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I am reading a job advertisement / specification that mentions "support[ing] LAN applications" and I have no idea what it is and can't find anything on the internet. What would you normally understand this term to mean, in this context?

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    Do you know what a "LAN" is? May 16, 2012 at 10:40
  • Did you mean windows application or an intranet web application? May 16, 2012 at 10:41
  • Daniel - Yes I know what a LAN is, I had a feeling it was an application than had no internet access but I just wanted confirmation. Ahmed - I'm not too sure, it was in a job spec and just says "Support LAN applications"
    – Kevin Dodd
    May 16, 2012 at 10:57
  • I think in this context of a job spec they just mean applications installed on computers attached to the network. IE desktop apps (and of course this might extend to tablet devices) and probably the server components behind them eg Outlook + Exchange
    – AdamV
    Dec 5, 2015 at 0:39
  • A "LAN application" is a term used on a job advertisement to differentiate those who know what it means from those who don't. Theoretically, those who don't would be unlikely to be qualified for that job.
    – fixer1234
    Dec 6, 2015 at 4:55

2 Answers 2

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Expanding on ahmed's answer above...

The actual terminology used is probably ment to indicate a software application (possibly a database) running on their local LAN, possibly off the shelf, possibly bespoke. Probably running/hosted on a server with client software used to connect to it from across the local LAN.

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It is an application that runs only on a LAN (Local Area Network) without internet access. The LAN could be small, 3 - 4 clients; or large with over 500 clients in multiple buildings.

Video Conferencing, Remote Access Control, Gaming Servers, all started as LAN applications.

For more information you can refer this.

Hope this helps.

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  • Thanks for your answer Ahmed. I am however puzzled by this line "The LAN could be small, 3-4 clients; or large with 500 clients in multiple buildings" I thought a LAN was only 1 small office or home? Would it not be a WAN if it was in multiple buildings?
    – Kevin Dodd
    May 16, 2012 at 11:03
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    You are welcome.A local area network (LAN) exists in a house or a university campus, while a wide area network (WAN) exists over many office buildings separated by a vast distance. The office buildings in a WAN may be in different countries or even continents. For example, the headquarters building may be in the USA, the regional office building may be in the UK, and the branch office building may be in India. The workers in the three buildings use WAN to collaborate with each other. The Internet can also be considered as a WAN. May 16, 2012 at 11:10
  • There is a 'grey area' between WAN and LAN where a particular structure or organisation may call it one and another may call it differently. Here I have a corporate network with some fibre optic links across our site to other offices (LAN) aswell as other offices still linked by dialup (within an old phone system infrastructure). We also have remote sites linked over dialups and ADSL lines to our network, these are what we consider to be WAN.
    – HaydnWVN
    May 16, 2012 at 12:31

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