# LAN and WAN

> A LAN connects devices in one place; a WAN connects places far apart.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Networks
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/lan-and-wan/
- In Spanish: [LAN y WAN](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/lan-and-wan/)

A **LAN** (local area network) is the network inside one place: your home, an office floor, a school. The laptop, the printer, the smart TV and the phones are all connected, by Wi-Fi or Ethernet cables, to the same router or switch. Inside a LAN, devices can talk to each other directly and very fast, which is why you can print from your phone or send a video to the TV without going out to the internet.

A **WAN** (wide area network) connects networks that are far apart: two branches of a bank in different cities, a hospital and its clinics, a company's offices on three continents. The links usually run over lines rented from a telecom provider, or over the internet itself protected by a VPN. Slower and more expensive per gigabyte than a LAN, a WAN is what turns separate sites into one organization's network.

The internet is, in a sense, the biggest WAN of all: millions of LANs joined together. At home, your router sits right on that border. One side faces your LAN, with private addresses like `192.168.0.10`; the other side, often labeled WAN on the router itself, faces your internet provider.

## An analogy

A LAN is the hallway of an office building: walk over and talk to anyone on your floor. A WAN is the phone line between that office and the branch in another city.

## Keep in mind

- LAN: devices in one home, office or building, connected by Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
- WAN: links between distant sites, usually over a provider's lines or a VPN.
- LANs are fast and cheap; WANs cover distance at a higher cost.
- The WAN port on a home router is the side that faces the internet.

## Go deeper

- [Local area network on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network)
- [Wide area network on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network)

## Related terms

- [Laptop](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/laptop/): A whole computer folded into one portable case that runs on a battery.
- [Wi-Fi](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/wi-fi/): Networking over radio waves: the internet without the cable, within a few rooms.
- [Ethernet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ethernet/): The standard way to connect computers to a network with a cable.
- [Router](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/router/): The box that connects your devices to each other and to the internet.
- [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.
- [VPN](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/vpn/): An encrypted tunnel that sends all your traffic through another network first.
- [Bit and byte](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bit-and-byte/): The smallest unit of digital information, and the group of eight that computers count in.
- [ISP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/isp/): The company you pay to connect your home or phone to the internet.