how to set up a lan network

 

Development of LANs

 

In the 1960s, computers that were mostly used were mainframes, and only a few organizations could afford them because of their high cost. The concept of time sharing was popular during this period. It was common practice to use a stupid terminal on a mainframe using a telephone line and lease or share computer time. The biggest problem was the slowness of the computer process.

 

With the advent of minicomputers in the 1970s, they found a solution to this problem. It could accommodate more terminals and more and more people could afford mini computers. The expansion of the minis led to the need for communication between them to share the data stored in them.

how to set up a lan network

Computer resources in organizations have increased with the advent of microprocessors and advances in integrated circuit technology. (Halsall, 1988). It soon became common to find many products from different manufacturers that are physically located in the same building. Although they could act as autonomous computers, it was often necessary to establish mutual communication. As microcomputers became more powerful and less expensive, they were used by more people who had their own databases and exchanged data. The provided communication device is called a private local data network. Therefore, it is clear that only with the advent of microcomputers was the implementation of LAN possible and necessary. (Schatt, 1987).

 

LAN components

 

Each LAN workstation, which can be a microcomputer, a barcode reader or a text editor, can act as a standalone equipment, but is connected to a central control unit through which they can communicate (exchange data, share software or hardware) with other workstations in network. Although each workstation can operate independently, it cannot control the activities of other stations on the network. To avoid data corruption or collisions during communication, several techniques are used to control data transfer, such as Career Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection (CSMA / CD) and Career Sense Multiple Access / Collision Invention. Further information on these techniques will not be given here as they do not fall within the scope of this paper. Figure 1 shows the basic components of a LAN (Collier, 1988).