A Network is simply the infrastructure that connects a number of electronic devices so that data can be transferred between them. By devices I could mean computers (PC's, Apple Mac's, PDA's) or printers, scanners, modems, etc.
In this page I will refer mainly to computers instead of devices. Oh and by the way, I'm primarily a PC man so when I say computer I'm usually thinking of a PC. Please ask in the forum if you have another system and are not sure about something!
Networks can take many different physical forms. The main categories of networks in order of distance are:
PAN Personal Area Network Used to connect wireless devices carried by a person (e.g. PDA, mobile, etc.). Bluetooth technology is currently the prime contender for this LAN Local Area Network Used to connect computers in a building wLAN Wireless Local Area Network Used to connect computers within a 100m (300ft) range without wires MAN Metropolitan Area Network Used to connect computers in a town/city WAN Wide Area Network Used to connect computers whatever their locationIf you are more interested in this, try looking up network topologies and technical terms in Webopedia and WhatIs and current and emerging standards in WWW Consortium.
First of all - do you need a LAN? Well that depends on what you want to do...
A LAN will allow you to:
NOTE: The LAN can be set up so that areas of a persons hard disk, and various peripherals are NOT accessible by others on the network. This is discussed in the other sections of this website