I&J Solutions offers a wide range of Networking Solutions and Support for Small to Medium sized businesses. We specalise in setting up wireless and ethernet sollutions.

Network Baiscs Explained:

Computer networks come in many different shapes and sizes. Over the years, the networking industry has coined terms like "LAN" and "WAN" attempting to define sensible categories for the major types of network designs. The precise meaning of this terminology remains lost on the average person, however.

LANs and WANs were the original flavors of network design. The concept of "area" made good sense at this time, because a key distinction between a LAN and a WAN involves the physical distance that the network spans. A third category, the MAN, also fit into this scheme as it too is centered on a distance-based concept.

As technology improved, new types of networks appeared on the scene. These, too, became known as various types of "area networks" for consistency's sake, although distance no longer proved a useful differentiator.

LAN Basics

A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs, and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings. In IP networking, one can conceive of a LAN as a single IP subnet (though this is not necessarily true in practice).

Besides operating in a limited space, LANs include several other distinctive features. LANs are typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also use certain specific connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring.

Wireless Networking:

Wireless networks utilize radio waves and/or microwaves to maintain communication channels between computers. Wireless networking is a more modern alternative to wired networking that relies on copper and/or fiber optic cabling between network devices.

A wireless network offers advantages and disadvantages compared to a wired network. Advantages of wireless include mobility and elimination of unsightly cables. Disadvantages of wireless include the potential for radio interference due to weather, other wireless devices, or obstructions like walls.

Wireless is rapidly gaining in popularity for both home and business networking. Wireless technology continues to improve, and the cost of wireless products continues to decrease. Popular wireless local area networking (WLAN) products conform to the 802.11 "Wi-Fi" standards.

WAN Basics

As the term implies, a wide-area network spans a large physical distance. A WAN like the Internet spans most of the world!

A WAN is a geographically-dispered collection of LANs. A network device called a router connects LANs to a WAN. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN address and a WAN address.

WANs differ from LANs in several important ways. Like the Internet, most WANs are not owned by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and management. WANs use technology like ATM, Frame Relay and X.25 for connectivity.

LANs and WANs at Home

Home networkers with cable modem or DSL service already have encountered LANs and WANs in practice, though they may not have noticed. A cable/DSL router like those in the Linksys family join the home LAN to the WAN link maintained by one's ISP. The ISP provides a WAN IP address used by the router, and all of the computers on the home network use private LAN addresses. On a home network, like many LANs, all computers can communicate directly with each other, but they must go through a central gateway location to reach devices outside of their local area