A Concise Overview of Local Area Networks

When someone wants to go in communicating and transferring files using the internet, the LANS (Local Area Networks) and MANS (Metropolitan Area Networks) get interconnected and provide a mean for communication. A local area network can be a setup of computers used for communicating in a small office or a business environment. The interconnectivity of systems associated with a LAN is completely different as compared to a WAN having no sort of direct interconnection what so ever. Within a LAN, all the computers get connected to a server and a router, while the server is responsible for all sort of communication with in a LAN. The router plays the role of communicating out of the LAN with MANS and WANS. There are several key points mentioned below that help distinguish between a LAN and a WAN. 1.The scope for which a LAN is used is relatively very small. These connections of LAN�S can be associated to a building or similar. While a WAN refers to a providing complete coverage if internet over a geographic area. 2.LAN�S can be owned by an organization attached to some devices for communicating with the external world. While for the case of WANS this isn�t true. A service provider, providing services of Internet and connectivity, mostly owns a WAN. 3.The data rates within a LAN are usually greater then a WAN. The data rate that a typical LAN is able to provide can be in the range of 1 to 20 Mbps. Efforts are being made to go on to increasing data rate with the use of adequate technology. As the demand for multimedia technologies are increasing within the current times, various devices for LANS have been developed for providing communication on data rates greater than 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps. google_ad_client = "pub-2311940475806896"; /* 300x250, created 1/6/11 */ google_ad_slot = "0098904308"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250;

access point vs router