Wireless and Mobile Revolution

LAN Technologies -- Question One The author of this exam is asked to answer to the purpose and value of LAN technologies. Of course, LAN is short for local area networks. They do indeed serve a good purpose and this will be explained in the following section. While LAN's are not all there is to networking, it is surely a big piece of the puzzle (Webopedia, 2015). As noted before, a LAN is short for Local Area Network and it is basically the most localized and smallest form of network.

Technically, two computers and a printer on a hub is a network. Local Area Networks are usually at least somewhat bigger than that but they are almost always fairly localized in nature. They will almost always be enclosed in a single room, area of a floor, floor of a building or a wider building. Even very small networks can be fairly complex. The network devices that direct traffic can be the computer themselves, it can be a hub or it can it be a router or switch (Webopedia, 2015).

The size and scope of a local area network is limited by some constraints and by the technology used. For example, if there is a wireless router involved, the range of the router only goes so far. However, the devices and cables necessary to form a LAN are not hard to find or put together once there is a little know-how and needs verification present in the situation.

Many of the LAN's that exist today are present in the living rooms and dens of regular family hones as many homes have more than one device that needs networking capabilities (Webopedia, 2015). Wireless/Mobile Technology -- Question Two Wireless and mobile technology has been very much the revolution and game-changer that the World Wide Web was in the 1990's.

Indeed, the mobile and wireless technologies of today use the World Wide Web but also the newer constructs of social media, upgraded and more secure wireless protocols and the blending between traditional computers and wireless phones/tablets on a scale that was not previously possible with the prior technology that existed. While there are many upsides to the wireless and mobile revolution, there are most definitely some downsides as well. As noted above, there are many upsides to the mobile revolution.

People that wish to get work done no longer have to be tethered to big desktop computers. The second upside is that the devices that exist are varied including laptops, tablets, cell phones/smart phones and so forth. A third upside is that much of the communication is wireless and it is usually secure to send data from one device or point to another. However, there are some definite downsides as well. First of all, not all wireless networks and protocols are secure. Some older wireless protocols (e.g.

WEP) are not.