Lan Computer Accessories

When personal computers were first introduced they were meant to be used separately, without connections to other computers. Later developers realized that in office buildings it’s more advantageous to connect all computers to a huge network in order to share databases, printers, scanners and other accessories. The concept of LAN (local area network) was born. At first it was rather primitive, all computers were connected to a single cable (backbone) that passed by each computer and had terminators on each end. The obvious problem with this network structure was bandwidth sharing. All computers connected to the network received a small part of 10MBPS, the total speed of the network.

Do the math, 10MBPS / 8 = 1.2Megabytes/s, so if there were 100 computers in a single network each received a maximum of 12KB/s bandwidth (in practice it was usually much less). For a while it was enough, because computers didn’t have to handle pictures, audio or video clips yet, but today a 12KB/s network speed is absolutely unacceptable. Even Dial-Up modems exceed this speed. There was one more problem with these networks, they were very hard to maintain, because if the main (single) cable broke the whole network stopped functioning. The same thing happened if a network card burned out, so in general it was very impractical.

Salvation came with the invention of network HUBs. It was a new concept that changed networking forever. Still used today, HUBs (or network switches) connect computers in a star form, meaning that all hubs are connected, but one computer is connected to only one hub, making maintenance a piece of cake. If one HUB or computer failed, the rest of the network wasn’t affected.

In the picture you see a single network cell, but usually many of these network structures are connected with one or even more cables if necessary. HUBs are usually connected in a ring, meaning that each hub is connected to two. This way if a line fails the signal goes the other way around and the network’s activity isn’t interrupted at all.

Imagine HUBs instead of computers. That’s how smaller network cells are connected in ring mode. Besides the extra dependability, the network also receives extra bandwidth with the additional cables connecting hubs together. LAN computer accessories are products that can be used by a larger number of people on a network. They are too expensive to purchase for every computer or it simply doesn’t make sense to have more than a few in a large office building.

In the struggle during the financial crisis, security cams (aka IP CAMs) became very popular in places where supervisors can’t easily see the activities of all employees. Using LAN as video (and/or audio) signal carrier, it’s extremely easy to install a security camera anywhere within 100m of the nearest network hub in the building. They just need a camera support mounted on the wall, an UTP cable and an external power supply plugged into an AC outlet.

The latest IP CAMs come with Wi-Fi support (too) so installation is much easier, but using Wi-Fi also leaves the wired network with fewer privacy issues and with the full bandwidth for office work instead of spying.

LAN computer accessories also come monitor form. Some are designed to monitor network traffic, while others serve as independent workstations while sharing the same computer system connected somewhere to the network.

LG and other manufacturers too came up with this concept when they realized that a lot of power is going to waste when in a school many computers stay in idle. This technology allows 11 monitors to be connected to the same desktop, so only 100-300Watts of power are used instead of 11 x 100-300Watts, while the processing power of any Dual Core desktop is more than enough for 11 people to browse the web, work in MS Office or write programs in any programming language.

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