Difference between LAN and WAN:

LAN:

Local Area Network (LAN) is a privately owned network that connects computers and peripherals that are relatively close to each other, generally within the same building or adjacent buildings. LAN connecting various departments of university campus, office blocks in an office park, different computers within a single or multiple labs of a collage are examples of LAN technology, computers were isolated from each other. The term ‘LAN’ by itself usually employs a ‘wired LAN’ (nodes connected using cables) but not always. There can be wireless LANs. LAN’s generally use coaxial or twisted pair or optical fibre cable as the communication media.

WAN:

LAN V/S WAN

WAN LAN 1. Covers wide geographical area. The area covered could be unlimited such as entire city, region, country or world. 1. Spans a limited geographical area restricted to a few kilometres. 2. In WAN there may not be direct physical connection between the computers. 2. Usually computers are physically connected to each other by using twisted pair, coaxial or fibre optics cable. 3. Higher error rates as they cover wide geographical area. 3. Low error rates as they cover small area. 4. Lower bandwidth. 4. High bandwidth. 5. Sharing of resources is difficult due to lower bandwidth. 5. Sharing of resources is easy due to higher bandwidth. 6. Cost of operation is higher and increases with increase in distance. 6. Cost of operation is negligible. 7. Data transmission speed is lower. Typically ranging from 1800 to 9600 bps. 7. Data transmission speed is higher. Typically ranging from 0.1 to 100Mbps. 8. Transmission media is not shared. 8. Shared transmission media. 9. Complex communication protocols are used. 9. Simple communication protocols are used.

Typical characteristics of LAN are:. They are private networks not subject to tariffs or regulatory controls.. They spans small coverage area (generally less than 2 Km)..They have lower error rates.. They have high bandwidth, ranging from 1Mbps to 100 Mbps.. They have common communication Media. LANs can be either peer to peer or client server in design. In peer to peer model all the attached computers are equal and each control access to its hard disk drive, files, printer and other attached devices.In client – server model, one computer functions as a server often called ‘File Server’ (which stores shared files) and other computers are its client. Large LANs have more than are specialized server such as Print Server, database server etc.Wide Area Network (WAN) is a network that covers a wide geographical are such as country continent or even the whole world. It is typically used to connect multiple LANs and other type of networks that are relatively for apart so that users at one location can communicate with users at some other location. For Example: Suppose an organization has two officers, One at Delhi and other at Mumbai. WAN are mainly of two types: Public or Private. Public WANs are those networks that are owned and managed by telecommunication authorities and can be accessed by any individual organisation who have their subscriptions. They lease communication circuits from telephone companies or other communication carriers. However, Private WANs are those networks that are owned by a single organisation or exist under collective or distributive ownership and management. They use private circuits to link the different locations and can be used by owner of the network in any way.