This is a really basic and dumb question. In my house we have a single modem/router, through which we all (three computers, TV, printer) connect to the internet.
My question is - does that mean we are on a LAN? If not, how do I create one?
The root of this question is that I want to play some games over a LAN with my child - so we need to be on a LAN. I've tried as if we were on a LAN, but it can't find the games we start up, so I'm wondering if we're not actually on one?
21 Answer
does that mean we are on a LAN?
Yes. LAN does mean Local Area Network and that's exactly what all of the computers behind your router are in. The router has many internal IPs - all of the computers in your home (the LAN) - and one external IP, your public IP.
There are three address ranges for use in private IPv4 networks (called LAN):
Addresses Number of addresses Classful description
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 16777216 Single Class A.
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 1048576 Contiguous range of 16 Class B blocks.
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 65536 Contiguous range of 256 Class C blocks. The translation between these two, the LAN and the internet, is done by your router, probably with Network address translation which takes care of managing connections by translating internal IPs to one external IP and vice versa.
How Do I Know If I'm On A LAN
If you have several internal IPs that differ from your external IP, the set of internal IPs is called a LAN.
or
If your computer's IPv4 address is in one of these ranges, you're in a LAN.
