LANs vs. WLANs: Which network designs are used for each company size?

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT LANs (Local Area Networks) Q&A: Jim Metzler previews the networking track at Interop Extreme's port extender can replace consumer devices at network edge VLANs versus IP subnets: Why use a VLAN over IP subnetting? Troubleshooting VLANs: How to monitor 802.1q tagged traffic Top 10 networking advice of 2008 During a recession, align the network with business priorities Best practices for securing your wireless LAN HTTP error code troubleshooting, Part 1: HTTP status codes defined How do I set up multiple VLANs on a single switch? How can I use VLANs and NAT to get around the need for a static IP address? Network Design New skills emerge for network engineering and administration careers Cloud computing networks: Preparing for the future Power and cooling considerations for data center network design How do you calculate ROI costs for an IPv6 implementation/migration? Difference between circuit-switching and packet-switching in examples Turning around a bad network: What to do when you inherit one Cisco expands Nexus data center switch line with eye on virtualization Saving money with used network hardware: Tricky but doable Can building T3 lines using satellite be cheaper than a carriers'? During a recession, align the network with business priorities Network Design Research Network administration How server virtualization improves efficiency in a client-server model Why would a computer show drive letters for discs that don't exist? Formula for proper bandwidth utilization on a T1 line Open source software for enterprise network management and monitoring When do applications suffer from poor network performance? Network configuration flaws block server access and wireless printing Bandwidth allocation: How can I give a download limit for each user? Why error reporting ICMP messages include IP headers and datagram data Network bandwidth calculators: What will be my WAN's link speed? What VLAN management software supports multiple vendor platforms?

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary 32-bit IP addressing  (SearchNetworking.com) ARCNET  (SearchNetworking.com) master  (SearchNetworking.com) master/slave  (SearchNetworking.com) subnet  (SearchNetworking.com) subnet mask  (SearchNetworking.com) system administrator  (SearchNetworking.com) Technical Office Protocol  (SearchNetworking.com) Telnet  (SearchNetworking.com) virtual systems management  (SearchNetworking.com)

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

I do consider that a Local Area Networks (LAN) is the best choice for small areas. There are several considerations that I would make to assess this decision, but LANs are in fact designed for small areas. With this question, I assume there's a little bit more to the question. Typically when asked, there's some confusion about wireless versus wired LAN environments. So I'm going to go with a massive assumption that is what you're inferring.

In today's ubiquity of technical availability, LAN's provide the users quick, efficient access to local resources and a route to the Internet that is also quite simple to set up and maintain by IT staff. There are several pros and cons to my choices for wired versus wireless technologies used to implement the LAN.

My personal preference is wireless technologies as I am absolutely abysmal at running and cabling. I could frighten you with stories of my feeble attempts to get all of my cabling done correctly. I'd get the patterns correct but the ends would never line up. And if you're as OCD as I am, this would be a massive problem. While this personal story is a little humorous, it brings up a valid point to implementing a wired LAN environment. In wired environments, the equipment is easy and cheap but requires cables to be run and switches to be configured. NICs on servers and workstations need administration as well as DHCP scopes. The overhead to managing and wiring things tends to be a little more difficult than setting up a wireless network.

Setting up and maintaining wireless networks is a little easier. You don't have to match pretty little blue and white striped wires to plastic ends. With wireless networks, the initial setup is much simpler, but be sure to set up the SSID's and security properly. Troubleshooting wireless networks tends to be the hardest thing to do in that signaling might be weak and disconnections may run rampant. A vast array of new features in the wireless access points (WAPs) and administration of these devices has made provisioning WAP's a breeze. There are some new additional tools on the market that provide great visibility into troubleshooting. It also simplifies the administration of trying to find cables in conference rooms and roam around with laptops, providing a mobile workspace. And did I mention you don't have to run cables? Wireless LAN (WLAN)technologies are where I would invest in my infrastructure for end-users. I would implement wired technologies for servers.

So yes, LANs are designed for small areas. WLANs are ideal for end-users while wired LANs are suggested for server connectivity.