Shared LAN points are used by a variety of system resources, such as hard drives, printers, scanners and network cards.

File and printer sharing occur via two network communication mechanisms: peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing and the client-server network model.

Sharing network resources requires abiding by certain constraints, as follows:

• Security: Organizations present ongoing opportunities for unauthorized shared resources. Security mechanisms should be implemented to provide efficient parameters.
• Compatibility: Various client-server operating systems may be installed, but the client must have a compatible OS or application to access shared resources. Otherwise, the client may encounter issues that create communication delays and requires troubleshooting.
• Mapping: Any shared OS hardware drive, file or resource may be accessed via mapping, which requires a shared destination address and naming conventions.
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and File Sharing: FTP is not affected by shared resources because the Internet is FTP’s backbone. File sharing is an LAN concept.