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Local Area Network (LAN)
A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that is confined to a relatively small area network. It is generally limited to a geographic area such as a lab, library, school, or building. The avarage distance in LAN is no more than a mile apart.
In a typical LAN configuration, one computer is designated as the file server. It stores all the software that controls the network, and the software that can be shared by the computers attached to the network.Computers that are conncected to the file server are called workstations. The workstations can be less powerful than the file server, and each of them can have additional software on their hard drives.
The most common means of connectivity on LANs is cabling, used to connect the network interface cards in each computer.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) covers larger geographic areas, such as cities or school districts. By interconnecting smaller networks within a large geographic area, information is easily distributed through the network.
An example of a MAN is a network, which connects all media centers of a county to centralized mainframe at the district office by using dedicated phone lines, coaxial cabling, and wireless communications providers.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
A Wide Area Network (WAN) connects larger geographic areas, such as cities, states, counties,or the world. Dedicated transoceanic cabling or satellite uplinks may be used to connect this type of network. A WAN users multiplexers to connect local and metropolitan networks to global communications networks like the Internet.
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