LAN
LAN – Local Area Network, a computer network within a specific area, e.g. your household, office, etc. A major benefit of LAN is its affordability at high speeds (up to dozens of Gb/s). It is used for sharing various data in the specified area. Printers, scanners and similar devices often also connect to this network. The network consists of passive and active elements. Active elements require power and include devices such as switches, routers, network interface controllers etc. Passive elements do not require power and are used to interconnect the individual communication components in the network (structured cabling, fibre optics, coaxial cables).
- 10/100 Mbit: Indicates connection speed. Real speed reaches up to 12.5 MB/s
- 1000 Mbit: Indicates connection speed. Real speed reaches up to 125 MB/s
- 2.5 Gbit: Indicates connection speed. Real speed reaches up to 312.5 MB/s
- 5 Gbit: Indicates connection speed. Real speed reaches up to 625 MB/s
- 10 Gbit: Indicates connection speed. Real speed reaches up to 1250 MB/s
- Asix/DisplayLink/Realtek – Manufacturers of network interface controller chips.
- PXE – technology of booting up a PC using data retrieved from a computer network.
- WOL – technology allowing a computer to be turned on through a computer network.
- MAC address – a unique identifier of a network interface controller. A MAC address is assigned to network interface controllers during production and is recorded as a group of six two-digit hexadecimal numbers (e.g.: 01:23:45:67:89:ab). Access to a network may be limited only to specific MAC addresses.
- MAC Cloning – Allows copying an existing MAC address or entering a MAC address of choice. Often used to access specific networks.