4. LAN in the modern home

Home networks can be fairly sophisticated because there are now many devices other than computers that are able to connect to a local area network. The generic LAN is intended to 'share data' but at home that data can mostly be for entertainment rather than business use.

For example, the diagram below shows such a network.

In this well-wired home the heart of the LAN is the ADSL wireless router. The connection to the router in this example is mostly by wireless but some physical network cables are also used to connect the desktop and the media server. Powerline networks are also a popular way of connecting to the router, this uses the mains sockets and wiring as a network cable.

The wired connection is for high bandwidth (e.g. Gigabit 1000 Mb/s) use. The wireless link is slower (54Mb/s) but very convenient.

The router connects every device to the internet and each other.

People living in this house may use the devices as follows

• Desktop, used for day to day emails, document writing etc. It has a printer attached that can be used by any connected device wishing to use it.
• Laptop / Netbook, can be used in the same way as the desktop but its wireless connection and convenient size means you can use it anywhere in the house or even garden on a nice day.
• Smartphone. Contains various 'apps' or applications that may use the internet link for data feeds. Perhaps an app to download the latest listing from the local cinema or an app to get the latest news report from a web site.
• Tablet. Excellent for browsing the internet or playing single player puzzles and games
• e-reader. This device will download an entire book in a few seconds. It is very light so it is no problem to hold for a long time, the screen is especially designed to be easy to read for hours.
• Media server. Similar to a standard file server but is designed to handle music tracks, videos and movies. It can store the files locally or stream them directly from the internet. Other devices on the LAN have access to the music and video.
• Television. Many modern televisions are network enabled. This allows you to view videos directly from your favourite video internet site. Or it may get its feed from the house media server.
• Music streaming. This device has a built in amplifier to drive the speaker directly. The device can connect to any number of internet radio and music streaming companies, each offering a huge library of tracks which you can listen to.

The LAN in the home and the devices that connect to it means that the way we inform and entertain ourselves is rapidly changing