Lan where to connect?

Speaking of local area networks, or LANs, they are smaller networks, usually within an office base. LAN is used to connect computing resources, typically inside one building. The computing resources can be computers, printers, servers, IP phones, or routers. Connections between the workstations are physical, with cables, and all the office resources are shared and distributed between the network workstations. The most common type of LAN is that of Ethernet. This is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for LANs. You must first identify which services you need to provide locally on the LAN. Computers are connected to a switch with Ethernet cables. Each device has a unique IP address.

What You Need While Setting up LAN Network: Cable router, Crossover Ethernet cables, Ethernet cables, Ethernet switch, Network interfaces

Instructions to Set Up LAN Network

Create Network

1. Identify the local services that you want available on the network. Identify network-attached printers, network disk drives, any server that will share printers or disks.

2. Identify how many devices will have to connect to the network. Each device, server or workstation will require a unique address.

3. Run cables to workstations where possible. A wired LAN will always get better performance and be more secure than a wireless LAN. Wherever possible, run a cable to servers, printers, IP phones or work locations. Run a cable to any area where you are likely to work. Use standard Ethernet cables or building wiring as installed according to the TIA-568 standard.

4. Select and purchase a switch or cable router. The simple secure way to connect to the Internet is to use a cable router. Many makes and models are available. If the model you choose does not have enough ports to connect all of your computers, then you will need to purchase a switch as well.

5. Configure the WAN port of the cable router. Configuration details will vary from vendor to vendor. Key information you will need to configure the WAN port will be supplied by your internet service provider.

6. Configure the LAN ports of your cable router. Most cable routers will act as a Dynamic Host Configuration Server, or DHCP server. This means that the router will give addresses to workstations automatically. Be certain that the address pool has enough addresses for all of the workstations. Make certain that there are enough addresses outside of the range for any hosts that need static addresses. For example, a network address with a mask of 255.255.255.0 has a total of 254 hosts. If the dynamic pool has 200 addresses available, that means the remaining 54 addresses are available to give printers or servers static addresses.

7. Connect the wires for the network. Workstations and servers can be connected with standard Ethernet cables. Connect the switch to the cable router LAN ports by using the up-link or straight port on the switch. If the switch does not have an up-link port, connect any standard port of the switch to a LAN port on the cable router with an Ethernet crossover cable. Ethernet rossover cables can be purchased at any electronics store.

8. Test the services and Internet connectivity. Test each of the workstations to ensure they can connect to the Internet and test any local servers and printers. Print test pages on the shared printers. Tests read and write permissions on shared file servers by copying files to the servers and copying files from the server to a workstation. Tips & Warnings

Tips：What are the differences between LAN and WAN? Check this table.

More Resources:

What is a WAN in Networking? What Are the Features of WAN?

What is a LAN: Concept, Features, Topologies and Setting

Two Types of Networks: LANs and WANs

If you're looking for ways to maximise the potential of your home network, especially if you work from home or have multiple laptops or desktop computers in the household, you may want to consider setting up a LAN. But how would one go about such a thing, what equipment do you need and what even is a LAN anyway?

Have no fear, Cable.co.uk is here to talk you through the LAN basics, to tell you why you might want to build a LAN at home and to briefly explain how to go about doing that.

A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computers in the same physical location that are connected in a network. When we say the computers are in the same location, this can be the same room or building, such as a home or office, or a larger space such as an entire office block or school. There may be two or three computers connected to the network, or there may be hundreds or even thousands – as long as they are located within the same limited physical location, it's still a LAN.

It's this definition that sets LANs apart from Wide Area Networks (WANs) and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). WANs and MANs (and you may see the term Campus Area Network or CANs used) are essentially multiple LANs connected together over a larger area, such as a city or a university campus.

There are two types of Local Area Network – client/server LANs and peer-to-peer LANs. A client or server LAN consists of a number of computers connected to a central server. All network devices like printers or hard disks are managed via the server. Each computer connects to the server via either an ethernet cable or a wireless signal. The presence of a central server means client LANs are capable of handling heavy workloads.

Peer-to-peer LANs do not have a central server, instead each computer in the network shares in the running of the network itself. The computers are all connected to the internet via the same router – this is how the majority of household LANs are set up.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to build a LAN at home, which we'll get into now. The advantages are pretty much the same as they are in business, where LANs are used all the time.

The first thing to do is to make sure you have all the equipment you're going to need. To kick things off, you'll at least need a computer, a router or network switch and an ethernet cable. You'll need an additional ethernet cable for every extra device you want to connect to the network, unless you choose to connect a device wirelessly.

Next, it's time to connect the first computer to your router or network switch. This is pretty simple to do, just navigate to the network settings on your PC/Mac/laptop and choose the option to set up a new connection or network. Connecting additional computers to your LAN is simple – just plug one end of an ethernet cable into the computer and the other end into your router or network switch.

For devices such as smartphones, tablets and streaming sticks, you're going to want to connect these wirelessly. For this to work you'll need to make sure WiFi is enabled on your network switch or router (the manual for each should explain how to do this, you may also find our guide to router settings helpful). Of course, your router will also need to be connected to the internet. If you're setting up a new router, your broadband provider will explain how to do this.

On each device, enable WiFi and connect to your home network. Some devices connect to each other, becoming a LAN, simply by connecting to the same WiFi network. These include the Chromecast and certain Apple devices.

To add printers and other external hardware, use the network settings menu on your computer and follow the set-up wizard. To enable easy file sharing, on a Windows PC you'll need to create a Homegroup – this can be found in the 'network and internet' settings. On a Mac, you'll need to enable file sharing. You can do this by going to system preferences then sharing preferences.

A wide area network (WAN) is a series of LANs linked together to form a network in an extended area. WANs are typically operated by telecommunications companies or businesses that need a network comprising multiple remote locations. The internet itself is a WAN.

Fiber optic cable is the preferred transmission medium for WANs because fiber optic can transmit large amounts of data at high speeds. As is the case with the internet, a WAN can also include metropolitan area networks (MANs).

A LAN server, or file server, is a specialized, high-speed computer that houses the application programs and files for computers on a network. A network administrator grants user access to apps and files on a LAN server. LAN users can download apps and files to access them directly from the hard drive of their device.

Today, asking whether you should use a LAN Ethernet connection or a Wi-Fi connection is like asking whether you want consistency or convenience. Gigabit Ethernet is capable of consistently transmitting data at speeds of 1000 Mbps and Fast Ethernet can handle 100 Mbps. In comparison, the newest Wi-Fi standards operate as follows:

The latter two standards are a great deal faster than Gigabit Ethernet, but Lifewire’s Bradley Mitchell contends that these theoretical Wi-Fi speeds do not match up with the actual speeds you’ll experience. Still, WLANs allow you to move around conveniently with laptops and smartphones in the area. You won’t experience the consistent speed of Ethernet, but you will get fairly high speeds and convenience with today’s technology.

To build a LAN or WLAN, you need the following:

Setting up a LAN, WLAN or WAN can be very complex depending on the size of the organization. Preparing for and earning an IT certification like CompTIA Network+ will prove to employers you have the skills needed to administer computer networks.

Routers come in both wired and wireless versions. The wired versions have varying numbers of jacks, the wireless ones have one jack for the cable to the modem, an antenna for the wireless network, and usually a few jacks for running wires to computers in the same room.

For some perverse reason, wireless routers are usually cheaper than wired, even though the wireless ones include everything the wired ones do plus the wireless radio. So get a wireless router. If you need more jacks than your router has, also get a cheap switch; run a cable from one of its jacks to one of the jacks on your router and it’ll all be one big happy network.

If you have DSL service from the phone company, they will invariably provide the modem at no extra charge because it has to match whatever DSL equipment they use at their end. Cable modems, on the other hand, are totally standardized using a spec called DOCSIS. The only question is whether to get DOCSIS version 2 or 3, with the answer being 3 because it’s faster.

If you get your own router, setting it up is the same as if you got one from your provider. If you buy your own cable modem, the cable company needs to know its MAC address, a 12 character identifier that’s printed on a sticker on the modem. If you buy a modem before you get your service installed, the installer will plug in the modem and call in the MAC address.

Connect a LAN cable to the port at the back of the desktop computer. If there is no LAN port on the side of the laptop computer, use a LAN adapter to connect.