Chapter 6

So what is a LAN?

Hmmm... used to know it. Oh, that's right it's a Local Area Network.

A LAN is a small network of computers connected together.  LANs are very useful in home, offices, and campuses.  On a small home or office set up, the computers can all share a single printer/fax machine. On a little larger scale, the computers can be connected to a server. This server is the brains of the operation. It can be configured to have the operating system software and other applications on it to be used by the other computers, called clients. This is know as a client/server set up.

Moving up to a much larger scale network is a WAN, or wide area network. The most common WAN is the internet. WANs can be several LANs connected together, or a WAN can spread across the country or the world.

The infrastructure of the internet is rather complex. For example, just to download a simple page from a web page the file needs to download and load into your browser, and then download to your computer. All of the happens in a matter of seconds. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has to have the hardware and software in place to make this all happen.

The Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the standard for internet communication. This makes it possible for one computer to "talk" to another computer. This possbility is expanded to include virtual meetings and conference calls.

The internet and the web are great things. However, like all great things in life, there is always a negative. Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses can be devastating to people and businesses. A virus is a small computer program hidden inside an email used to infect other program files on a computer. A worm is a virus that can replicate or recreate itself and travel from computer to computer. A Trojan horse is program that appears very innocent until later you find out that it has done damage to your computer, by stealing information and passwords. However, there is help online at websites such as Norton - see screen print below.

GoAnimate.com: Network basics by yyz118_4

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!