Technological development in information and communication technology has made great strides in the present age. A majority of corporate organizations, small medium sized enterprises as well as home users rely on computer technology for their day to day tasks. Video conferencing has made it possible for business establishments to save millions of dollars in travel expenses by holding live virtual meetings online. Emerging small business is continually relying on new age communication, e.g. social media and networking to endorse their products and to keep their clients abreast of what is new and old in the market.

The impact of computer network in the present generation cannot in any way be underestimated. Having seen how every tom, dick and harry depend on computer networking, the article offers some insight on how to create a Local-Area-Network-(LAN).

Steps

1.  
   Ensure that you are connected to either a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (internet). But if you have a cell phone, printer, fax machine and telephone head that are Bluetooth enabled you can create your own private area network (PAN)
   
   
2. 
   Click the “Start Button” from the taskbar and click on “My Network Places” from the popup menu. Alternatively, double click on the icon “My Network Places” from the desktop.
3. 
   Select “View workgroup computers” from the Network Tasks pane that appears on the left side of the screen. This will give you a comprehensive listing of all network components in the local area network (LAN).
4. Copying, moving and printing are some of the most common network tasks performed by a majority of users who are networked to each other. Nonetheless, before sharing resources, e.g. files, folders, programs, scanners, fax or printer you need to make it available for use by sharing it.
   • To share resources, i.e. DVD-ROM or hard drive over a network follow the steps bellow:
   • Click on “Start” from the taskbar and click on “My Computer”.
      
   • Right-Click on the drive name that you would like to share.
     
   • Click “Sharing and Security” in the popup menu that appears.
     
   • In the dialogue box that appears click “If you understand....” In the new Window that appears click on the same option again.
     
   • In the popup screen that appears click on “Just Share...”
     
     
     
   • Check the option “Share this folder on the network”.
     
   • To limit the rights that users have over the shared resource, i.e. making changes do not check the option “allow network users to change my files”. But if you want them to have the same rights as you check the box.
     
   • Click “Apply” and then “Ok” to allow the changes to take effect.
      
5. 
   5
   To access the shared resource, go to “My Network Places” and double click on the computer name that that has the resource shared. From thereon you can copy to or move a file to your PC or to another computer.