IBM LAN Server

IBM LAN Server is a discontinued network operating system introduced by International Business Machines in 1988. LAN Server started as a close cousin of Microsoft's LAN Manager and first shipped in early 1988. It was originally designed to run on top of Operating System/2 Extended Edition. The network client was called IBM LAN Requester and was included with OS/2 EE 1.1 by default. Here the short term LAN Server refers to the IBM OS/2 LAN Server product. There were also LAN Server products for other operating systems, notably AIX—now called Fast Connect—and OS/400.

Version history

Predecessors included IBM PC LAN Program. Variants included LAN Server Ultimedia and LAN On-Demand. Add-ons included Directory and Security Server, Print Services Facility/2, Novell NetWare for OS/2, and LAN Server for Macintosh.

Innovations

LAN Server pioneered certain file and print sharing concepts such as domains, networked COM ports, domain aliases, and automatic printer driver selection and installation.