD), scanners, modem, digital video disc (DVD), and printers. So there is no need to purchase for every computer separately. It is also a low-cost method.

Data Security: It is very secure to store data on the server. If you want to add, update, or delete data, you can easily do it on the server. And all other users automatically get updated data.you can also set access to limited users, so they can access data on the server.

Fast transfer: The data transfer in LAN is fast.

Software sharing: It is very easy to share software applications instead of buying licensed software for each computer separately.

LAN limitations:

In a client-server architecture (LAN), during which memory device is legitimately related to the server. If the memory device seems to be full and that we need to install another memory device to the server. this is often the first inadequacy during a client-server architecture. In this way, for this situation, we’d like to expel the past stockpiling storage and wish to introduce another one. This is a time taking and expensive technique. Because the past stockpiling storage is squandered Now.