Wan is an acronym that is used for Wide Area Network. A wide area network is a telecommunications network or computer network. This telecommunications network extends over a large geographical distance. The important thing here includes is that wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits.

Meaning of WAN

As you know now that WAN stands for wide area network, also business, education and government entities use wide area networks. Actually they are using wide area network in order to relay data to their staffs, students, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various locations across the world.

In essence, this mode of telecommunication allows a business to effectively carry out its daily function regardless of location. The Internet may be considered a WAN.

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Related terms for other types of networks are personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area respectively.

WAN Types

Here are some of the types of WAN lists. Just go through them.

• Cable Modem
• ATM
• DSL
• Dial up
• Leased Line
• SONET
• SD wan
• ISDN

These are some of the WAN types list.

About WAN

One of the fact here is that many technologies are available for wide area network links. Let me share with you some of the examples. Well the examples include following-

1. circuit switched telephone lines,
2. radio wave transmission,
3. and optic fiber.

Well the new developments in technologies have successively increased transmission rates. This is really good. According to the year 2014, households are connected to the Internet with these of the mentioned below-

• Dial-Up,
• ADSL,
• Cable,
• Wimax, 4G or fiber.

Also it is true that the speeds that people can currently use range from 28.8 Kilobits per second through a 28K modem over a telephone connection to speeds as high as 100 Gigabits per second over an Ethernet 100GBaseY connection.

According to the definition of textbook dear WAN is a computer network spanning regions, countries,or the world as well. But it is different on the another arena. In the field of the application of computer networking protocols and concepts, actually this may be best to view WANs as computer networking technologies which is generally used to transmit data over long distances.

Apart from transmitting data over distances also it works between different LANs, MANs and other Localised computer networking architectures(I have already mentioned about LANs, MANs in the earlier above section).

Thus guys and girls these are here some of the thing about WAN. If you want to know more about the WAN then just go through the following section. This is because of the reason that in the section below I am going to mention more important things and related materials about the topic. So guys are you ready.

What is the purpose of WAN?

• The first thing includes is that WAN that is wide area network, is a data network.
• This wide area network is usually used for connecting computers, that spans a wide geographical area.
• Wide area network is also used or can be used for connecting cities, states, or  countries as well.
• Apart from connectivity, larger corporations or organizations often use wide area network in order to facilitate the exchange of data, and in a wide variety of industries corporations with facilities at multiple locations have embraced WANs.
• The quite amazing thing about WAN is that even small businesses are utilizing Wide Area Networks as a way of increasing their communications capabilities.

In this very way dear readers there involves a lot of benefits of wide area network. That is why it is getting in use by each and every institutions. There involves a very healthy purpose of using this wide area network.

What is difference between WAN, MAN and a LAN?

Well in this section you all come to know about wide area network that is WAN till now. But here I am going to share about the differences between WAN, MAN and LAN.

• A WAN, I have mentioned earlier, is wide area network. As compared to that of a MAN, WAN is not restricted to a geographical location. As a matter of fact, WAN connects several LANs. Also WAN may be limited to an enterprise (a corporation or an organization) or accessible to the public. The technology is high speed and relatively expensive. The Internet is one of the most popular example of a worldwide public WAN. Now come to MAN.
• MAN stands for metropolitan area network. A MAN is a larger network. This very network usually spans several buildings in the same city or town. The IUB network is an example of a Metropolitan Area Network.
• Now here comes that of LAN. LAN stands for Local Area Network. A LAN that is Local Area Network is a group of computers and network devices connected together. This very connection is usually within the same building. The connections must be high speed and relatively inexpensive. As for an example, token ring and also Ethernet.

These are thus the differences between a WAN and a MAN and a LAN.

What is a WAN Connection Device?

Actually Wide Area Networks use a lot of and different kinds of devices. WANs use quite a few types of devices that are specific to WAN environments. WAN switches, access servers, modems, CSU/DSUs, and ISDN terminal adapters. Other devices found in WAN environments that are used in WAN implementations include routers, ATM switches, and multiplexers as well. You will heard about these of the devices dear.

Which device is used to connect a LAN to a WAN?

The answer here is a Router. Actually a router is a network device that connects together two or more networks. Well a common use of a router is to join a home or business network (Local Area Network) to the Internet which is a wide area network. The router will typically have the Internet cable plugged into it, as well as a cable, or cables to computers on the Local Area Network.

That is all here. Please comment if you like it.