What Is A Lan?

LAN is an acronym for Local Area Network.  This is a network of two or more computers connected directly to each other by a simple cable.  Two such computers can, through operator choice, share files.

If you are running computers with Windows operating systems, you may have noticed that you have what are called "Shared Documents".  This is a default setup that allows computers in a LAN to automatically share the contents of the "Shared Documents" folders.

The drives of a given computer can be made to be visible on all computers in a LAN.  Under the "Properties" of a given drive, one can enable a drive to be shared (this works best when a drive is partitioned, and one wishes only to share certain items on a given drive, rather than the entire root drive of the host computer).

A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and associated devices that share a common communications line or wireless link and typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area (for example, within an office building).