A LAN is a computer network that consists of access points, cables, routers, and switches that enable devices to connect to web servers and internal servers within a single building, campus, or home network, and to other LANs via Wide Area Networks (WAN) or Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).

A router assigns IP addresses to each device on the network and facilitates a shared Internet connection between all the connected devices. A network switch connects to the router and facilitates communication between connected devices, but does not handle Local Area Network IP configuration or sharing Internet connections. Switches are ideal tools for increasing the number of LAN ports available on the network.

The Local Area Network layout, also known as Local Area Network topology, describes the physical and logical manner in which devices and network segments are interconnected. LANs are categorized by the physical signal transmission medium or the logical manner in which data travels through the network between devices, independent of the physical connection.

LANs generally consist of cables and switches, which can be connected to a router, cable modem, or ADSL modem for Internet access. LANs can also include such network devices as firewalls, load balancers, and network intrusion detection.

Logical network topology examples include twisted pair Ethernet, which is categorized as a logical bus topology, and token ring, which is categorized as a logical ring topology. Physical network topology examples include star, mesh, tree, ring, point-to-point, circular, hybrid, and bus topology networks, each consisting of different configurations of nodes and links.

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