networks- section 2

Question 1

What does LAN stand for?

Answer 1

local area network

Question 2

What is a LAN?

Answer 2

A local area network that covers a small geographical area located on a single site.
All the hardware for a LAN is owned by the organisation that uses it
LANs are either wired or wireless

Question 3

Where are common places you will find a LAN?

Answer 3

Businesses, schools and universities

Lots of homes have a LAN to connect to various devices such as PCs, tablets, smart tvs and printers

Question 4

What are the advantages and why should you use a LAN?

Answer 4

• Sharing files is easier- network users can access the same files, work collaboratively on them and copy files between machines.
• You can share the same hardware like printers
• The internet connection can be shared between every device connected to the LAN.
• You can install and update software on all computers at once, rather than one by one.
• instant messaging
• User accounts can be stored centrally, so users can log in from any device on the network.

Question 5

What does WAN stand for?

Answer 5

Wide area network

Question 6

What is a WAN?

Answer 6

A wide area network, A WAN connects LANs that are in different geographical locations. For example a business with offices in three different countries would need a WAN for all their devices to connect together.
Unlike a LAN, organisations hire infrastructure(e.g communication lines) from telecommunications companies who own and manage the WAN. This is because a WAN is much more expensive to set up than a LAN.
WANs may be connected using fibre or copper telephone lines, satellite links or radio links.
The internet is the biggest WAN

Question 7

What is bandwidth?

Answer 7

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred in a given time e.g 500Mbps. The greater the bandwith, the better the network can perform.
Mbps stands for megabits per second.
Available bandwidth is shared between users of a network- too many users or heavy use may cause congestion and slow the network.
You can limit the bandwidth available to individual users to address this.

Question 8

What other factors apart from bandwidth affect the performance of networks?

Answer 8

Wired connections are generally faster and more reliable than wireless. Fibre optic cables can give much better performance than copper cables. Wireless performance depends on signal quality so if affected by the range of the device, the amount of interference from other devices and physical obstructions like thick walls in buildings.
Choice of hardware other than cables and network topology also have a big effect.