The students in two computer science classes were assigned to set up a local area network (LAN) using 33 laptops. They connected 4 laptops to an access point via wires but the network connection failed. After troubleshooting issues like changing wired connections and laptops, they eventually got 3 laptops connected via wires. In total only 11 laptops successfully connected wirelessly, with 10 failing due to having Windows 8 and others failing potentially due to domain policies blocking the homegroup connection.