What is a Local Area Network (LAN)?

A local area network (LAN) connects computers and other technical devices typically within a small area such as an office building or a house. The connections are made with ethernet cables or via WiFi. Devices that are on the local area network (LAN) may include desktop computers, printers, servers, storage devices, cameras, and more.

Primary benefits of having a local area network are security, resource sharing and data access. For example, if a printer is on the local area network (LAN), multiple people can print to it, eliminating the need for each person to have their own printer. Additionally, LANs enable file sharing and access to locally hosted applications. A user could log into any networked workstation and access files that are on a networked server.

Larger networks, such as those that connect multiple local area networks together, are called wide area networks (WANs). It's common to see WANs in large corporations with offices in multiple cities. Each office will have their own local area network (LAN) joined by a WAN.


How NICE is Redefining Customer Experience

NICE CXone is the industry’s only interaction-centric platform where channels, data, applications, and knowledge converge to improve customer experience at scale.

It is the leading, most complete and unified CX Platform on the market, used by thousands of organizations of all sizes around the world to help them consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences. CXone is a cloud native, unified suite of applications designed to help you holistically run your call (or contact) center operations.


Back to Glossary

Contact us

If you would like to know more about our platform or just have additional questions about our products or services, please submit the contact form. For general questions or customer support please visit our Contact us page.