Designing and managing local area networks: A survey of LAN personnel

A survey was conducted of planners of 45 local area networks (LANS) of personal computers used for office work found in a large metropolitan area. Usable responses were obtained from the planners of 27 of the LANS, a response rate of 60%. The planners were asked to rank 79 LAN planning criteria and to identify problems they encountered in managing the LANS.Twenty-one planning criteria were identified by planners as important or very important in the design of LANS. Five planning criteria were identified as unimportant by the planners. The planning criteria considered important varied between general purpose LANS and LANS primarily serving special applications. The planning criteria considered important also varied with LAN size.Few problems were encountered by the planners in this survey and the amount of time the planners felt should be committed to managing the LANS was modest. Installation problems were the most frequently cited.