I'm going to start this section by asking you to complete an activity. The reason for this is that I feel that if you can understand how your home network is connected, you will understand the concepts we will discuss here better.
Activity 1: Sketch out your home network. Don't worry about artistic quality; this is not the aim here. Draw any device you have on your network and how they connect together. If they are wired together, draw a solid line between the devices; if they are wireless, draw a lightning bolt between them.
Congratulations! You have just drawn out a LAN. My home network is as follows:
So, what is a LAN? A LAN can be described as something that covers a small geographical area that's small enough that the devices can be classed as being local to each other. When you sketched your home network, all...
