At home or in the office you have devices that can talk to each other: the computer prints to the printer, the phone checks the cameras. A LAN is what connects them all.

What a LAN is

A LAN (Local Area Network) is a network over a small area, for example within a single household, office or building. It connects devices that are close together so they can communicate and share the internet, files or a printer. You will find the basic terms around addresses in network basics.

LAN versus WAN

While a LAN is your local network, a WAN (Wide Area Network) is a large network that connects distant places. The best known WAN is the internet itself. Put simply: the LAN is what you have at home behind the router, the WAN is the world beyond it.

What a LAN is made of

At its heart is usually a router and a switch, which connect the devices by cable or over Wi-Fi. Whether it pays to run a cable or Wi-Fi is enough we cover in a network in the home.

Wired and wireless LAN

A LAN can be wired (ethernet) or wireless (Wi-Fi, sometimes called WLAN). Most households use a combination: important devices on a cable, mobile ones over Wi-Fi.

Why a LAN matters

A well designed LAN is fast, stable and secure. In a company the operational and guest parts are also separated, so a stranger cannot see into company data. When the LAN goes down, it is not one computer that stops, but the whole operation.

Summary

A LAN is your local network that connects devices in one place. The internet (WAN) is what you attach to it. A lot of “slow internet” problems are in fact solved in a well built LAN.

If a well-built network is what your home or business is missing, we are happy to design and build it.

Want a fast and stable LAN at home or work?

We will design and build a local network that is stable, fast and securely separated where it needs to be. For homes and businesses in the Liptov region.

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This article is part of our Computer networks overview.