Windows 8 Bible

What Is a LAN?

A local area network (sometimes referred to as a LAN, a workgroup, a private network, or just a network) is a small group of computers within a relatively small geographic area such as a campus, single building, or household that can communicate with one another and share resources. A resource is anything useful to the computer. For example:

• All computers in the LAN can use a single printer.
• All computers in the LAN can connect to the Internet through a single Internet connection and Internet account.
• All computers in the LAN can access shared files and folders on any other computer in the LAN.

In addition, you can move and copy files and folders among computers using exactly the same techniques you use to move and copy files among folders on a single computer. However, it’s not entirely necessary to move or copy a document that you want to work on, because if a document is in a shared folder, you can open and edit it from any computer in the network. This is good because you have only one copy of the document, and you don’t have to worry about having multiple, slightly different copies of the same document all over the place to confuse matters.