LAN

A LAN (Local Area Network) is a network that connects devices within a limited area such as a studio, makerspace or classroom. Technically, a LAN is built from switches, routers and access points and uses IP addressing (IPv4/IPv6), DHCP and often VLANs and QoS to organize and prioritise traffic. In Audio/Video contexts a LAN enables low-latency streaming, device discovery and multicast or specialized protocols like Dante/AVB; for Maker projects it provides local communication for microcontrollers, MQTT/HTTP brokers and OTA updates; and for Web development it lets you host and test dev servers, APIs and static assets locally without depending on the external internet.

Imagine a media room where cameras and a mixer are connected over the same LAN using Dante. By configuring VLANs and QoS you can prioritise audio/video streams to avoid dropouts, while makers in the same space have Raspberry Pis sending sensor data to a local MQTT dashboard. At the same time a web developer runs a local Node.js server on the LAN to preview front-end changes on a test machine — all without every device needing internet access; when issues arise you use tools like ping, traceroute and ipconfig/ifconfig to diagnose latency and IP conflicts.