Are you looking for the difference between LAN and WAN in detail, look at the article below.

LAN and WAN are two types of networks that allows for interconnectivity between computers. LAN’s are typically faster and more secure than WAN’s. WAN enables more widespread connectivity than LAN.

Look at the detailed information about LAN and WAN which will help you to understand the terms better.

LAN

Local Area Network is an interconnection of computers and its related devices within a small geographical area or a building, home, office, school, where the distance between the computers is small.

Mostly the LANs are built for the purpose of sharing vital resources such as printers and exchanging files. LAN is also used in providing other services such as sharing applications, games, files, accessing the internet.

A speed of LAN is higher than WAN i.e. 1000 Mbps. Ownership of this network is private and maintained by a single organization. Design and maintenance of LAN are comparatively easy. The LAN network is built using inexpensive technologies like Ethernet cables, network adapters, and hubs.

WAN

Wide Area Network is a computer network that covers a broad and large areas such as small towns and cities. Its design and maintenance are quite difficult than LAN. Ownership of the network can be private or public as well. WAN is very complex to be managed by private administrators and they usually have public ownership.

WAN is a connection between multiple geographic locations which is composed of multiple LAN’s. The best example of a WAN is the Internet which connects many smaller LANs and MANs through ISPs.

A speed of WAN is comparatively low than LAN i.e. 150 Mbps. It ranges up to 10000 Km. WANs are more congested than LANs. WANs have a lower data transfer rate compared to LANs.

Look at the difference between LAN and WAN to understand the terms better.

Speed

LANs speed is 1000 Mbps while the speed of WAN is less i.e. 150 Mbps.

Data transfer rate

LANs have a high data transfer rate while WANs have comparatively low data transfer rate.

Area

LAN covers local areas only such as buildings, office, school etc while WAN covers large geographical area than LAN such as small towns and cities.

Fault tolerance

LAN can tolerate more faults while WAN can tolerate fewer faults than LAN.

Problems

LANs tend to have fewer problems associated with them while WAN have more problems due to a large amount of system and data that is present.

Ownership

Ownership of this network is private and maintained by a single organization while WAN are very complex to be managed by private administrators and they usually have public ownership.