LANs are typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also use certain specific connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring. As the term implies, a wide-area network spans a large physical distance. A WAN is a geographically-dispered collection of LANs. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN address and a WAN address.
WANs differ from LANs in several important ways.
Like the Internet, most WANs are not owned by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and management. WANs use technology like ATM , Frame Relay and X.25 for connectivity. LANs and WANs at Home Home networkers with cable modem or DSL service already have encountered LANs and WANs in practice, though they may not have noticed. The ISP provides a WAN IP address used by the router, and all of the computers on the home network use private LAN addresses. On a home network, like many LANs, all computers can communicate directly with each other, but they must go through a central gateway location to reach devices outside of their local area.