Local Area Network

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Notice: This Article's Relevance Is Under Review

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To justify the relevance of this article:

• Provide evidence demonstrating how the issue reflects broader consumer exploitation (e.g., systemic patterns, recurring incidents, or related company policies).
• Link the problem to modern forms of consumer protection concerns, such as privacy violations, barriers to repair, or ownership rights.

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In the context of this wiki and computing in general, LAN refers to a local area network. A device connected to a local area network is generally able to communicate with other devices within the LAN without having to cover larger distances or access the internet. Usually, this term refers to the network within an organization, the network of a household, or the network of another entity. A LAN is a cloud that you can own. If you have devices that need to connect to a network or server, and you want to control them, sometimes the way to do that is to create your own network and your own server (self-hosting).

By limiting or controlling communications between devices on your network and the internet you may be able to improve privacy and security.

Security -- Intel management engine and similar.

Routers -- who controls the router. Internet service provider (ISP) and some router makers try to control routers in ways that may not be what the user wants, or in the users best interest.

Control unwanted content -- Firewalls, Ad block, Network Address Translation (NAT)

Domain name servers/system (DNS) -- tracking, security

Issues (these may be more apropos for ISP)

Tracking: Domain name server. Tracking by IP - VPN

Technical stuff

The devices connected to a LAN are typically configured behind a layer of obfuscation like NAT Network Address Translation all sharing one or more public IP addresses connecting the LAN to the internet. Generally, the devices on a LAN are assigned IP addresses in the private range.

The below IP ranges as defined by IANA are listed in classes but are more commonly applied using CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) to maximize address usage efficiently.

IPV4 Classed Private IP Address Ranges:

• Class A: 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 (16.777.216 IP addresses)
• Class B: 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 (1.048.576 IP addresses)
• Class C: 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 (65.536 IP addresses)

IPV6 Private IP Address Range:

• FD00::/7