Only the very smallest companies can be run without a computer, and once you've got even a handful of computers you'll probably want to network them. A Local Area Network, or LAN, turns individual computers into a shared working environment, in much the same way a shared project turns individual employees into a team. A LAN might include thousands of computers or just a few, but all LANs are made up from the same basic handful of components.
So what are the hardware components of a LAN? Those include your actual computers, their network interfaces, and all of the switches, hubs, routers and other special-purpose bits of tech that route your communications. Finally, there's cabling or its wireless equivalent. All these components work together to create a functioning network.
Network Workstations
The whole point of a LAN is to have users working together collaboratively, or at least sharing the network's resources, so all of those users need to have a way to access the network. That's done through the individual computers, or workstations, that are connected together to make up the LAN. Those computers can be pretty much anything. A given office might contain everything from low-end laptops or Chromebooks to high-powered engineering workstations, with plenty of standard-issue machines in between to handle the routine duties of accounting, word processing, point-of-sale and so on. In a wireless network, even a tablet or a cell phone can be treated as a workstation.
Often, the most important part of designing a LAN is how you group all those users' workstations together. Sometimes it's as simple as connecting everyone in the same physical space, but what if their needs are different? A basic Wi-Fi signal is fine for guests and casual users, for example, but engineers or video editors will need the fastest connection you can give them. Grouping users onto different sub-networks, where they can share separate sets of resources, is often your best option. In that scenario, a group of power users scattered across offices on two or three separate floors might share a network that communicates at speeds of several gigabits per second, while everyone around them uses a slower network.