difference between Lan and wan in net working
2007-01-03 23:58:36 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Computer Networking
LAN is Local Area only, such as a single company building. A WAN is Wide Area only, such as multiple buildings in different countries.
2007-01-04 00:01:04 · answer #1 · answered by imppilot 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LAN versus WAN
To define a LAN
Up to now we've been talking about Ethernet and I've made reference to the fact that Ethernet is a LAN.
A LAN is a Local Area Network. Local is generally referred to a network contained within a building or an office or a campus.
Examples:
You might have a LAN for example on a University campus or between office blocks in an office park.
A big corporate perhaps like Anglo American, would generally have a LAN that might span several buildings.
To set up a LAN -relatively speaking- is cheap. If you want to put an extra couple of network points or an extra couple of devices on the network, it 's not very expensive to do that.
To define a WAN
Using a similar example, a Wide Area Network is a network that connects campuses.
What I'm going to do is write down some short descriptions of what a WAN is:
1. A WAN is generally slow. If we compare that to a LAN, we said that Ethernet could run up to 1000 Mbs, currently, certainly in South Africa, the fastest WAN is 155 Mbs, so you can see in a LAN we can talk up to 1000 Mbs whereas in a WAN, at the moment, currently, today in South Africa, we can only take, literally a 10th of the speed.
2. WAN's are expensive. If we look at the path of telecommunications, we need to connect two offices, one in Pretoria and one in Johannesburg together - it 's an expensive operation even for a slow line.
One of the differences between a WAN (Wide Area Network) and a LAN (Local Area Network) is the set-up cost. WAN generally are to connect remote offices and when we talk about remote offices we generally refer to the remote offices as those that are outside the campus. For example, if we have an office in Pretoria and we have an office in Cape Town, these are remote offices. There is no chance that we can connect the LAN between Cape Town and Pretoria. In a LAN we connect local offices whereas in a WAN we can connect remote offices.
2007-01-04 08:03:21 · answer #2 · answered by Ragesh C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LAN - Local Area Network
WAN - Wide Area Network.
WAN's consist of LANs, and are not restricted by geographical location. You can think of a school itself having a LAN, but all the campuses throughout the country being on a WAN.
LAN's are usualy a group of computers connected localy within the building, campus, and such.
2007-01-04 08:02:11 · answer #3 · answered by #Reistlehr- 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Generally speaking:
LAN is a "local area network", usually between computers in a single building or on a single site.
WAN is a "wide area network", between computers (or indeed LANs) on multiple sites.
2007-01-04 08:00:29 · answer #4 · answered by jamesducker 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Local area network such as a home lan or private factory network, and wide area network such as the internet!
2007-01-04 08:00:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
LAN = local area network (such as homes, offices, schools, etc..), but WAN = wide area networks (such as 2 cities, etc..)
2007-01-04 09:05:14 · answer #6 · answered by lomatar1186 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LAN: Local area network. you may create at your home or office. Usually run on ethernet cable
WAN: Wide Area Network. can run on telephone lines. for example your internet
2007-01-04 08:04:31 · answer #7 · answered by TechZone 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋