A Lan or Local Area Network

A LAN or local area network is when home computers are networked together. You can do this either wirelessly or with Ethernet cords connected to a router. Basically you can play games and share data over LAN, printers, etc., and it is a whole lot faster than doing it via the internet. An example of a LAN is the computers in a school computer lab. They all have network storage, which is storage on the local network, and they share printers.

The internet was basically created when a HUGE number of computers in the military and colleges were connected together into a LAN type of network. These computers shared files and eventually HTML was created as an easier way to share information. This technology was then brought to the wider world in 1996. AOL was the very first internet service provider.

Steps to connect to the internet are as follows:

1. Log into Windows XP using the local Admin account.

2. Enable the Internet Connection Firewall.

3. When the firewall is on go to widows update download and install all critical updates and service packs available.

4. When you have finished this you want install antivirus and freeware firewall.

5. Disable the windows firewall.

6. Verify the internet can be reached. Fire up Internet Explorer, and try to connect to any web site such as www.yahoo.com if the Web site opens, the connection is working. If it fails try the following steps.

7. Unplug the modem. If you are unsure what this is, it is where your phone line plugs in if you use dsl. Wait at least a minute, and then plug the modem back in again.

8. If a router is connected , unplug it.

9. Restart computer.

10. If you have more than