Advantages of a LAN

• Workstations can share peripheral devices like printers. This is cheaper than buying a printer for every workstation;
• Workstations don’t necessarily need their own hard disk or CD-ROM drives which makes them cheaper to buy than stand-alone PC’s;
• Users can save their work centrally on the network’s file server. This means that they can retrieve their work from any workstation on the network. They don’t need to go back to the same workstation all the time;
• Users can communicate with each other and transfer data between workstations very easily;
• One copy of each application package such as a word processor, spreadsheet etc can be loaded onto the file server and shared by all users. When a new version comes out, it only has to be loaded onto the server instead of onto every workstation.

Disadvantages of a LAN

• Special security measures are needed to stop users from using programs and data that they shouldn’t have access to;
• Networks are difficult to set up and must be maintained by skilled ICT Technicians;
• If the file server develops a serious fault all the users are affected, rather than just one user in the case of a stand-alone machine.