Ever since the United States has fought wars, it has looked at getting battlefield information, to the decision makers as quickly as possible. With such a great need for fast and accurate information of the battlefield, the computer has quickly evolved into a communications and war-fighting super-tool, enabling the war-fighters to do just that through the means of networking the computers together. .
Networking has given military leaders the power to transfer voice, video, ideas, reports, and files quickly, accurately, and efficiently to and from higher headquarters and commanders, and to the soldier in the foxhole on the battlefield. These abilities have made networking an invaluable tool for military leaders and their war-fighting efforts. .
A Local Area Network (LAN) is a conglomerate of interconnected computers and or workstations sharing the resources of a single or many servers within a relatively small geographical location. Within the military LANs can be found in offices, whole buildings, ships and field units. They can even be dispersed throughout several buildings or through out entire bases. Throughout these local networks, military personnel are able to share files, information, communicate, and connect different departments to maximize efficiency.
Military networks range from the very secure to the typical network found in the business community and are designed relatively the same. A LAN is comprised of several pieces of hardware that enable connectivity of the network; these include network interface cards (NIC), hubs, switches, and routers. A LAN can be comprised of all of these parts and more, but can be constructed of less hardware. The hardware components of a specific network depend on the needs of the network and the security level desired. .
A NIC physically connects a computer to the transmission medium used on the network and controls the flow of the data from computer to computer on the network.