Local Area Network often referred to as LAN, is a relatively small network in comparison to the WAN network, which is substancially larger. LAN is used to cover modest areas like a room, an office, a campus, etc. LAN gives an employer the ability to share information between computers with a simple, rather inexpensive system of network cards and software. The access speed among the computers is lightning fast, and therefore LANs have been a major factor in the industrialization of computers. Typically LAN is used to connect computers with servers for data sharing purposes, while providing support for sharing hardware, such as printers and scanners. The most common type of LAN is client/server LAN. On a client/server network, every computer has a distinct roleof either a client or a server. A server is designed to share its resources among the client computers on the network, consequently the servers have a faster processor, higher amounts memory and storage compared to a client computer. For example, when checking your bank account from your computer, your computer as a client program forwards a request to a …show more content…
Lastly, data backups done over LAN can be centrally managed and scheduled, therefore increasing the reliability of the system.. On the other hand LAN is limited by the number of computers they can support and the distance to which they can transfer data. Furthermore, if a server develops a fault, users may not be able to run the application programs. In addition to the latter stated arguments, networks that have been enlarged, as a result of traffic increase, without conducting extensive studies can be inefficient in the long term